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 go through about four a day of the long plus ones. Can't use tampons any more.

So, all those of us who have clearly heavier than 'normal' periods - how much are you looking forward to being on the other side of menopause?!!!

Me? on a scale of 1-10 I'm looking at a 14!

Do your cycles synchronise Dyke? Or is that another menstrual myth?

2 to 3 tablespoons just has to be bullshit.

Mine have never been that light, and are absolute floods now that I am going through the perimenopause.

About 27 Blobby

Okay I'd like to suggest a less... gory way to measure this.

If you use pads, for example, place a clean pad on an accurate digital scale, set to zero, then replace with the used pad. Write down the weight in grams. Do this for each pad, tampon, or cup you use.

At the end of the period, add up the total number of grams. Now you've got the total weight of your blood loss.

If you'd rather have it in volume such as millilitres, go online and find a weight to volume calculator for blood.

If you then want to visualise it, pour a jug of water to that volume.

The other stuff is the thickened lining of your uterus, it breaks down and comes away each month if there's no egg implanted in it. Plus mucus etc. Blood is only a small part of it. Obviously the couple of tablespoons thing is a confusing message when the 'product' is called menstrual blood, even though it's not just blood.

The gore is part of the intrigue and fun,

Actually, having researched it, the density of blood is close enough to water for this purpose. So if you weigh your pads/tampons/cups/whatever and see 10g of blood, that's roughly equivalent to 10mls of blood or water.

I've had hysterectomy so all this nonsense is behind me now, but I'm interested in the results so marking my place.

I remember arguing with my guidance teacher who also taught sex ed, she too spouted the three tablespoons nonsense and I told her I lost that in the first half hour of my period! She told me I was exaggerating and couldn't possibly be losing more than that, as the BOOK said that three tablespoons was the norm and the book was right!

I take after my Mother unfortunately, who had microwave surgery to remove her womb lining due to extremely heavy periods. She would have to go into hospital for a blood transfusion after her periods. Luckily the microwave surgery stopped her having periods and brought on early menopause.

My period is not as heavy now as it was when I was younger but then I suspect I am perimenopause. Even still though I have very heavy blood loss in the first 24 hours and I am left extremely weak and tired afterwards. I tend to try to eat iron rich food at the end of my period!

I am totally interested in how much you collect op! All in the name of science of course 😁

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

This was SEVEN for the WHOLE period! 1-7 being normal for the whole period. It later gets amended to 9-12 soaked but regular sized products.

Compared to my experience (which I considered to be normal but perhaps on the heavier side), of banging through a super-plus-ultra in a pair of hours at peak output.

These figures just make it look as if many women are just changing tampons on a whim, using far more than they need to. Damn, I wish menstrual cups had been about when I was a teenager.........

Okay, simpler question perhaps, how many of us have to get up and change a tampon/pad during the night? Taking 8 hours as average sleep, so a change means time to soak less than 8 hours, hence taking 4-6 24 hour days as average length of a period, gives more than 12-18 soaked during whole period. Whereas the figure of SEVEN means that according to their figures, average women should be able to go at least half a 24-hour day without a change? Bliss! My maths is deserting me, I'm so gobsmacked by the numbers being given here!

Oh yes there is the other stuff that's not liquid blood. But I think for this purpose (i.e. curiosity project, so it doesn't need to be a highly scientific degree of accuracy) the density would be close enough to convert the grams to millilitres using a 1:1 ratio.

If you like the idea of collecting and storing bodily fluids, fair enough. Personally I'd go for the method I suggested as it seems more convenient. Besides, if it's accuracy you're after, collecting it in a bottle/other receptacle isn't going to be brilliantly accurate as you're going to lose some of the volume as left-behind residue on the menstrual cup, a bit like pouring cream from a jug, you'd never get it all out... unless you have a teeny tiny spatula

Mooncup holds 28ml and on my heaviest day I emptied it because it was overflowing and thus leaking 11 times. Yes, I had had severe anaemia!
I didn't think I had exceptionally heavy periods until the anaemia, which prompted me to calculate the loss. Heavy periods are more than 80ml per month apparently.

On a mooncup thread on here recently a poster said hers was great, she has "really awful heavy periods" and only has to empty it once on her heaviest day.

I read long ago that most of the women who approach their Doctor with heavy periods don't have heavy periods at all. Trouble is, I assumed that was me and I was the other way around.

