help! need advice for doing 585 mile ride during menstruation

[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.

[Deanna]

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.

[alison_in_oh]

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.

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.

[Bike Goddess]

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 )

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

[CorsairMac]

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!

[SnappyPix]

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.

[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?

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!!!

[Grog]

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??

[alison_in_oh]

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?

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

[Trek420]

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?"

[CorsairMac]

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!!!

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.

[singletrackmind]

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!

[MightyMitre]

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 )

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.

[CorsairMac]

(((((((((((((((((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

[MightyMitre]

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