I don't actually *bleed*, but I still have a cycle -- about 30 days, give or take...I get cramps from ovulation in the middle of the month, and get PMS at the very end of the month and really fucking horny somewhere inbetween. *grin*
I'm twenty; I've been keeping track of my cycle for almost three years. The average length is 29 days; with two exceptions (out of 34 data points), they've all been between 21 and 35 days, and seem to have been getting longer lately.
Beyond that, though...it tends to be a bit irregular.
My cycle's usually very month-regular, but my roomie's cycle is too long, so she's got me all off :P
I don't usually keep *track* of my cycle, mind; usually I just every month suddenly think "I haven't had my period in a while" and put in a pad and within the next couple of days I get my period. But that's enough regularity for me to tell when it's, say, a week late.
Mine's been 31 days on the nose lately. I've started putting a reminder in my palmtop. And a reminder that I'm going to flip out and get all tear-soggy.
I put down "regular" and a number (35 days), but I've got a fairly large standard deviation. Anything in the 28-40 range is perfectly possible. Although it's never been as short as 28 days unless I've been on the Pill or synched with someone.
For most of my menstrual life, my cycles ran between 32-45 days, completely unpredictable. Since my nervous breakdown in '98, and I became a pagan in early '99, within that timeframe is when my cycle-length began shrinking and becoming regular. I remember that from the time I held my dedication on Ostara of '99, for the next 6 or 7 months, I had my period with the cycle of the moon, on a 28-31 day cycle, VERY regular.
Since then, it's been pretty damn regular. It stretched out to 32-35 days for a while there, and I had one period where I bled for several weeks for no discernable reason, but most of the time I'm straight on, 30-31 days now. In fact, E and I are on exactly the same cycle, and since the day she got here, my period has started on the exact first day of the month. I've *never* been so regular I could predict the exact day of my period start. Within a three-day range has always been the best I could do. This is freaky. :D
I'm 23 and have been on the Pill for the last five years, which has given me the articial 28-day cycle, although I've been getting more breakthrough bleeding recently. Grumble. Menarche at twelve and a half, starting relatively irregular (I remember three to six weeks, but I'm not sure how accurate that was) and dragging my mother's regular schedule out of whack. By the time I started the Pill I was at something-or-other plus or minus twoish days. I think the something-or-other was 29, but it may have been 31. I envied the high school friend who seemed to be on one a year.
Thank you! It's still plural anecdotes instead of data, but it's sufficiently plural to bear out my suspicion about the 28 day thing (that some women are, but the idea that most women are or even that women in general average there is silly).
ive had cycles as short as 8 days.... ive had cycles as long as 42 days or so...
i tend to exist in the 30-40 range these days
im hoping once i move (june 1) that i'll sync with my new roommates... cause currently i hang out with 1 group of females but live with a different group spending roughly equal time in each place so i think thats likely part of the problem.
My cycle would start anywhere from 28-33 days.. and often last for 10 days or more. HEAVY. VERY. With incredible pain. EVERY time. Took a couple of years of trying different things to control it, but I finally was able to solve the problem permanently with a hysterectomy last June. There were so many fibroids in there (a fibroid is a benign tumor basically) that it's a wonder I ever had any kids at all, much less three. The largest was somewhere between an orange and a grapefruit in size, although very irregularly shaped. I do still have my ovaries, so there are minor monthly hormonal fluctuations, mostly noticeable in my mood (of course). But it's sooooo nice having my life back, not being in horrible pain any more and not having to spend forty or fifty bucks a month buying both pads and tampons (yes the bleeding was that bad).
Since the age of 13, I have had nothing even close to resembling a 'normal' cycle. Up until the age of 18, they 'forced' them on me with medication once a month and then I went off to college and stopped the meds altogether. This produced immense pain and heavy bleeding once every 4-5 months (if even) and kept me in bed for a week. I tried the pill, it didn't do anything for me but give me migraines. Depo produced a weird 'thinning skin' side effect (ask for more details, it squicks some people out) and made me incredibly depressed. Right now I take BC pills (LoEstrin) on a continuous cycle and never bleed... and that's okay with me.
As a side note, I have also been diagnosed with Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. (Cool poll.)
*pointed here from shadesong and summarily adding because of several mutual friends*
I went on Depo in September of 2000, spotted at 3, 6 and 9 months, and haven't menstruated since. But when I did, my cycle was naturally to start every fourth Saturday and last for four, maybe five days. Was fairly convenient -- except that those always happened to be Saturdays I was attending a live-action role playing game two hours from home. :P
(Much like faecat, I wandered over from shadesong, and added you because you seem pretty interesting)
I have something known as PCOS, which means that my cycles are normally whacked. Some years I'll have 6 periods exactly 28 days apart, then nothing for the next six months, some years I'll have one or two periods, and there have been a couple of years where I've only had one period. I was also on Depo for two years, which really threw my body for a loop. Nasty stuff, and not at all good for people with PCOS.
These days I'm on birth control. I've just finished my first full round, and other than a scare today (which, if you're really interested, check my journal in a few minutes), it seems to be going fairly well.
