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14 Things I Just Learned About Women’s Bodies That Have Me Baffled
Being a 30-year-old woman, it’s safe to say I’m always learning (or should I say Googling) changes that continue to happen to my body. Luckily, I’m not alone here. Women of the BuzzFeed Community recently shared things their bodies have experienced that they didn’t even know were possible. Here is what some shared:
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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1.“For the first time, I started gaining a little weight. I was super underweight, so I thought it was my body adjusting to my illness, but then I wasn’t really losing any weight even though I am EXTREMELY active. Then my sex drive went from like 100 to 0, pretty much overnight. No one was listening to me. An OBGYN (female, no less) said, ‘Maybe you don’t feel like having sex anymore because you’ve put on weight.'”
“Finally, I started getting really, really bad hot flashes at night, and I told my PCP, ‘Okay, I KNOW this isn’t normal anymore,’ and she agreed and ordered some more blood work. She took a long time to get back to me and then called, which isn’t a great sign that SHE called instead of a nurse, but she told me, ‘WELP, this is a first… it’s menopause.’ I had other people look at it, too, because I couldn’t believe it; they couldn’t believe it.
‘You’re not the only person in the world, but you’re definitely my first patient and a few other doctors’ first time seeing it!’ It felt like being hit by a ton of bricks. No, I don’t want any more children. I have one child, and I am very happy with him, but the choice is taken away, the change altogether, my body changing so much, my metabolism doing a complete 180? I turn 35 in July.”
2.“Heavy bleeders: You are very likely anemic. Do not take iron (you may throw up or never poop again). Try ferrous gluconate. It vastly improved my life. I took it daily.”
‘I had seven day-long periods with one day so heavy I couldn’t leave the house because I had to swap cotton every 20-30 minutes. Doctors did not believe me for years. Also, I was told the pain was normal, and heating pads and a walk would help. Self-adhesive muscle cramp pads helped while working. Once I started using a menstrual cup, it was suggested I should get endometrial ablation.”
3.“No one told me women get crazy nose hairs close to menopause. I knew about chin and upper lip hair from my mom, but she NEVER told me about nose hairs until she was dying. It was that important to her to be private about it.”
“Also, I’m sure this has been mentioned, but you can get hyperemesis during pregnancy as I did and throw up 20 times a day all the way through. I even cracked a rib in my third trimester. I remember just crying my eyes out over a bucket, thinking that there was no way she would survive that, and feeling devastating guilt that my body wasn’t up to the challenge.”
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4.“Carpal tunnel. I had it horrible in both arms during my twin pregnancy. I had to wear arm braces nearly 24/7. The week after I had my babies, it was gone. It’s the same with morning sickness. I had to go on diclegis (a morning sickness medication) just so I could eat more than crackers, ginger ale, and lightly seasoned chicken. Those two things just went away almost immediately after birth. I remember looking up orthopedic doctors to set up appointments for after my delivery because I didn’t think it would ever get better, and I was terrified of losing sensation in my arms.”
5.“When breastfeeding my second child, I developed an aversion to fish. It was like I had a seafood allergy. If I ate fish or seafood, I would throw up. I got a ton of allergy tests. No allergy. I stopped breastfeeding and can eat seafood and fish again. The doctor said that there is so much we don’t know about women’s bodies.”
6.“I have sensory issues related to menstruation, so I just wear disposable gloves when I have to deal with it. I know it’s not the most environmentally friendly, but it’s done wonders for my mental health.”
7.“One of my two daughters gets hormonal migraines. We didn’t realize it for the first year or two because she wasn’t on a regular cycle yet. But when she was around 13, we finally got it figured out. Her wonderful gynecologist tried her out on a few of the lower hormone-dosed birth control pills until we found one that worked for her.”
—pahz
8.“While in college, I had severe abdominal pain on my lower right side, which caused me to go to the ER. The doctors there did an ultrasound of my appendix and said it looked fine, so they sent me home. The next day, I was still in a lot of pain, so I went back to the ER. The ER surgeon insisted it wasn’t my appendix and told me about her Stanford education but said she would take it out to be sure. After surgery the next day, I came out of anesthesia in even more pain. The doctor started pushing more morphine and told my mom that I must have a low pain threshold.”
“My mom mentioned to them that I blew my kneecap and was in less pain then than after surgery. My blood pressure was so low from the morphine that I passed out. Finally, a nurse had the idea to have the doctor check my ovaries. I had a HUGE cyst of almost 10 cm and experienced ovarian torsion. I had to go back under the knife to drain it. Over ten years later, I’m having fertility issues all because a surgeon decided they knew everything.”
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9.“I had an abnormal Pap smear a few years ago despite getting the HPV vaccine and never being sexually active. I went through a colposcopy, and of course, the doctor didn’t believe me when I said I was a virgin. My next pap was normal, and I never figured out what happened.”
10.“I had gestational diabetes with my second son — pre-eclampsia with both. Virtually as soon as I’d found out I was pregnant with my youngest, my blood pressure hit the roof, and I was on blood pressure tablets through three bleeds, which they desperately tried to pinpoint to my periods. Never did find out why.”
“Dista symphysis pubis, where the cartilage between the two front parts of the pelvic girdle goes, allows the baby’s head down without physiotherapy, support, or crutches. It’s just a lot of pain, and I didn’t know you’re supposed to do exercises after birth to repair the muscles. Hyperemesis gravidarium all the way with my first boy. Not listened to. The theory is that all these things can happen as pregnancy can make your body’s weakness worse. I suspect I had PCOS, but in the 1980s, over here, no one listened much.”
11.“I remember my first period when I was 11 years old. I had two-week-long periods and horrible cramps that got even worse each month. I was told after a year that this was normal, that I didn’t need to do anything about it, and if it persisted for more than two years, I should return. So I came back the next year, and by this time, my cramps had gotten debilitating to the point where I was missing school often.”
“My doctor gave me birth control, which worked for a couple of months, but whenever I took a week break to have my period, it came back even worse than before. My cramps would persist throughout the month with the pills. So we decided to try the shot, depo, after a while since I was getting abnormally heavy periods. When I got the shot, I stopped having my period for a couple of days before I ended up constantly bleeding for four entire months. I had a period for all 120 days.”
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12.“I’ve had post-concussion syndrome for two and a half years. My neurologist thinks menopause may be my only respite from the headaches at this point. I can’t wait for menopause, and that’s saying something.”
13.“I had four ureteral stents placed when pregnant. My body would calcify them within a week. After four, my urologist didn’t place anymore; he was worried all the sedation, X-rays & whatnot over and over was too risky for the baby and me. Plus, they never lasted. The minute he was born, I felt like a new person.”
14.“No one told me that large clots are common after delivering via c-section. I’m not sure if it’s normal after vaginal delivery because I haven’t had one. But a clot the size of the palm of my hand came out of my body, and one emergency OBGYN visit later, I learned that it was just part of the deal and to come in if the clots were larger than the palm of my hand. Holy crap, I thought I was dying.”
If you have your own story, share it with me in the comments below!