MY PERIOD IS RUINING MY PROGRESS

This is why women shouldn't be in the military!!!!

Or vote!

The 20th century was a real step back in my opinion!

Atleast you get your period predictably every month.. imagine if you didn't know when it was coming! Eating a little bit extra before your period isn't a big deal.. but it really depends on what you are eating. You'll survive

Or, you know, the fact that if you live in the developed world, we blame all unwanted behavior on "hormones" and that "time of the month" because somehow, if it's unavoidable, then it's socially ok to be short with people, overeat, not exercise, fail to meet obligations and otherwise engage in behavior that we couldn't easily excuse.

Your period is not a free pass or an excuse. Like the girls who skipped gym class a week every month in middle school, all it does is embolden the rest of the population to not take you seriously, and worse, to not take other women seriously.

Eat badly, treat others badly, exercise, don't exercise, but don't blame your hormones or your uterus - neither are running the show. Your brain runs the show, and it makes choices. Own them.

While it's true that perhaps 40% of women (not the majority or all!) have used their period as an excuse (http://jezebel.com/5953440/almost-40-of-women-use-their-period-as-an-excuse-to-get-out-of-lame-things), there's no way for a stranger to know the actual medical status of any given women. Words like "PMS" are indeed thrown around lightheartedly, but it's also true PMS, PMDD, and other menstrual disorders are actual medical syndromes that can have severe symptomology and that many suffer deeply with them. I'm an optimist, so I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt

PMS is not a disorder. PMDD is a disorder, but for those who suffer from it, eating is commonly the last thing on their minds. Early in college I helped with a study on women with PMDD and most of them had more trouble keeping food down/in and in being able to function at all outside of bed. They certainly weren't roving about complaining and using it as an excuse.

Personally, I've dealt with much of the spectrum of female gynecological malaise. I would never demean that or women that truly suffer by claiming my period made me behave a certain way and interestingly, neither did any of those women.

EXCUSE me? Please tell me why women with PMDD can not function? I suffered from PMDD and let me tell you, it was not a physical illness but a mental one.(and that is why I was prescribed Lexapro) Now the fibriods I had, THAT made me not be able to function and lead to me getting a hysterectomy at 42 years old.

Not all periods are created equal. I know people that do not have a minutes problem with theirs, then there are people that are unable to sit up right for the first 3 days. No one woman can tell another how to handle her period, because they do not experience the same types of things.

I'm so hungry becuase of my period that I just ate a bowl of raisins and granola. For dinner all I had was some chicken, a small salad with light ranch dressing and water. I've barely eaten much but cereal bars today so will this set me back? I've been doing so well I just get so hungry when I'm on it. PLEASE HELP IM GOING CRAZY

Am I crazy or does that sound like a SMALL amount of food?? What is your age, height, weight, daily caloric intake? You haven't provided much information for anyone to offer advice.

Periods are a part of life...all women get them and probably all get cravings during them. You just need to make sure there is a healthy balance of calories and exercise. Exercise can help cramps so that's a benefit too.

This is why women shouldn't be in the military!!!!

Ummm....as a former military woman, I take offense to this comment. Not all women are created equal, is what I say!

OMG seriously?!?

When you get hormonal related cravings, try eating protein-rich foods, not foods with sugar and white flour. The sugar and white flour increases cravings by causing a temporary spike in blood sugar followed by a drop, which makes people ravenous. Protein-rich foods, on the other hand, decrease cravings because they don't cause spikes in blood sugar.

Try reading the South Beach Diet book as it explains all of this. The South Beach Diet recommends doing phase 1 for two weeks to cut out cravings. This means cutting out sugar and white flour for two weeks. I know it cut out cravings for me. Maybe you could try that. You can also read the Sugar Smart Diet, put out by Prevention magazine, as it has the same emphasis on cutting cravings.

I was 51 years old, post-menopausal and in a wheelchair when I lost 126 pounds. If I can do it, anyone can.

EXCUSE me? Please tell me why women with PMDD can not function? I suffered from PMDD and let me tell you, it was not a physical illness but a mental one.(and that is why I was prescribed Lexapro) Now the fibriods I had, THAT made me not be able to function and lead to me getting a hysterectomy at 42 years old.

Not all periods are created equal. I know people that do not have a minutes problem with theirs, then there are people that are unable to sit up right for the first 3 days. No one woman can tell another how to handle her period, because they do not experience the same types of things.

I can't tell you that because I did not assert that was the case. I wrote: "I helped with a study on women with PMDD and most of them had more trouble keeping food down/in and in being able to function at all outside of bed." These were women with some of the most severe PMDD, selected for the study for that particular purpose. From the scores of women diagnosed PMDD we weeded out, it was quite apparent how overdiagnosed the disorder was, for a variety of reasons. That, unfortunately, did not get better when medications specifically developed for PMDD were introduced to the market - it got worse. The most unfortunate part of that was that women who could have been legitimately treated for their mental disorder were just tossed a pill, as were women who did not have the disorder.

And, yes a significant case of fibroids is far more disabling for most women other gynecological disorders. You were actually pretty fortunate if you did not need a hysterectomy until your forties, though having lived through fibroids myself, you never really feel "fortunate."

Gah, unless you have a legitimate medical reason, which some women really do, for example endometriosis, or PMDD, there is NOTHING that should change about your eating or exercise habits when you have your period. It's going to happen roughly 400 times in your life, so figure out a way to deal with it. It's not the end of the world. It's a little blood.

BS.

I was on some form of hormonal BC for a LONG time and now I'm off of it and having mormal cycles again and I can tell you that things most definitely do change -- at least for some women -- based on their periods.

I've decided to start actually tracking it on a calendar so I can try and predict when it's going to hit me. This was my first month tracking. From Feb. 11-15, I was so tired I could barely function and so hungry that I don't think 5,000 calories would have satisfied the hunger. I wasn't craving anything specific, but I literally could not get enough to eat. It was ridiculous hunger to the point I felt sick if I didn't eat something.

This week, there is nothing hormonal going on. Yesterday, I worked out with a trainer and was stuffed at 1,100 calories. I am pretty much satisfied on 1,000-1,500 calories three weeks every month. But that fourth week, I am not satisfied on probably double that amount.

The crummy part about long term BC use is that you never really have "normal" hormone levels again. They change from what they wereduring the controlled state of BC intake, but they are not what they would have been had you never been on BC. There was a really interesting study done on this involving identical twins.

If your changes in mood and fatigue track somewhere mid-cycle, you migth look into supplementing with magnesium and a good, prescription quality iron supplement (most OTC stuff has minimal absorption). I've tried several and had the best blood results and symptom improvement with Bifera, which is now sold OTC as Feosol Complete (witht he word Bifera listed there as well). Depending on your insurance, however, the Rx might be slightly less expensive.

For years OBGYNs and docs have said get a multi with iron and that will solve the issue, but if your muti has calcium it will block the body from using the iron. Same with many leafy green veggies. I've also had more than one tell me to supplement during the TOM, but the problem is that the body is depleted of iron and magnesium as it build lining, not as it sheds it, and the delay in processing and storing iron and then making RBC and hemoglobin means that supplementing during TOM helps little because the body replenishes hemoglobin then for a short period right before it starts losing it again, so you never get ahead of the game, or if you do, it's not by much.