Well pretty much what the title says.

How do/did you react to this unpleasantry? (gut reaction previous to "dealing with it")

How do/did you deal with it/make it more bearable? 

i went on testosterone.  problem solved.

chocolate.

Quote from: Mister on July 13, 2009, 01:07:40 PM
i went on testosterone.  problem solved.

ha, yea... I'm working on that (have an appt. to discuss it with a doctor in like a month... but til then  )

^ yeah going on T helped lol. but we all did have to deal with it. I didn't really do anything, I just kinda hated my life for those 5 days. I guess I'm not very helpful, but there's not really that much to do aside from going on T

I just deal with it until it passes.

It's not cramps, I feel sick enough that I feel like I need to vomit, and a heavy flow is rather annoying, but it's not like I can do much until T.

Tampons.

I've gotten so used to them I don't think much about it anymore. I look forward to T taking care of it.

I'm 26... I got my first period when I was 11.. 15 years is enough time to learn to deal with it on a simple "object" sort of level and ignore it's "connection" to me as a person.
I treat it as a mechanical issue.
I take a low-dose hormone pill, yasmine, to keep them regular and make sure they don't sneak up on me. I would take it every day and thus eliminate them completely but that means another 7 days per month that I put disgusting girl hormones into my body.
I'm hoping to be on T soon enough so I can stop taking those horrible, disgusting, things and be free of the monthly red death!

Quote from: Radar on July 13, 2009, 02:14:56 PM
Tampons.

I've gotten so used to them I don't think much about it anymore. I look forward to T taking care of it.

I can't use Tampons. It bothers me to have them up there. I'd rather bleed into a rag (sorry for the graphicness) and just treat it like a wound instead of put a tampon up there. And I'm not even particularly disphoric. But I guess this is one of the things I'm ick'd out by... In fact, until this discussion I hadn't realized that's how I felt about it. Which is weird, cuz I can put other stuff up there (like, in... "intimate" settings) but that's cuz other stuff feels good. I guess that's kind of contradictory though...

Quote from: Radar on July 13, 2009, 02:14:56 PM
Tampons.

I'll second this.  It gets rid of the "dead fish in my pants" constant reminder.  I also used Ibuprofen pretty liberally.  I would take up to 4 of them first thing in the morning to kill the cramps, then take 1 every 4 hours, whether I was in pain or not, to keep them at bay.

I have been trying so hard to get comfortable with tampons, I had my first experience with being on while at work last week and it was traumatizing, I kicked myself for using pads. I must have gone in to the bathroom about 50 times during the day to catch a time when nobody else was in there. There was no way I was gonna banish myself to the female bathroom although it was very very tempting. So much easier to deal with when I could lock myself in my room and sleep a lot

Tampons and painkillers.

Most of the time I forget the tampon is there and the painkillers stop the pain.

I do my best to forget about it.

Quote from: Braedon (formerly NES_junkie) on July 13, 2009, 04:43:16 PM
I can't use Tampons. It bothers me to have them up there. I'd rather bleed into a rag (sorry for the graphicness) and just treat it like a wound instead of put a tampon up there. And I'm not even particularly disphoric. But I guess this is one of the things I'm ick'd out by... In fact, until this discussion I hadn't realized that's how I felt about it. Which is weird, cuz I can put other stuff up there (like, in... "intimate" settings) but that's cuz other stuff feels good. I guess that's kind of contradictory though...

I use tampons because they're less noticeable to me and I feel like I'm wearing Depends or something with a pad. I guess it's sort of like "out of sight, out of mind" for me with tampons.

Quote from: Radar on July 14, 2009, 07:26:13 AM
I use tampons because they're less noticeable to me and I feel like I'm wearing Depends or something with a pad. I guess it's sort of like "out of sight, out of mind" for me with tampons.

Same idea for me, except I use the moon cup.
The tampons are too "dry" for me...

Quote from: Radar on July 14, 2009, 07:26:13 AM
I use tampons because they're less noticeable to me and I feel like I'm wearing Depends or something with a pad. I guess it's sort of like "out of sight, out of mind" for me with tampons.

Yeah. they feel like diapers.

Whenever the monthly problem comes along, I don't deal with it in a very healthy way. I usually become depressed and disassociative. Almost like I have no emotions.

I hate myself for those 3-5 days, and it's very painful, too, so it's like a constant reminder. I think that maybe if the cramping wasn't so bad then maybe I'd feel a bit better about it.

I have to use pads, as well. I have an overall fear of the the nether regions. Tampons would be traumatizing for me.

I agree with everyone who suggested tampons. I'd gone several years using pads but it bothered me worse and worse to have them there. I mean... with a tampon it stops the flow from coming out and drawing attention down there.

I like to use tampons, because I can try to ignore that it's happening. What sucks though, is that on days where I'm cramping something terrible, tampons just aren't an option. So in general, I become horribly depressed and disgusted until it goes away. It's awful.

Here we go:
The Menstrual BloodStopper
But on a serious note, I don't know how to deal with that stuff. I'd just kinda quit life and curl up in a fetal position for the whole week. btw I also had a problem with tampons. Never even tried one in fact, the idea is sickening.

Because I couldn't handle the knowledge that I was bleeding down there and constantly felt like I had wet my pants (extremely squeamish just thinking about it), I use toilet paper rather than pads. Sort of gross, but I basically just stopper it up a little bit and... Well, it doesn't go up anywhere like a tampon and doesn't just let... everything get bloody and... disgusting.  So it works for me.  I feel far more human not feeling so...