How many years have you had a period?

[Python]

It is funny how we remember our first period like it was yesterday. I was 12 1/2, it was early evening (about 6.30pm) and I went over to my friend's house. She lived in a block of flats and while I was waiting for the elevator I felt something very warm and wet... No-one was around so I had a quick look and ran home faster than greased lightning. I was soooo excited about it. Kept thinking to myself "I am a WOMAN" LOL. AT 12 1/2...yeah right Never did get too much cramping except in the early days and was as regular as clockwork - including the PMS Things started going haywire about 7 years ago and got quite irregular. Now if I do get anything, if I blinked I'd miss it. I'm 50 now. I've had a few night sweats and that's really about it. Never been near my doc as I feel I don't need to (menopause is perfectly normal and natural) and wouldn't entertain the idea of HRT anyway - too much controversy about it.

Just one more thing to say on the subject:

Ladies. We do not get hot flushes/flashes...we get

POWER SURGES

[RoadRaven]

You know... I am amazed at how many of you remember your first period so well.

I remember my daughter's first - she was at school! Fortunately an understanding teacher was available, and I had already pre-warned daughter and made sure she had pads ready "just in case" in her school bag. She was nearly 14, now 19, she gets hers every 21 days - you could almost set a clock by her.

I remember when my best friend got hers at 11, and I was so jealous.

But mine? I don't recall... I got mine around 12 I think, def before I was 13 anyways. No recollection of where I was, or my response to it.

Was on 'the pill' from age 14 til 20, when I got married.
Used pregnancy and breast feeding to space babies. After number 5, I had my tubes "clipped" (like miniature pegs apparently).

Now nearly 42 and I have two days of heavy bleeding and significant cramps (as in, emptying of mooncup needed every 3/4 hour or so and going to bed/sleep with a towel between my legs!) and 3 days around those of lighter bleeding. On a 29-30 day cycle.

I'm leery of menopause - I'd love to be free of my period, but worry about it upsetting my, erm, "natural responses" and that interferring with sex!

[Kitsune06]

OK. I know I was all about the natural blah-blah in october last year, but I'm getting kinda sick of the whole cramping, bleeding thing taking me off my bike. The 2nd or 3rd days always get me. I'm not so bad if I can take some ibuprophen and take it easy, but if I try riding hard or fast, it just kills me. The whole cramping-so-badly-you-sweat, nauseous, panting thing. oh, agony.
Stupid diva cup. It's great for those 'just in case' days, when you're a little irregular and not sure when you'll start, and those 'ok it's the light-bleedin' last 3-4 days of my period' because you don't get all dried out, etc... but the 2-3 days when you're having Carrie flashbacks every time you head to the privy, you're emptying it every hour or so. Geez! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! ARRRRGGGHHHH
...oh and I'm sick of PMS. My stress doll at work got his head torn off this morning. With teeth. *sigh*

But yeah, the whole hysterectomy/menopause thing sounds great except for the whole decreased sex drive thing.

[RoadRaven]

OK. I know I was all about the natural blah-blah in october last year, but I'm getting kinda sick of the whole cramping, bleeding thing taking me off my bike. The 2nd or 3rd days always get me. I'm not so bad if I can take some ibuprophen and take it easy, but if I try riding hard or fast, it just kills me.

LOL Kit - I hear ya! I have found if I dose up on panadeine (thats the panadol with added coedine) before a ride, and then go out and "make" myself (a mission in itself) do a really hard but short ride - like hills, or an ATT, then the mess may be bigger, but I seem to fast-track the 'heavy' part of the cycle.

But yeah, the whole hysterectomy/menopause thing sounds great except for the whole decreased sex drive thing.

OMG - I wasn't thinking/aware of DECREASED sex drive!!! Tell me its not true! I was just bothered by decreasing, erm... lubrication... (thank goodness this is a women's forum).

[Kitsune06]

That's what lube is for. (I don't want to go 'too far' but I want to still try to be informative...) Sea Buckthorn and damiana are good for 'natural' lubricity, but there are very good artificial ones out there, too. (if anyone needs suggestions, they can pm me privately... )

but as far as I know, nothing will jumpstart the drive but hormones...

When I was on Depo, nothing touched me. Nothing. I was asexual as far as I was concerned. sex was like an extended push-up session. I never want to repeat that.

[RoadRaven]

But Kit! I don't want to use/buy lube!
I dont wanna go there... for a start I am waaaaay too lazy!
I like the convenience of what I have!

OK... enough of this... gonna sign off and jump on the spin bike - its just coming up 6am and I gotta get an hour in before I go wake the boys for school!

Have a great ... evening???

Rave

[Aquila]

12 maybe? Ugh, cramps, and doctors saying "just go take a hot bath" when I was living in a boarding house with no bath, and need to work and such.

A couple years ago I went on the pill for continuous use, and I wish I'd done it years ago (or more!). No cramps, no pms, no wasting 10% of my life or more feeling semi-crappy! I travel wherever, do whatever, and just don't have to plan to feel semi-crappy. It's the best!

Some folks have asked questions about the continous use issue, so I'll share a web-site if that's okay. It's a blog by an ob/gyn, and the right hand side has lots of links to birth control and continous use information. http://thewelltimedperiod.blogspot.com/

From what I've read, the bleeding while you're "on" the pill but in the off week is actually a reaction to estrogen withdrawal, and not at all like a regular period. On the pill, there's no build up of uterine lining to support a potential pregnancy, so there's no need to shed any lining.

Back in the 50s, the pill was invented for women with painful periods, and then everyone figured out, hey, no ovulation=no pregnancy, and suddenly everyone was using it. But the folks who'd invented it thought that women would be a lot more comfortable with the whole thing if they had a fake period, so they did the formulations with a built in week off from estrogen.

