Ohmigod! When I tell
you that I am so overjoyed—elated, even—that my period started this month???
Ahhh… the sigh of relief. As I have said
in a previous blog, I have Hypothyroidism.
It hasn’t even been a full year since my diagnosis and I have been on a
rollercoaster of emotions and medications
trying to get it and my weight under control.
I went from a size six to a size 16!
I admit, not all of that was due to my condition, but the last 30-45
lbs. absolutely were.
Since being diagnosed, I have been on a total of four
different medications—each in several different dosages. Yet, with each medication, no matter how hard
I worked in the gym, I either still gained weight or couldn’t lose any at all. Then there were the appetite suppressants and
weight-loss drugs that would allow me to lose up to 5lbs in one doctor visit, but gain it all back with a few extra during the next visit. My doctor remained vigilant, even when I
wasn’t, and finally tried eliminating long-term medications from my regiment to
see if that would help with the weight loss.
Lo and behold, when she eliminated my birth control, I began
to consistently lose weight. Hallelujer!
I was prescribed birth control when I was in my late teens/early 20s because it
was determined that I have irregular cycles.
I remember once, several years ago, I stopped taking them and became
immediately bewildered and befuddled when my period skipped a month. (Or was it
two?) Technically, as long as I menstruate at least 10 months out of the year,
I’m fine. But back then, I didn’t do a
good job of keeping up with my cycles.
Praise God for technology!
In trying to figure out how I was going to tackle being off
birth control for the sake of my health (and my sanity), I’ve discovered that
this is now a “thing”. Many women are
swearing off hormonal
contraceptives for various reasons. There is now an entire movement around Fertility
Awareness Methods (FAM), born out of the Catholic church, that has inked
its way into more secular settings. It
is easier to keep track of your ovulations now with the help of a phone
app. In fact, women’s health phone apps
have some of the highest subscribers of all health apps. The app I use is called Flo. I’ve only been using it for a couple months,
but imagine my surprise when it notified me last Friday that my period was
supposed to start that day! It also allows
you to track sleep, exercise, and even vaginal discharges and their
variations. This is all done to help the
software better analyze your fertility. When
you log your first period day of the month, you get a series of questions about
various bodily functions with multiple choice answer selections like, This
always happens, Sometimes, and This never happens. Once you log your answer, you get a bar graph
of how often other women have chosen the same answer and an explanation of why
you may be experiencing this particular thing.
This app (and I’m sure similar others) has kept me more
informed about my body and its natural progressions than any pill with a doctor
visit ever did. I feel knowledgeable and
confident as I prepare not only for my annual Pap Smear but for life and
reproductivity in general. I am
embarking on an opportunity to be very well prepared if the day ever comes that
I decide to have children. And who knew trying
to keep the upper hand on Hypothyroidism could do that for you?
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