50!

[boxofdelights]

I got flowers, chocolate, a balloon, a phone call from my daughter who is trying to get her visa in order for a trip to Russia, a very nice dinner out with my husband and son.

I wish I could also have some pause in the old meno. (I have decided not to cut-tag for gross. I have heard the argument that I should treat disgust at menses as kindly as I would arachnophobia, and I am sorry, but for my own well-being I need to reject every way I was taught to feel shame at having a female body. No hard feelings toward anyone who decides to stop reading what I write, for any reason.) I don't even understand how this is happening. I'd have thought the uterine lining needed some time to build up before it began shedding again, but I've been bleeding from August 6 to August 29, then September 5 to September 22, then October 6 to 15, and October 20 to who knows. And most of those days have involved chunks and containment vessel failures.

I've been doing this for forty years already. I am so done.

Comments

[firecat]

I hope your second half century is awesome.

I had that kind of meno in my early 40s and I became anemic. Fortunately the treatment didn't require taking the whole thing out.

[hobbitbabe]

kightp gave me the expression "meno-fast-forward" for what you're describing. My situation isn't quite as troublesome as yours, especially now that I'm not on the heavy-duty blood thinning medication, but I can definitely identify. And I now know how to spot-clean the carpet.

Oh, and welcome to the decade!

[muninnhuginn]

Happy birthday!

(And thank you for doing a bit of menstrual taboo-breaking. It's needed.)

[seascribble]

You don't know me so, uh, it might be weird for me to comment, but my ma's in her mid 40's and when she started bleeding 2 or three weeks out of every four, her doc okay'd her to have it handled surgically (with an ablation of the lining). FWIW?

[amaebi]

Oh, man, I've had only one of those month-long periods, and I do feel for you. Mostly it's just that every period is apocalyptically copious and painful now. The hymn "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood" is a pretty terrible hymn, but I keep intending to learn the first bit just to sing on appropriate occasions.

Ahem.

Happy birthday and many happy returns!

[kalmn]

Happy birthday bestest you'

[redbird]

Happy birthday!

[redbird]

My idea of being considerate of arachnophobia in this context would be similar to what you've done here wrt menstrual bleeding: no photos not behind a cut tag, and this sort of phrasing where the person is warned of what's coming, not "So I met my friend for dinner at the SPIDERS! Big TARANTULAS! local Chinese restaurant, and we had a nice chat about our jobs and solved SPIDERS! the world's problems."

[isis]

I sympathize on the meno non pausing, because I (at what, six weeks older than you?) am in a similar (yet different) boat. My periods are also aperiodical, less frequent than before but they last longer. I just want it to stop. I'm not using this uterus, I'm tired of it, and it might as well settle down and quit bleeding.

(and happy birthday!)

[wordweaverlynn]

Happy birthday! May the year be filled with joy.

As for menopause. AS FOR MENOPAUSE. I'm four years older than you, and I'm still awaiting that magic year of living bleedlessly. The floods of my early 50s are gone, and the hot flashes are less frequent now. Maybe someday it will end. (Note icon.)

[jesse_the_k]

Many many congratulations, and if I could magic away your uterus rest assured I would, tout suite.

(I went the surgical route because mangled ovary, and now I can have detailed conversations about hormones! There's always something female to ponder and share.)

[bibliofile]

A couple of days late, happy birthday!!! And may your body finish this transition smoothly and speedily, because really.