help! need advice for doing 585 mile ride during menstruation

Can you please give me some advice? I'm a total newbie, and will be riding the Aidslifecycle ride (585 miles over 7 days) in June. Unfortunately, I'll be having my period at the same time! Can you give me some ideas how other women handle...
1. Have you heard of any drug a doctor could give to postpone menstruation?
2. I've heard so many horror stories about people ending up in the med tent with saddle sores. What do women do about wearing panties under their bike shorts?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

At the time of my honeymoon, my doctor told me it was possible to alter the schedule of birth control pills to help with the time of my period. Fortunately, it was not necessary, but it might be an option.

I get horrible rubbing from just small rides with underwear under bike shorts so would not recommend it.

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Originally Posted by annerol

Can you please give me some advice? I'm a total newbie, and will be riding the Aidslifecycle ride (585 miles over 7 days) in June. Unfortunately, I'll be having my period at the same time! Can you give me some ideas how other women handle...
1. Have you heard of any drug a doctor could give to postpone menstruation?
2. I've heard so many horror stories about people ending up in the med tent with saddle sores. What do women do about wearing panties under their bike shorts?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

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Hm. Personally, I use a menstrual cup. It'd be a pretty straightforward issue for me. No panties necessary. (I'd definitely be worried about chafing with so many hours on the saddle!)

But if you're predicting your period that far in advance, I assume you use hormonal contraception of some sort? If your hormones involve a placebo week, talk to your doctor about skipping the placebo. You might end up with some spotting but nothing as messy as a full period.

Annerol- I'm doing the AIDS ride too! That makes 3 of us on this forum that I know are going. Great!

I wear pant liners under my shorts all the time. I have to use chamois butter, but its better than washing shorts every day.

Re menstrual- listen to the others for what to do- I'm past that (thank goodness :D )

Where are you located? NCAL, SCAL or someplace else?
I ask because we are setting up an AIDS training ride in the Napa Valley on May 8th :)

Annerol: type Diva and/or Keeper in the search box and check out some of the threads regarding menstrual cups. It sounds like that may be the best option for you as most of them will work for 8-12 hrs. My only suggestion would be, if you opt to go that route, buy the product NOW and get used to it now before you do the ride, that way it'll be normal and natural instead of yet 1 more thing to try and deal with. I don't wear anything under my shorts, it just Sounds uncomfortable not to mention the fact that it would be another thing to rub in the wrong place!

Annerol, just a little friendly word of caution - I've taken birth control pills to stop menstruation during a vacation - had the opposite effect on me - gave me a two-week cycle! Followed the doctor's instructions to the t. That's the thing about the female reproductive system - it's unreliable, unpredictable and usually unstoppable!
Would second the recommendations about the diva cup.

HI all,
I am so impressed with your quick repsonses. Just a few hours, and already I have news to help be feel a little better about this. I've never even heard of a menstrual cap. Is it something a doctor has to prescribe, or is it over the counter?

To BikeGoddess and the other AIDSlifecycle riders who responded, I'm in L.A. County (Torrance, actually).

I look forward to any additional reponses. Thanks again, you've all been GREAT!!!

Taking the pill continuously didn't do the trick for me either. I usually get really light periods and the time I tried that I was continuously menstruated for about 10 days.

What about tampons? Do they tend to cause chafing??

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Originally Posted by annerol

HI all,
I am so impressed with your quick repsonses. Just a few hours, and already I have news to help be feel a little better about this. I've never even heard of a menstrual cap. Is it something a doctor has to prescribe, or is it over the counter?

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There are several menstrual cups available. Check out thekeeper.com and divacup.com for examples. I got my DivaCup from lunapads.com.

Annerol-I'm doing the ride too! My second time riding. Many riders here have done the ride and other multi day rides, lots of good advice on TE (psst, don't tell...TE is sooooooo much better than the "official" Lifecycle board, oh go ahead, send them all over).

Re menstrual-listen to the others for what to do- I'm past that too, "back in the day" I was an OB user and never had a problem cycling with them but now might have tried other things.

ok, off to finish taxes, yeah, I'm baaad. And they owe me so why'd I wait? Next thread..."what are you getting with your refund?"

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Originally Posted by annerol

HI all,
Is it something a doctor has to prescribe, or is it over the counter?
I look forward to any additional reponses. Thanks again, you've all been GREAT!!!

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It is an OTC product. If it's something you're interested in but unsure of spending the money, there is a "local" product called Instead that you can buy at the grocery store. From the data I've been able to collect (tnx TE ladies), Instead doesn't work as long as the Diva or the Keeper, but since I'm almost done with this whole "singularly unique experience", the Instead works just fine for me. I wish I had known about these products waaaaaaay before I was in my 40s. *shakes head*
As is stated on some of the other threads, just don't get discouraged if it doesn't work right the first few times, it is something new and will take some getting used to.

