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'm another who is oddly intrigued by this, and have considered it well maybe not exactly this but have wondered how to measure in the past

Mine vary month by month. I'll have 2-3 months of light flow, 7-8 days each. Then a month of the whole world falling out of my foof for about 72 hours max. I'm always intrigued to know what the actual difference is, and if it's the same amount all just happening at once.

(I've been to the gynocologist about it - absolutely nothing wrong - had dildo cam more times than I can remember to make sure, and other scans as well)

Day 1.
08.00 12ml dark red/brown

I'm super intrigued by this. I can already give my contribution though - none since I got a coil put in.

Just weigh the contents at every emptying, no need to keep it

Mine vary month by month. I'll have 2-3 months of light flow, 7-8 days each. Then a month of the whole world falling out of my foof for about 72 hours max

A friend of mine had a theory that it depends which ovary releases the egg. One of the ovaries is nice and kind and you have an easy or easier month, the other ovary is less kind and you can have a nightmare. I don't know if it's true but it kind of made sense to me.

^^ooh interesting! That makes sense to me too....

This is making my period (started last night) more fun than it usually is.

I have heavy periods so this is my current cycle story so far.

Started in earnest last night at 10ish and since then

Went to bed with one regular tampon and one regular pad. Woke up at 4am as they had to be changed. Tampon so soaked that it fell out. Pad saturated and lots of blood that had been backing up fell out in the loo.

Back to bed with another regular tampon and pad. Similar story as above on waking at 7.

Usually I would have more absorbent tampons but lack of organisation meant I used what was at hand.

Put meluna xl menstrual cup in at 7am. This has a 42ml! capacity. Yes that's right a 42ml capacity. I also used a regular pad for leaks.

Changed at 9am and measured the contents of meluna- 36ml and a pad that wasn't saturated but soaked enough to change.

I will keep you updated but I think I am approaching 80ml in first 12 hours with a further day and a half of this level followed by 3 days of very light bleed.

The only way I can keep down a job is to use this cup as I would be using the loo every 30mins otherwise. I always use a pad as well as although the cup size is really helpful it is not an ideal fit and so it does leak.

On the plus side my periods are regular and predictable with no surprises but on these first 2 days I am very tired.

Isn't it going to be different for every woman? Our uterus sizes must differ depending on how many children we've had or genetics or contraception, therefore the amount of blood that builds up in the lining must be different?

My doc said that heavy bleeding is often because the uterine wall doesn't clot properly, so you lose the lining and then lose extra blood on top of that. It's why things like ibuprofen and transefemic (spelling?!) acid work to reduce blood loss.

I wonder if there's a link between heavy periods and post partum haemorrhage? I have/had both.

It will be different for every woman but I have been wondering whether period blood loss has been played down. The couple of tablespoons have never been my experience even prior to having children when my periods were lighter.

Just emptied my cup. A further 22ml so I think I am up to 100ml so far.

Blimey Bertie. Spinach and kale for lunch for you.

Uterine linings were mentioned upthread; old-timers might remember a thread where the op was freaked out and wondering just what the hell had fallen out of her fanjo...

It was me blush turned out to be uterine lining, although I did overhear the doctor saying 'Surely it can't be retained products 13 months post-birth?!' in slightly frantic tones grin

This happened to me too .... I put this ummm 'thing' in a little Tupperware pot to show the doctor but after they'd put my mind at rest was rather fascinated to take it home and lay it out properly - it did indeed, as you'd expect, resemble one of the typical 'womb' pictures beloved of all sex ed books. I consider myself pretty astute but hadn't considered what it might have been prior, as I don't think I've ever seen the possibility mentioned in (real or digital) print.

I wonder if there's a link between heavy periods and post partum haemorrhage? I have/had both.

This is interesting - so have I.

Will be watching this thread ..... have also seen the tablespoon thing but no way do I pass 30mls or so, and that was before my periods have got particularly heavy in the last 6 months (am 52). Like another poster upthread, it's typical for me to spend 3 days using a super strength tampon, plus a huge pad, then sit on the loo, have the damn thing drop out of me as well as 'backed up' blood I can feel dripping out. And then have to do the same thing every 2 hours (at best) ... I literally wouldn't feel safe going for a long country walk at those times, or even a drive if I didn't know for sure there was a loo en route.

