Ever heard of mittelschmerz?
As you can see*, the marks on my neck have gone down considerably over the last 24 hours. There's one area that I think is actually blistering though, which is kinda worrying, but it's all okay. If you think this is bad, you should compare it to the photos we took yesterday immediately after the event. The marks on my arm are exactly the same - its some under the skin bleeding that probably wont budge for about a week.
Today has been a very bad day. I woke to my alarm at 8 and the moment I moved I became aware of rather painful cramping in my abdomen. A little worrying, as it's currently mid-cycle for me so I shouldn't be having period cramps right now. I think I have mentioned it before. I have since then done a lot of reading on the Internet (sometimes a bad thing to do when you're trying to find out about medical issues, there's always a lot of horror stories to wade through and ignore...) and found out that cramping can occur mid-cycle with the onset of ovulation. It's called mittelschmerz, which is literally German for "middle pain". There's a lot of theories about why women feel pain mid-cycle. There's tones of articles about the woman actually feeling the egg bursting from the ovary, but personally I think that's rubbish. How can you feel such a small thing? I think that, as (for me, at least) it feels exactly the same as period cramps, it's probably exactly the same thing - cramps. And very painful ones at that.
So when I woke this morning, I recognised the cramping and decided to ignore it as it was a rather ordinary feeling. Until about half 9. Then it got painful. I remember being about 12 years old, crying my eyes out because of the pain, and my mother telling me that period pains don't reduce you to tears. Well, it did this morning. I went and all but fainted back into bed. By 10, it was literally unbearable. I have never had it so bad. All I could do was pop an ibuprofen - which didn't touch the pain for a few hours btw - curl up and cry myself back to sleep. I had to concentrate really hard to text a friend to tell her I wasn't coming to the day's only lecture, and to ask Sean to pick up more painkillers on his way home. Then I slept. Right up until a flatmate next door woke me up by being too loud. The time was suddenly gone 2 and the pain was still there but a lot better, and I was hungry (a good sign!). Some toast made me feel better, and it was back to bed - I was too exhausted to even contemplate studying.
As I lay down my mind wondered. Long gone memories of the time Before The Pill surfaced. I started my periods at the tender age of 10. By age 12 I knew the cycles like clockwork - Two weeks off, one week on. That week on I used to absolutely dread. It'd be painful and heavy, and many trousers, skirts, bedsheets and pants were thrown out because I didn't know how to manage the heavy bleeding and so the blood leaked all the time. My mum suggested tampons, but even the "super plus" ones were leaking after an hour or so. I hated it. With time it lessened a little and I became better at managing that time of the month. My moods were up and down all the time. When I was 16 I was taken to the family planning clinic (FPC) because Sean and I had had too many accidents with condoms. And you know the rest of the story. The pill made my periods lighter, but it had other problems. And I am now on the coil. I can't help but blame it for the crippling pain I experienced this morning. But if I go and have it taken out, what options are left? Hormone options are a no-no. I'm too young (pfft!) to rely on just condoms or the cap. Natural planning is out of the question. And, with the way our realationship is going, abstinence did not even enter my mind before finding those links just now. There's nowhere else to go.
Maybe I should have my baby now. Hormones balance out after giving birth and, so I'm told, periods get less painful and also the coil would then be a 'nicer' option for me because my uterus wouldn't be so stretched around it. I can't help but feel very disappointed at the moment. Surely I can't be the only woman in the world that contraception doesn't agree with?
*Image removed
5 comments:
My former slave when she was a child had very similiar iregular and heavy menstration. As she got older, much like you they got better until she was "regulated" and not so heavy. however after she gave birth to my first son, she had a lot of problems again. She tried everything and nothing worked.
She was in tears all the time from it and I couldn't have fealt worse. Dr's couldn't explain it and nothing worked. Until... she try the Depoprevera shot. That seemed to cure everything. Even now every 3 months she goes and gets a shot. After the shot she doesn't get another period again until she has to get her next shot. If the doctor visits are timed correctly, she never has a cycle.
She still gets some minor cramping at times, but nothing like it was for while. Not sure if this information is any help, but perhaps, so I shared.
Thanks for your comment. I used depoprevera for over 18 months and for a long time it sorted everything out. After a year though my periods became screwed and could last for up to three weeks. The doctors at the FPC have now told me to forget any hormonal contraceptives - pills, injections, implants and so on - as the side effects for me seem to all be the same. Thanks for your concern though, I'm sure everything will be sorted out in the end :)
My body and hormonal contraceptives sometimes don't play nicely together, either. (Sometimes it's OK, but then it usually starts not being OK after I've been on them a while.) I'm also allergice to nonoxynol-9, the spermicide on condoms, and have a bad reaction to latex (but even non-latex condoms, with the spermicide, bother me). Here in the States, we have a contraceptive film, like a little patch of cling wrap, that you fold up and insert in your cervix, up to three hours before intercourse. It can be a little disruptive, but no moreso than a condom, and because it lasts for three hours, you can get a little lead time on it. It tastes pretty yucky, though, so you'd want to put it in before oral sex, and not go down on him after he'd been in you. The little square dissolves nicely and not ookily, and though it's nonoxynol-9, because it's up inside me, it doesn't irritate the delicate outer bits like condoms with spermicide do. I don't use anything now (we're trying for another, and I'm old enough that I'm not as fertile as I used to be), but when I had to have something, that's what I used. Do you guys have anything like that there?
About childbirth and period pain: I've been pregnant six times and had three kids, and my periods are more painful now than they were when I was younger, and I'm more prone to PMS now. I'm not a big fan of telling horror stories, because that's just a shitty thing to do, but even after your hormones find a new balance when you've had a baby or three, that isn't a guarantee that the hormonal changes will be for the better. I also used to have regular periods, like clockwork, and while they're still semi-regular, my cycle length varies and sometimes my period will pop up and surprise me now, whereas it never did when I was younger. Kids are awesome, but they're not a guarantee that your body will start behaving. It might happen, but it might not, too.
Finally, about the pain you felt today, I get the ovulation pain, too. But it's low-level ache and tension, like cramps. I did once have a sharp, debilitating pain, almost felt like really severe gas, that had me crying and just unable to function. I went to the hospital, afraid it was appendicitis, but it was a combination of a small kidney stone passing and a ruptured ovarian cyst. Neither has recurred (and my appendix finally died while I was pregnant with my youngest, last year), but a sharp pain might be something entirely different from the ovulation pain. By the way, I was completely fine. The kidney stone passed, and may or may not have been what was causing the pain. The more likely thing with the pain was probably the ovarian cyst, which is pretty common, and usually, aside from the pain, isn't a serious problem. It, too, passed within hours of starting, with no ill after-effects.
Sorry to have written a novella in your comments! ; )
oops - you'd NOT want to put it in before oral sex. Preview is my friend! : )
Orchid, it's funny you should mention the contraceptive film. I hadn't heard of it until yesterday, when it came up in an old episode of CSI and proved that the suspect wasn't a rapist. I have not come across it in the UK - nethier in contraception lessons at school nor when the FPC were explaining my remaining choices to me. It isn't in their "explaining contraception choices" leaflet ethier, so I don't know if its even avaliable in the UK. I'll certinaly be looking into it if the doctor advices taking out my coil tomorrow (yikes! It hurt enough when they put it in!)
Don't worry about your novella babe, it's nice to know people care and it prompts me to write and open up more. It also gives me an insight into how other women cope - so write away! xxx
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