something's asunder down under

[notafountainpen.livejournal.com]

hello! I'm new here! here is my life's menstrual narrative in a nutshell.

my period, since the beginning, has been very bad. it lasts for seven days and it is heavy the whole time. this is the way that it is and always has been for all of the women in my family. when I got my first period, way back when I was 12 years old, I told my aunt I was excited, and she told me that would wear off very quickly. (this aunt of mine used to get her period every 2 weeks, and eventually had a massive hemorraghe and hystorectomy when she was in her 30s.) my cramps are often excruciating, sometimes debilitating, almost always accompanied by bowel complications. at 19, I went to the gyno and said "please do something." she did an ultrasound, declared my uterine state to be normal, and put me on birth control (and a curious pain medication which, curiously, gave me stomach cramps). the bc made everything worse, my cramps were worse, my colon spasms were worse, my hair fell out, and I was depressed all the time to boot. I quit it after six months. and do not anticipate ever being on hormones again, especially now that both of my parents are on blood thinners for clots and my mother has had a stroke.

now it is the glorious year of our lord 2007. I live a healthy veggie lifestyle, don't eat dairy or processed foods, I get enough exercise, I have a great non-stressful job and a very relaxed and satisfying personal life. I am in a 10-month long committed relationship and we have plenty of good safe sex. I am not on any prescription drugs nor have I been for a long time.

so why is it that, for the past six months, my cycles have been getting longer and more awful? up to now my period has been a miserable but predictable affair, with a little warning jab, lots of peeing, and some zits in the days before it arrives. I am currently operating on a 41 day cycle and my PMS is insane. my boobs hurt. my back hurts. I get so bloated I can't sleep on my stomach. my skin looks like the moon. I cry for no reason, sometimes for hours at a time. I am constantly running to the bathroom to pee but often finding that I cannot. my sex drive is completely erratic and sometimes just the thought of sex makes me nauseous. and then of course there is the awful dread every month that our methods have failed and I am pregnant.

has anyone experienced anything like this?
does anyone know why this would be happening?
what is going on here? is there anything I can do? (I've tried the parsley trick before, to no avail!)

oh sweet mystery of menses.

Comments

[jjjackie.livejournal.com]

my periods are like that, have been for as long as i can remember. i basically have about 1.5-2 weeks of really horrendous pms like you described and then a week of my period. and my cycle is about 40 days long...

[notafountainpen.livejournal.com]

isn't it crazy that more than half the time our lives are occupied with this nonsense? it's literally like being sick all the time.

[cathubodva.livejournal.com]

Please please please see another doctor, and if you don't get any answers from that doctor, see another one.

My guess, not as a doctor but as a survivor of the illness myself, is endometriosis. Many of your symptoms sound so familiar - and it is hereditary, so it would not surprise me if this is what your aunt suffered from as well.

Another possibility is polycystic ovary syndrome, or a combination of the two. Please seek help - there are treatment options.

For more information, feel free to join us over at endometriosis. I wish you the best of luck.

[notafountainpen.livejournal.com]

I thought I had endo when I first sought help for my symptoms, but the doctor ruled it out more or less immediately. when things got better while I was in college, I stopped thinking about it.

I have a new job with a new health insurance plan that kicks in about two weeks or so from now, and I plan on making it to a new gyno right away.

[blindlavender.livejournal.com]

have you look into PMDD? i don't have it, but a number of my friends that do. sounds like you may have it.

[saerlaith.livejournal.com]

My periods used to be like that. I found the answer, but I'm pretty sure you don't wanna hear it.
I went through the whole dance-routine with the gynos saying they might help with b.c. and finding it made it worse (though, it did clear up my skin and make me randomly grow breasts in my early twenties).
My husband is getting his degree in accupuncture. Being raised in a family full of doctors, I didn't believe in that stuff... but I'd tried *everything* else, so I went into the clinic at his school.
I noticed the difference right away. I'd been pmsing, but they put the first couple of needles in and I stopped feeling bloated. My cramps eased a bit, too. I saw the doctor twice a week for the first month and a half. They gave me disgusting-tasting herbs that seemed to help a lot, also. It does help... or at least, it did for me.
The other thing will definitely not make you happy. I'd been a veggie since middle-school, and apparently that was part of the problem. According to eastern medicine, an all-veggie is extremely unhealthy because veggies are cold and meat is warm. Not getting meat can cause cold to influence your organs (completely different from western "organs"). Anyway, the bright side is that if you see an accupuncturist on a regular basis, they can counter-act the cold effect. The downside is that everytime you go in, they ask why you aren't eating meat.
Hope this helps!
Xo,
Me

[notafountainpen.livejournal.com]

I think being asked once in a while why I don't eat meat is a far more palatable prospect than the side effects of hormone pills, or condescending doctors telling me it's all in my head, it's no big deal, or it's stress- or diet-related. a doctor once told me that my intestinal cramps were only so bad because I don't eat enough fiber. HELLO PEOPLE. I EAT ONLY VEGETABLES AND LEGUMES.