Thanks moist - Not my favourite foods I'm afraid. Funnily enough although I recognise that my periods are heavy my poor sister had terrible fibroids so compared to her I feel like the lucky one. I also don't get period pains just that dragging achey internal bleeding ache so again I feel lucky.

Joining in with interest here!
Am now on the pill so period = zero, but before I went back on I was having them every 3 weeks and it felt like a bloodbath each time. Needed the most absorbent tampons and pads on at the same time if I was going to cope for the first 3 days.
Ended up anaemic of course.
I've always had heavy periods that seem to be a minimum of three days of needed to change pads 2 hourly. School was a nightmare. I soaked through everything at night, often went to bed with three pairs of pants on packed round the edges with loo roll to help.
I am 36, I am desperately hoping that my crazy getting closer together periods are actually perimenopause (family history of early starters) and that I can ride it out on the pill until its over.
Wish I'd tried weighing my pads!

I agree on the minimising, they released me after having my daughter and I started bleeding heavily the next day went to gp who examined me and said I was hemorrhaging , was readmitted and kept over night , no one checked on me over night, just blood pressure taken, sent home next day with a letter for my GP saying I was having a period and not to send me back. It then got very very bad, was readmitted again a couple of hours after getting home , as an emergency case , as they had left placenta inside me and I was badly hemorrhaging as my body was expelling it.

It was a female doc who sent me home too. Accused me of not knowing what a period was like as I used tampons and wouldn't listen when I tried to tell her I was passing clots and that I was having contraction like pain. 😞

I consider myself pretty astute but hadn't considered what it might have been prior, as I don't think I've ever seen the possibility mentioned in (real or digital) print.

I am an ordinary mum with an office job, but I did the usual o levels and a levels in biology, a/o human biology, degree, some work experience in hospitals, read extensively the information put out about women's health since the 1970s, all I could find on childbirth and all I can find about menopause. Never heard of it at all until that thread. It would have freaked me out.

Day 2:
12 ml in this mornings cup at 8am. A few drips when using the loo so I'll round that up to 13ml again.

Running total: 13+13+13 = 39ml.
This equates to about 6 and a quarter tablespoons so far, or 3 neat gins for example

Very excited about the prospect of a cup made for falling out uterus! I struggle on with my mooncup but it's bloody uncomfortable and doesn't really fit my train wreck vag.

Oh... hang on OP!

Note: Cannot be used for very low cervix, lower than 2” from the vaginal opening or any degree of prolapse.

From the website... :(

I'm going to give it a go anyway. Will report back once it arrives and I have a chance to use it.

I bet you could snip the kettle-bell handle off it too...

Heavy period/postpartum haemorrhage theory is interesting. I apparently had a haemorrhage by the definition as I lost 500ml of blood straight after giving birth but I was never told that this was a lot of blood to lose, so minimising again.

This is fascinating. Thank you for starting this thread op.

I really struggle with my periods and find I'm quite restricted when I have them. I flood through a tampax super plus in about an hour and a half but even then I sometimes have soaking pants/trousers so now wear a san pad too. I have to run to the bathroom in the morning/during the night and even then it's carnage.

I'm 48 and no doubt I'm peri menopausal but I've been like this since childbirth 12 years ago.

Thickness of uterine lining doesn't necessarily correspond to heavy periods

I had 11mm endometrial thickness in my third IVF cycle and when I got my period I just got a bit of brown spotting - no bleed at all, the lining all spontaneously reabsorbed

Same after my 4th. That was actually a miscarriage - I had 9mm of endometrial lining before transfer and when we stopped meds at 5w when it was clear it wasn't a viable pregnancy, I still didn't get any kind of bleeding, just brown black spotting. I had to have surgery to remove retained products of conception but the lining itself didn't bleed

I have problems with my endometrium which is why I miscarry and why I've had to have a copper coil put in to try and get me to bleed

But my gynae said some women get thick linings but have light periods, others have moderate linings and heavy periods

SharingMichelle the "shorty" Meluna cups are supposed to be good for a low cervix as well

Natsku- in their defence 500ml is borderline, I think, a pph is defined as more than 500ml but other sites say 500ml is the average blood loss.