Also, my background in market research (as the one on the grunt-work end of the stick) gives me insight into how to word these things correctly, as does my programming work.
before i was on the pill, i naturally menstruated on a fairly regular cycle. probably in the 32-day range, though it was years ago and oi dont' rightly remember. now that i'm on the pill, i have the artificial 28-day cycle.
before pill, i bled for about 8 days, average to slightly heavy flow for the first few and then very very light.
now, i bleed very lightly, and sometimes not at all. this month, i'm just spotting -- and lightly, i dont' even need to use any products.
i think i was 12 when i had my first period, though i'm not certain. i know my first one was very dark and it freaked me out a bit, and then i didn't have one for a few months, and then they kicked in normal.
Hey there - I finally went ahead and added you to my friends list - keep bumping into you in ramdom places :)
Anyway - to pinpoint it even further - I bleed on the new moon, and ovulate on the full moon :)
This pattern established itself between pregnancies with Beena and Kritter - got knocked off after surgery last year, but reserted itself by September.
As a side note, I'm also interested in this - but also in conjuction with world view - not necessarily spiritual beliefs only...Before I went "on hiatus" from school, it's something I was considering doing my PhD thesis on.
i have either a 38, 48 or 58 day cycle. usually 38, but, for example, i just skipped april. so it was a 48-er this time around. josiah's fixed so i don't worry anymore. :)
also, i am here to pimp the Instead Cup. (http://www.softcup.com/) it's not as... weird... as the keeper (http://www.keeper.com/) (which i have been using as my only menstrual device for the last 4 periods) but not as awful as tampons (http://www.seac.org/tampons/) and other blood-catchers.
using the cups for several years knocked my cycle down to 3 days start to finish (used to be 5 at the shortest w/ tampons) - however, when i first started, it made my period seem *really* heavy. ::shrug::
I used to be a clockwork 28 dayer, but now I'm in perimenopause (age 46.)My periods are getting closer together and I have no warning prior so it is always an annoying surprise.
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azurelunatic) wrote2003-05-03 09:43 am
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Mine used to be like that for a while. This latest round of the Pill seems to have pinned it down to 31 days on the nose.
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Beyond that, though...it tends to be a bit irregular.
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I don't usually keep *track* of my cycle, mind; usually I just every month suddenly think "I haven't had my period in a while" and put in a pad and within the next couple of days I get my period. But that's enough regularity for me to tell when it's, say, a week late.
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Since then, it's been pretty damn regular. It stretched out to 32-35 days for a while there, and I had one period where I bled for several weeks for no discernable reason, but most of the time I'm straight on, 30-31 days now. In fact, E and I are on exactly the same cycle, and since the day she got here, my period has started on the exact first day of the month. I've *never* been so regular I could predict the exact day of my period start. Within a three-day range has always been the best I could do. This is freaky. :D
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My sister currently averages every 6 months.
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ive had cycles as long as 42 days or so...
i tend to exist in the 30-40 range these days
im hoping once i move (june 1) that i'll sync with my new roommates...
cause currently i hang out with 1 group of females but live with a different group spending roughly equal time in each place so i think thats likely part of the problem.
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No more periods for me, thank you Goddess
Re: No more periods for me, thank you Goddess
Cycles.
I tried the pill, it didn't do anything for me but give me migraines.
Depo produced a weird 'thinning skin' side effect (ask for more details, it squicks some people out) and made me incredibly depressed.
Right now I take BC pills (LoEstrin) on a continuous cycle and never bleed... and that's okay with me.
As a side note, I have also been diagnosed with Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome.
(Cool poll.)
Re: Cycles.
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I went on Depo in September of 2000, spotted at 3, 6 and 9 months, and haven't menstruated since. But when I did, my cycle was naturally to start every fourth Saturday and last for four, maybe five days. Was fairly convenient -- except that those always happened to be Saturdays I was attending a live-action role playing game two hours from home. :P
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Not quite as much of a fluffhead as she looks like on first glance.
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I have something known as PCOS, which means that my cycles are normally whacked. Some years I'll have 6 periods exactly 28 days apart, then nothing for the next six months, some years I'll have one or two periods, and there have been a couple of years where I've only had one period. I was also on Depo for two years, which really threw my body for a loop. Nasty stuff, and not at all good for people with PCOS.
These days I'm on birth control. I've just finished my first full round, and other than a scare today (which, if you're really interested, check my journal in a few minutes), it seems to be going fairly well.
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both.
before pill, i bled for about 8 days, average to slightly heavy flow for the first few and then very very light.
now, i bleed very lightly, and sometimes not at all. this month, i'm just spotting -- and lightly, i dont' even need to use any products.
i think i was 12 when i had my first period, though i'm not certain. i know my first one was very dark and it freaked me out a bit, and then i didn't have one for a few months, and then they kicked in normal.
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Anyway - to pinpoint it even further - I bleed on the new moon, and ovulate on the full moon :)
This pattern established itself between pregnancies with Beena and Kritter - got knocked off after surgery last year, but reserted itself by September.
As a side note, I'm also interested in this - but also in conjuction with world view - not necessarily spiritual beliefs only...Before I went "on hiatus" from school, it's something I was considering doing my PhD thesis on.
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cycles and pimpin'
also, i am here to pimp the Instead Cup. (http://www.softcup.com/) it's not as... weird... as the keeper (http://www.keeper.com/) (which i have been using as my only menstrual device for the last 4 periods) but not as awful as tampons (http://www.seac.org/tampons/) and other blood-catchers.
using the cups for several years knocked my cycle down to 3 days start to finish (used to be 5 at the shortest w/ tampons) - however, when i first started, it made my period seem *really* heavy. ::shrug::
Re: cycles and pimpin'
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