Living with heavy periods

by 

At the end of September I attended a blogging conference. Now I realise this is a weird way to start given the title of this post. What does a blogging conference have to do with periods? Well at that conference I met the lovely people from Wear White Again. During the day they were offering free manicures to help promote the hashtag #aminumber5. I was lucky enough to get my nails done, which was actually my first ever time! I love them.  They were there to bring awareness of the fact that 1 in 5 women in the UK suffer from heavy periods. That’s up to 20% of us which is a lot!

I am one of those. 

Periods are one of those topics that people don’t discuss enough. If I were to ask you do you discuss your periods with your friends/family/partner I’m going to guess most of you will say no. I imagine we all get them, Ever since I started getting my periods way back in the late 90’s they have been heavy. As a teen I would miss school due to them. I’ve also missed work due to them. Even now as a parent there are days when I struggle to function, which is hard when you have a small child depending on you. Slightly tmi but when I have my period I have to sleep with a towel under me otherwise I would be forever buying new bed sheets.

Not enough people talk about this. I know that there will be people who have probably already stopped reading this post. I’ve never mentioned them before on here. Partly because I figured it was just life you know. So what if I have heavy periods. Growing up my doctor told me to get on with it and deal with it.

So I figured it must be normal.

Now again this might be too much information but I have to share it. I can still remember when I was in school, it was during a gym class. We were all sat on mats waiting to be told what to do and as I moved I noticed blood on the mat underneath me. Quickly I tried to wipe it away before anyone else noticed. Trying to hide it but I knew I needed to leave the class and change my pad I had in. I pretended I had cut my foot and was told to visit the nurse for a plaster. I didn’t have a spare pair of knickers or gym trousers so I tried to clean everything up as best I could, changed my pad and went back to class. But not before I had to lie to the nurse for a plaster.

At age 14/15 I was already aware that it wasn’t normal to be changing a sanitary pad every 2-3 hours. However my doctor insisted it was so I just carried on. The pain is always the worst part of having periods for me. Sometimes it can get so bad I’m actually sick. It’s funny because when I gave birth the midwife commented on the fact I cope with pain well. I guess I’ve had lots of practice.

6 signs of heavy periods

  1. Heavy blood loss
  2. Anemia
  3. Bleeding between periods
  4. Fatigue
  5. Prolonged periods
  6. Blood clots during your period

If you have any/most of those then please go and see your GP. There is some really useful information on the Wear White Again site I linked to at the beginning of this post. I know realise that it isn’t normal that I feel sick from the pain I get. Or that I can’t move for a day or 2 when I have my period. I also have anemia and am on iron tablets, plus I get incredibly tired.

I just wanted to add that this post isn’t sponsored or in any way a collaboration with Wear White Again. I just wanted to bring awareness of what they are doing. It’s something I feel very strongly about. As a mother one of my biggest worries is that my little girl will suffer the same as I do. I really hope she doesn’t and hopefully by the time she is old enough there will be better information out there. She won’t get told to just deal with it.

 

6 comments

  1. Thanks for such an honest and open post Ky. The things us women have to deal with! I am sure this will strike a chord with many reading this. It’s tough looking after little ones when you have pain or feel rotten from time of the month. Thanks for sharing x

  2. I had a great chat with the lovely people at Wear White Again and was treated to my nails done too. I think it’s such a taboo subject that women just accept and “get on with” but actually it can be so debilitating and it can stop people living their lives every single month. There needs to be more information and support out there so I really applaud you for sharing this Ky. Thanks for linking to #DreamTeam x

  3. My mummy needs to download the period diary as her GP is a bit rubbish believing her about her endo and heavy periods 🙁 It shouldn’t be that way. Its unfair that we should just ‘get on with it’ imagine if a bloke bled for the majority of the month!?! 😉

  4. It’s awful that you were told to get on with it! Did you decide to get another doctor’s opinion afterwards? Are you still dealing with the pain? I too would have days off because I was in so much pain. #DreamTeam

    1. No I never did. I just thought it was normal. I do still get the pain now, although some months are better than others.

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