Long period?? Please help!

jazzistar79 · 07-22-2008, 01:39 PM

Normally I consider myself very lucky if I get a period. I once lost a ton of weight doing the Atkins diet and I became as regular as clockwork. Unfortunately, those results weren't long term and slowly the weight came back and the periods stopped again. In many other dieting attempts in the past few years, I have noticed that upping my fiber or cutting out simple carbs will almost always be followed by a period, even if it has been months since the last one. In June, I started the month on a new diet that was low in simple carbs/sugar and I tried to get as close to 25-30g of fiber each day. After a couple of days of this, I got a pretty normal period. 5 days long, not much cramping. My period for this month was due on July 4th. I started spotting on July 2nd, and spotted for 2 days followed by 2 days with nothing. It started up again like a regulat period on July 7th and I have been bleeding since. Most days have been light or moderate. A few days have been heavy. The first week or so I was getting clots daily, but nothing abnormally large. Cramping has been pretty much non-existant. The lack of pain and cramping has prevented me from being overly concerned but at this point, I am tired of bleeding. I thought yesterday things were finally winding down and then this morning I woke up and my tampon was soaked to the bone so now it seems to be nowhere near ending. 22 days.

I am 29 years old and I am attending college so at the moment I am not working and I have no insurance, so I cannot afford to go to the doctor unless it is an absolute emergency. The hospital here has given me a waiver to allow me free ER visits for the next year, but because there is no pain or cramping I don't feel like it is an emergency. My great grandmother told me that she once had a period for 25 days, but she does not have PCOS. I have been researching online and it seems I have two options....1. Wait it out or 2. Go to a doctor and let them regulate my period with birth control. I don't want to go on birth control if it can be avoided. I have been on it before and we have tried different brands and everytime I have gone on it I have rapidly gained weight. I am just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and if I should be more concerned about it than I am. I would appreciate any advice or wisdom. Like I said, normally I consider myself lucky to have a period at all, so this is a whole new experience for me.

eddymds5 · 07-22-2008, 02:07 PM

hello! Ive had periods as long as 10 weeks and thats with only one overy.
Eventuly i went to the doctor and they gave me some pills i had to take twice a day for i think it was 3 days and i finaly quit.When i was going into eight grade in fact it was the day before school started,I woke up with escruceating pain in my left side.Went to the er and nobody knew what it was after about 9 hours of testing and lots and lots of pain meds i was on my way to the operating room for emergency surgery.I had a cycst on my left overy that was the size of a graprfruit and it had actuly had fliped my overy over and cut off the blood supply.So now i have one overy and its covered with cycst.

My suggestion is to go to your gyn if you have one and see what they say.All the best of luck

OliviaLeigh · 07-22-2008, 02:13 PM

I've had 6 month bleeds before - no fun, so I am sorry you are dealing w/ this.

Bleeding like that could be a sign of something serious but I don't know your situation. I had a friend bleed abnormally b/c of an ectopic pregnancy (which is very dangerous). Then I've had a D&C and hysteroscopy b/c of non stop bleeding and everything was normal. There are a lot of variants the dr will look at to determine how serious your bleeding is.

How much bleeding are you experiencing? How often do you have to change like a regular tampon, etc? (That always seems to be the big question!)

jazzistar79 · 07-22-2008, 02:24 PM

Well, the bleeding has varied but for the most part it has been mostly light, this morning has been the first sign of anything very heavy. I soaked a regular tampon overnight but since I have gotten up it has not been all that heavy. Most of the time I will wear a regular tampon for 6 or 7 hours before changing it and it is not overly full.

I have just been in the mindset that as long as I am not in pain or cramping, then it probably isn't anything to worry about. I don't know if that is accurate.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I had read about ectopic pregnancies and I took a pregnancy test just to be safe despite the bleeding, and it was negative, so that was a relief.

disney01 · 07-22-2008, 02:57 PM

HI, I myself have been having long periods. I started on 6/16 and have not stopped. On thursday I went to the Dr and he gave me a RX for Provera. My Dr said that for me the reason why I have been bleeding forever (or so it seeems) is because I haven't had a period in so long. I also didn't have really any cramping at all, about the only time I did was when I had either just released a large blood clot or about to.
Please keep us updated on whether you decide to go to the ER. Good Luck!!!

