To collect all my menstrual stuff in a bottle?

[MOIST]

Just to see exactly how much there is lost?

I have a new cup so I'm a bit intrigued by it all. Does anyone else have a FemmyCycle? It's a shit name but it's a special 'low cervix' version for fat old people with a falling out uterus.

Anyway. Having taken to bleeding what feels like 4 litres every month I'd like to know how much it really is so propose a bit of a collection.

I think there's other stuff that comes out with the blood. So maybe the 2-3 tablespoons is just the blood and the rest is unspecified umm stuff

I recorded how much blood I was losing each month with my moon cup so I could tell my GP. When I looked at the NHS website to see how much was considered heavy I was worried as I was losing, on average, just over 75ml of blood each month. My GP wasn't alarmed at all* and said some women lose a lot more.

*He still referred me for a scan to check for PCO and endometriosis.

There was an episode of Embarassing bodies where 3 women measured their blood over the course of a period and talked about symptoms. One woman had what to her was a light-normal period but the Dr said the amount she was losing was on the cusp of worrying and she should see her gp. I remember being surprised as it seemed heavy but not massive. Yet another thing that young girls aren't taught. His are we supposed to know what's normal?

They also said afterwards that if your soaking x number of pads s day or more then you should see your go. I can't remember the x number but I'm sure you could google it. I think sanitary products are considered a good guide to blood loss - like using nappies to check babies' hydration.

Actually I think this is one of the bonuses of a cup, you can really see how much. I agree with pps. Measure the capacity and put a marker in about half way. But to be honest I would get to your gp - what you describe sounds like a lot.

Yuck! But still - do it in the interests of science! (and so I don't have to!). Please share results!

I remembered that the sex ed books all said that we lose 2-3 tablespoons every cycle

Seriously? I can lose that in 5 minutes!

I knew you lot would join me in my fascination. (Some of you anyway )

I know with a cup you can see the difference with the actual blood, chunks and clear mucous stuff. I'm thinking if I save it in a bottle the 2 separate out and I can measure how much of each.

I haven't actually got a bloody bottle though and am now going through the kitchen wondering what I can use {sorry}

Do it, OP - and report back, obviously.

Re: menstrual blood for gardening. I used to use the water from soaking my sanitary towels in to water my plant pots (no garden), but the rat in the stairwell seemed to have a taste for it - went chomping through the roots of my plants. Happened two months in a row so guessed it was no weird coincidence and have been sorrowfully pouring the bloody water down the toilet ever since!

I had a mooncup and on the second cycle (once I had worked out how to use it!) I measured the amounts lost and how often I was changing it.
The GP was amazed I was still holding down a full time job, it was about 150ml over 48-72 hr and that was only the amount i was emptying let alone all the leakage. I did feel ok and wasn't anaemic but was fed up.

Gynae referral and had partial hysterectomy, so wish I had done this 10 yrs earlier.
so thanks mooncup and to mums net for making me aware of them.

I was taught the two~three tablespoon things at school too and for years it cknfused the fuck out of me as it always looked so much more in the pad.

I started using a mooncup a few years ago and can fill it twice sometimes three times on my first two days, I started writing it down but forgot to keep it up over a whole period.

I know blood looks more than it actually is but three tablespoons has sounded low to me. Even the ads where they tip blue water looks like more than a few tablespoons.

I'd be def interested to know how you get on, if you can't find a bottle, tip your milk out and use that :)

I certainly wouldn't do it tbh.

I'm intrigued too.

I remembered that the sex ed books all said that we lose 2-3 tablespoons every cycle.

5-7 days of bleeding, 2 pads at a time. The above is definitely bullshit written by a man

The two or three tablespoon this is ANNOYING! Why do they tell us this? It is contradicted by my own observation and by lots of other people on this thread. It smacks of 'shut up you hysterical woman, it is ONLY a tiny amount!'

I've had bits of endometriosis tissue coming out recently which look quite horrifying.

I think I'll keep this thread as my log, if you lot are ok with that? My cycle averages 26 days, I'm early forties, on no contraceptives or medications, and period usually lasts for 3-4 days, 5 if you include light spotting towards the end.

1st cup: Wed: 16.00 13ml

The 2-3 tablespoons must be a myth. Tampons must absorb about a tablespoon and you change them every few hours.
Please find out as DH always quotes the crap about the 2-3 tablespoon thing we were taught at school, whenever I complain about my periods.

With the rest of you here on the 2-3 tablespoons and it being bloody confusing! What is all the other stuff, I can't recall ever being told.......

"I'm thinking if I save it in a bottle the 2 separate out and I can measure how much of each."
Okay, obviously what we all (well, not me at the moment since mine are too unpredictable) need to do is collect, store, then go out into our back gardens with a bottleful and a length of clothesline to make a hand-powered centrifuge. Then after measuring the various amounts, you can decant the useful stuff straight onto your begonias..........

No suggestions yet for what to say if the neighbours get nosey, or what to do if the rope/string breaks and a full bottleful sails over the fence to crash onto their extension/greenhouse/trampoline. Apart from you really should use a plastic bottle...................

13ml = 0.73 tablespoons already! You go girl! :-)

I'm following as intrigued....but what is the other stuff?

I am so going to add in a garden line centrifuge into my plan..

My periods becoming ridiculously heavy in my early 40's led to me being sent for a scan and being diagnosed with a football sized ovarian cyst. It was borderline.. not benign, not malignant. Had a hysterectomy at 41.

Wiki reckons it's 35ml and about half is blood. We shall see........

I have just returned from reading quite a few accounts from women who have passed their whole uterine lining in one go.

Apparently it's not that uncommon, but they were all pretty freaked out at the time.

My DM had very large fibroids and was loosing so much blood before her hysterectomy the consultant said she could die that way. Afterwards she paid a specialist cleaner to deal with her mattress who would normally work on suicide and crime scene clean up

Good lord. Your poor MIL

Just looking up menstrual flow volume, and according to this webpage:

www.cemcor.ubc.ca/resources/very-heavy-menstrual-flow

"That means it is normal to soak one to seven normal-sized pads or tampons (“sanitary products”) in a whole period. "

SEVEN!!! Using super-plus (or even super-plus-ultra), I can get through 4-5 a day on bad days (including overnight). Changing every 3-4 hours is usually bad enough. So if you only soak through 7 in a whole period................

The references they give on this webpage are rather old (1966 & 1971):
Hallberg L. Menstrual blood loss. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1966; 45:320.
Cole SK Sources of variation in menstrual blood loss. J Obstet Gynaecol Br Commonw 1971; 78:933.

From my anecdotal experience, only if you soak through the largest in less than an hour or two will anyone think that is infeasibly heavy flow. If you can go out, get the bus, see a film, and change again when you get home, you're lucky.

If these are the nonsense figures being hawked around, no wonder about the tampon tax, they're convinced we should all be able to make a box of 16 last two months.......................

Or perhaps means I have had menorrhagia my whole menstrual life, and no one ever told me. Granted, the only reliable comparison I have at the moment is the missus, but she seems to get through a similar number to me. SEVEN, the whole period! I don't believe it!

I would find that interesting to know.
I think the "other stuff" is the uterine lining for the egg to implant in.

I would have considered 7 a day to be a little on the heavy side.

Used to be given a pack of 20 super ones, and really had to eek them out the whole 10 days........... I was so glad when I could buy my own and change them to feel comfortable.