Inspired by this post in the euphemisms for menstration thread.
For me, the term “curse” is pretty accurate. One word: cramps. Huge, horrible waves of cramps. I once took two codeine pills in a row, and for an hour I couldn’t stand up straight- but I still had cramps.
Advil didn’t help. Going on the Pill didn’t help. Going on the Pill and starting my advil regime a few days before helps slightly. I am currently taking a version of the Pill where you only have your period onece every three months. Otherwise, I’d have gone insane long before now.
Not to mention the psychological aspect. To put it bluntly, having blood coming out of your hooha for a week is icky. I feel unclean when it’s my time, contaminated. Urgh.
So, is the ‘curse’ a blessing or a curse? And if you think it’s the latter, WHY?
Now, at 28, it’s mostly a minor inconvenience. I have a day or two of annoyingly painful cramps, but advil or aleve takes care of those pretty well.
When I was in my late teens & early 20s, my experience was much closer to yours. Mindnumbing cramps so bad I couldn’t walk across my studio apartment, the whole nine yards.
I take the pill continuously, so I just get mine a few times a year. Sucks then, though - you’re always thinking about how long it’s been since you changed your tampon and do you have enough on you and so on and so forth. Also, the pill is not free, by any means.
I get bad headaches during mine. Cramps are rare but happen every once in awhile, think the pill helped with those. Really I hate it because I get headaches, get emotional (cry not bitch), and I don’t care to have sex when that is going on down there so it’s five/six days a month I don’t get any. And yeah the pill costs me A LOT of money for me…rather be able to “turn off” the ability to get pregnant until I decide I’d like to try.
Same here, actually. Cramps weren’t as bad as yours, but when I was in my teens, they were more painful than they are now.
Exercise helps a lot–not necessarily when it strikes, but more in the long term. I get cramps on the first day and they’re painful if I don’t take an advil in time, but if I do they generally go away, and after that, they’re there, but not bad enough for medicine.
The weird thing is lying down never helped me. It would hurt too much, and I’d always want to walk around or something. Does anyone get that urge? The urge to start moving?
9 to 10/12ths of the time it’s painful the first day, and just annoying & kind of gross the other four days.
Those 2 to three months a year, though…those months I understand exactly why it’s called the curse. Those months the cramps don’t let up, my entire digestive system freaks out, and my back and thighs ache and ache until I feel like I’m going to curl up and cry. (sometimes I actually do). I can’t understand how women who experience that every month can cope.
This is what I ended up doing, first the Pill to combat brutal cramps that went on for days (not to mention for contraception), then continuously to combat the daily migraines I’d get on the “off” week, which started a year or so ago. I have a DivaCup so at least I don’t have to worry about tampon changing/supplies.
I used to think that if I never got my period I’d be soooo freaking paranoid about whether I might be pregnant, and the period reassures me. Know what? I hate having my period and don’t have any of those worries at other times.
Mine was never all that bad physically, but I was on the pill from the time I was 16 until about 30 so it was pretty minimal. I get crampy on the first day or 2 but it’s nothing compared with what other women go through. I can’t remember having ever taken a day off from work over it or being bedridden. I usually don’t work out on the first day, but I mind the moodiness of PMS lot more.
I hate it and the only good thing about it is that while my cycle is somewhat irregular, it’s somewhere on the far side of thirty days. I cramp and I feel disgusting and, just in case the whole bleeding from the crotch thing wasn’t enough, I tend to gets all sorts of lovely digestive ailments to go with it.
Back in high school, the cramps would get so bad that I’d end up vomiting from the pain. The only option was to start drugging myself as soon as I suspected my period was coming, or spend half a day curled up in a fetal ball in debilitating pain. And then, somewhere around 21 or 22, something changed and the cramps started to get less and less severe.
Every once in a while, I’ll still get a particularly bad episode , but it’s usually over within an hour and is pretty managable if I pop a couple of Advil. Hope I never ever go back to the old days.
It’s not that bad, especially when I compare it to my sister.
I tend to get cramps the first day, usually not real bad. Every six months or so they’re bad enough that all I want to do is take some ibuprofen and sleep it off (and I do if I can). I usually don’t get real crabby. Sometimes I get hungry and can’t get full (which probably has something to do with my habit of just eating enough to make my stomach shut up that moment.) I don’t tend to bleed real heavy. The most annoying thing is the acne, cuz it lasts forever.
I found when I was younger, a glass or two of wine helped more than painkillers. Not always an option, especially when I’m at work, but I think it just helped me relax.
I forgot about this part. I typically break out very badly the week AFTER my period. Painful, deep zits. And then it takes half the month to heal. Then I have really nice-looking skin for about a week and a half, and the cycle starts over.
I’ve tried various hormonal birth controls, and for me, they all have side affects that are worse than this, though. Stupid Yaz. And Depo. And Seasonique.
I have always been really lucky. At this point, at 33, I could practically set a clock by my period - exactly 28 days, lasts exactly four days, etc. etc. Cramps hurt but they are generally only the first day or so two and can be alleviated (mostly) by Advil. Sometimes my breasts/nipples get really sore right before, to the point that my bra hurts.
Really, the only thing that upsets me is the psychological issue. Ew, ew, ew. Nasty, nasty, nasty…blood, and clots, and using lots of toilet paper, and always feeling dirty. Yuck. I don’t care what anyone says about feminist pride or pride in being a woman, it’s BLOOD and it’s not supposed to come out of one and it’s yucky.
Mine isn’t too bad these days, and has never been terribly bad. It bugs me that the whole cycle last two weeks (sore boobs a week ahead, a couple of blue/emotional days, five days of bleeding, a couple more of bloating) but overall it’s pretty much just an inconvenience.
It hasn’t troubled me much up untill my 35’t birthday. Now, it still doesn’t bother me much psysically. However, the PMS and moodswings are, and turn me into, a phenomenal whiny bitch far too often. I even suspect more and more that my depression of the last four years is just hormones goiing out of whack and giving me perimenopause.
Once, when I was a teen, I was literally writhing with the cramp pain. My grandmother wanted to take me to the hospital (!) but my uncle recommended a shot of whiskey instead, and it did help.
That was an unusual situation, though. Mostly mine are painful, but not bad enough to skip work. I just kind of hunch over my desk and moan…
And yes, there’s the disgust factor. “Unclean! Unclean!”
When I was in my teens and early 20s, cramps were part of the package. They ranged from completely irritating to curl up in a ball with a heating pad and wish to die cramps.
I went on the pill, and no longer wished for death, but there were still always cramps. I’d pop Advil like they were Tic Tacs.
Then I had my first kid, and I’ve never had another cramp of any sort since. The way I look at it, 54 hrs of labor (and that was just for kid #1) was payment for a lifetime’s worth of cramps all at once.
After experimenting with various hormonal birth control and either wanting to climb a clock tower with a semiautomatic (I never really understood PMS until I tried NuvaRing) or feeling like lifelong abstinence would be just fine (The Pill! Prevents pregnancy by making you never want sex with anyone ever!), I’m artificial horomone free. I was worried that the curse would revert back to it’s old, evil ways, but am happy to report short, light, painfree cycles.