Warning- kinda graphic... do not read if it will offend you

The endo.... thread got me thinking and i was hoping someone could help me with this, give me some advice or something....

this might be kinda long but i feel like i need to go into a bit of details so HOPEFULLY!! someone can offer me some real help...

before i became pregnat when i was 18, my periods were pretty normal. yeah, i got SLIGHT pms and cramps, but not bad. when i was 18, i had an abortion (no, i would not do it again but lets not get into that here).... the day after my abortion, i experiencing blood clots that were dark purple/black the size of gulf balls. one after the other. i was in so much pain that i almost went to the E.R. (i didnt because i lived w. my mom and she didnt know about it)

for the next two to three years i didnt have health insurance so i didnt go to the doctor about this... but the first day or two of my period, would be so light that it wasnt even really there... but then, the next 2 to 3 days, id have blood clots... soak through a super-pad in less then an hour and be in so much PAIN!!! that i could hardly function at all during that time. then it would become light again....

a few yrs. ago, i went to the doctor, got anti-imflammatories that took away my cramps totally until the pill started kicking in. i still take the pill and i got get the clots or HORRIBLE cramps anymore.

however, now, i get SUCH bad pms from the pill.. i feel like im nuts for half of the month.

anyways, i feel like the pill is just masking the problem and i dont even know what the problem IS....how could the abortion have started this? and what do you think is wrong with me?

trust me... when i said the clots and pain were bad... and the heavy bleeding... i mean BAD!! i thought i was dying a few times....

thanks for reading this far and for any advice you might have. i REALLY apprieciatte it.

 

On the topic of heavy bleeding with clotting, have you talked to your doctor about this? Whoever you to go to for your pills would be a good one to ask. If s/he seems dismissive or doesn't seem to know much about such issues, find out if your school has a student health center. I have a really good doctor that I go to at the student health center here, tho there are some that I've refused to go back to (which is how I wound up always seeing the good one).

I have heard a lot of women mention that their cycles were completely changed by a pregnancy. Either they never had cramps before & now get them or they had severe cramps until getting pregnant & now don't, pms levels changed, heaviness of bleeding changed, etc. So there is always the chance that that's all it is.

On the topic of cramps/pill/pms/etc... I had severe cramps before I went on the pill, which hasn't gotten rid of them completely. On my first day, I would bleed really heavily, & it wasn't uncommon for there to be some clots in there. The first day was also when I cramped, it was so bad that the only thing that worked was enuf vicodin/darvocet/percocet/whatever I could get my hands on to knock my ass out. That was basically just a lost day, some months I couldn't even stand up straight. I talked to doctors, worried that something might be wrong. The best they could say is that some women are just unlucky in those terms.

When I decided to go on the pill, I mentioned that I had been on ortho tri-cyclen before & it turned me into a psycho-pms-bitch 29 days a month!!! So she put me on a mono-cyclic pill, which is supposed to be better for people who get pms-y from the pill. That just made me curl up in a ball & cry for a solid week every month. So I tried another pill with a lower dose of hormones... And on & on until like the 4th pill is actually not too bad. It doesn't knock out the cramps as much as the first one did, but I don't notice pms much anymore.

So, yeah, all that rambling to say talk to your doc & try a different pill with a different level of hormone! Oh, & my doc mentioned that B vitamins can help with the emotional side effects of the pill (I don't remember exactly how). I tried to go off of them a while back when I thought I found a pill that wouldn't fuck me up too bad, & let's just say I found out that they noticeably help reduce the pms emotional roller coaster!

 

could it have something to do with high estrogen levels in your body? I would seriously see a doctor about it right away.

 

my first impressions:
get off the pill. it's evil.
go see a naturopath.
ask your doc to test you for polycystic ovary syndrome.
and read this: http://www.westonaprice.org/women/natural_pms.html

 

thank you all for your help... i looked at that article a bit and im gonna print it out when i can get my printer working. once again, thanks to all three of you.

 

I had an abortion when I was twenty....I had the same problem. I was worried about it because there was SO much of it, all thick and gross, I called them about it and they told me it was normal....An abortion is a traumatic experience and they also don't usually get everything out so there's a lot of crap coming out of you, blood and leftover stuff. I'd much rather give birth to 50 kids then to go through that shit again.

I've got other kids though, and my period did change after them. I don't cramp as much anymore, but I do get sick now and I bleed alot more. B/C pills can also fuck up your cycle. I can't use them because they hurt me so much. It sounds like something you should definitely check out, but I wouldn't worry TOO much about it.

 

I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. And once a month, I feel like I'm going into labor, or that someone is stabbing my uterus. The pain has been so immense that I've passed out. I bleed so heavy some months that I can't leave from the house, afraid that I'm not going to have access to a bathroom quickly enough. I use a tampon and a super pad and it's still not enough.
P.C.O.S. really tears you up. Maybe you have it, but I doubt it if your periods and cycle was normal before the abortion. whatever the case, you need to speak with your physician. This could very well be a serious problem. Don't let it continue when it could very well be treatable right now!

holly

 

i also had an abortion, and shortly after the procedure i got on the shot (depo-provera) and i did not have a period for like a few months and then one night I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like i was about to give birth. it really felt like contractions.. i got up and went to the restroom and passed a clot the size of a small pancake (really nasty) after that everything was back to normal. i'm pretty sure that the cause of that was the fact that the clinic i visited (which had several, several woman in it) did not get everything out and it had been in there since that pregnancy..

 

you may be anemic- i have bad clots too and they are very painful adnd my internist- go see one of those- said it was because of anemia. its probably just a coincidence that it started after the abortion

 

Have you tried the period panties? They're disposable; kinda like Pull-Ups for menstruating womyn. No, they're not sexy, but better than crimson pants crotch!

 

I just stay home...And it's calmed down a bit since I moved away from my mom's...