Just when you think you're starting to figure out this whole perimenopause/menopause thing... WHAM! It throws new and exciting surprises into the works for you.
For example, you may discover that you now spot for days and days before your period starts. Or for several days as it ends. Spotting around ovulation (whenever that might be) is also common.
Shorter cycles. Longer cycles. Cycles that are of no discernible pattern whatsoever.
Recently, I had a cycle that was sixty-three days from the start of one period to the next. I'm not gonna lie - I was kind of excited to go so long without a period and hoped this meant that things were finally starting to wind down.
Then... I spotted for ten days. Yes, you read that right. Ten days! Then nothing for a couple of days. I left for vacation thinking it was all over with. Only to be hit on the second day of vacation with one of the heaviest flows I have ever experienced. Because nothing says "happiest place on earth" like making an emergency run to Walgreens and having to make a bathroom stop every one to two hours.
When that finally ended, I thought "ok, at least I shouldn't have to deal with it again for a while".
Wrong!!
Because from the start of the spotting to the start of my next period was twenty-four days. Which if you're counting (I hope you aren't), means I had exactly seven days between the end of that period until the next one started!
That cycle lasted a whooping nineteen days. And that gave me a total of three periods in about a month and a half.
This latest cycle is now on day twenty-four. And who knows what's going to happen with it. Will it be ending soon? Will it go on for another month?
It's anybody's guess at this point!
Oh I'm so sorry! These sound like mine: crazy and unpredictable. I'm well on the other side and I can tell you this is familiar to me. Everything was going on as normal and then one month... nothing. Nothing the next month and the next. I figured I was done, woohoo! And then six months after my last cycle, boom! Out of nowhere a very hard and painful cycle. And another. They lasted longer or shorter than normal, then one month... nothing again. It went on like this for about 2 years. Aagghh!! By the time I finally went to the doctor she said if she put me on any meds it would take me right back to the beginning and I'd start menopause all over again. No thank you! And then the hot flashes began. Sitting at my computer at work - whoosh! Heat coming from the inside of me would cause me to start sweating. I finally bought myself a hand-held paper fan and would drink ice water and fan myself until it stopped. Usually just a few minutes. From start to finish mine lasted about 3 years. And now, I can tell you the other side is GLORIOUS! I promise it will all be worth it!
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