Is day 1 from proper bleeding only?

[kittyb]

I dont know if this is because I have endometriosis (not severe) or if its just cos I'm getting on a bit. I have up to four days of brown mucous (sorry if you are eating) before period properly starts. I have had conflicting advice about whether to count day 1 as first day of proper red bleeding. Seems to me that first sign of the brown dsicharge is the endometrium(?) starting to break up so the hormones must be kicking in then. Does anyone know?

I have slight endo as well & get the brown mucous you are talking about, but only for a day or so before my proper bleeding starts. I've been told that it is the equivelent of spotting, but it's brown because it is old blood. Not sure if it is an endo thing or not - but I count day 1 from 1st day of heavy red bleeding. Sorry can't be of much help. How long is your red period?

Hi,

As I understand it the first day of bleeding is when the red bleeding starts.

Old brown blood such as you describe is one of the characteristics of endometriosis and was therefore not unfortunately surprised to read you have this.

Are you being treated for the endo currently?. Endo be it severe or not can cause problems anyway whether you are ttc or otherwise.

My red period is only 4 days long but the brown at beginning and end means the whole thing lasts about 9 days. I'm not getting any treatment for the endo. I had a laporoscopy and laser stuff in 2000. I dont really fancy going through that every few years, to laser off the adhesions so to speak. I tried the no wheat/no diary and that did help but I lost an unhealthy amount of weight and it was really difficult to stick to. I find exercise really helps because I feel my whole lower back and abdomen seems to fuse together and get really stiff from ovulation onwards. Are ther any other non-surgical treatments?

Does the brown stuff always indicate endo? And what exactly is it?

brown is old blood .. can be mixed with cervical mucous to make it mucusy .. sorry if TMI

even if you don't have endo (I don't) you can have brown spotting to start with (I always did the day before)

HTH