I've had no problem with skipping the neutral week on the pill. For my wedding/mtb wedding vacation I did it a couple of months beforehand, thus moving the overall schedule up a week. I was on the regular pill, not the mini version, which does not work for me at all.
Of course, the talking to the doctor thing is important and this prattle is moot if not on the pill. You know, now they've got birth control that gives you a quarterly cycle. That I've never tried and know darned little about.

Have a great time! :)

I've done the same and skipped the neutral week of the pill on a number of different occasions and it worked fine for me - although I have to say I didn't feel great, sore boobs and felt quite bloated during the extra week. (Don't use oral contraception any more. Don't like all the chemicals :cool: )

I'd also recommend the Keeper or Diva cup and would echo what someone else said about getting it NOW and practising a few times. I've been using the Keeper for over 3 years and the only time I leaked was after leaving it too long when I knew I should have emptied it.

Having said that, as long as you've got dark shorts you can probably get away with a small amount of leak. If you rinse your shorts in cold water as soon as you shower/change they normally come clean pretty well.

As for knickers - have you ridden 'au natural' before? If not, why not give it a try - it's a lot more comfortable and you don't have any bunching or chafing - not to mention wear and tear. Padded shorts are made to take some punishment, but not knickers which I find can get messed up with chamois cream, sweat etc.

Hope this helped.

(((((((((((((((((MM))))))))))))))))))))) we were JUST asking about you hun!....hadn't seen you in awhile and you were sorely missed!! Welcome back!!

Corsair "has NOT a clue what MM just wrote on the thread" Mac

Hi there CosairMac! :) :) :)

Got kinda overwhelmed with so many new threads that have been popping up lately, so I thought I'd give everyone else a chance to contribute.

Well & dandy - BF now back from working away so been internetting less. Nice to see some new names on the board.

Liz

I'm so glad I found this forum. I've been so worried about my bike ride (I'm doing ALC4 and this is my first time!), worried about the training, the fundraising, and now I realize that I'm gonna probably have this stupid little female thing to worry about too... but you gals have all made me feel so much better about it all. Thank you so much for the advice. -Agatha (ALC4 #5292)

amondala "I'm so glad I found this forum. I've been so worried about my bike ride....the training, the fundraising, and now...I'm gonna probably have this stupid little female thing...too... but you gals...made me feel so much better..."

Welcome to TE! Can't help you much with the female thing, I'm past that but this is my 3rd ride (incl. crewed once) we have 3 other TE'ers on the ride, and many who've done it before, tons of century, touring and charity ride experience here. Ask away!

I've learned so much on this board, even about cycling ;-) :p

I've got to add my .02 to the discussion. I've had the seams in my underwear wear a huge 'ol hole in my backside on a long ride. In order to get home the next day, DH had to apply moleskin to the sensitive area. I was able to ride the next day, but taking it off was - to this unshaven wench - memorable.

Don't use underwear until you are off the bike.

Hmmm... this reminds me... I took a low-dose pill last year but not the three weeks cycle... I made the cycle shorter to alter the time I menstruated to avoid having heavy days on a ride my youngest had entered
That worked well...

I hope it's ok to resurrect this thread...

I have looked ahead on my calnedar and I see that I'm due for my period smack in the middle of the ALC ride in 2006 - and that means 3-4 days of misery and discomfort. :(
[I'm sure no one who knows me is surprised I am already worrying about this!]

I've read all the diva/keeper threads, and I'm just a little concerned about the porta-potty-total-lack-of-privacy scene - I can just see myself frantically fussing around with the keeper while long lines of cyclists tap their shoes in impatience!) - and then how to discreetly clean up?

So I'm thinking of trying menstrual manipulation - ideally, I'd just like to shift my cycle by about two weeks - then let it continue on its merry way, without interfering with the ride. It seems like shifting the cycle would be less disruptive overall than trying to skip it entirely, and I've got 9 cycles to get it figured out!

I have never used birth control, so I don't know much about the effects, except what I have read. Does anyone have any tips or relevant experience? I will of course be discussing this with my doc in the next couple of weeks, but any tips from you guys would be greatly appreciated. I'm also googling this issue, but, not surpisingly, there's not much out there...

Thanks

You're not on birth control and you know exactly when you will have your period in, like, a year's time? That is just so very far from my own experience. Heck, if it weren't for PMS I'd never know when I was due... :p :rolleyes:

a depo shot will eliminate your periods I think

if it were me, I'd buy a box of super plus tampons and box of baby wipes and not deal with a keeper in a porta potti situation. Porta pottie are some of the most disgusting things on earth most of the time.

irulan

Or use the Insteads which are disposable...maybe you can keep them in longer than tampons.

