what did you do?: embarrassing biological accidents

[shootingstar]

Sigh. Much to my horror, I discovered this morning I had blood stained the crotch of my medium khaki green casual pants and I had probably been walking around in the office, possible in view of 3..or more employees for over 1 hr.

Honest at my age (post 50), it was not expected. So all I could do was wrap my cycling jacket around my waist, take short commuter train to a pharmacy and buy some feminine "papers" /protection.. In the end, I changed into my lycra cycling skort and cycling mtb shoes. That was my office business wear for the rest of the day.

Fortunately I had no meetings..

What did you do when you had accidental stains from periods, etc. that you discovered later..? There times I fervently wished that biologically being a woman wasn't such a hassle that it required vigilance..

[emily_in_nc]

I had this happen at work once, in the morning. Horrifying! I actually drove to a nearby mall and bought a new pair of jeans. The mall was much closer than my house, so was the lesser of two evils.

Another time, I spilled a full cup of coffee all over my pants. At this point, we lived much closer to my office, so I drove home and changed.

After that, I finally wised up and kept an extra pair of khakis in my office!

[shootingstar]

Yes, beginning to wonder if I can salvage this favourite pair of casual pants. It's one of a kind in cut /design.

One more convenience of actually having an extra set of clothing at the office..even if it's only my cycling clothing that I commuted to work in.

Another time, it wasn't staining anything...it was literally forgetting to pack my business slacks/office pants in my pannier. So I wore my cycling shorts the whole day at the office. I had no choice: I was working in an surburban location at a....construction site where employees couldn't sometimes get off site for several hrs. because the roads leading into the site were blocked by trucks and machinery that were used to do site construction/digging/paving.

[ny biker]

Last month (a few weeks before turning 50) I had a similar surprise at work. Fortunately I was wearing dark jeans and they didn't stain all the way through. I was able to get them clean by pre-treating them.

I had originally planned to wear white pants that day, but fortunately changed my mind at the last minute.

The thing is that for most of my life I've had some kind of warning. For years I would get cramps right before getting my period. In recent years I started to get hot flashes for a week or so before it started. But apparently I can't count on any advance notice anymore.

[Helene2013]

Nothing like that yet - staining clothes at work or in public, but it was close a few times. But then I always wear a mini pad so it helped. I work in a building on a 28th floor where there is a mall on main level. So worst case I could go grab a pair at Reitmans or hit the drugstore. But I always have in a drawer of my work desk some supplies (pads, tampons, deodorant, etc.) I hate being caught off guard.

I haven't had mine in 2-3 months now. The joy of being 50! But I cannot stand the hot flashes, which of course start mostly as soon as I hit the bed. So sleeping with fan facing me, air conditionning on higher, etc. I think I prefer my periods to the night "heat".

[AppleTree]

Sigh. Much to my horror, I discovered this morning I had blood stained the crotch of my medium khaki green casual pants and I had probably been walking around in the office, possible in view of 3..or more employees for over 1 hr.

Honest at my age (post 50), it was not expected. So all I could do was wrap my cycling jacket around my waist, take short commuter train to a pharmacy and buy some feminine "papers" /protection.. In the end, I changed into my lycra cycling skort and cycling mtb shoes. That was my office business wear for the rest of the day.

Fortunately I had no meetings..

What did you do when you had accidental stains from periods, etc. that you discovered later..? There times I fervently wished that biologically being a woman wasn't such a hassle that it required vigilance..

You poor girl...that is one of the worst/most embarrassing things that I can think of happening... Like Emily, that only happened to me one time - at work- at lunch hour - in a crowded cafeteria. I "felt" something was wrong and sure enough, to my horror and dismay. I am not sure anyone noticed or not. I am pretending that no one did. I had already ordered a sandwich, but I walked out as fast as possible and drove home (10 minutes away, thankfully) and changed...oh and I was wearing WHITE pants too ... what a poor choice during the last months right before menopause, I was having a terrible, terrible time with bleeding then, it was scary. I WISH I had known then about the luna cup, etc, discovered that a bit later on vacation, and I swear that thing saved my sanity, honest to pete.

You should be able to salvage those, soak in cool water and detergent and then wash, the new detergents now are pretty good.

