Warning, this post contains TMI.

Those of you who knew me as a teenager know I suffered quite a bit during that time of the month. Especially whenever I went on vacation! It wasn’t just the terrible, terrible cramps, I was tired and cranky and I dreaded it every month. The final straw was my 20th birthday. I was in bed for a week and couldn’t eat anything and it took me a month to feel better. Looking back, I probably had an ulcer from the aleve I was taking, but I’ll never know because I was too stupid to go to the doctor.

So I went on the pill, the magic, wonderful Seasonale. I still had pretty bad cramps for about three years after, but nothing like it was. The doctor thought I might have had endometriosis, seems likely. I eventually had to stop taking pain killers during my period because they gave me terrible stomach aches, but after a couple more years, I didn’t need them anyway.

Then, a few years ago, we decided we wanted a baby. I went off the pill in April and my period slowly came back to something that resembled a cycle around October. Super light and not crampy. I also felt a lot better emotially and my skin improved a bit. Apparently the pill was making me overly hormonal. I also felt way less sleepy all the time.

 By December the cramps had returned, but still very short and the period of time between ovulation and my period was still to short to conceive. I told my doctor and he basically said, yeah, you’ve only been tying like a month, come back in a year if you’re still not pregnant. Of course, three weeks later, I was pregnant. 

My period returned last December, again super light and without cramps. This past period was heavier, but still my heaviest day was like a medium day from when I was in high school. Still no cramps :) Mildly concerned that if I did have endometriosis, it will return or that I’ll suffer from fibroids like generations before me, but I’ll take feeling like a normal woman for now. I fully appreciate all I learned about my body when I was charting while trying to get pregnant too. I know exactly when I ovulate even without taking my temperature. I highly recommend any woman chart her cycles for at least a short period of time, you’ll learn so much.

2 Responses

  1. Very interesting actually. When my period came back after baby, it was 100x heavier than it had ever been. It was nuts. Was like that for about 3 months then normal end for 1 and then I was pregnant again. Yay! I wonder what it will be like after the next baby. I don’t think I’ll ever go back on the pill as it changes so much in your body.

  2. It’s really weird how periods are bad as a teenager, yet you go on the pill to help yourself out, then when you’re like in your twenties/want to have a baby it starts making you’ll feel worse and your periods are actually BETTER without the pill.
    Makes sense looking back that you could’ve had endometriosis with all the pain you used to have…not good!
    I still have yet to get mine back, and Connor is 14 months! Like you said I can definitely tell when I’m ovulating now compared to pre-baby.

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