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Originally Posted by tlkiwi

You're not on birth control and you know exactly when you will have your period in, like, a year's time? That is just so very far from my own experience. Heck, if it weren't for PMS I'd never know when I was due...

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Ha! I just got tired of always being caught by surprise, and then thinking - oh - so THAT'S why I was so grouchy yesterday! So I've been tracking the dates in Outlook, and lo and behold, I'm as regular as clockwork.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

a depo shot will eliminate your periods I think

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I haven't seen much about the depo shot in my searching, and I don't know anything about it (I play for the "other team", so birth control has never been a pressing issue for me) Thanks for the suggestion - I'll add it to my research list...

If you have 9 months to adjust it, you'll be fine. My sister actually started the pill about 4 months before her wedding because she estimated she would be starting on their honeymoon. It turned out OK for her. Since you have never been on the pill, I would give yourself 2 months just for your body to adjust to the change (I became very irratable and had headaches the first month or two when I started but each person is different). So that leaves you 7 months to adjust which is more than enough time. Honestly, I wouldn't be concerned about skipping your period with the pill. My dr. actually said to do it for my wedding. I did it a few months ahead of time so my cycle was reset and I wouldn't have to play with it the month of the wedding. When I skipped, I didn't spot, had no sign of bloat etc, it was just like any other week. I'm not really sure how you could adjust your period with the pill without skipping the week. I know I accidentally ended my sugar pill week early by one day, so now my cycle is off one day. I guess you could take that route, but that would just take a really long time. I would recommend just skipping a week assuming your dr says it's ok a couple months prior the the ride.

If you do go this route, I would also recommend starting ASAP to get your body adjusted to the pill. Like I said, it took me 2 months to feel normal when I first started. It will vary for people, but it doesn't hurt to give yourself some extra time. Also, each pill can react differently, so you may or may not need to go through a trial stage before finding the right one.

I tried tracking dates for, like, three years before admitting defeat and ceasing to bother. As long as I can remember when the last one was I don't tend to get too surprised.

I have used the ultra-thin, extra-long, with-wings pads for riding at that time of the month. I just stick them right on to the chamois of my shorts. Works fine. I carry a couple extra pads in my rack trunk for long rides. With a wet wipe and a baggie for trash I can even make a pad change behind a bush along the road.

bikerz

one option is we change the dates of the ride?
:cool: :rolleyes: ;)

Trek-suddenly glad I did this ride after this was no longer an issue 420

as one who plays for the other team as well, I'm always kind of surprised when mine shows up...as someone else said "oh! that's why I felt cruddy yesterday"...although my friend IBS may have become my bell weather...I've decided already on the super tampons and a supply of wipes. I'll bring several pairs of skins to wear under my shorts as well.

I'm just not gonna let this bother me!

There's some kind of prescription a doctor can give you to bring on a period, too. If you can get it, you could take it a couple of weeks before the ride to get the period over with before it starts. Then it's just a one-time deal that doesn't have the long-term problems the pill can cause.

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Originally Posted by Wendy

There's some kind of prescription a doctor can give you to bring on a period, too. If you can get it, you could take it a couple of weeks before the ride to get the period over with before it starts. Then it's just a one-time deal that doesn't have the long-term problems the pill can cause.

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Thanks for the idea - I'll definitely ask my doctor about that too.

I already know (from painful experience) that riding the day before and the first 2 days of my cycle is pretty miserable. Plan A, I guess, would be to have the entire ride re-scheduled, as Trek so helpfully suggests ;) but since that *may* be difficult to arrange, I'll look into Wendy's suggestion, then the OC, and finally just "be prepared"!

I appreciate all the suggestions!

I'm just curious.

What is wrong with using a "super-plus absorbency" tampon and stopping every so often to switch it out?

I know that works for me... if I am on my period.

But with the Depo shot, I don't have one anymore. Unfortuantely though, as of next year, I will have to get on the pill (Depo can only be taken for 2 years due to bone loss).... and back to having a period again! BLAH!

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What is wrong with using a "super-plus absorbency" tampon and stopping every so often to switch it out?

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For me it's not so much the flow that's the problem, I just find the tampon extremely painful to ride with. Maybe my new saddle will help some, but it feels pretty uncomfortable internally. And that's been on short (35 mile) rides - I think the discomfort for 2-3 times that long would be pretty rough. (Am I a weeny? Probably so - but I feel like I'll have enough of a challenge riding the whole thing, that if I can avoid this added trouble, I'll be that much happier!)

I'm with you on that. I once went rowing with a tampon that didn't stay where it should have, and it was excruciating. I'll never even try on a bike, considering the potential extra contact.