Right. In view of lack of bottle I shall weigh instead.

"Do your cycles synchronise Dyke? Or is that another menstrual myth?" Unfortunately, we don't live together all week (I'm away for work), so can't comment.

Unfortunately we both seem to be going through the perimenopause at the same time though, so with massively increased sometimes synchronous PMS and mood swings, I think the cat will be leaving home in protest soon .

I did this after 10 years of heavy periods, chronic anaemia and getting fed up with being fobbed off by my GP. I found I was losing at least 200mls each month (conservative estimate) which is the equivalent of giving birth every month (I'm a former midwife). Once I got to see the gynae consultant it helped my case to be able to tell her how much blood I was losing. That combined with a haemoglobin of 8.0 g/dl meant she agreed to me having an endometrial ablation. It was totally life changing. Now I wear a panty liner for 2 days a month, my iron level is normal and I can go about my business without needing to be close to a loo and worrying about bleeding through clothes/over seats etc. If you have heavy periods and have definitely finished having children, I highly recommend an ablation!

Poor cat . I work in an all female environment (where we also weigh blood loss so this is nothing new or nasty for me!) but I don't think we spend enough time together to synchronise.

I remember arguing about the tablespoon thing too, and I don't think I'm particularly heavy. If I was using pads I think I might use about 10-14 throughout my period. I used to, but it's been a long time since I've used just pads. I know use them only to supplement my cup - it leaks on day 2, for some reason, although when I empty it it is only half full. Weird!

The synchronicity bit was debunked on More or Less (R4) a while ago.

Statistically, if you take a small group of women and note their periods for a few months, they will probably seem to come together for a while at some point (since not all will have the same cycle or level of consistency) but this is meaningless.

I get the feeling it was probably based on the results of a few right-on hippy male psychologist's research in the late 60s or early 70s. (was taught about it in the 6th form in late 70s by male psychology/chemistry teacher who probably thought he was bit right-on for knowing about more about periods than women )

Just to add, in various conversations I had with GPs etc, only criteria for abnormally heavy and we might need to something about it was:

Do you need to wear two tampons at a time, or a tampon and a pad?

Frankly, as long as you could hold down a normal everyday job/career (i.e. a student who had to change her tampon at less than hourly intervals would have had an issue with lectures, let alone exams!), you just had to get on with it.

"If you like the idea of collecting and storing bodily fluids, fair enough. " I think it's only really odd if you keep it all in labelled and dated bottles, in a special freezer (unless you are doing a long-term research project on your own menstrual flow, in which case it is totally normal. Kind of like the chap who cracked the knuckles on one hand but not the other throughout his life as a scientific experiment (Donald Unger, Letter published in the Journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.))

A mooncup lasts me an hour at peak flow. I don't use them on my heaviest days/nights (fortunately usually the worst only lasts 12-24 hours). At night, I use an ultra tampon and two large pads and am still sometimes up every 2-3 hours. Leaves me feeling wrung out.

I hate the minimising. I really doubt that 2-3 tablespoons was based on any proper research, just men telling women not to make a fuss in case it distracts attention from the people who matter. Like the GP who told me a miscarriage was like a heavy period - hours before I was admitted to hospital with life-threatening blood loss. .

OP, loving your spirit of enquiry.

I hated the FemmyCycle. In fact it moved around, the ring got a bit lost, resulting in a hilarious episode of me in the most graceful position ever and DH fishing about trying the get the damn thing to come out. Plus, it doesn't even have measurements! I've been very happy with a Lola ever since

I think the amount of blood and tissue loss varies HUGELY. Plus, 'women's issues' are always minimised. And it is still seen as icky to talk about periods. So maybe the couple of tablespoons thing is true for some - but it is certainly not true for me.

NB on threads on here about heavy periods (which I frequent, it seems), there are always people who are so surprised that people really do bleed heaps and suffer greatly every month, as their experience is the polar opposite.

My cycle has finally become regular in my 40s, I have 2 days of 'bloody hell' (Lil-lets Ultra plus a nighttime towel, and not straying too far from the loo for too long). But the thing that leaves me praying for the menopause is the stupid tricks my period now plays on me. I have a few days of on-off at the beginning, then scenes from a massacre, then it dwindles away to nothing for a few days ... then BLAM one final unexpected downpour when I least expect it (and have usually assumed it's over for the month, and am unprepared!).