Death by Menstrual Cycle.

Ouch.

Is a flippin' understatement.

It's times like these that I have to remind myself that I wanted a period. I didn't want to add hormones to my body. I didn't want to buy control pills and a pregnancy test every month. And on the off chance that I found myself wanting to get pregnant I like that I can just have the IUD removed, and voila - ready to rock.

Oh yes, I wanted to be natural me.

Most months, that's cool. I have a PMS day I can handle, and a few heavy menstrual days that are mostly an inconvenience and a great excuse to eat steak.

This month, a little less with the PMS handling, and a lot more with the ouch. Of course, if I had ACTUALLY PUT THE TYLENOL I BOUGHT WEEKS AGO INTO MY FLIPPIN' PURSE, this would be less of an issue. Not that I took the Pain-Aid that lives in my desk drawer at work. I was thinking about Tylenol all day, but somehow it didn't even occur to me that I had Pain-Aid until right before I left for the place where the Tylenol currently lives, so I waited. Sigh.

Not that I've taken it anyway. Not liking pills is yet another thing that got me into this pain.

No, all I've wanted to do all weekend is curl up in bed with my boyfriend. He came over for dinner Sunday night, after working out of town all weekend, and this week he's busy, I'm busy. It's funny, I know I've read that some women just want to be left alone when Aunt Flo's being a bitch, but I find myself instead feeling horribly clingy. Except he's not here to cling to.

Sunday night he tentatively (which was actually quite funny/sweet) asked if my upset the week prior could possibly be PMS. Well, Yeah, I said. I have this one day a month I can feel it. Usually I manage just fine.

I should have known right there that if the PMS day was so not good it was noticeable, the PM part of PMS was not going to be good.

Ouch.

Is a FLIPPIN' UNDERSTATEMENT.

Dude, girl, go take the damn Tylenol.

I wonder if he thinks nothing I say this week matters because he knows I have my period. That's not fair, you know. It's like, if someone has a cold, or a headache, or stress, or whatever, that's one thing, but period pain is just something to be blown off, or if you admit that you're having a bad day because of it then you're a lesser being or something. We women must be perfect all the time you know, or we're lesser beings.

Not that he said any of that; I just totally made that up in my head.

But searching for related blog posts I read a lot of "PMS isn't an excuse" and "PMS doesn't give me an excuse to lash out

." Um, YES, pain is most certainly an excuse to lash out. Perhaps better to try not to, but when someone's in serious pain, CLEARLY, they are not going to be pleasant. Deal with it. I don't expect someone with a cold or the flu to be exceptionally pleasant. I don't feel good, and it doesn't make me happy.

I WANT A HUG, DAMMIT.

OK, I took the stupid Tylenol.

Comments

Consider your self hugged

I do indeed recall bad cramps and bad PMS, and curling up in pain and bitching. Not fun. But I would trade to get it all back and happily give up the day when I was 31 and my GYN said the words "cancer" and "complete hysterectomy" and "never be able to have children" to me. Pain is relative, I guess. But I do recall mentally computing the number of periods left until probable menopause. I was just waaaay overestimatingt that. So, be careful what you wish for, as they say.

Yep, periods suck.

Sometimes not having them sucks, too. Feel free to hug right back :-)

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs relentlessly at Time's Fool

Submitted by Mata H on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 03:51

Thank you for your perspective.

I definitely would prefer to have periods than not have them. Sigh.

Hugs all around!

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

Submitted by Liz Rizzo on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 10:16

I hear ya

I too have an IUD and I too thought, "This is a miracle. No pills? A period that may disappear after one year? Huzzah!" But boy was I wrong. The PMS is fine, but the cramping is unbearable--a horrible, "Psycho"-inspired stabbing requiring some serious narcotic aid. I've had cramps before but never like this. If someone had told me it would be this bad I never would have believed them, because unless you've experienced it you just don't know. So that's the point here: Don't judge a woman until you've walked a mile in her stilettos. PMS is different for everyone, some worse than others. I guess you could say that PMS is not an EXCUSE to be bitchy, but it gives good reason as to why the madness rages. So "when Aunt Flo is being a bitch" (LOL!) everyone can just back the hell off!

Just the Way It Is - A laugh, an epiphany, a like-minded soul

Submitted by lizzen on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 06:03