OliviaLeigh · 07-22-2008, 03:02 PM

Doesn't sound like you are bleeding out of control, just like a regular day 3 of period. My dr has also suggested I switch to pads, not tampons, when I bleed non stop. It wears everything out down there. So maybe try a pad at night to see if it lets up some? If you bleed too long, it will become painful - it will run out of lining and it will be painful (that is why I ended up having to see a dr years ago actually!)

Do you know if you usually ovulate? Have you ovulated? Your hormones could just be out of whack. Are you under a lot of stress? Have you recently quit any medication?

I'm glad you took a pregnancy test!

jazzistar79 · 07-22-2008, 03:26 PM

Stress? Oh yes...and this is sort of what I thought it was because I read that this month's period is affected by last month's stress and last month my boyfriend of 2 and a half years and I broke up and then there was some issues with my school loan. I didn't eat for about 3 days and then ate very lightly for a week after. I wasn't sleeping good either. This was my first thought as to why it was so out of wack.

I was taking Metformin, but for the last year I have been on and off of it due to not remembering to take it and never had this kind of reaction. This last time I was taking Metformin along with a prenatal vitamin, vitamin B12, chromium, and vitamin C. I am pretty bad at remembering to take pills so I didn't take these for more than a couple of weeks. I read recently that B12 can help with hormones and would like to get back on the vitamins but I am afraid to get on anything until the bleeding stops.

Do you think I could go to the ER for this? I just don't feel like it's an emergency since there is no pain or cramping. Would they even know what to do there? You know how hard it can be to find people with knowledge of PCOS. It may be my only option though but I may wait a couple of more days as long as I continue to be in no pain.

Misfit777 · 07-22-2008, 03:55 PM

Are you still really watching your carbs? I had long periods for a few years until I started really restricting my carbs. Then they seemed to get better even though I didn't lose much weight. Even if you just have to cut down really low just until you stop. It might be worth a try.

jazzistar79 · 07-22-2008, 04:06 PM

Actually, I haven't been watching my carbs much at all. After dealing with a break up and stuff I got way off track. Do you think that might help? Normally when I watch carbs I get a period, so I have been trying to eat just regular stuff in hopes of maybe it stopping. I never thought about it maybe having the adverse affect and actually stopping a period. Before June, I hadn't had a period at all in a few months, is it possible I am just catching up? I failed to mention that at first, when all this started the discharge was a dark brownish color, which I assume was old blood. I have seen this brownish blood again a few days ago as well, so I assumed that maybe I was catching up some.

disney01 · 07-22-2008, 04:16 PM

April,
Everything you have said sounds just like what I have been having...

jazzistar79 · 07-22-2008, 04:20 PM

I am glad I am not alone, Disney LOL. Are you worried? Honestly, I am just not that worried about it, annoyed yes, but I feel like if something was WRONG then I would feel something, pain, cramping, anything but I really don't. Maybe I should be more worried but so far I haven't heard anything that I think could be wrong other than stress. And especially now, knowing that other women experience this, it just kinda seems like one of those joys of PCOS things.

OliviaLeigh · 07-22-2008, 04:21 PM

Yea sounds like you probably have thick lining. Def want to get that lining out - not healthy for it to thicken.

mtbeacongrl · 07-22-2008, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzistar79

Normally I consider myself very lucky if I get a period. I once lost a ton of weight doing the Atkins diet and I became as regular as clockwork. Unfortunately, those results weren't long term and slowly the weight came back and the periods stopped again. In many other dieting attempts in the past few years, I have noticed that upping my fiber or cutting out simple carbs will almost always be followed by a period, even if it has been months since the last one. In June, I started the month on a new diet that was low in simple carbs/sugar and I tried to get as close to 25-30g of fiber each day. After a couple of days of this, I got a pretty normal period. 5 days long, not much cramping. My period for this month was due on July 4th. I started spotting on July 2nd, and spotted for 2 days followed by 2 days with nothing. It started up again like a regulat period on July 7th and I have been bleeding since. Most days have been light or moderate. A few days have been heavy. The first week or so I was getting clots daily, but nothing abnormally large. Cramping has been pretty much non-existant. The lack of pain and cramping has prevented me from being overly concerned but at this point, I am tired of bleeding. I thought yesterday things were finally winding down and then this morning I woke up and my tampon was soaked to the bone so now it seems to be nowhere near ending. 22 days.

