As a 30-year-old woman, I can safely say that I’m always learning (or should I say Googling) about changes that keep happening to my body. Luckily, I’m not alone in this. Women from the BuzzFeed Community recently shared things their bodies have been going through that they didn’t even know were possible. Here’s what some shared:
Please note: Some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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1.“For the first time, I started gaining a little bit of weight. I was extremely underweight, so I thought my body was adapting to my illness, but then I didn't really lose any weight, even though I'm EXTREMELY active. Then my sex drive went from 100 to 0, almost overnight. No one listened to me. A gynecologist (female, mind you) said, 'Maybe you don't want to have sex anymore because you've gained weight.'”
“I ended up having really, really bad hot flashes at night, and I told my PCP, 'Okay, I KNOW this isn't normal anymore,' and she agreed and ordered some more blood work. It took her a long time to get back to me and then she called, which is not a good sign that SHE called instead of a nurse, but she told me, 'WELL, this is a first… it's menopause.' I had other people look at it, too, because I couldn't believe it; they couldn't believe it.
“You're not the only person in the world, but you're definitely my first patient and the first time a few other doctors have seen you!” It felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks. No, I don't want any more children. I have one child and I'm very happy with him, but the choice has been taken away, the change is complete, my body is changing so much, my metabolism is doing a complete 180? I'm 35 in July.”
—violetnylon
2.“Heavy bleeding: You are most likely anemic. Do not take iron (you may vomit or never poop). Try ferrous gluconate. It has improved my life tremendously. I took it daily.”
'I had periods that lasted seven days, one of which was so heavy that I couldn't leave the house because I had to change the cotton every 20-30 minutes. For years, doctors didn't believe me. I was also told that the pain was normal and that heating pads and walking would help. Adhesive muscle spasm pads helped during labor. Once I started using a menstrual cup, I was advised to have endometrial ablation.'
—coolaardvark917
3.“No one told me that women get crazy nose hairs right before menopause. I knew about chin and upper lip hairs from my mother, but she NEVER told me about nose hairs until she was dying. It was so important to her to be private about it.”
“I'm sure this has been mentioned, but you can go through hyperemesis during pregnancy, like I did, and throw up 20 times a day. I even broke a rib in my third trimester. I remember crying my eyes out into a bucket, thinking there was no way she was going to survive that, and feeling terribly guilty that my body wasn't up to the challenge.”
—monkey mother
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4.“Carpal tunnel syndrome. I had it terribly in both arms during my twin pregnancy. I had to wear an arm brace almost 24/7. The week after I had my babies, it was gone. Same with morning sickness. I had to take diclegis (a morning sickness medication) so I could eat more than crackers, ginger ale, and lightly spiced chicken. Those two things went away almost immediately after I was born. I remember going to orthopedic doctors to schedule appointments for after I gave birth because I didn't think it would ever get better and I was terrified I would lose feeling in my arms.”
—toomanykidsnotenoughtime
5.“When I was breastfeeding my second child, I developed an aversion to fish. It was like I had a seafood allergy. If I ate fish or seafood, I would throw up. I did a bunch of allergy tests. No allergy. I stopped breastfeeding and can eat seafood and fish again. The doctor said there's so much we don't know about women's bodies.”
6.“I have sensory issues related to my period, so I just wear disposable gloves when I have to deal with it. I know it's not the most environmentally friendly, but it's done wonders for my mental health.”
—crewgirlat221b
7.“One of my two daughters gets hormonal migraines. We didn't realize it for the first two years because she didn't have a regular cycle yet. But when she was about 13, we finally figured it out. Her wonderful gynecologist tried her on a few of the lower-dose birth control pills until we found one that worked for her.”
—pahz
8.“When I was in college, I had severe abdominal pain in my lower right side that sent me to the emergency room. The doctors there did an ultrasound of my appendix and said it looked fine, so they sent me home. The next day I was still in a lot of pain, so I went back to the emergency room. The emergency room surgeon insisted it wasn't my appendix and told me about her training at Stanford, but said she would remove it to be sure. After surgery the next day, I came out of the anesthesia in even more pain. The doctor started prescribing me more morphine and told my mother that I needed to have a low pain tolerance.”
“My mother told them I had shattered my kneecap and that I was in less pain then than after the surgery. My blood pressure was so low from the morphine that I passed out. Finally a nurse had the idea to have the doctor check my ovaries. I had a HUGE cyst of almost 10cm and experienced ovarian torsion. I had to go back under the knife to drain it. More than ten years later I have fertility problems, all because a surgeon decided they knew everything.”
—happymama23
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9.“I had an abnormal Pap test a few years ago, even though I had gotten the HPV vaccine and had never been sexually active. I had a colposcopy and of course the doctor didn't believe me when I told him I was a virgin. My next Pap test was normal and I never understood what had happened.”
—miraculouslegend987
10.“I had gestational diabetes with my second son — preeclampsia with both. Almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant with my youngest, my blood pressure shot up and I had three bouts of bleeding, and they were desperately trying to figure out why I was on my period. I never did find out why.”
“The dista symphysis pubis, where the cartilage between the two front parts of the pelvic girdle sits, allows the baby's head to come down without physiotherapy, support or crutches. It's just really painful and I didn't know you have to do exercises after birth to rebuild the muscles. Hyperemesis gravidarium especially with my first boy. That was ignored. The theory is that all these things can happen because pregnancy can make your body weaker. I suspect I had PCOS, but back in the 80s no one really listened to that.”
—sfd19681
11.“I remember my first period when I was 11 years old. I had periods that lasted two weeks and horrible cramps that got worse every month. After a year I was told that this was normal, that I didn't need to do anything and that if it lasted longer than two years I should come back. So I came back the following year and by then my cramps had become so debilitating that I was missing school a lot.”
“My doctor put me on birth control, which worked for a few months, but every time I would take a week off from getting my period, it would come back worse than before. My cramps would continue the entire month on the pills. So after a while we decided to try the injection, depo, because I was getting abnormally heavy periods. When I got the injection, my period would stop for a few days before I ended up bleeding constantly for four whole months. I had one period for 120 days.”
—bougietrash188
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12.“I've been suffering from post-concussion syndrome for two and a half years. My neurologist thinks that menopause is my only respite from the headaches at the moment. I can't wait until menopause, and that's saying something.”
—aran12
13.“I had four ureteral stents put in when I was pregnant. My body would calcify them within a week. After four, my urologist stopped putting them in; he was afraid that all the sedation, x-rays, etc. were too risky for the baby and me. Plus, they never lasted long. From the moment he was born, I felt like a new person.”
—angela2lock
14.“No one told me that large clots are common after a c-section. I'm not sure if it's normal after a vaginal birth because I've never had one. But I did have a clot the size of my palm come out of my body and after an emergency visit to the gynecologist I learned that it was just part of it and that I should come if the clots were bigger than my palm. Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to die.”
-problem
If you have a story of your own, share it with me in the comments below!
