A completely disgusting entry. Consider that your warning.

[naamah_darling]

It will not surprise anyone who has ever owned or known a longhaired cat to learn that Tazendra gets dingleberries stuck in her butt fur. Tonight she brought home the motherlode. I will be damned if a single nugget of it reached the litter. So, in the middle of trying to watch a movie and prepare the next fever_dreams update, I suddenly have a lapful of

Comments

[naath]

I think our ancestors were mostly either too pregnant or too malnourished to have periods. Lucky ancestors.

[wiccarowan]

I remember one of my psychology professors at uni making some comment along the grounds of "modern women have really brought periods on themselves by choosing not to start getting pregnant at 14 and carry on til they die". Which, I suppose, is technically true. But I'm surprised the collective evil stares of 150 women didn't fry him on the spot.

[naath]

I have turned to SCIENCE to prevent myself from having periods, although I realise I'm lucky to not have any of the nasty side effects that some women find come along with.

(and this, this is my fucking flying car; 'cos man, periods sucked when I had them)

[wiccarowan]

I'm not allowed hormonal contraceptives any more (migraines) so my options are surgery or babies. Or hang on another few years for the menopause! My periods suck a lot less since I had my laparoscopy, thank fuck.

[foi_nefaste]

Yay science!

I get migraines too, and wasn't able to get oral contraceptives because of that, but I WAS able to get a Mirena (hormone-based IUD with super-small dose of hormones, so small enough that migraines aren't necessarily a counterindication). I haven't had a period in 3 years, with no side effects (other than the pain of getting an IUD put in). If that's something that interests you, you could look into it...

[thediva_laments]

OMG, Amen to this. Until the uterus comes out, continuous HBC on the advice of my Dr., along with a tubal ligation, is the way to go.

[baby_rissa_chan]

The suckiest thing of all, though, is when you go in to a doctor's office after completely naturally not having a period in a while and the doctor goes "that's not healthy...you don't need it all the time, but you should be getting it at least every three months...here's some medicine to make it start up again."

[lots42]

Of course having a kid at fourteen just increases the risk OF dying...Christ.

[wiccarowan]

But at least if you're dead, you don't have periods. Or something.

[flameelf]

My lady-bits have been dysfunctional since Day One. I was ten years old and had been bleeding for A MONTH when my Mom dragged me to the male gyno, who told me "not to worry" because all those horrific cramps and all the bleeding would "correct itself" once I started having babies.

I immediately told him: "If THIS is what the periods are like, I AM NEVER HAVING BABIES!"

Really, men have NO CLUE.

Grey :)

[wiccarowan]

Jaysus. I had horrific, lying-in-my-bed-sobbing-from-pain periods from the very start (although luckily not TEN, fuck). I gave up going to the doctor about the pain because all I got was that "It's just one of those things, you're a woman, it's only your period, a NATURAL THING (gah!)" stuff. And finally, only a couple of years ago (I am now 38) I found a doctor who acknowledged that there could be something actually wrong. Guess what - I had endometriosis so nasty that it took the surgeon by surprise. Woo!

I have one child and had a 43-hour labour, so I think I'll pass on having another one.

[flameelf]

Me, too...I'd be out for at least 24-48 hours in agony, and then the period itself went on for 7-9 days after it 'settled out'!

They told me mine was dysmenorrhea, but then, men told me that. *laughs*

After about the 10th hour of labour, I think I'd be asking someone to knock me out totally and wake me when it was over!

Grey :)

[wiccarowan]

They told me mine was dysmenorrhea

...which is just doctor-speak for "painful periods", ie "I'm trying to fob you off with posh words, now sod off and stop bothering me with your girlie issues".

Epidural FTW!

[muppetk]

...what the fucking hell??? Like Wiccarowan said. "dysmennorrhea" isn't a condition, it's a symptom! (I'm in healthcare, an acupuncturist, not an MD, but still, they teach us these things!) It literally means dys = bad/painful, mennorrhea = periods. Having a doctor diagnose it as dysmennorhea is bullshit of the highest order and I call shenanigans on him!!!

Fibroids or endometriosis or endometrial myoma -- those are all diagnoses. At worst, "primary dysmennorhea" or "functional dysmenorrhea" means that there is period pain, but they can't find anything. Which at least means they should give you meds and/or a directive to see an acupuncturist ('cause chinese medicine usually CAN help this sort of thing).

[flameelf]

The real problem was the severe, heavy bleeding and the incapacitating cramps. They put me on birth control pills (which also had me throwing up blood) and threatened to put me in the hospital for anaemia.

This was the 1960's--I'm 55 now. Most gynos were male and the culture back then was "WE know what is best for the little women". Their "answer" was to give me Darvon/Darvocet and to send letters to my schools explaining they'd just have to excuse me for up to three days a month.

Eventually they think the high-dose (back then) BC pills caused the massive fibroids I had to have removed, along with all the girly bits, when I was 30. In the current medical universe, the fibroids may have been the problem all along, but it's hard to know, now. Frankly, I was thankful the day they said it all had to come out!

Grey :)

[txgecko]

I also have endometriosis. I was told for 13 years that I was either crazy or a whiner for my complaints about pain. When I got my medical records I found that doctors wrote I was a probable drug addict. I eventually found enough information on the internet that I was able to force my gyn to refer me to a surgeon. At least with the laproscopy I got decent drugs! Now I have pictures of the endo so no one can deny it.