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Elle J's avatar

I wanted to just comment about the point you made re: how NO ONE PREPARES US FOR THIS SHIT!! Not even the gynecologist, am I right? It baffles the hell out of me that this is so. It reminds me of how unprepared most of us (all of us) are for parenting. Any ding-dong can get pregnant and it’s just like ‘good luck!’

I don’t know how any of us survive.

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CG Williams's avatar

Warning: straight talk about cycles, if you're not into it, skip this comment.

A few years ago I started to have crappy sleep. I chalked it up to the pandemic and trying to teach over zoom that year. But when I look back, I'm guessing I was peri without realizing it. Then over two years ago my cycle became inconsistent and for nearly a year, non existent. It was then when I figured I was deep in the throes of menopause. Suddenly my period came back, it was heavy, it was more on than off. Then it became constant, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks went by non stop, and got to the point that it was uncontrollably heavy, I was changing every hour, leaking, and I was getting very weak. I went to see a doctor and by then, I could barely walk. She took a look at me and sent me straight away to ER. Turns out I developed fibroids, two the size of golfballs, another the size of a grapefruit and some vessels just wouldn't stop bleeding. There is nothing like facing your own mortality while you're laying in a pool of your own blood that your body can't stop squirting out (yes, I could feel each pump) for no good reason, waiting for the doctors to do something about it. I had three units of blood transfused, a unit of plasma, and an emergency hysterectomy in which everything but my ovaries were taken out. The sudden change and harsh reality was more brutal than the recovery it seemed. No one told me that fibroids could develop and be such assholes, and that is a hidden part of becoming menopausal. Ladies, if the sh!t doesn't add up down there, go see someone sooner than later and save yourself some bother.

As a side note, I had to take prednisone for two years when I developed lupus in my late 20s. Prednisone was a necessary evil to control (and help right) the lupus symptoms that were debilitating me, and I completely commiserate with you about the symptoms it causes. The mood swings were crappy, the hunger cravings: ravenous, and I utterly hated that my mind was revving so high and my body lagging behind. It made me feel like a mad person.

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