A friend told me that his wife’s period lastsone day! Is this possible?
Zymurgist
Yep. It’s just the superfluous tissue in the uterus. Not a lot of tissue, not a lot of blood. Of course, if this is usual for her, and she wants kids, good luck. I also just learned that if you (meaning those of us with a uterus) get DepoPrevira (sp?) which is the shot, you don’t get your period at all. It stops the membrane from forming. Cornfirm/deny?
Habit rules the unreflecting herd. - Wordsworth
Sure. Every woman’s cycle is different. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but the duration of a woman’s period has nothing to do with her level of fertility. By the time she’s having her period, the fertile egg has decayed anyway. Usually a woman’s fertile time is about 10 days before her period.
I WISH mine was one day - what a dream!
Swim, forgot one thing. I had a girlfriend who took the Depo shots and she didn’t get her period. It took her awhile to get used to (didn’t seem normal) but the doctor told her it wasn’t a big deal physically if she could handle it emotionally.
Personally…that’s a little weird for me no matter how big a hassle your cycle is.
SwimmingRiddles,
Not being a doctor, this is what I have learned. In some women Depo-provera can stop you from getting a period but not in all, besides I think that would worry me, I mean the first thing the doctor asks when you go in for a problem with anything is when was your last period, it sort of reassures me everything is working.
As for the length it all depends. I am on a pill now that cuts my period down to three days total, it’s really cool.
Used to get Depo shots. Did for several years. Don’t anymore. System can’t take the hormones.
In any event, I didn’t get my period while taking the shots, and it didn’t start back up again until 7 or 8 months after I stopped 'em. Didn’t bother me a bit.
i have a querky cycle.
sometimes it happens. usually, it doesn’t
i average 1 or 2 periods a year.
but, when they come, they’re evil. they last at least 2 weeks and the first few days, i feel so terrible, i won’t get out of bed.
my doctor says everything seems ok and i get a check-up every year.(i suspect this puts me at risk for ovarian cancer)
he says i could take birth control pills to regulate things if i really wanted to
funny thing though, if i’m living with another woman, i seem to hop onto her cycle and get one every month.
I’m pink therefore I’m Spam
I’ve heard this a lot, and it happens with women I work with. Just more evidence for my theory of “Humans as One Big Herd.”
So the pill (lets use Orthotricyclene as an example) prevents ovulation, correct? The egg stays in the basket, so to speak? But Depo prevents the tissue from forming, but you still ovulate.Do I have my birth controls straight?
Habit rules the unreflecting herd. - Wordsworth
I don’t think that’s quite right either. When I mentioned going on the shot to my gyno she said a lot of women have reactions to it. She gave me some sample packs of birth control pills that she claims were the same thing in pill form. You took one every day with a week for menses just like regular birth control pills. (In other words, you can get Depro-Prevera in pill form and not stop having your period.) Also, I think with the shots you have your period less and less often, tapering off until you hardly ever have it; it doesn’t just shut off altogether.
“It was us versus them and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they’re there.”
– Texas Gov. George W. Bush, presidential candidate.
Actually, the standard is that ovulation occurs on day 14 of the menstrual cycle. Day 1 is the day the period starts.
“Buffalo Bills? Oh, yeah. The guys that always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” --WallyM7
Let’s get some things out of the way about oral contraceptives:
#1) Orthotricyclene prevents ovualtion. It is a combination of norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol, this actually thickens the uteran lining and makes it stickier, making mobility difficult for sperm.
from my actual package which I start again tomorrow
#2) they are 99% effective when:
TAKEN as directed
the amount of estrogen in 20micrograms or more.
The above are called “combination pills” as they contain 2 female sex hormones: estrogen and a progestin. It is the amount of estrogen which is the more important of the 2
Depo does stop periods all together for many women, but not all, and not all the time. It differs woman to woman
I am a fire whose flames lick and spit at the boundless sky forever desiring wonderous consummation
-me
Yes, from what I’ve experienced on Depo and when I had Norplant, I had no period. This only seemed to happen with non-estrogen containing contraceptive pills.
Curiously enough, many women (myself included) do not menstruate while nursing a baby. I’m not sure I understand why, though. Apparently one can get pregnant still- a girlfriend is expecting her second child, due 11 months after her firstborn. Yikes!
Prairie Rose
If you’re not part of the solution you’re just scumming up the bottom of the beaker.
Women who jog a lot don’t have periods anymore. They come back later when they don’t exercise so much.
Lucky girl! I’m on an “almost nothing–regular–regular–almost nothing–almost nothing” cycle and let me tell you, I’m ready to have the whole wiring stuff taken out.
