My Period Vol.014 - When I was a student, I thought I was lucky to have a period that came only occasionally. My attitude towards menstruation has changed since giving birth.

KM, 43 years old, CEO, First period: 13 years old, first year of junior high school
Current average number of menstrual days: 5 days Current average menstrual cycle: 28 days Current menstrual products used: menstrual cup, napkins


-What day is your period?

The day I felt like I had arrived


-What image comes to mind when you hear the word "menstruation"?

Reset


- From here on, I'd like to look back on half of my life, focusing on menstruation. When was your first period? How do you remember it?

When I was in the first year of junior high school, I was at a relative's funeral and I noticed something that sounded like a period. I panicked and told my mom. She handed me a pad, and I put it on myself. It was a sudden event, and I had no choice but to accept it. I started menstruating late, so my mother didn't teach me how to put on a pad. I had learned the basics at school, so I think I used that knowledge to put it on. At first, I thought it was just my imagination because I only saw some brown spots, but I was mentally preparing myself for my period, and my mom was busy at the funeral, so she just handed it to me and that was it. I don't think they had any special red rice with rice or anything.


-What was your period like in middle school?

In fact, my period came and went for a few months after my first period, and then it stopped for another year and a half.
I think that's because I was on a diet and thin at the time. I was extremely diet-conscious, so I wasn't super skinny, but I was growing taller but not gaining weight. My parents probably didn't worry too much about my period not coming regularly, and they just thought it was normal for periods to be irregular when you're young.
However, I wondered if it was okay to not have my period for over a year, so my parents took me to an obstetrician-gynecologist when I was in my third year of junior high school. During the examination, the doctor asked me if I wanted to prescribe hormone medication, and prescribed some medicine. When I started taking the medicine, my period resumed, but when I stopped taking the medication, my period would stop again, and this happened several times.
So, when I was in junior high school, I hardly ever had a period, and I didn't think it was dangerous.In fact, I thought it was easy and lucky not to have a period.
However, once I started taking the medication prescribed by the hospital, my face started to swell as a side effect. I had been slim when I was in junior high school before taking the medication, but by the time I was in my first year of high school and started taking the medication, my face was swollen and puffy, even though my body was slim. Even now, I don't really like looking at photos from that time.

At the time, I was going to a gynecologist, so I was taking my basal body temperature regularly. I don't remember exactly, but I think the doctor told me that I was having anovulatory periods. That wasn't a good thing, so I started taking my basal body temperature and taking medicine.
It's always been like that in high school. I remember being given a notebook-like piece of paper to record my basal body temperature, and writing it down in pencil. I thought that having irregular periods and keeping track of my basal body temperature was just normal because I was in high school, and that it was the same for everyone.
That's because I never talked about menstruation with my friends.

I played soft tennis as part of my club activities, but I hardly ever had my period, and even when I did, the amount was so small that I didn't leak, and I never experienced period pain or PMS, so I didn't feel any discomfort.


How did that situation change?

By the time I was in university, my periods had gradually become more regular. However, when I was stressed or tired, my periods would become irregular, my cycle would be out of whack, and I felt like my menstrual flow would be light. At the time, my obstetrician-gynecologist told me, "Your uterus and ovaries are functioning normally, but you're just having a hormonal imbalance, so the medication is inducing your period so that you don't forget that function."

When I went to university, probably around the time I got a boyfriend, my hormone balance stabilized and my period started coming more often, but it still only came about once every two months. It wasn't a stable cycle every month, but I thought it would be okay as long as my period didn't stop completely.


-Has anything changed since you started working?

After I started working, my period would skip a month if I got tired, and it became more irregular than when I was a university student. By that time, I had been reading magazines and books and was getting a lot of information about menstruation and the body, so I realized that this was probably not normal. I thought I should go to the gynecologist again, so I went to the hospital several times. Each time, I was told that my uterus and ovaries were functioning normally, but that my hormone balance was out of whack. At that time, I was prescribed female hormone medication and Chinese herbal medicine, which I took.

After that, I started to worry that maybe my body wasn't able to get pregnant easily. I was married in my 20s and wanted to have a child, but my basal body temperature was low, my periods were irregular, and I thought maybe I wasn't ovulating properly. If that was the case, I thought maybe it would be difficult to have a baby, so I started going to the hospital regularly around the age of 30.

Around that time, I got pregnant naturally, but had a miscarriage, so I was prescribed a drug similar to an ovulation inducer and started pregnancy timing therapy based on measuring my basal body temperature. As a result, I was blessed with a child. It seems that I ovulated two eggs, and twins were born.


-Have you noticed any changes to your body since giving birth?

My menstrual cycle has become more regular since I gave birth. It feels like my body has been reset and is now in order. However, at the same time, my menstrual flow has increased and I've started to experience period pain.
As the amount of menstrual blood increased, it would penetrate my pants and leak, and I would be unable to walk home.For the first time, I started having problems due to the amount of blood being so heavy.
It made me wonder if everyone had been making the same mistakes since they were young. At the time, I was using night pads even during the day, and I would get rashes in the summer, which I found very depressing. At the same time, I felt conflicted, as I also wondered if I had finally developed a proper woman's body.

I wasn't on a relationship where we often talked about periods with my mother, but I vaguely remember her saying that her constitution changed after she gave birth, and I think what she meant by that was that her periods had become lighter rather than heavier. It's the opposite for me; my periods have become heavier since giving birth, so it really depends on the person.

Compared to many people undergoing infertility treatment, my treatment was short-term and only basic, but even so, when I was undergoing timing therapy, I felt like I had been reset, knowing that I didn't get pregnant again when my period came.
However, when I looked at my body from a bird's eye view, I began to think that hormones were released from the brain, and the uterus responded by functioning normally and releasing an egg. The fact that I got my period meant that implantation had not occurred, but it also gave me the feeling that the brain, uterus, and ovaries were all in balance, completing the entire cycle - a "reset."

Even so, my periods are still irregular, and I often experience irregular bleeding. The blood starts flowing again about a week after my period ends, and it feels like a small amount of blood continues for a long period of time. I sometimes think that this is just normal, but at my age, my female friends around me keep telling me to go to the hospital, so I go to the gynecologist again. I get a pelvic exam and tests there, but just like before, I'm told there's nothing wrong and it's just a hormonal imbalance. I'm in a situation where I need to go to the gynecologist at least once or twice a year to get a proper checkup.

When my period is short and I don't bleed afterwards, I feel like my uterus, ovaries and female hormones are all working well and in balance, and although the period itself is uncomfortable, I've started to feel grateful to my body, saying, "Good job, my body did a good job." And that's how I've gotten to where I am today.


-Looking back on your period, what do you think?

I think the way we perceive menstruation changes depending on our life stage. Also, when my daughter started her period last year, it made me look back on my own period at that time, and it felt like I was experiencing it with her all over again, which is quite interesting.
When I think about the fact that my period will end in a few years, I don't want to have to go through the same process all over again, but I think I might also feel a little lonely.

"My Period" aims to provide an opportunity to think about and talk about menstruation, an issue that is often hidden, by recording and sharing how people of various generations and backgrounds have dealt with it. It does not endorse any specific products, services, or methods of coping. The content posted is based on each person's personal experience, so if you have any symptoms that concern you, please consult a medical institution.