[emily_in_nc]

It is horrible when this happens, and almost as bad when you see it happen to someone else.

One day in yoga, the instructor (who was unfortunately wearing light tan yoga pants that day, not black, d'oh!) started bleeding. I am sure that many people noticed it because of the positions she was in. I was towards the back and didn't know what to do. Finally, as she went around correcting people's posture, the gal one row in front of me had a chance to whisper to her "you're bleeding". She was like "I am?!" I guess she didn't even feel it. Amazingly, she continued teaching, and the bleeding never got any worse; it was about 1" around. She was awfully brave to continue on...especially with men in the class too. I'd have been SO outta there!

Helene, I have night-time hot flashes too. Fans and sleeping with the A/C turned down some do help. I have also found that black cohosh and soy help me. When I was taking both of them, I had no flashes for a couple of months. Then I ran out of the soy (as I would only take the non-gmo type) and gradually started having a few flashes again. I'm going to get some more non-gmo. Still much prefer them to the hassle and worries of a period as mine was heavy for most of my life and really made life complicated at times!

[Crankin]

I never had anything like that happen while riding, and I started riding about a year or two before my periods stopped. In the year before that, I had 2 "explosive" incidents, one on the way out of the theatre, on a Sunday, in downtown Boston. I just told DH to speed home! Frankly, I never thought about it when riding, as it was not the norm for me, just horrible PMS, which did affect my riding. Sure, I had flashes on and off for like 10 years, both before and after menopause, but I just ignored it. I tried the black cohash, it did nothing, so if it happened at work, I just drank lots of water. and did controlled breathing. We've always had a ceiling fan in our bedroom, so that helped, too.
I wouldn't get a white saddle, because with me, it would be dirty in like 5 seconds.

[shootingstar]

"Explosive" menstrual discharges....lol. A crime scene result.. Actually this incident has been approx. the 4th incident in my life. First time, I was a teenager and wore white tights..

[Eden]

You might be able to save your pants - test this out first on an inside seam, because it has a high possibility of bleaching out not only the blood, but the color of the pants too… but hydrogen peroxide is an incredible blood remover. I think if the pants are all cotton you'll have better luck with this not harming the cloth - synthetics are more likely to bleach out.

[AppleTree]

Whew, GLC - what a story. That "gushing" feeling is so scary. The things we women suffer through.

And wrapping the tampons in TP isn't without incident either. If you have a dog with a strong sense of smell...and you leave the door to the bathroom open. Well, you can guess the rest of that story. LOL.

[emily_in_nc]

And wrapping the tampons in TP isn't without incident either. If you have a dog with a strong sense of smell...and you leave the door to the bathroom open. Well, you can guess the rest of that story. LOL.

I hear ya! And don't all dogs have a strong sense of smell...nose brains? Fortunately there were no pets of any sort in my grandparents' house -- whew!

[GLC1968]

Yeah, we switched to covered trash in the bathrooms when we bought a house with a septic system and I stopped flushing tampons. Dogs can be gross!

Funny story though - our septic system backed up and we had it pumped and then the lines snaked and the culprit was a tampon. I was adamant that in the 5 years we'd lived in the house, I'd NEVER flushed one. The septic guy and my husband clearly didn't believe me.

Two days later I realized that our female college-aged farm sitter had stayed at our place the previous weekend. I was vindicated!!! ;-)

[lauraelmore1033]

I once had a gusher right on the cream colored sofa of my Husband's grandmother during a big family dinner get-together. I didn't even know my period was starting, but when I got up because we were finally leaving, all the women in the room gasped at the crimson ellipse I left on the couch. Dh's aunt is a real cool lady and she snapped into action, whisking the offending cushion away and taking me to the bathroom and finding me some pads. That grandma died a long time ago, but she never let me live it down. Every time I saw her she would tell me not to worry about the fact that I could have ruined her beautiful couch, because the cushions had slip covers and the cleaners were able to get the stain out. I don't really miss that lady. Or my uterus...

[malkin]

Use HYDROGEN PEROXIDE to get blood out of fabric!

I once left blood on an airplane seat. It was a horrible flight with delays at take off and arrival. I just left the blanket on top of it, tied my sweater around my waist and proceeded to the nearest restroom. I did feel bad for the next passenger. ew.