Category: Health and Wellness
hi,
I have been having periods for 7 years now. i never normally have trouble knowing when they have started, because they are a: very heavy, b: i get cramps for the first day, c: the blood smell is very very distinctive-I will always recognise it! and d: because they were quite regular (i'm assuming this has changed because I have been feeling exhausted becuase only getting about 3 hours sleep each night, and some new tablets i'm taking)
anyway, this time, i can't tell if it has started or not. I thought it had, but i can smell no blood (sounds grose, but i hope you get what i meanp- i can't smell blood on the pad, and normaly i can smell it as soon as i pull my pants down andd sit on the loo!) i have stomach pain, can feel a slight dripping feeling (usually i can feel this as i am heavy), but can smell no blood, and the dripping is so sliight and irregular i don't know what it is lol. this sounds really stupid but do any of you have an absolutely fail safe method of knowing when your piriod has started?
I'm desperate to use my new deva cup, so if its a strangely light period i don't want to miss it lol!
sorry for groseness and nighevity of post, but any help?
sounds like you are using all good methods: keeping track of when you are next expected to start, recognizing your body's signs that you are fixin to start (cramps, head and body aches, moddiness, etc.), the smell of blood, the way it feels when it leaves your body.... Let me add in a few others. Do you have any vision at all. if you are wearing a white pad, might you be able to notice a the contrast of dark menstrual blood against the white pad? also, blood is a very sticky substance. So unlike other secretions, blood will feel sticky if you touch it. failing all these suggestions, if you are not sure, put on a pad anyway. better to wear one and not start than not wearing one and bleeding through your clothes and risk having it noticed by someone else.
thanks for all those suggestions. I now know for sure its started because my mum noticed blood on my nightclothes when i put them out to wash today. unfortunatly i don't have any vision. but i'll remember what you said in future. thanks again
I can understand exactly how you feel. This has been also happening to me, at times I have not much pain when periods start, not to mention that at first, they may be very very light and it is usually on the first day that you can't smell much of it. I have used all methods I could think of, from waring pads to keeping track and touching it when I suspect it may be there. And even then, not always successful because even before the blood starts, it can feel sticky in a way too. But recently I have discovered a great method to know for sure when it is there. It is a bit groce, but works 100 percent. So as soon as you would like to check if it is there, just have a feel with the index finger and then right away put just a drop of 2 or water on it. You can deffenetly feel the smell of the blood then, I guarrantee! Let me know ifi t has worked!
thanks. i will let you know next cycle. i've just finished my last one, and after starting off late it carried on really heavy and made me feel quite ill lol. but i just wasn't sure if it had started or not. bit unusual for me as i normally know but there we go.
Hi, I have a little sight, so I can usually see blood on a pad or tissue. If it is new, it will be red as opposed to a brownish color. If you're really freaked out about this, wear a pantyliner, as opposed to a pad, It might feel a bit more comfortable if you haven't started than a heavy pad. Unless you're absolutely sure you've started, don't use tampons, as that could be harmful.
i usually know if it starts if i feel sticky down there below.
but now i am noticing that my small breasts get tender and kinda like heavy.
i used to have cramps but thanks to the migrain meds, i haven't had any.
fortunately i haven't had major discomfort as to very mild cramps that resolve with some hot tea.
No cramps! Lucky you, Ditto on the sore boobs thing, does anyone else notice that their lower back seems to bother them? My friend told me once that this sometimes happens as we get older. Older? I'm only 30! If you don't to leak at night ( and who does), use a tampon and an extra-long pad. This seems to work fine. HTH.
Sorry, I'm obviously having typing issues, that's if you don't want to leak at night.
Yeah, I've heard meds can screw up your cycle. and so can being tired or sick.
also stress, and extreme weight loss can mess up our cycle.
lower back pain does happen as we age. it could be just a normal thing or endometriosis can cause it as well. aren't i just filled with joy?
Yes I get lower back pain with periods to and headaches and stomach aches. Also some times I feel sick and threw up as well. But I am on a lot of medication as well. Some times I just wish the periods would go away like this month. i am only 29 as well.
After I had my son, my periods got havier but less crampy. I wonder what will happen after this baby. What I'm saying is, they can change as you have kids too.
luckily i get them every other month. sometimes can go for 2 months without them or sometimes but rarely get them 2 in a span of 2 weeks.
im only around 90 pounds, is that maybe a difference.
i don't really worry about it cause the longer between cycles, the better for me it is to do anything.
