Whether you have your period each month or not, haven’t you ever wanted to yell at it? Well, here is your chance!
An open letter to my period.
Dear Menstrual Cycle,
I avoid you like the plague each month but you continue to show up just to say hello. My body usually gives me every indication that you will not be arriving but there you are, just like an unwelcome relative. You arrive like you are going on an all-inclusive vacation: you stay for a week and then make me overeat with chocolate and cake. The only difference is that your all-inclusive vacation is going to cost far less than my fertility treatments.
Period, I don’t want to see you. I know that what you represent is a good thing: a healthy body that is getting ready for babies so why don’t you help me make those babies? It seems like you get worse each month as if to laugh at me. As months drag on, you seem to make me a little more crampy, a little more achy and much more moody. But I will give you some credit, besides the movie,The Notebook, you are the only one that can make me cry in a second. One minute, I am happy and full of hope and the next minute you have arrived, and I am upset and feeling sorry for myself. This all-inclusive vacation will be closed next month so go find somewhere else to go!
Sincerely,
Infertile “Hoping to be Fertile” Naomi
Now it’s your chance, what would your “Dear Period” letter say?
I’ve given you the Honest Scrap award. Thanks for your honest and encouraging blogs! ~LM
I LOVE your blog! Here is what mine would say:
Dear period,
Before I started TTC you arrived every 28 days like clockwork. Never once were you late to the dinner table. However it seems that as you have grown comfortable in our relationship, you have developed a tardiness problem. You don't bring me flowers anymore. First you were only a day late, but a day grew into 2 which grew into 4, which grew into *gasp* 10 days late. I wouldn't mind if the glorious lines showed up on a pee stick in your absence, but alas, nothing, nada, zilch. I will not be kept waiting! I am about to start an IVF cycle and I would truly appreciate it if you could be on time this one month, or even early. Then you can take a long, much deserved vacation away from me for the next 9 months.
Sincerely, Eileen
Fab blog – I'm going to find more time to read it.
Wonderful idea – letter to your period. I particularly loved at the end "the all-inclusive vacation will be closed….." Adding on to that for the next few weeks make sure you don't focus on your peroid coming (even if you are saying it's not going to turn up, because we can't compute a negative, you have to imagine it coming first to be able to imagine it not being there (I hope that makes sense). Instead imagine yourself having a feeling of excitement build up in you as the days tick by and you reach that moment when you take the pregnancy test. See the words 'pregnant' come up on that stick. Really imagine it as if it is happening to you in the present moment (make sure you are ONLY imagining positive things about being pregnant and having a baby). I can't explain all the reasons how the mind impacts on the body and fertility in this small comment but a great book to read is Lynsi Eastburn's "It's Conceivable". Also, have a read of my blog post "positive thinking vs. positive imagining".
Awesome!
You can also post a letter to your period anonymously, should you not want anyone or your period to know. It feels good to write it (and a little weird but you're amongst friends here).
Dear Period,
I hate when you know that I am TTC and then you instead of coming every 28 days decide to wait three or four days and then come. This gets my hopes up and then makes me cry. By the way, I love how you arrive, unwanted, and start at the worst times like at the baby shower for the kid who isn't even ready for a child.
Naomi, I love your blog. You have the same humor that I do, and I love reading your thoughts and being able to relate. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Period,
Why do you do this to me? Why, ever since I have been TTC, you decide to show your ugly face way more than necessary and at the worst times? And why do you have to come in full force, like when I was a teenager?
I will allow you to come one more time, so that I can do another IUI, but that is it for the next 9 months or so. Enjoy this last visit, because it will be your last for awhile.
Carly, Melissa. I agree with you. Periods always seems to arrive at the worst times – during a baby shower, after someone just told you they were expecting….
wow, I can relate to that for sure.. even the part about The Notebook… here's hoping I don't see MY period this week.. it'll basically ruin my entire holiday weekend… i know the rest of you can relate.
ha ha…it will take me more than a minute to come up with a clever letter..so let me get back to you..good theraphy though!
AC- looking forward to reading your clever letter! Write whatever you want, your period will never know, or will it???
Dear AF,
We've had a good run…sure I couldn't wait for you to arrive when I was 15 and you'd visited everyone of my friends but me. But that was years ago and I feel we need to "take a break"(say 9 months).
It's not me, it's you!
Jenny
I would write a letter to my period. . . except wait, I'm not getting my period. So I guess instead of writing a letter to my nonexistent period, I would write a letter to my ovaries telling them to WAKE UP!!!
Would love to hear your "Dear Ovary" letter
Dar Faithful but not Departed,
All through this 14 year commitment, I thought your cramps and heavy flow meant I was a fertile mertile, but no not my luck. You have stayed commited through countless baby showers like when a friend got pregnant when she forgot to take her birth control once and when a woman whose husband had a vsectomy 7 years prior got spontaneouly prego. You hurt me when your PMS symptoms miror pregnancy symptoms.You even hurt me when you spot for 4 days and then blow like "Old Faithful" for another seven excruciating days. It wouldn't bother me if you decided to take a break. Why don't you do that? I need to take a break too. I promise I will only cry if you do come this month.
Curly Jess
Dear Auntie Flo,
Why must you be so dedicated? I think you are long overdue for a vacation. I know you feel like you have to visit me every 4 weeks, but there’s really no need. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would be fine without you if you want to take some time off. Really. I hear there are some really nice 9 month cruises out there that you can take. Here’s an idea, you could go with your best friend – Ms. Transvaggy Wanda! (You two always come together, although Ms. Wanda tends to stick around for much longer. She seems to think that I enjoy her focused insight but I really don’t. I would never tell her this, but she has personal space issues. She is WAY too touchy feely.)
At any rate, I think it would be better for your mental health (and my own mental health) for you to take some time off. I mean, let’s think about how things typically play out between us. I usually just expect that you will show up, as you are always punctual and sometimes even a day early. However, you feel the need to send me spotty text messages several days before your visit to remind me that you are indeed coming. When you finally arrive, all we do is fight because I keep telling you how much I hate you. Isn’t this process stressful for you? I know it is for me. Perhaps if you go on a nice vacation for a while (9 months, to be exact), our future visits will be much more calm and pleasant.
Even if you don’t go on a vacation, can’t you leave me alone for a while and go and bug someone else? I have some names of some very nice ladies who would love to see you. For example, I hear that my college friend who has 4 kids (all unplanned) would love to hang out with you on a regular basis. Let me know if you want me to connect the two of you.
Please give this some serious thought, as I honestly think we need some time apart. Besides, I won’t have enough room for you before long. I might have to move into a studio apartment so that I can pay my infertility bills, so I won’t have an extra bed for you to sleep in.
Seriously AF, what gives?
Regards,
Cranky in the City
Love this post. Especially as I have been receiving aforementioned “spotty text messages” for several days now. I do so love having several days’ warning before the full horror of AF, it prolongs the oh-so-enjoyable, hope-raising-and-then-crushing experience that we all know and love.
I wouldn’t dare write a letter like that to my AF in case she gets insulted & permanently leaves. I don’t need premature menopause!
People deserve very good life and mortgage loans or car loan would make it much better. Because people’s freedom is based on money state.