Being of child-bearing age
but not inclination, now that I’m happy with my little brood, I wondered a few months back about the menstrual cycle and flare ups of auto-immune arthritis (be it psoriatic or rheumatoid). I asked one of my RA friends who is as regular as a metronome, and she agreed. For a lot of women (I’ve researched more since then), the menstrual cycle really makes the symptoms worse. And I’m having a bad week and some familiar female cramps …
And this is where I’d want to get into a study. Being of child-bearing age, I should have my regular menstrual cycles. And I think I do. Except for the fact that I don’t generate menstrual fluid/lining any more … so the other option is to take my temperature, similar to that “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” method that works for a lot of women. I know she didn’t invent it, but she popularized it among my age group.
But what are some of the more annoying things about being sick? Not sleeping well. Disturbed sleep. And taking my own temperature every morning can lead to odd results. Low temp, high temp, falling back asleep with the thermometer in my mouth. If there is a way to chart wrong, I’ve likely done it. Well, okay, I never mixed up the ear, mouth, and rectal thermometers …
This is going to get TMI …
In addition to my absolute slothful sloppyness that is part habit, part exhaustion, even when I did do all that growing and shedding, my cycle wasn’t what you’d call particularly predictable. I could go the normal weeks or odd months between cycles. Thanks to advances in modern medicine, I know now that this is called PCOS (PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome) and is perfectly normalish, if hellishly painful and annoying (seriously, passing clots the size of golf balls when I know that there is no way I could be pregnant so it’s NOT something else?).
And further thanks to you, modern medicine folks, I no longer have to stay in when I’m attacked by the slough of my own uterus. A short surgical procedure and I was done with my Diva Cup forever. Though I wonder if that surgery sped up the day that I came under fierce attack from my own immune system.
But – hormones + auto-immune disorder = more pain on some days? I’d love to find out. I don’t have the Five Hundred Pounds to find out with a DuoFertility monitor, but maybe I can persuade them to let me design the study by trying it on myself for a year or five at no charge …