It’s all a hassle if you ask me. Which you didn’t but there it is anyway. 
“Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.”
First, regarding women in close contact cycling together, here’s TSD:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_306.html
Next - what OCP’s (oral contraceptive pills) do:
- By supplying a steady level of estrogen in the first half of the cycle, they prevent the massive surges of pituitary hormones (Follicular Stimulating Hormone & Luteinizing Hormone = FSH/LH) that normally trigger ovulation around 14 days after the start of the last period. No ovualation = no baby.
- They change the properties of the lining of the uterus. If ovulation does occur, and the egg is fertilized, the zygote finds a hostil environment normally cannot implant, or if they do implant, are often lost at the time of the next period. Generally these uterine changes result in lighter periods (IUDs typically cause heavier periods).
- The secretions throughout the reproductive tract is less friendly to sperm.
There are pills which provide progesterone (or other progestins) only. These also prevent ovulation. If they are taken cyclically, periods occur. I f they are taken constantly, irregular but light bleeding occurs for a while, then stops entirely in most women. Since DepoProvera injections & Norplant provide constant release of progestin over long periods, in many women they prevent menstruation entirely. For that reason, they are highly popular with deployed servicewomen & athletes who don’t want to have to worry about where in their cycle a major competition will fall.
Next, handy commented about athletic women stopping periods all together. There is enough truth in this not to be classified UL, but just. Women who jog a few miles a few times a week, or even 20 miles a week or so, but who maintain normal body fat levels will continue to menstuate, an ovulate.
OTOH, athletes who maintain very low body fat levels (gymnasts come to mind) often are amenorrheic (no periods) or at least (anovulaory) periods without ovulation. The key factor is body fat percentage; the same phenomenon applies to anorexia, and is often used as a red flag for when a normal desire to be thin has become an eating disorder.
Finally, when women nurse, the pituitary secretes high levels of prolactin, which often prevents ovulation. The problem is that right around the time babies are sleeping through the night & women are not too exhausted to even think about having sex, the prolactin levels start falling. Since the first ovulation often precedes the first period after a baby, a good many women never have a period in between babies. Count me in that group…
Sue from El Paso
Siamese Attack Puppet - Texas
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
amen to that sister! mine used to be about eight or nine days, and the pill cut it down to five. woopie!
“If anybody wants a sheep, that is proof that he exists.”
About Depo: My best friend’s been getting the shots for a couple years. She gets one period every three months, and it lasts for two weeks.
I believe the OP asked if a female can have a period of just one day: Generally speaking, a one day period would usually suggest a non ovulatory cycle. As mentioned above, oral contraceptives may produce this; depoprovera injections generally result in little or no bleeding with just an occasionaly spot or so of blood now and again.
If one defines a period as a reasonably regular episode of bleeding generally preceded by ovulation mid cycle, then a one day episode of bleeding generally suggests inadequate stimulation of the uterine lining by estrogen and/or an inadequate production of progesterone which is produced only when ovulation occurs…hence less stimulation of the uterine lining to grow and less tissue and blood expelled at the time of a period. A one day episode of regular bleeding is of no concern unless one is attempting to get pregnant and is unable to do so, then an evaluation is indicated.
I am so glad to read that I am not the only one who almost never gets her period! I only got it every two to six months the first couple years I had it, then for about three years got it every 21 1/2 days like clockwork. By the time I was 20 I had tapered off to twice a year, and now I only get it during times of great stress, like when Im about to start a new job or something. Ive been checked by several gynos; they all say there’s nothing physically wrong, I just have a weird cycle. Uh, yeah.
Ass-Toaster Extraordinaire, SDMBSRC
I agree with the MDs on the board; from what I understand, a one-day period is possible if the person is on birth control pills or shots. A former roommate often bragged about how since she went on the Pill, her period lasts just a few hours.
My question to the doctors–if the Pill prevents me from ovulating, then why should I menstruate at all? My high school sex education (as useful/less as it may have been) left the impression that the period was a result of the body preparing for pregnancy. With the arrival of the ovum, the uterus gets built up with extra tissue/etc. to prepare for the fertized egg. No fertization, and out it all goes.
Now if there’s no ovulation…why does the body go through the hassle of menstruating?
FWIW: My period was ridiculously erratic and oftentimes quite severe. Since on the Pill, I’m like clockwork: switch to pink inactive pills Sunday, start Wednesday afternoon, heavy-ish Thursday, all done by Saturday night. Nice!
One other question: If you can become pregnant by forgetting to take just one of the white hormone pills, why is it while on a week’s worth of inactive pills pregnancy isn’t a risk?
formerly known as LauraRae
I’m a Raggety Ann in a Barbie Doll world.