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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Miss Scarlett isn't behaving herself

First up, some of these euphemisms for getting your period are hilarious! Second, yes, that's what I'm talking about today: my period.

I guess that might be a little strange considering this is CD10 and Aunt Flo is still a good 2+ weeks away, but I've been having a problem with my periods since the miscarriage. No, it's not what you're thinking. They're not irregular or crazy heavy or anything like that. Instead, they've been getting shorter. And lighter. My periods are starting to disappear.

Now, it's normal for your period to be a bit wonky after a miscarriage - they can take several cycles to really stabilize - and they also often change as you get older. So under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be worried...but mine is getting progressively shorter and lighter. If I had a normal period, then a light one, then a normal one again, I wouldn't think twice about it, but it is literally a day shorter and significantly lighter every single time.* If they keep going the way they are, in a few cycles I'm not going to have a period at all - a bit of a problem when you're trying to make a baby!
So today I went to see my doctor and discuss the situation with her. I was a little worried that she'd dismiss it as me just being overly concerned, but she agreed that because it's steadily shortening and growing lighter, it could definitely become a problem in the future. She decided to do a PCOS screen and to check my progesterone levels - I have to go back in 11 days to get the bloodwork done, as the bloodtest is done on CD21, aiming for the midway point between ovulation and the start of a new cycle.

When I was searching online before my doctor visit, Google had come up with the idea of taking baby aspirin to help with short/light periods while TTC, so I asked my doc about that as well; she said that it's really only helpful if you either have multiple early miscarriages or have clotting issues. Taking aspirin can be problematic for a pregnancy, so she really only recommends it for women where the potential benefits - like not miscarrying early - outweigh the potential risks. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is going through something similar and is considering the aspirin as a solution - it's not suitable for everyone, so make sure you talk to your doctor before you start taking it, OK?


My doc also encouraged me to shed some pounds, as the heavier you get the lighter periods often tend to be - while I fully admit to being a chubster, I'm certainly not overweight enough to actually prevent me from getting knocked up, but every little bit that I can do might help. To that end, in addition to taking our two dogs for longer walks every day, and Mr Bibliosaur and I are embarking on a somewhat stricter diet; we eat pretty healthy food in general, but I suspect our portions are oversized, so that's the main focus of the changes we'll be making.

So while there were no quick fixes on offer, I'm glad I visited my doc to talk about it, and happy that we'll be able to either identify or rule out any potential problems (like PCOS). In the meantime, it's day three of FWP week, and the Bibliosaurs are going strong...so wish us luck that something will happen this cycle and all of this testing will be a moot point!

* If you're stalking my Fertility Friend chart, you're probably a bit confused by this, since it looks like this cycle had the same number of days as last cycle - however, the chart is a bit misleading since on the two days where I marked a light flow, it actually only lasted for half of each day - meaning that on the whole, the entire flow was only two days long.

3 comments:

  1. Hmmmmmmmm, that's troubling that your AF has decided to go on the fritz. I'm glad that your doctor is being proactive about everything, though. I hope there's nothing wrong and this is just a little blip in the radar. Sending you lots of baby dust this month.

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  2. I am glad you've discussed this with your doc. My other thought is that you haven't been off our BC implant very long so your cycles could be still affected by it.

    Kudos for making some lifestyle changes! I am sending you heaps of baby dust!

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  3. That should read YOUR BC implant...ARG!

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