Otherwise known as the I’m Bleeding and I Hate the World thread.
Ugh, I’m ready to punch myself in the face already. I feel like every time I go to the washroom I need to don a Hazmat suit after. I use the Pill to skip a lot, but one can’t do that forever! I’m just tired of feeling like I should be wearing an adult diaper instead of just a pad. Seriously, I’m starting to think I should use them at night. It’s like going back to being a baby again.
I’ve tried tampons and we just don’t get along, which is why I haven’t tried the Keeper either.
Any other pad wearers? Anyone else need to yell about how they feel like they turn into a hemophiliac once a month? We’re all in it together.
I’m a pad wearer because a tampon often leaks for me and then also I am in bed for over 8 hours so I have to wear one then. Sometimes I also just don’t feel like dealing with the mess of a tampon.
What sucks for me is that I have really sensitive skin. The way my body is, a pad (no, not a panty liner) has all this plastic around it that rubs on my skin and gives me basically blisters.
So, after a week of dealing with being a bloody mess, I get a week of nursing rashes and blisters all around my groin area.
Oh and then I STILL make a mess.
Very glad to only get it 4 times a year now (it’s been about 1 year) but those 4 times are very awful as well. Bloody, crampy, emotional and awful.
I guess it could be worse, I could be pregnant*. HA!
*This is an expression of personal-to-me-only humor and not a reflection of how I think other people should feel.
Former pad wearer here. I’m with you 100%. In an attempt to determine just how heavy my flow was I switched to a Divacup and it only took about a month to get used to it. Changed my life. About a year after switching to it I had a hysterectomy which made things better once again, but apparently the menstral tissue decended far enough that I still have (very exceedingly light) periods.
So, I provide sympathy and a recommendation to try the divacup. I was never able to wear tampons they just weren’t comfortable but somehow this larger cup wasn’t even noticeable.
Just flouncing by in my clean white undies to say, “HA HA HA HA HA AH! I had a hysterectomy in January and I couldn’t be happier to be done with all that crap!”
OK, that was mean.
I’m seriously sympathetic, because I went through years of using the Exxon Valdez size in every feminine hygiene product known to woman, planning my life and wardrobe about whether or not I’d be bleeding like a stuck pig, and not even realizing how much energy was being sapped by anemia until I wasn’t anemic anymore.
ETA: Another vote for the Diva Cup, although I never did get to the point where I could change it without looking like I worked in an abattoir.
I thought mine was over yesterday and then at the end of the day I looked down and oops! it came back and I had bled through all over my skirt. Few people were around and I think no one saw me, but oh my stars, it brought back junior-high memories.
(Fortunately I was able to go straight home and I got the stain out, but still! Grr.)
Oh no! Yeah, that would suck feel both rashy and bleedy. I usually have my period about 2-3 times a year. My body goes crampy and spotty and that’s when I resign to it.
The worst part of it for me is that I’ll never have kids anyway! I have anxiety issues that are so bad I find it hard to commit to a cat, whether or not a child.
Only 30 more years till menopause…only 30 more years…
Okay, story time! So the very first month I used BC to control my erratic periods my week off came around and I was hanging around at a friend’s, sitting on her bed. We all got up to leave the room and I was the last one - when I sat up, there was a giant bloodstain on her sheet. I never said a word about it, and we’re still friends to this day. I have no idea if she figured out it was me.
Coincidentally, that was when I learned monophasic pills were not for me, as I ended up in the emergency room bleeding on everything and had to get medication to stop it. Tri-phasic has gone much better.
Okay, secret confession. I’m 24 years old, and still not entirely sure I’m doing the tampon right. And out of embarrassment, I stick to pads. And if I can’t figure out how to position a tampon correctly, I’m pretty sure the cup wouldn’t go much better.
Not so secret confession - I was always pretty sure that was the problem with me and tampons too. It was a $35 risk that I was pretty sure was going to be a waste of money but my daughter convinced me to try it.
Actually, you pretty much can. There’s no medical reason why you need to have a period every 28 days. It’s not like getting an oil change on your car. The schedule produced by birth control pills is artificial - you might as well pick an artificial schedule that’s more convenient.
Here’s a WebMd article about suppressing periods -
Some women use Nuva Ring to achieve the same effect. Also, Depo-provera, which is the birth control I use, doesn’t cause periods.
You should ask your doctor about it. There are a lot of new avenues for women who want to skip having periods. You may decide to stick with your current schedule, of course, but it’s well worth discussing your options.
I am now going through menopause and haven’t had a period since Febuary, but here’s another vote for Depo. I loved it! No PMS, no periods…I hated it when the doctor took me off of it because of my age.
