Well, THAT explains a lot

[mamagotcha]

So this morning I started another HUGE bleed... after having a big one from about the 1-5 of March, after having little more than a few smudges over the entire last 12 months. I'd really thought I was past the bleed part of my cycle, but apparently not.

No fun but certainly explains the headaches, irritation, and total despair of this last week... a whole bunch of gnarly hormones compounded by the stress of moving. Other than really awful cramps, I expect today to go a lot better.

Sheesh. Great timing, body.

Comments

[essaying.livejournal.com]

Since I had the endometrial ablation, I still have cycles, just no bleeding. Which makes the whole thing even more confusing, since there's no physical evidence to explain the moods.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

All last year, I had what I thought of as ghost cycles, everything but the bleed (maybe a little pink mucus once in a while). No fun but at least predictable, and what I saw as a gradual winding-down of the system. This, however... this just ain't fair.

If this keeps up, I will definitely be going in for a tune-up.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Yeeeouch.

I sympathize. Have some chocolate.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

It might be worth a call to your health care provider - there are all sorts of dire warnings on the internet ;-) about post-menopausal bleeding. I don't know whether to believe any of them or not.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Well, since I'm still cycling (even though they were very mild cycles), I think I still qualify as perimenopausal, which means huge gushers are still not unexpected. But yes, I'm planning on heading in for the full workup fairly soon... this will just be another on a long checklist of "do I need to be worried about this?" I've already started. My doc is actually really great about these... we do the exam, we sit down and I go down the list, she makes suggestions and comments and recommendations for tests if needed, and I leave with a new list of how to deal with each thing. She allocates about an hour for this process, and I never feel rushed or cut off. Even though I know she hears all this day in, day out, she asks the right questions and makes me feel like she really gets where I'm coming from. So it's not at all the dread procedure it used to be... I truly look forward to spending time with her.

I don't think I've got anything too far out of whack, fortunately. It's just the last gasp of an old, tired, well-used uterus and her ovaries.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

We're clearly on the same track......

*hugs*

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I also have the weirdness in cycle length, interval, and strength of flow. Also the hormone stuff. There are days or weeks when I try not to speak to anyone because I am too angry, too mood-killing (depressed), too nervous, or just plain insensitive to anything beside whatever whirlwind of emotion is happening inside me.

I don't want to tell people afterward oh, that was just the hormones, because I want people to take me seriously and not dismiss me as "she's just PMSing" when maybe it's a time I have reason to be superangry or superelated. So I just avoid non-work-related conversation.

Do you think that the slowdown last year was more marked because you were nursing?

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Do you think that the slowdown last year was more marked because you were nursing?

Could be. I haven't met a lot of folks nursing through menopause. I did have a fairly regular cycle the year before, though, and last year was the Year of Hot Flashes, so I'm pretty sure it's not going to come back to the regular rhythm. It better not, anyway.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about how menopause happens, but i don't envy you. The transition seems tough. Good luck.