(no subject)

[rivka]

My parents were diligent and responsible, plus I had two older sisters and an extensive reading habit. So, long before my first period arrived, I had a very good biological and practical understanding of what was involved.

But I can still remember, that first day, my feeling of outrage as the reality sunk in: "Really? Every month from now on, this?! Are you kidding me? What a lousy way to organize a species!"

Then, for eighteen years or so, it did happen every month, and it was just... normal. Inconvenient, but normal. It stopped when I was pregnant with Alex, but because I stopped nursing her so early it was back by four months postpartum. That wasn't long enough to lose my sense of "normal."

But Colin nurses like a fiend, and when my period arrived yesterday it was one month shy of two solid years since the previous one. And that one was one of only two or three that I had after I miscarried; then add in my second pregnancy as well.

So, at age 36, I find that I've lost my sense of "normal" again. I'm sitting here thinking "Are you kidding me with this? Why do we do this?! No, I know about the uterine lining, but really, people, what the hell?"

Comments

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Some time last year I was talking with your goddaughter about menopause, about how the hormones and mood swings were a little weird, but not as bad as adolescence, and how funny it was that the older women in my family hadn't ever talked with me about it. She got quiet for a moment, then said, "You mean it stops?"

"Yeah," I said. "After about thirty or forty years, it stops. It's called menopause. Didn't they tell you in sex ed?"

"It stops! Whoohoo!" Both fists in the air, and that looks pretty funny accessorized with a seatbelt. "Um. I guess they might have, when I wasn't listening."

Although I am sure you were listening, I am here to remind you that it does stop.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am trying to remember which book had a character come up with the definition "Menopause: A pause in which you reconsider men."

I figure I've got another twenty years to go. Jeez. Twenty years.

[mizchalmers.livejournal.com]

Obligatory plug for my IUD. I've had a Mirena since kid #2. Low-progesterone, so the hormone is just released into the tissue, not the bloodstream. I still get the hormonal changes, but counting the pregnancy, I haven't bled since early 2005.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

... omfg. I've had a tubal ligation, so I don't give a flip about the pregnancy, but the HORRIBLE STABBING PAIN OF DOOM for two frickin' days a month, plus assorted bleeding... I will have to talk to my doctor. Mirena. I'm writin' that down.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

Another plug for the Mirena. I've had about three "real" periods since September of 2005, due to pregnancy, extended nursing and Mirena. Nowadays, I get the mood changes, and some cramping and back pain, but no bleeding for going on 18 months. I've had it for 26 months. It did take a while to settle down, and I spotted for several months, but it was worth it! The only real periods I've had were between stopping pumping at 20 months post-partum, and getting the Mirena at 21 months PP, plus a couple of months to adjust and then taper down to nothing over 8-9 months.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Yet another plug for the Mirena. I haven't had a period since before I got pregnant with Thane, and other that light unpredictable spotting, I have 0 side effects. MYYV.

[juthwara.livejournal.com]

Oh lordy, twenty years. Somehow I had it in my mind that it would be more like 10-15, but I suspect that's because my mother had a hysterectomy in her mid-forties, so that was the age that was affixed in my young mind as when you stop menstruating. But yeesh, 20 seems more likely if it comes to a natural end for me.

The two years I had with no period on Mirena were fantastic, especially since I only had two post-partum periods with K, so it was more like three years with almost no bleeding. If only it hadn't killed my sex drive.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

I remember thinking, before I had sex ed, that once your period started, that was it, you bled for the rest of your life. Wow, was I glad to hear otherwise!