A practical approach to dealing with periods when the shelves have no tampons or pads left!
Get help with periods
It is pretty shocking that not only have all the toilet rolls and cleaning fluid gone from the supermarket shelves but so have the tampons and sanitary towels. It can’t have been necessary to stockpile! If you are using a menstrual cup, you will be feeling pleased you chose this eco-friendly solution!
But maybe now is the time to question why you are having to deal with such heavy and sometimes painful periods? Is it actually necessary to be having a period at all? If you look at it from a mammalian point of view, having all these periods is really not the norm. If you were a bunny-rabbit in the wild you would either be pregnant or breast feeding all your bunny-rabbit-life, and in some parts of the world that is indeed the case for humans too. We are just mammals. In fact it is having so many periods which undoubtedly leads to some gynaecological problems such as endometriosis, which is commonest in women in their 30s who have not had children. Of course it can occur in younger women too.
So why am I posting this now? Well I am hoping that women, young and old, will realise that here are things that can be done to reduce menstrual bleeding, perfectly safely; hence reducing the need for sanitary products.
If you are taking a combined oral contraceptive then you can take your packets back to back completely safely. Some women imagine that there is an amount of blood or tissue in the uterus which ‘must come out’. That is nonsense. It is true that some women will get spotting (break through bleeding) if they do it for many months, but if that happens simply take a weeks’ break, have a period and then start again taking 3, 4, 5 or 6 packets at a time.
Over 80% of women who take a progesterone only pill will stop having periods. It is completely reversible.
I could mention a Mirena or an implant but as there is going to be no way of getting either fitted until after this pandemic is over there is little point.
Finally it is worth suggesting trying a non-hormonal medication to reduce the heaviness of periods so at least you will not need to change your protection as often; tampons can be left for up to 6 hours and a pad only needs to be changed when it is full.
Women might actually be worried about running out of their contraceptives as well. All in all, the gynaecologists and GPs at Dr Morton’s are here to help.
