What Happened To My Period?!

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I had it so easy. When I got my period, around age 13, nothing much changed. I was ecstatic! I had been waiting for my period for years and I felt so grown up. Funny that...if only I'd known.

Anyhoo, it was all great. I got PMS emotional, meaning I would cry and be cross for a few days before my period came, but once it arrived I went back to normal and I had no discomfort whatsoever. I could always feel something happening side but it wasn't painful and the cramps were so slight that I could ignore them. I used to exercise on the first day of my period, I went swimming (once I discovered tampax) and went about life as normal.

In fact, the older I got the less sympathetic I became to girls who had 'problematic' periods. I would scoff at girls who took the week off or lay in bed all day with hot water bottles, popping painkillers. I couldn't understand it because I had never experienced that and I honestly thought they were making excuses.

My own blissful menstrual cycle lasted until I was 28. Then it went downhill. Rapidly.

I still don't know why. It's hard to tell because I went on the pill the same time I started being sexually active so I'm not sure which one of those things did the damage but I am certain it was one of them and I suspect the pill.

I was on the pill for 8 months and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Marvelon, if we are to name the culprit. Panic attacks, insomnia, severe mood swings, loss of libido, rages, bloating, nausea....everything, I had everything with that horrible pill. So I came off.

My periods were regular after I stopped but very soon after I started to get my first painful periods. It was a massive shock. I didn't know what to do. I was so sensitive I could feel every single time I bled, as if I could actually feel the blood leaving me and with it came horrible cramps. The cramps would last as long as I bled each time during the day and then would stop until the next bleed. Some months were better than others. I am sure that for women with painful periods, the pain was nothing. But because I had never had anything like it, it felt horrific. My stomach will swell to almost double it's size and feels so tender and bloated, which in turn makes me feel nauseous.

I now have painkillers and hot water bottle at the ready. And I have SO much sympathy for women who have lived with bad periods all their life. Take all the days off you need!!!

It's very unpredictable. Sometimes the pain comes with the start of the period, when it's heavy but recently it has started to come at the end of the period when there is hardly any bleeding. I can't understand that at all. I exercise, eat healthy, but nothing seems to regulate or ease the discomfort. It comes when it comes.

I've been off the pill for over a year now so I can't keep blaming it. Sometimes I wonder if this would have just happened anyway with age?

Have you experienced anything like this as you got older? Or maybe it was the other way round for you.

I'd love to hear your experience, especially if what happened to me has happened to you.