I'm on meds to regulate my cycle and more importantly, my hormones, lol, or things could get a tad explosive and the air could turn a nice bright blue colour when I'm about, lol, especially during the 1st couple of days. My meds, a low dose of 2 500 MG tablets per day, Metformin/diabetic meds has really made a difference. Instead of every 3, 4 months, I have my period usually every 7 weeks from one cycle to the next, although, it has made the stomach cramps, sickness and back cramps worse, lol. I never used to have to live on Nurofen painkillers for the full 5 days of the period itself, but now, I can't live without the bloody Nurofen, or, plenty of hot baths or electric blankets on in bed, lol. Mind you, I'd rather have little and large and often, than the 6 month gaps I used to have between cycles, I really would.
Jen.
It's a good idea to have one cycle per month, as is normal, even though it sucks. Trust me, I know, but it really helps your body clean itself out.
You mention a Diva cup, so put it in. You can wear it ahead of time, in anticipation of your period. Just take it out and rinse every 12 hours or so, and you'll be fine. No need to waste a disposable pad.
I can't stand pads anyway unless I really have to use them.
i can't imagine why anyone would want to use those pills that now give you four periods a year. if that's what we were ment to have, that's how we'd have been built. any thoughts?
I totally agree, and evidently, so does my doctor. You still have to let your body sort of run its natural course. Well, really, you'd probably be better off not messing with it all, but in today's day and age, that's hard to live by sometimes.
Turricane and OceanDream, I completely agree! That kind of interference is unnecessary and unnatural. not to be too out there, but I don't think I'd feel right, emotionally or spiritually or whatever, if I tampered with how my body naturally cycles.
If there were some valid medical reason to do it, that would make more sense.
There are other than hormonal options for birth control, and for regulating periods. It's good that we have so many choices.
No, four periods a year does not sound natural to me. I'd rather just have 12 cycles, and know I haven't messed up my body!
4 a year sounds kind of dodgy, but I can see the appeal if you knew exactly when they would be throughout the year!
well I went on the pill for a while to regulate mine, and it even sorted out my spots and everything, and pmt! but i have been stopped from going on it by my doctor as my blood pressure gets dangerously high on it. he offered me some stuff that would stop me ovulating, which he said might stop the bleeding but might not, so i said no to that because I really don't like the sound of, as has been mensioned before, messing up my body.
so i'm off the pill and have been since september, and am missing periods, having really heavy ones if i do have them, which I don't mind, but then i'm back to the same problem of not knowing when they will start, or if they have started. last month I started at work which was so embarassing!
yeah i guess waring my diva cup when i expect it is a good idea, but since i can be having pmt symptems, thinking it starts and getting all the stomach pains for up to 2 weeks before it comes, isn't that rather a long time to keep putting my diva cup in and out? its a very comfortable thing though-heardly know its there-its a job not to forget lol!
I use cotton pads and wash them each time. sounds grose but I hate tampons, and disposable ppads make me so sore.
I'm a transplant patient and take all kinds of meds, so when I first got mine, I was later than all the other girls like 15 or 16 or so. Yes, watch prescription meds if you have to take them for long periods of time cause that will mess things up bad! When I first got mine I never had cramps or anything and never knew it had started. Sometimes it would only last like 3 days and leave but come back in a week or so and other times it would run almost 2 weeks straight, very heavy, super huge blood clots. Nothing we tried controled things cause of my antirejection meds and the others, so I finally went on the shots. Its called Depo-provera or something similar to that. Some people take them for birth control like the pill, but you get no periods, maybe just a tiny spotting, but that's even rare and only have to do the shot once every 3 months. Others, like myself take the shots because of the extremeness of the period, cramping, missing school/work, clots, stuff like that. If you go on the shots and then want to get pregnant, then just stop getting them.
So, if you watch your start date and if you're regular on that, then you should be able to figure you get it about the same time every month. I have some vision so I could see the diference between the color on the pad, but checking to see if its sticky, watching your body is telling you about tiredness, cramps, food cravings, crying/anger, all are all good signs.
I've heard the shot has some nasty side effects when you come off of it after having been on it for a long time though, like really heavy periods, and worse than normal cramps. Of course, I've never done it, so I don't really know.
my sister was on it for a while, and she was really moody all the time! but that's not to say it would work the same for everyone. i'll have to think about that.
Philippa, you could just wear your Diva when you're away from home, so you'd not have it in constantly when you don't need it. Just remove it when you get home.
but yeah, otherwise, cloth pads are great, too.
everyone envies me cause i don't have that many periods. i have 6 cycles a year so, that's normal for me. sometimes i have 4 cycles which is even better
and is natural
I am happy I don't have to put up with periods any more and feeling cranpy, cold, and sick to my stomach.
I had a histerectimy all most 15 years ago and don't regret it!
I feel so much better.
yes, I could just ware my cup when away from home, i might try remembering to do that. i wish my periods weren't so unpredictible! o well, I know there could be much worse things.