How do/did you deal with "it"?

[GDTripp]

I've ALWAYS hated the red tide, ALWAYS. 

The past few months have been... more tolerable, I guess. My sweetheart and I wanted to be extra-safe so I got ahold of a 5-yr IUD (free BC! being homeless and jobless has its perks) which has completely screwed up my periods. So now they are very light and spotty, BUT also quite infrequent and lengthy. (Before was about 5 days long w/29 days between; now is 11 days long w/6 wks between. Sheesh.) Overall I think I'm happier with it being lighter and more infrequent.

So, that's kind of how I deal with it. I just, you know, go with the flow XP bad pun XD and deal with it. When it stabilizes I'm probably going to go back to turning into a depressed, angry-at-the-world Ibuprofen-popper laptop-hogger while I'm on it, as I used to be before the IUD. Bleh. (The laptop does two things: it has so many lovely distractions to keep my mind off the cramps, and it gives off some bee-yootiful heat onto my abdomen. )

[Elijah3291]

tampons.. sure I HATE having to stick them up there, and pull them out, cause I never touch that area directly

but they really make you forget that you are on it.

I had to get my dad to buy the tampons for me, cause its way too embarassing for me! I told him it just looks like he's buying them for his wife, me I just look like a creep\

as for cramps, and mood changes.. i dont really get those so I can't help

[YoungSoulRebel]

I'll admit I'm atypical here -- yes, I managed to hide it from my father and step-mother for the first two years, but at some point in my early twenties, I just learned to deal.  For me, "dealing with it" entailed masturbation for the cramps (serious, an orgasm helps) and I used Instead (a disposable menstrual cup, fashioned sort of like a diaphragm) so I saved the fluid in a jar and painted erections and portraits of men with it.

Hey, you asked, this is how I dealt with it.

[LightlyLuke]

I saved the fluid in a jar and painted erections and portraits of men with it.

I like that way of dealing with it! 

[YoungSoulRebel]

I like that way of dealing with it! 

Thanks!  I almost miss that part of it, but only almost.

[Luc]

Thank god the red death's been gone for me for quite some time... think the last one was this past February, when I was off T for a few months YET AGAIN. I had PMDD and excruciating pain for the 15 years I endured menstruation, and I honestly don't know how I got through it. I was on what I called horse pills, some heavy-duty painkillers, for a couple years in high school, and more recently was on soma, a muscle relaxant. The mood problems I mediated with medical marijuana. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of choices.

SD

[Ryuu]

I saved the fluid in a jar and painted erections and portraits of men with it.

That is epic. Gross but epic. Did you have to glaze over it so it didn't dry and fall off? Or maybe you could mix it with gel medium or something... *art nerd*

[Brynn]

I tend to self-medicate with chocolate. Any other time of the month I'm pretty good about what I eat. But when that damn thing rolls around? I'm just stuffing whatever I think'll make me feel better in my mouth.

Heating pads work, too. I love those things. Even if the packaging for the ones specifically designed for cramps are excruciatingly feminine.

[YoungSoulRebel]

That is epic. Gross but epic. Did you have to glaze over it so it didn't dry and fall off? Or maybe you could mix it with gel medium or something... *art nerd*

Unfortinately, I lost many of those paintings in a move.  Of the three that stayed, I painted a portrait of Marc Almond on canvas about five years ago --primed, unmixed, and unglazed, and aside from becoming discoloured over the years due to age, it's held up alarmingly well.  Another one that I did on a primed canvas over a layer of glow-in-the-dark spraypaint; the menstrual fluid (it's not true blood -- it's placental tissue) dried and flaked off.  The third is on watercolour paper (as all of the lost ones were) and mixed with an iridescent watercolour medium; the colour didn't change as much as the other one, and it's had no issues with flaking.

If I were to go off testosterone for any reason and started manstruating again, I'd try sealing them after they first dry to try and prevent discolouration.  It's worth a shot, I figure.