I am 29 years old and I am attending college so at the moment I am not working and I have no insurance, so I cannot afford to go to the doctor unless it is an absolute emergency. The hospital here has given me a waiver to allow me free ER visits for the next year, but because there is no pain or cramping I don't feel like it is an emergency. My great grandmother told me that she once had a period for 25 days, but she does not have PCOS. I have been researching online and it seems I have two options....1. Wait it out or 2. Go to a doctor and let them regulate my period with birth control. I don't want to go on birth control if it can be avoided. I have been on it before and we have tried different brands and everytime I have gone on it I have rapidly gained weight. I am just wondering if anyone else has gone through this and if I should be more concerned about it than I am. I would appreciate any advice or wisdom. Like I said, normally I consider myself lucky to have a period at all, so this is a whole new experience for me.

Don't rush. When I do get my period naturally (not through meds)... it last a while. When I take medication to get it, it sometimes lasts a month. I am currently on birth control and I've had spotting the entire time...since May...

This is the third type of BC that I have been on and they are going to be trying to put me on another try at BC ... at the same time we are trying to regulate to try to conceive.

I would say if you go more than 3 or 4 weeks make sure you do get checked out, and watch your iron, especially if you have a heavy flow. Do what makes you feel healthy.

jazzistar79 · 07-24-2008, 01:30 PM

Woke up this morning with mild cramping. I thought it was winding down again because of minimal bleeding yesterday, but this morning it was back with a vengeance.

I did some searching and can now say that before having a period this month and last month, it had been since January, so it's probably safe to say that there is some build up.

I also talked to my grandmother this morning about a completely unrelated matter but I brought up my issue and she told me it ran in the family...not PCOS, but cycle problems, bad periods, long periods etc. Whether or not it is actually PCOS, we will probably never know because her and my great grandmother had never heard of it but I would say it's pretty likely, although no one on that side of the family ever had fertility problems.

Is there something I could get on that would regulate my period that isn't birth control? I am very adamant about not wanting to be on birth control, simply because one, it makes me gain weight very quickly, and I am already overweight. Also because, I am 29 years old and even though I am not actively trying to conceive at the moment, I would not be disappointed if I just happened to ovulate one month and end up pregnant and if I am on birth control I may miss that opportunity and who knows if it will happen again. I remember when I was a teenager, I had to be taken off bc because my blood pressure was high, and instead she gave me something else, you took a pill a day for 10 days and got your period but it wasn't bc.

All I know is, I am getting to a point now where maybe I should see someone and make sure things are okay...24 days of bleeding with no end in sight is starting to bother me.

mtbeacongrl · 07-25-2008, 02:16 PM

I totally understand! I had this very conversation with my doctor not too long ago. Her answer was no. I have looked into some alternatives. My chiropractor is trying a technique called the Webster method that is supposed to have good results helping women ovulate, but if your funds are tight and with no health insurance that can get expensive quickly. My thought is that accupuncture may help but my insurance doesn't cover accupunture so whether or not it would work is just an assumption at this point.

I have a friend with PCOS who was told to look into a product called Basic Detox Nutrients by a company called Thorne. She said that it regulated her a bit and that she got prego pretty quickly. However she was blessed with an over active thyroid and her missed periods went 2 - 3 months at most. The website for the products warns against usage if prego but if you aren't looking for that right now it might work for you. However I have asked a few sources other than my friend and no one has heard about this product one way or another.

I do not like the whole taking meds to do what I am supposed to do, and it seems unfair that the PCOS causes weight gain by having your hormones out of whack and then those same hormones store themselves in the very same fat. I have not been able to get my period naturally in years and today I seem to be quite bitter about it.

Extra bleeding shouldn't be too unexpected because you have extra lining. And really if you go to the doctors they are going to tell you that you need to shed that lining. I would just make sure that you keep on top of your iron and if it goes too long for your comfort that you might want to get checked out to put your mind at ease. I also often have where it goes away and then comes back for a few days. So hopefully you are at the end of the journey...