I have not had a period in three years, thanks to the oral contraception I am on.
The minute I discovered that the common wisdom of being on the pill but skipping a week every month was because “women like the reassurance of a monthly bleed”, I just went :dubious:. I haven’t looked back since.
Prior to that, I had switched to the Keeper and I’m still positively evangelical about it.
If you can feel it after insertion, either it’s to low and/or it’s too big. Are you trying w/ slim/junior tampons w/ a plastic applicator?
Or do you have breakthrough spotting/bleeding after it’s only been in for a short time?
Take a minute when you see your OB next to ask how to insert a menstrual cup; a box of Instead cups are cheap enough to practice with and not feel you wasted your money.
Have any of you upthread ladies had an ablation? I’m bouncing it around in my mind; don’t necessarily want to wait another 8 years for menopause to take care of this monthly nonsense.
For me, about 2-3 times a year I’ll get cramps and spotting that doesn’t go away, which is the only reason I stop taking the pill. I should have said that I can’t just keep on going forever.
Also, I wasn’t aware that Depo stopped it totally. I thought it lightened periods for some, that’s all. New possibility!
I would guess too low - it just never feels right.
Well, most women don’t have periods with Depo. Everyone’s different, so I can’t swear it will work for you. I’ve been on it for about ten years now and I’m crazy about. I will cheerfully stay on it for the next fifty years if I can argue my doctor into it. During the last ten years, I had two episodes of light spotting so the doctor temporarily moved my next shot up by a few weeks. That solved it. I haven’t had anything like that in … at least five years, anyway.
It’s definitely a possibility worth exploring, though. Not having to plan my life around that one week of the month when I knew I would be worthless has been a complete life changer for me.
When I was on one of the many versions of The Pill, I tried the whole thing about skipping the off week and the sugar pills. Holy hell! It turned my whole period schedule inside-out and upside-down and culminated with me getting a period so heavy I bled right though a heavy-duty tampon and through my jeans in something like 45 minutes, which is unfuckingheard of for me.
I was anticipating my period this week. I was thinking it would arrive tomorrow. So yesterday I was still carefree and fancy-free. No fatigue or bloating or any of the usual warning signs that red tide is about to roll in. Not even any spotting.
So why, after I left the dentist’s office in the afternoon and I was walking across the parking lot to my car, did I suddenly feel that god-awful “all my bodily fluids are rushing out of my vagina” feeling? I got in the car, lifted up my skirt and it was like the movie from “Psycho” was playing in the background. Dayum, dayum, DAYUM!
Can I tell you how thankful I was that I was not at work at the time? Because that would have seriously SUCKED.
This is only the second time in my life when a period has ambushed me like this. Usually my uterus calls me up and gives me a heads up a day in advance.
I’ve also heard that Mirena stops periods–that’s the IUD with hormones. However, when I was on Depo-Provera, I had a six week long period. I mean, it was a six week long, relatively light period, but it was still a six week long period. It’s not guaranteed to stop them.
As for my bitching–well, I’m on a copper IUD, as hormones tend to have weird effects (see above, re: Depo-Provera). I get cramping like you wouldn’t believe, and have to set my alarm for about four hours after I go to bed so that I can change my tampon, 'cause otherwise I’ll bleed through. I’ve been considering the cup for some time, but am not really sure about the convenience factor.
I don’t think I’ll ever wear a pad again. I wore them until I was 18 or so, and. . .ugh. Itchy, dirty, felt like I was wearing a diaper, and I could never manage to position the damn thing so that it caught everything. Tampons are a freaking godsend.
Hello Ladies, I must weigh in here. I am going through menopause and am on the second month of taking Prempro. I have an ovarian cyst. I don’t know if I will have periods or not since it’s actually been two weeks since I’ve bled but before that it was every 24 days, very heavy, crampy, bloated, pissed off and just over it. I used the Depo shot for years and loved it. I stopped it thinking maybe I had already gone through the change. Doc at one point recommended the ablation.
I have ruined so many clothes and all the sheets are stained no matter the protection; tampons and pads with a towel underneath, waking every two hours to change.:smack: It is expensive too.
I don’t know if I am anemic or not but I can’t see how anyone can bleed like that and not be.
As time goes on it does not get better. If these pills don’t help then I am going to beg for a uterus removal at least. I am 51 and would love to hear from other women who have gone through natural menopause. I have read you are not post menopausal until one year has passed with no period. I can’t take very much more.
The schedule produced by birth control pills is artificial - you might as well pick an artificial schedule that’s more convenient.