I’ve had one period in a year.

I used to hate my periods. They are so heavy, I go through jumbo pad after pad. I don’t like tampons, so I always feel like I’m wearing an actual nappy. I can’t wear the clothes I like and I have to sleep on a towel. My periods also last about a week, so I’m in a bad mood and feel disgusting for about a quarter of the month.

I used to run a couple of pill packets together, when I was on birth control, so I wouldn’t have as many withdrawal bleeds a year – so every two or three months, I’d have a ‘fake period’. That worked okay for me, even though I would still complain the entire time.

In March 2019, I had a health scare, which meant I needed to stop taking my pill immediately. I had toyed with the idea of coming off the pill eventually and had watched Hannah Witton’s YouTube series The Hormone Diaries, which had definitely put a few ideas in my head. Instead of making the choice for myself, however, I was thrown in at the deep end and was told to stop taking my birth control pill immediately. In a way, I’m glad it gave me the push to come off birth control, because fear of the unknown would have held me back for another couple of years, I’m sure. I had been on the pill since I was 18 years old.. 10 years! That is a very long time to be putting hormones into your body every single day.

I have a terrible memory, but I can definitely remember what my periods were like before I was on the pill – even heavier than they were on the pill, every two or three weeks, even longer than they last for now. They were horrible, so being able to control my periods with birth control was a dream come true!

I expected that when I stopped my pill, my periods would come back immediately, at full force, heavy and often. I had read online that periods usually come back, after stopping the pill, in one to three months. I had my usual withdrawal bleed from the pill.. and then I waited.

I waited and I waited.

228 days after I stopped the pill, I had my first real period in 10 years, 207 days longer than a usual cycle.

This series will explore my journey, through endocrinologist appointments, ovary scans, tests and appointments, towards my diagnosis of polycystic ovaries and my trials of different medications to get my periods back.

See you soon for part two.. ♡

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