Fed up of my bloody periods!

[remoaniac]

I'm 45 and am fed up of my "trickle for a few days, flood for a few days, trickle for a few days" periods. Surely if they're going to last 7-10 days it could all flow out at the same level.

Fed up of throwing away knickers, having to take trousers off that were clean on, realising cushion has got stained and having to sit on something when I am on the sofa, realising that I have to go to meetings on heavy days etc.

Why oh why are they like this?

On the plus side, I am fit and healthy in all other ways, I don't get period pains, I do get headaches from time to time but that's it.

But I am fed up and feeling quite weepy. Have I really got another 10 years or so of this and I guess it can only get worse? Why the hell weren't we designed so we could just go to the loo when we needed to let some blood out?

Rant over.

Nothing but sympathy from me :(

I hated mine and often wondered how did evolution get it so wrong - why don't we just reabsorb anything that isn't needed to sustain a pregnancy that month, like many animals do. Like you, I used to get very unhappy about the thought of another 10, 12 years of nightmare periods when my family was long completed.

If you just wanted a rant (and fair enough, we don't always want people jumping in with ideas) then rant away and ignore the next bit but...

Have you seen your GP? There are options for heavy periods - you shouldn't have to put up with flooding. My local hospital has a dedicated clinic for it! To cut a very long story short, I eventually had a hysterectomy (Thank God!) as I had big fibroids but there's ablation which can be life changing if it works. I'm not so mad keen on mirena - made no difference to me - but again, some women swear by them. If I could turn back time I would push for an ultrasound early on though, to rule out fibroids, as mine were pretty huge and I could have saved myself the bother of trying the other things first if I had known.

I'd go and talk to your GP. I too was like you, on/off periods, thought it had ended only for it to start up again. Caught out so many times. Ruined sheets, clothes.

I've had 2 Mirena over the past 6 years or so which helped but last May I started bleeding, thought the coil had fallen out so went for a scan and they discovered 2 fibroids. The coil was still there.

I've basically been bleeding since then, I had an ablation in September which didn't work and now I'm waiting for a hysterectomy- I'm 48!

I've been taking Northisterone to give me some relief but I don't like taking them. I would go and talk to your GP just to see what options you have.