Well I’ve only been having it for 10 years now, and not even very regularly, and so far it seems mine hurts WORSE as I get older than it did when I was 13.
And please tell me I’m not the only adult who still lives in perpetual fear of leaking in public?
I think giving birth is supposed to help. So I won’t know for sure until… well, for a while, anyway.
I should get a heating pad for next month. Does anyone else just sleep for the first day, woken up at intervals by excruciating pain and the need for fries?
Poor little welby. 
I’ve thought about this, but I’m so paranoid, I’d probably be spending more money on pregnancy tests than I do on feminine items every month.
I’ve thought about the patch, too - how does that work for you, Avarie537 ? I’m not good at remembering to take my pill (in fact, I forgot to start a new pack yesterday), and would love to use the patch. My only concern is - does it come off when it gets wet in the shower? And does it have side effects like the Pill?
Ava
Um, sure it does. In your dreams. I am 44 and still have tremendous crampage. And the leg aches, lets not forget those, oh, and lately, the whole pelvis area feeling bruised and mishandled and achey. Oh, yea, it gets better!
After 20 years of this (an oh how that looks frightening to type) Mine have gotten worse and much more irregular. The clumps are so gross and day 2 is when I want to curl into a ball and die. I just love the feeling when you stand after sitting for a bit and it feels like all your innards are slipping outside of your body.
Heating pads are my friends!
Giving birth did not help me at all. Maybe this second kid will be the one that fixes things up.
Every 28 days is a myth… mine go like this:
get one period. Two weeks later get another… two more weeks… 5 weeks … two weeks … six months… you get the picture 
I’m terrified of leaks. The worst time was when I worked in a bakery and the uniform was these crappy white polyesterish pants!
Yay me… I apologized to my daughter for this at her birth.
PS! Wet Gooey Genital Boogers would make a great name for a rock band
That is the worst, most gross feeling ever.
I just got over my visit from Aunt Flo and, aside from the massive flow (complete with clots the size extra large egg yolks), it really wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have to take any pain reliever at all! Last month, however, was a completely different story…
Hey, I’m a guy, and I started this thread to chastize women and their irrational uteri. Who knew it would turn into a gigantic female bonding session where gals shared every gory detail about their monthly undaintyness?
How can ya chastise us for something we can’t control and we all freaking hate anyway?
Not like I’m here thinking ya know it has been about a month and I’d love some horrible cramps and excessive bleeding and give me some hormonal moodiness and water weight… yeah baby party on!
My girlfriend has been taking the pill for the last three years. To the best of my knowledge she has never ever taken the 7 dud pills. After 3 years, the River Red still comes every month like clockwork.
(She has been on 3 different types of BC pills. Not for the purposes of stopping the flowage, but because she’s had 3 different doctors.)
My point is, I wouldn’t count on this to work. At least not based on my experience. It has however organized her into a predictable patern. We know exactly what day it will start and end, which is pretty cool.
(My understanding on those pills are that they are just placebo’s anyway. Whether you take them or not is not going to effect whether the river does or doesn’t start flowing. Their whole purpose is to allow the woman to keep in the habit of taking the pill so she doesn’t forget to start backup on the right day. If I’m wrong about any of this, I’d like to hear about it)
I’m a woman, and this thread has grossed me out. Really.
I remember with fondness the years that I only got my period once every 6-10 months. As I’ve gotten healthier (and older) and I’m controlling the PCOS better, I am much more regular - about every 6 weeks.
This month wasn’t so bad. Really. Only one day of wicked bad cramps, and those started late in the day. What I hate? The zits that come beforehand. Starting about three days before, I get the zits from hell. I can deal with the period itself - after so many years of rarely getting it, it kind of reminds me that I am, in fact, a chick…so I don’t mind so much when it’s like it was this month.
When it’s really bad, I just want to curl up and die, or find some way to make men suffer through something similar.
Owwwww! This hurts! And I’m not even planning on having children! Owwwwwwww!
She’s saying replace the dud pills with with the actual medicine, i.e. don’t take a week off from taking the pills.
There is a Livejournal community in which women celebrate their menstruation. There are certain members who - uh - recycle their menstrual flow.
Needless to say, I am not a member.
Is it that she’s not taking any pills during that time or she’s continuing to take the active pills during that time?
If she’s not taking any pills at all, then she’ll still get her period. Taking the active pills continuously is supposed to suppress the period. Or your girlfriend could just be unusual.
Lsura:
Oh, we suffer through something quite similar. Maybe even worse. We just don’t talk about it, though, cause it’s a secret.
I’d just like to say that ever since I went on the Pill my periods have gotten much more bearable and have shortened to three reasonably light and cramp-free days.
ENVY ME!
Not really grossed me out… 'course I get some of these things (it alternates… the really bad every 3/4 months with the rest of the time being manageable. Even now when I’ve been on the pill for a year.)
I think it depends on the woman. One friend of mine is on Depo-provera (sp?) and she only gets hers when they stop shooting her full of it every so often to let her system clean itself out naturally… others get it regularly even when on the pill or depo… there is also breakthrough bleeding and whatnot. Heck I’ve gotten my period when I’ve been a freaking hour late with taking the pill at my usual time! It doesn’t last long when that happens but still…
I have been taking Depo Provera, the 3 month shot, for the past two years or so. I don’t get my period. I don’t miss my period. I have no plan on stopping the shot unless I decide to get pregnant or am told that I should by my doctor. I was also not great at taking my pills consistently, so a shot (or patch) is definitely the best way for me.
Before I started the shot and ended my periods, I had miserable cramps and headaches. I was sick for days. I was unable to even function for the first two days, no work, no school, no getting out of bed. I was so relieved to find a solution that worked for me.
Screeme … to stop the periods you would have to take active pills every day for as long as you didn’t want the period to arrive. A lot of women do this for vacations and things and merrily skip a month or so. There are even pill regimens out there that have you take active pills for three months and then nothing for a week and then active pills again for 3 months. Those other pills are just to remind you to keep taking pills so that when the period week is over you don’t end up forgetting to restart and then screwing up the cycle or ending up pregnant.
Tomcat reads the first few posts, then immediately clicks the slider and jumps to the bottom.
shudder
You have my sympathies, ladies. I now have visual images to last me for the evening.
-Tcat