Periods

Dear reader,

As you know, I was assigned female at birth. I have a uterus and vagina, and yes, boobs too. Having these “female” sex organs means that I suffer from the dreaded ‘Aunt Flo’, the monthly visitor, the red tide, crimson wave, the rag, whatever silly, ridiculous, terrible, funny name you want to call it. Menstruation. Periods. I’ve got ‘em. And they SUCK!

I got my first one just before I turned 10. You see, I blossomed early. And it was NOT something I looked forward to, nor wanted. But EVERYONE noticed! And ever since I started my period 20 years ago, it has ALWAYS been terrible! I am talking 5 days of bleeding, stabbing pains, twisting in my gut, migraines, acne break-outs, heavy flow, you name a bad symptom.... I’ve got it!

Turns out - none of that is supposed to be normal! Periods are supposed to be 3-5 days of light-moderate flow while your body tears apart the lining that would have become the placenta, had you been impregnated. However, if you have a medical issue such as PCOS, Endometriosis, or Adenomyosis, then you will be in severe pain, you will be unhappy, and you will wish you didn’t have those parts.

Fun fact: You are considered ‘pregnant’ every time your body has that lining set up, regardless of other factors. So technically, every person with a uterus has been pregnant 12 times a year, every year of their life. That’s how they calculate conception/birth date.

I digress. My periods for the past 2 decades have been some of the worst days of my life. I have, more times than not, been stuck in bed, writhing in pain, unable to move, eat, or do anything than sleep. My body just gets destroyed by them. My first gynecologist put me on birth control after discovering some ovarian cysts, to see if that would help calm down my symptoms and the cysts. It worked for awhile.

But you know my luck, dear reader, it didn’t stay good forever. My periods came back with a vengeance after adjusting to the hormonal changes and my doctors started to consider PCOS as a possible reason for my terrible periods. But my symptoms didn’t match up perfectly and they could only ever find 1 cyst at a time at that point. So a few more years went by, I moved a few times, and finally got my current gynecologist. I gave her my history, and we started to look into some options. She thought PCOS still might be a reasonable explanation. But she wanted me to see a specialist for a related condition - Endometriosis.

Both conditions cause terrible periods and other symptoms I have experienced, so off I went! We did some blood-work, some imaging, and finally.... a surgery was scheduled. Because unfortunately, that is the best way to tell if someone has endometriosis. 

Until next time (The story of my surgery)—