? for ladies

[Amie226 0]

Did anyone have their menstrual during surgery? Mine is may 10 and being that I have to be off birth control 30 days b4 I'm not sure if it'll change but if cycle remains stable it'll fall during surgery time. I can't imagine how miserable it will be. To be sore and cramping and surgery can't be a good combination. Just wanted to know if any others had to deal with this. Crossing my fingers that it won't happen.

[BetsyB 9]

Yep, I did. It was no biggie.

I didn't tell them about it--saw no real need to share. I was perfectly able to handle it myself, postop.

Don't stress about it--even if you have to share it with medical personnel, it's not like it's something they haven't ever dealt with!

From what I understand, it's really common for women to start their periods during or immediately after surgery, too.

No worries---it's just one of those things.

[Manda87 3]

I had mine a week and a half before my surgery, and then a couple of days after, it came back. :thumbup: I don't know why.

[Arthemise 1]

My period was scheduled to start the day before surgery. My body held off and didn't start until more than a week later. I was happy about it but puzzled since I'm regular. I guess the stress did it. For surgery, they told me to just use a tampon.

[nurselroy 0]

Fortunately I wasn't, but this was a big concern for me too. I had some irregular bleeding that resulted in what was essentially a 6 week long period. I found out it was a fibroid causing the bleeding and the hormones my GYN gave me did not work to stop the bleeding. I was scared that I would still be bleeding at the time of surgery since there really was no way to tell if and when it would stop. But, for some reason it just stopped one day and my periods went back to normal (well heavy, but still like clockwork). Periods are just a very private thing for me and though I can talk about it with some friends, its totally different to have someone else possibly seeing it either in the OR or on the nursing unit (if you stay overnight). But, like Betsy said, they would understand (heck I'm a nurse and have had many a patient on her period and it made no difference to me)and most women experience them so you'll be fine.

[cynpatt 2]

Yep - Unfortunately. I told the first nurse and she told me that I had to take my tampon out and "just place a pad between my legs and hold it there". There was no was I was going to do that without panties! So I just didn't do it and left things alone. When the anesthesiologist came in, I told her that it was that time of month and she told me not to worry. Only thing to consider is that you cannot necessarily swallow pills after surgery, so I bought some liquid tylenol just in case. All went well - know what I know now, I just wouldn't say a word unless they specifically ask you! Good luck!!!