Menstrual Cycle v. No Menstrual Cycle Pt 3

The more and more I think about it, the more I feel that women should strongly look into whether unnaturally stopping your menstrual cycle is a good thing. Would you stop yourself from urinating? Would you stop yourself from having a bowel movement? Would you stop yourself from sweating? So unless you have to, why would you stop your menstruation? Again, I know first hand what's it's like to have a very heavy flow and I mean very heavy. I know it's tempting to want to just get rid of your menstruation so that you won't have problems with a heavy flow, or have concerns about soiling your clothes, or losing so much blood that you need a transfusion, with problems from fatigue from losing a lot of blood every month, taking iron pills so that you can replenish the iron in your body that's been lost, etc. All of those are real symptoms and real reasons to consider using a birth control method that you think will help you deal with the blood flow.


But I want you to ask your doctor whether taking birth control is in fact exacerbating your symptoms or whether taking this birth control will cause other more permanent problems?

I was on the Patch. And during a presentation where my radiologist and I were presenting on uterine atery embolization or uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), I asked him that same question and he said anything that has hormones in it will cause an imbalance of estrogen in your body which causes your fibroids to grow. Anything means food, birth control pills, and anything else that is known to have added hormones in it.

Some birth control has more estrogen in it than others he said; some have none and some have a lot. Some of it just depends on the strength of the birth control you use. So check with your doctor about whether the birth control you use is helping or hurting you and make sure you know the long term effects of stopping your menstruation. Again, in the sidebar of this blog are books on the subject of menstruation and birth control. Take a look at them and purchase them if you want facts about either.

Thedy B



Thedy B

The Menstrual Cycle Calendar - Help or Hurt?!

Using the menstrual cycle calendar definitely helped. I like using the menstrual cycle calendar because I was able to predict when my periods would begin. I was able to predict when they would end. I could tell when my pre-menstrual symptoms would begin as well like moodiness, for example. So I like the predictability factor.

I was also able to determine the extent of my bleeding. Yes, I liked tracking it, for some odd reason. I think knowing satisfied my curiosity, calmed my anxiety from not knowing, and made me feel somewhat on top of my physical health.

I also like the fact that the menstrual cycle calendar helps you determine exactly when and if your symptoms have started to change. Don't you hate it when you go to the doctor and they ask you, has anything changed since your last visit and you can't really remember? Suppose you say "yes, some things have changed," then the nurse or doctor will likely ask, "well when did you first notice the change in your symptoms?" Typically, the honest answer is, "I don't know!!!!!" What I want to say is, well, it wasn't like I was blogging or journaling at the time and said, hey, new symptom! Let me mark this date down in my calendar as the day my menstrual cycle decided it wanted to act up! LOL! It always acts up! (:-)" With the menstrual cycle calendar, I could instead show my doctor, this is the day(s) that I noticed the change. I could also show her how long I had noticed the problem.

So in my opinion, the menstrual cycle calendar helps and I'd recommend at least looking into one if you think you might be having cycle problems. So I'm glad my GYN recommended it. Use your doctor's advice on whether using one will help you or not. I'm not a doctor (:-) but I certainly know it helped me answer all the questions that I needed to answer about my menstrual cycle. Plus, I saw no disadvantages to using a calendar.

Thedy B