But there's no NEED to have a fake bleed.

If you find a pill formulation that works well for you, you can probably work with your doctor to do continuous use if you want; low dose formulations work great, but it's a matter of finding the right one for an individual woman.

[SouthernBelle]

I started when I was 12, on the night of my first dance!

The cool thing was that for many years I did not have periods during the summer. Isn't that weird?

Had a hysterectomy at 43. Weaned off of hormones a couple or 3 years later. I've only had one hot flash ever. The night after my surgery.

Dryness is a definite issue though.

[Jolt]

OK. I know I was all about the natural blah-blah in october last year, but I'm getting kinda sick of the whole cramping, bleeding thing taking me off my bike. The 2nd or 3rd days always get me. I'm not so bad if I can take some ibuprophen and take it easy, but if I try riding hard or fast, it just kills me. The whole cramping-so-badly-you-sweat, nauseous, panting thing. oh, agony.

Yeah, cramps are the pits! I am usually rather miserable the first day of my period b/c of the cramps--I take naproxen sodium which helps some but definitely doesn't get rid of them. Sounds like yours are worse though, and I have a rather light flow, so I really shouldn't complain. Funny thing is, I started having periods when I was almost 13 and never cramped until I was 14 and taking the pill to regulate my cycle (had an incident where I started bleeding 2 weeks after the last period, and bled so heavily I ended up in the hospital and almost had to get a transfusion, so they put me on the pill for six months to get things back on track). When I started on that, I started having cramps, and continued to get them after stopping. BTW, I am "all about the whole natural thing"--I just think our bodies are designed to work a certain way for a reason, and messing with it to skip periods may turn out to have some unwanted effects. Just doesn't seem healthy to me. I know that when I was on the pill for those few months it sent my cholesterol levels through the roof (when I had it checked at my physical that year it was 240, and that was due to high LDL) and raised my blood pressure as well. I'm just leery of messing with the function of the normal body like that, even though the cramps etc. are a drag!

[sgtiger]

I read somewhere that, on average, women who start earlier also stop later, while those who start later will stop earlier, which makes no sense to me...

EEK! If this is true, mine will be around a while. <sigh> It's bad enough that I started early. At the ripe old age of nine, BTW. And it doesn't help knowing that my maternal grandmother went into menopause late. She wasn't perimenopausal until her very late fifties and it took a couple of years for her menses to stop altogether. When she was pregnant with my mom's youngest sister in her early fifties she thought she was menopausal then. She even went to go see her doc and he didn't bother giving her a pregnancy test because of her age. She didn't realize she was with child until she was six months gone! I just can't believe it took her that long to figure it out when she had experienced it six times before.

[surgtech1956]

I started at 12 1/2 yrs and stopped around 45 yrs old. Never took any hormones. I still have some 'power surges' but they're not that bad. When I first started with the hot flashes, they were bad - bearable, but the worse thing for me is not sleeping well. The last year I'm bad to sleeping like a baby.

[bmccasland]

Original topic.... I started when I was 12 1/2 or 13 - at a Girl Scout camp-out as I recall. Did two 5-yr stints of being on the pill with approximatly 5 yrs off between. Two pregnancies, but no kids. Premenopausal in my early 40's, last period when I was 44.5, am now 47. Have been on HRT for 4 years, and according to my Dr. will be on it for one more year. I requested the HRT due to the hot flashes, night sweats cycles during the night, I just could NOT sleep. Get hot, kick covers off, wake up freezing, pull covers back, rearrange kitties, repeat 4 or 5 times during the night. GIVE ME MEDICATION!!!! I see my Gynocologist next month (3 weeks to get a routine well woman checkup!!!).

Both my grandmothers had early menopause, hard to say about my Mom. She had a hysterectomy when she was in her mid-30, am not sure why (but not Cancer), and nearly died on the table. She did survive the surgery.

(this reads really concise, to the point. and dry. the facts, just the facts...)

[Crankin]

Started at age 11.5 (June 1964) and I had my last one on June 5, 2002, at age 48. I had horrible PMS, mostly physical, my whole life, along with cramps and heavier bleeding the first 2 days. I was on the Pill from age 17 to 25, stopped because of all kinds of weird symptoms. I had 3 pregnancies, two kids in a short time frame, after which the periods got a bit better, until I began having perimenopause symptoms around age 37, getting progressively worse in my early forties. In fact I had a couple of years where i didn't have my period for 3-4 months and felt like i was going to explode. I have exercised my whole adult life, since about 25 and always eaten a healthy diet, and i am not overweight. When I was around 46 I went for almost a year without a period, but then I had them irregularly until the last one at 49. During that time, I did start gaining weight and started cycling because what I was doing was obviously not working.
Didn't ever consider HRT. I had hot flashes on and off for a long time 5-6 years, but nothing I couldn't live with. I just took a drink of cool water from my water bottle at work! A bit of insomnia, but I have always been a poor sleeper. My hot flashes stopped last summer, but i started taking Evista for osteopeinia in January and that has brought them back (but not even as bad as they were before). I am 53 now and I definitely think all of the cycling helped me through some of the perimenopausal stuff. The worst noticeable side effect was the lack of uh, lubrication that was mentioned. It was not lack of desire, so to you younger people, don't think that automatically happens! I now have an E-string, which is like a birth control device that stays in for 3 months at a time and supplies a super low dose of local estrogen to cure the problem. My gyn said that even cancer patients are allowed to use it. Not only did it cure the problem, but it also made cycling a bit easier (I had suspected that part of my seat issues were really physical ones related to menopause). So, I think i have had it fairly easy compared to some and i was frankly, very happy to get rid of my periods. I had to plan my whole life around them for 37 years. I had it for every school dance, vacation, and special occaison I can think of.