My cycle came back after six years and I cried in the bathroom

Started 19 February 2025 · 21 replies · 211 hearts · read 3k times

AbelAddis Ababa, ET · 19 February 2025

1.4 years ago

My cycle came back after six years and I cried in the bathroom — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Some background first, because it matters for the question.

I am aware some of this may be nothing. I would still like to know whether other people have had it, because I have spent a fortnight assuming I am the only one.

I have written down what has actually happened, in order, because I find that more useful than my summary of it.

Not looking for a plan. Just company and whatever anyone has found.

NualaArmagh, NI

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

11me too 3

IzzyWatford, UK

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

GittaBonn, DE

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

If any of this has landed close to home for you while reading, our support resources page lists the kinds of services worth finding. No obligation and no drama.

BeaDublin, IE

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Please do not read the comments under news articles about this. I lost a fortnight to that.

RuaridhFort William, UK

I asked my nurse the same question and she said something I have repeated ever since: that the aim is to keep you on treatment, not to get you up the schedule.

SalmaManchester, UK

Similar here, and mine turned out to be a completely unrelated deficiency picked up on bloods.

MaryamBirmingham, UK

I have been in this circle a year and this question comes round every few months. It is not a silly question. It is the question.

10me too 4

PoppyLeeds, UK

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

AmmiKarachi, PK

#10

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

CloverTotnes, UK

#11

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

MapleToronto, CA

#12

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

SorayaTehran, IR

#13

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

7me too 1

PrunellaBury St Edmunds, UK

#14

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

SaoirseKilkenny, IE

#15

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

CoralieMarseille, FR

#16

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

MaritGroningen, NL

#17

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

HannahSheffield, UK

#18

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

10me too 6

LuPreston, UK

#19

I would take that to a clinician rather than to us, and I would do it this week. Not because it is definitely serious — because it is the sort of thing that is much easier to rule out than to worry about.

12me too 9

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

#20

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Two things, both boring. First, none of us can tell you what to take. Second, the conversation you want to have is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down.

OdileMontreal, CA

#21

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.