What's the name of this one condition?

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

Does anyone here know the name of the condition where a woman's menstrual periods are aproximately once every 2 months (instead of once a month), she has excess hair growth, and generally a slightly longer/heavy flow?

I went to my gyn earlier in the year because my periods began getting farther and farther apart after I stopped taking the pill and seemed to have settled at once every 54 days. She told me it was possibly a certain condition. She also told me the name and gave me some literature but I don't remember what it's called. The condition was hormonal, and she also described it as pretty harmless, although it sometimes causes problems for women who want to get pregnant... I remember that it's usually diagnosed with blood tests.

Does anyone know what this condition is called...? I want to read more about it. Does anyone else here have it?

Unrelated but "funny": I just found this website that seems to be claiming that body clocks are regulated by sunlight, and that the menstrual cycle is directly regulated by exposure to moonlight. (!!!) They sell $300 artificial lamps! Quote:

...The body clock uses bright light signals like sunlight to set its daily sleep/wake rhythm, and it relies on moonlight to regulate the menstrual cycle. As explained in Dr. Smolensky’s book, The Body Clock Guide to Better Health:

'...A woman’s menstrual cycle runs its course in about twenty-eight days, one lunar cycle. Periods usually start spontaneously in the week of the full moon in women not using birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy, particularly those with ample exposure to natural daylight and dark cues.'

Ha ha ha ha. I like the use of the word "spontaneously," as if there is no medical or scientific reason for our cunts to regularly bleed. How many of us have periods that ALWAYS happen at full moon? How many of us nightly go out and let the moonlight bathe us? (ooh, sounds witchy!) Gosh. women like me who live in rainy states must never have periods evar! Ha ha ha.

Comments

[stratyllis.livejournal.com]

It might be Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I have it. I don't have my period at all if I don't take the pill. I am not sure though. PCOS can cause infertility so you might want to talk to your doctor more.

[stratyllis.livejournal.com]

The website is right. SAD is a real condition that effects millions. The menstrual cycle is effected by the magnetic pull of the moon. I know lots of people who bleed during the full moon.

Just because you have never heard of something doesn't mean it's bullshit.

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

no i know what sunlight-related mood swings are all about. My friend suffers from seasonal depression pretty severely.

I find it hard to believe that menstruation is actually directly related to moonlight. the website is not exploring gravitational pulls at all.

No one I know has menstrual periods that follow the lunar cycle. I think it would be beautifully romantic if it were true, but most women I know have cycles unique to their own bodies that shift and change as their own hormone levels change... the lunar cycle is a lunar cycle.

ancient cultures likely associated the menstrual cycle with the lunar cycle because they were comparable... not because they were exactly the same. It is generally accepted as a coincidence.

Science and the Paranormal (1983), astronomer George O. Abell writes, "The moon's cycle of phases is 29.53 days, while the human female menstrual cycle averages 28 days (although it varies among women and from time to time with individual women); this is hardly even a good coincidence!

(linky (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990924.html))

[stratyllis.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about moonlight. I didn't look at the site correctly.

[viellen]

You can call me a crazy hippie, but I get my period every full moon :)...and always have (unless I'm on birth control). I can name at least six of my friends that have told me the same thing. It doesn't happen to everyone, and I'm skeptical of that artificial clock thing, but it's not totally out there. It supposedly does have something to do with the gravitational pull.

[geminigirl]

PCOS/PCOD might be what you're looking for.

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

Its called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). I don't have the time to write out a long description of my experience with it, but http://www.soulcysters.com is a good good resource and support network for women with PCOS.

I believe I posted a long description of my journey to better health and living with PCOS not too long ago. If you want, I'll track down a link or make it public in my personal journal for a while so you can read it.

The first step is to talk to your doctor. Find out what the situation is. Many issues can cause long menstrual cycles, not just PCOS. I personally have many other signs, but a semi-regular 28-30 day menstrual cycle and have chosen a homeopathic/more natural path to dealing with the disease.

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that was exactly it!

Thanks so much. I've found quite a few resources now that I know what it's called. I do plan on talking to my gyn again soon.

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

I love your icon, btw :-)

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

I have used night lighting to induce ovulation before. Because i live in a populated area, I simulated the moon's cycle with dark curtains in my room, followed by the introduction of a small night light at appropriate intervals.

You'd be amazed by the things your body is capable of if you listen to it. From the changes in my cervical fluid with my hormonal fluctuations, to the simple idea that my body is capable of growing a new life to the fact that I can make milk for said child is so freaking awesome. I'm continually amazed.

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to add that exposure to artificial lights, artificial hormones, pesticides, and many many other thigns are the reason that most women no longer have a 28 day cycle that directly coresponds to the moon.

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

I would love to see your source for that. I'm googling, and I'm not seeing much evidence of that.

I also know that most feminist sociologists and anthropologists recognize that there is little way of knowing what the average menstrual cycle was prior to around the early 1900s or so because doctors and medicine weren't looking at women's medical states or even keeping very good track of things. Luckily that has changed and women are being physiologically seen not as "basically male but with menstrual cycles and the ability to carry children" and more like human beings with unique gendered medical and physical needs.

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

The Garden of Fertility,/u> by Katie Singer has some info in it.

Its also a terrific supplement to Taking Cahrge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. Both these books primarily deal with fertility awarness, which I use as a form of birth control.

[erinmdmd.livejournal.com]

ugh, except without all the underlining... i suck at HTML when I'm tired apparently :-p

I recommend the second title to any woman- completely revolutionized the way I think about my body and myself.

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

I also found this scholarly article (link (http://www.athenainstitute.com/lunarmpl.html)) about "lunar menstrual phase locking" examining the relationship between the menstrual cycle and the lunar cycle. it claims that women who have cycles roughly the same as the lunar cycle (approximately 30% of women) are 69% more likely to have their period within "7.5 days of the full moon".

I think this study is a little misleading though. 69% of the population studied is still only 20.7% of the total. Not to mention that "7.5 days of the full moon" is a 15 day range, and hardly "lunar locked".

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

by the way, thanks for the titles. I'll look into them.

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

Anyway, i read a little about katie singer, and her book sounds very interesting on a "whole-human-being" type of level... but does she really claim that pesticides, indoor activities has over time changed women's menstrual cycles?

She's not a researcher, so if she claimed this, she likely cited studies or discussed some other researcher... do you own the book? does it have a bibliography?

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

I feel that I really do have a good relationship with my body. I listen to her and care for myself as best as I can. I can tell when I'm about to have my period, and I've always been very sensitive to stress. at times I have even been able to induce my period by relaxing and de-stressing during a very stressful time right around the time I should have menstruated (but was late).

So I totally understand that there are some "amazing" things that the body is capable of if we just pay attention and listen. I'm convinced that it's internal, or even spiritual and that it's something a woman must understand and feel within herself. I'm not convinced that gravitational forces of the moon or moonlight levels have anything to do with it. for one thing, sunlight is sunlight, whether it is reflected off of another celestial body or not. The human body has no way of distinguishing between moonlight and sunlight. We can distinguish between various wavelengths (ie, color, radio waves, uv, infrared..) but there isn't anything to distinguish sunlight from moonlight other than the fact that we are exposed to more of the former.

[dragonflyinlove.livejournal.com]

This condition sounds like me
Is it possible to have it when you 16 and never had sex?
Mine is so heavy I have to change the tampons that are the highest absorbancy twice an hour sometimes also I skip months and when I do have it it lasts for 2 weeks sometimes longer