Giant not-ovulating follie on Femara - wth?

[maidentomother]

How full was the tampon? I'm always suspicious of 'flow' after a BM bc it can make what's actually just spotting gush out in a misleading manner. Fx your AF stays away!

Also, does your AF usually start at a certain time of day? Mine almost always starts in the am, usually just before I wake up but latest by noon.

[LacePrincess]

How full was the tampon? I'm slways suspicious of 'flow' after a BM bc it can make what's actually just spotting gush out in a misleading manner. Fx your AF stays away!

Not at all. The 'flow' was a small gush of bright red into the toilet when I was having the bm, and then I had to leave for dance so I just put a tampon in. When I went to take it out later that evening it was bone dry and hurt pulling out, and just had some blood up the side but no more than my heavy spotting days that I have at the tail end of my period.

I definitely am not preggo though, tested stark white BFN this morning plus my temp dropped and I'm cramping this morning, so full on AF should be here later today. It does extend my LP by an extra day though which is good, plus I don't have to trek to the damn clinic again today which is even better! LOL

[maidentomother]

Very happy for every extra LP day! I know how precious even one more day is. And ugh, I abhor removing not-full tsmpons, it's so uncomfortable.

[LacePrincess]

Urgh, this is the crampiest AF ever. I wonder if it's the Femara, or if it's because it's the first time in a long time I've had a 'normal' level of progesterone so there's a lot of functional lining to shed?

In any case the cramps are kicking my butt. And the flow ain't really starting either, soooooo crampy but flow is medium at best, arghhh.....I feel like jumping up and down if it would help rattle the stuff loose, LOL....

I'm taking a break from temping this month too. The thermometer is just stressing me out to the point where I can't even sleep properly. With the scans and bloodwork at the clinic they'll know what's going on, and my RE was encouraging me to quit temping for my own state of mind. I think I agree. My CM/CP always told me O better than temps anyhow.

[maidentomother]

Big hugs...I have awful cramps but much worse some months, and yes, it does coincide with heavier bleeding. I wish I'd marked my 2 REALLY bad months (so bad that on CD1 not even a cocktail of strong drugs including injections touched the pain) so I could see if there was a pattern in my charts. Maybe those were hyper O months and your idea about more P is right. P does cause cramping so I wouldn't be surprised.

[LacePrincess]

Gosh, I don't have it as bad as you did! Yikes, maiden!! I'm still functional, just that I was used to pretty much NO cramping the past year or so.....but maybe that was due to practically being anovulatory with very poor O and shitty prog, hence easy AF's.

I'll take the pain if it means good things!

It's just annoying though, very crampy and flow not picking up.....it's still just a medium today so I'm kinda annoyed by that....I wish it would get flowing already, LOL.

[maidentomother]

I rarely have medium flow anymore, maybe for a few hours on CD1...the rest is light flow. I'm kinda jealous! I hope now that I'm not swaying I'll see heavier AFs. Strange to WANT that, but glad I'm not alone.

Most months, like 90%, it's only on CD1 that I have trouble functioning, and some months I can function. Keep in mind this is on high dose ibuprofen + opiates. I used to not be able to tolerate ibuprofen, I'd throw it up instantly, but since I began tolerating it 10 years ago my pain has been MUCH better controlled. Thankfully I've only had 2 really bad AFs in 20 years, but yeah, I just screamed & cried for hours. My poor BFs at the time were very distressed!

[LacePrincess]

Gosh that sounds horrible!

I'm finally hitting heavy flow now, so, yay, LMAO. I'm glad it was on a weekend so I can just lie around and complain.....

My flow has been fairly heavy-ish in the past year but my AF has been fairly short. Like, 4 days including light/spotting on either end. As a teen and in my twenties, I used to get 5-6 day AF so I'd actually appreciate a longer AF funny as that sounds. For me at least I do think shortening AF indicated a problem.

I usually use Ibuprofen too, Tylenol doesn't do a thing for cramps. But not even ibuprofen was helping yesterday, I had to switch to Aleve.

[maidentomother]

It was bad but both incidents were in college and pre-ibu tolerance, so I think I probably won't have another extreme AF now that I can take ibu. Here in Germany they formulate ibu with lysine to make it gentler on the stomach, so now I can even take that kind on an empty stomach with zero discomfort. I'm sooooo grateful!

Nothing except ibu + opiates ever helped my cramps. That's very interesting to me that this month naproxen worked but ibu didn't! I wonder why. Tylenol is completely worthless as a painkiller IMO, I've never found it useful for anything. And combined with opiates as it often is it mskes my nausea worse. I hate it!

I feel the same, I don't like any significant changes to my AF and worry about what they could mean. Since swaying my AFs have gotten shorter & lighter over time. The months I had only 2 days of light flow disturbed me especially. Fx we both see a return to our norms.

I hope your cramping is better today?

[LacePrincess]

Yes it's better so far, but the floodgates have opened! LOL I'm sooooo grateful it's the weekend. Alas my bloat this AF is unbelievable. Up like 3lbs over the last two days. YIKES!!!! I know it's bloat but still so unpleasant to see on the scale!!