I rarely have any warning that my period is on its way aside from the physical feeling that something is exiting my body and ruining my underpants.
This was my primary motivation for going on birth control- I took the pill back to back, and later switched to the Depo shot so that I would not get my period. I lost my health insurance after I graduated from college, and am looking into a new plan, but in the meantime I am going to make an appointment with Planned Parenthood to see if there is an affordable way for me to get the shot.
I am just fed up with waking up with my jammies/underwear ruined.
I had PCOS which meant that I could go anywhere from bleeding out for 3 months straight to skipping 8 months to being steady regular for 8 months to then stop for 3 months then bleed for a year straight.
And the Navy refused to do anything about it, it was 'natural ’ for PCOS to do this.
Before my hysterectomy, I had absolutley zero PMS. No clear ever when my period was about to start and if I hadn’t been on the pill, I would’ve always been surprised.
I had it as a teen, didn’t have it through adulthood and am getting hit hard with it as I start pre-menopause - at least, I’m assuming that is why I’ve gone from “what, my period? What an unpleasant surprise!” to “oh. thank god, I’m not really a raving bitch from hell with appendicitis and a migraine. My period was just coming.”
Fortunately, I always start light, so there have been very few “ruinous” occasions. Because I also hate to track.
I didn’t have it at all as a teenager, still didn’t have it in college while I was on the pill… then went off the pill in grad school and finally understood what people meant when they talked about it. Ugh. From then on it’s waxed and waned, but I’ve generally had some PMS symptoms.
The worst was a couple years ago when I tried Seasonique; it was like having my period and having PMS at the same time, all the time. Now I’m off hormonal birth control entirely, and I’d say I get PMS that’s annoying enough to be really noticeable about 70% of the time.
Do you have a monthly calendar? Next time your period starts, put a dot next to that day on the calendar. Do this for several months, then go back to the page for this month and count how many days between the Feb and March dots, how many between March and April, etc. It’s unlikely to be the exact same number each month, but it should be close, within a couple of days. So, a day or two before your monthly “target” start wearing a panty-liner to bed, and that should spare a lot of your panties.
I do get cramps and so forth, but 75% of the time not until after my period has started, so keeping track (though by now it’s not so much keeping track as an investigative process as knowing when 26 days have passed) as outlined above helps spare my clothes.
The only sign I ever got was after it started, I would say, ‘oh that’s why I lost my temper yesterday and was screaming for no reason.’ I checked the days when it started and went through a whole year once, counting the variance. Somewhere between 2 weeks before up to 2 weeks after the ‘28 day target’(and any point in between) was normal for me, and often I would wear a liner for a full week before anything started.
I get that crampy/grouchy stuff that happens midway through, but I cannot recall the proper name. I don’t get PMS. I get PME, (E being euphoria) which is incredibly amusing. I become hyper, I clean, I walk around with a goofy grin for about 72 hours, then BAM, there’s my period. I imagine it’s a spell of hypomania or something but I’m not messing with a good thing.
When I was in my teens and twenties, I had no PMS at all, nothing, nada. I was also regular as clockwork (which would have been even better if I hadn’t been ADD).
I got fibroids sometime in my early thirties, and that went out the window (except for the regular part which has always been true). Every 3-6 years I’ve added a new PMS symptom on top of the other ones.
I always knew when I was going to get it because I’d have one instance of absolute rage over the smallest of situations. Talk about Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde…
I wouldn’t start cramping until midway through the first day. My breasts didn’t begin aching until I hit my 30s for some odd reason, and it always coincided with the rage thing.
Now that I’m firmly toward the end of perimenopause, I don’t get one iota of a hint whatsoever. I’ll go to the bathroom and – whaddya know?
My boobs get sore a few days beforehand, but worst is that my anxiety goes through the roof for a few days – and it always takes me a few days to think, “Hmm.” I keep thinking I should chart things but keep forgetting.
And then, for the last year or so, I don’t feel much better after it starts. Up until then, once it started, I felt fine. No, not anymore; I feel generally crappy and occasional months get hit with horrible cramps the like of which I haven’t felt since I was about 13.
I only hope it’s early pre-menopause changes (I’m turning 35 next month) as the earlier all this is over for me the happier I’ll be. My nurse practitioner chalked it up to the body being weird and I’m in my 30s and sometimes things change and as she is altogether awesome I’ll go with that for now.
I don’t get PMS. It’s pretty regular 23-day cycles, though, so I can generally guess and avoid any mess.
I get horrendous cramps maybe an hour or so before it starts for real, which is a little extra warning. If I don’t double-dose ibuprofen for the first 20 hours or so, I can barely move because the pain is so bad. After that, I feel fine.
The first-day cramps suck but since they go away with meds I will gladly put up with them rather than anything less painful but more drawn out.
I’ve never had PMS. Before I started taking Yasmin my periods were all over the place (PCOS) but relatively painless. After I started on the pill I’ve been getting cramps and headaches - about three days into my period. They last for about 2-3 days. It sucks, but it’s better than getting pregnant.
