How many years have you had a period?

[suzieqtwa]

They told me it wasn't a period I was having ,and I couldn't get pregnant...She called it a discharge (which it is anyway ,I guess). I really don't know ,but given the choice of taking estrogen, or dealing with hot flashes ,ill take the low dose of estrogen. She said ,taking the 2 kinds of hormones I was taking, was making the period happen.

[Grog]

Since sometime when I was 13 (now 28), and pretty regularly ever since, having been on the pill for the most part since I've been... hum, 17 or 18 years old. Had a 2-year break at some point. I just can't mentally live with the slight risk of other methods failing, even if I hate myself for throwing so much estrogens in streams and lakes. (It creates an over-feminized pool of fish and lots of problem for these creatures and the environment in general, hence for us all.) I'm hoping to stop that within the next 2 to 5 years to see what the union of DP's genes and mine look like.

In the meantime, my periods have always been SUPER light. I always thought it went with the small breasts, but it might have nothing to do with it!

[hellosunshine]

i started at 15 and stopped at 16!!!!prob as due to weight loss and never started,even when i go on the pill i dont bleed which is ace BUT if im moody it means its part of my personality!i have no scape goat of "time of the month"..how will i know when the menopause hits?????39 now,40 next march,cant wait

[Kimmyt]

I luuuuuuuurve my period.

I guess I'm one of the few.

Hey, when you're sexually active and don't want to get pregnant, even if you're on the pill, those few days of bleeding are a LIFESAVER. I am the happiest girl ever on the first day of mine every month.

Celebrate with red wine and a fancy dinner!

[Tuckervill]

Yes, Kimmy, getting that period every month was a happy day...until that vasectomy, which was an even happier day!

A couple of things have been going through my head while I read this thread.

My aunt and my mother both said they went off HRT a few years after menopause and they never had hot flashes again.

My two aunts and my grandmother on my dad's side got to keep all their parts all the way through menopause, and that's my goal, too. My grandmother was 100 when she died last year. One of my aunts died, too, at age 70, of cancerous things, but she was a sun worshipper and a smoker, and I'm not. I want to be like my grandmother. Here's hoping!

Overweight causes too much estrogen to be stored in your body, so if you're overweight and having problems with your periods, (polycystic ovaries, for instance), getting rid of lots of weight will help.

I never could take the pill. I've always thought my mother using the high-dose pills of the '60s (for 20 years after I was born in 62) is what led to her fibroids causing heavy bleeding and eventually hysterectomy. Now I don't think that any more, but it still can't be groovy-cool to skip periods for entire years. I have a fibroid that makes it really hard to pass a curette into my cervix for a biopsy (found that out the hard way in August). So, even though I've never smoked, I may not avoid troublesome fibroids as I'd hoped.

I'm looking ahead now to The Pause and I hope to handle all the symptoms gracefully and with as little intervention as possible. Exercise, diet, weight loss, meditation...it's why I took up cyling. I think it's starting already but others think it's too early. My mother was 45 when she had her uterus removed for bleeding due to fibroids...but I learned recently that fibroids reduce down after menopause (no estrogen to feed them)....I'm not giving in as easily as she did.

I've been bleeding since I was 14. I'm 44. That's 30 years. I'm ready for it to end, but not before I get the weight off.
Karen

[CyclChyk]

KIT - altho I hate having it, I agree with you. The whole period thing is a cleaning out of our goodies right? So if we don't have it, its not being cleaned?? Maybe I am just naive in this area cuz I never wanted kids so pretty much didn't care how it all worked, but I can't imagine never having one is a good thing. (Prior to menopause I mean).

[mimitabby]

I, too, have a goal of going out with all the parts I came in with. I have lost two wisdom teeth, but I have all the rest of my parts. I tried hormone therapy for
perimenopause symptoms, but it made it WORSE..

When men talk to me about their wives turning into witches, monsters, etc
(mind you, i work with men not women) I like to tell them that i have been going through the change too, right next to them, and the only thing they could have noticed with me was that i often have trouble guessing whether it is hot or cold in here.

[mary9761]

Overweight causes too much estrogen to be stored in your body, so if you're overweight and having problems with your periods, (polycystic ovaries, for instance), getting rid of lots of weight will help.


Karen

Ah but the catch 22 to PCOS is that it makes it difficult to lose and maintain weight loss so you have to fight harder to lose the weight to try to make the PCOS better to make it easier to lose the weight, etc, etc... not an excuse but PCOS isn't as simple as losing weight. I have had massive blood clots like others have described off an on all of my life as well. Turns out at one point I had polyps that needed to be removed and there's a chance the could return. I have had female problems ever since I BLOSSOMED so I think I'd be glad to be done completely. I told the doctor if I end up needing a hysterectomy to take it all since the ovaries aren't working right either. One of the last ultrasounds showed my left ovary nearly as big as my uterus if what I saw was correct. They could barely find my right ovary.

[pyxichick]

I used to think I didn't want to mess with my hormones, so I never took birth control pills. I just suffered with awful cramps, yucky IBS (in addition to my regular digestive issues) and crabby crabby moods. Somehow I never seemed to plan ahead properly when I had my period and always found myself out somewhere with friends or family having to say "uh, could we stop somewhere so I can get a tampon?" And it always overflowed because I bled so much.

Then my gastroenterologist suggested that I definitely not get pregnant because of the medication I was on. No problem, I don't want to have kids anyway. This, combined with my chronic anemia convinced me to finally go on the pill.

So at the age of 31, I went in to get a prescription and my (female) doctor says to me "you've never been on the pill before? How have you managed to not get pregnant?"

HUH?

Anyway, Seasonale is a girl's best friend. I don't miss the flow. I no longer care that it's "not natural" because the benefits make my life so much better.