Autistic women and periods...

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I've never had much of an anxiety problem with my periods.

I 'suffer' from hyper-menorrhagia - my periods can last up to 14 days and are up to 380ml (the average for most is 35-80ml).
When I was younger this meant I couldn't leave the house many days, at school or in public I had multiple experiences with leaking so badly it'd run down my legs and leak right through all my clothing, and nothing better than waking up first thing in the morning with a room looking like the set of a bad slasher movie then having to spend most of the day sitting in a bath. This was a little anxiety-inducing. Now I use a menstrual cup, tranexamic acid, coffee, multivitamins and chaste tree tincture so it's no longer a big issue, all this also means I don't ever get PMS or cramps.

I do get more sensory issues during my period - hyper-sensitive to touch, which makes sleeping a little tough.

Attitude affects menstruation and vice-versa - stress and anxiety can have a massive effect on menstruation, and if you feel negatively about menstruation or suffer problems like cramps or PMS then it just turns into a viscous cycle - deal with any menstrual problems, feel more positively about menstruation, and menstruation will become easier. If irregularity is a problem, have you confirmed with a doctor that anxiety is the problem? Have you also tried anything to regulate periods such as chaste tree or evening primrose oil?

I'd also suggest two things you might find helpful;

1. Fertility Awareness Method - tracking your cycles may not only let you know when your periods are due and if there are any problems, so cutting out any anxiety about when your period will come, but also understanding your body a bit better will allow you to identify when in your cycle you may feel horny, when you may feel moody, and so-on, with that information you may then be able to do something about this or at least have more of a feeling of control as you'll know when to expect the hormonal and mood changes.

2. Optimised Woman - learning to take advantage of the mental and emotional changes you go through at certain points in your cycles, as well as better understanding of these it'll allow you to use them to your advantage so give you more control.

Depends totally on the problem and the cause.

you just gave some:)

I never said it was different for us just because we are autistic... I was just wondering what other woman with autism felt about their periods; especially if they don't like the changes.

For me, mine is unpredictable and with that... comes a big deal. I never know when I will have it. I could sit here typing and not even know if there is blood down there until my panties start to feel wet or strange down there and then I have to go the bathroom... it's a challenge and it makes my anxiety rise too. I've lost many pairs of underwear because of this.

I've noticed that I don't get PMS... I mean if I do, its different but in all honesty, I have no way of knowing when my period WILL come and its quite distressing for me. I also have to wear adult diapers, the pull up kind, for my period... especially at night because without knowing the cues... or placing my period into my routine and knowing when I have to well... change the pad or tampon... it becomes a bit of a challenge.

So by wearing adult diapers, it becomes easier for me since they can hold more than a pad can hold and I'm not worried about a pad or tampon overflowing because I forgot about it. It's just the routine of things that makes the cues harder to recognize with my period. >_____<

I get stressed on my periods. I hate having them and often times they seem to vary now. On some days I notice its for a week and then its five days... so I'm not really sure why they do that. I dread my period because of the change and having to adjust it into my routine and worse when I don't even expect it...

I am a man and have no personal experience with periods. But I would like to share what our doctor told my wife, who has some broader autism phenotypes and who had irregular periods. The doctor said, "I recommend skipping ALL your periods, your entire life, until you want to have a baby". She said you can use the patch or a pill. With a patch, you do not skip a week, and then you do not have a period. With the pill, you do not use the placebo, placeholder pills. You just go straight to the next hormonal one. This doctor gives prescriptions for the right number of patches or pills to last the entire year.

Q: Can she have periods once a year, once a quarter, if she wants?
A: Yes, any time she wants a period, at least 28 days from the last one, she can have one.

Q: Will it affect childbirth?
A: No. While you are on it, it prevents pregnancy. But when you stop, you will again be able to conceive and bear a child.


Q: Is it not unhealthy to skip periods?
A: No, not unhealthy at all. And it produces many health benefits. I do it, myself, and I advise ALL my menstruating female patients to consider it.

Q: What are the health benefits?
A: Women become "a different person" in the different phases of their menstrual cycles. By skipping periods, they become more steady, which can reduce stress that can remove barriers to living how they want.


My wife seems to like skipping periods, but I can tell you for sure that I as her husband really like her skipping her periods because it keeps things steadier for me with my autism symptoms. Hmmm, this "steadiness" perhaps could be good for women with autism, too. If you are a woman with autism, maybe you could ask your doctor or psychologist, and post any knowledge you gain.

I use the patch, and occasionally skip or move my periods, but I found that doing this all the time made me more moody not less.

I do like knowing when I am due though.

I am the same way. The changes affect me because I am autistic. I can't deal with having to wear depends diapers because I get annoyed by wearing actual diapers... it just bothers me. But my mom doesn't want me to go on a patch or even birth control. My periods are so irregular that I rarely ever have them so if I don't then, I'm not going to do anything about them.

I mean it would be even more of a change readjusting to take more pills or replacing a patch with my regulated meds which I take once a day for ADHD. Plus my anxiety meds too... and to have to do all those other things I would forget and I also hate taking pills. I always have a hard time swallowing and I can even feel them in my throat... I have to break them in have... even small pills feel they are constricted in my throat.

I suffer terribly with my periods...moreso in my 30s than earlier. I bleed so heavily I can feel it running sometimes, I get the most appalling rage/crying attacks in the day or two before, I get anxiety attacks sometimes on the first day, severe cramps, sleep issues and fatigue. I would say they interfere a lot with my life and make me more sensitive to things against my skin as well.

I have no clue of a solution that wont have unpleasant side effects like weight gain.

No, she can't. Hormonal birth control prevents menstruation, she can only have a true period if she comes off the hormones long enough to allow her body to ovulate, while using menstrual management she can bleed but cannot menstruate. A woman also cannot just stop using hormonal birth control willy-nilly and remain protected from unwanted pregnancy, it can be more complicated than this.



There is no way anyone can claim that menstrual management is not unhealthy - this may be in the wording, the effects of not menstruating are not yet fully understood and theoretically this poses no harm, however when it comes to menstrual management you are not just looking at health effects of not menstruating, but the effect of the hormonal methods on the body.

There is a serious lack in long-term research carried out on newer brands and types of hormonal birth control - also look at Yas, it's the biggest selling hormonal birth control pill on the market (because it is either the most cost-effective or doctors are paid more for prescribing this over other brands or types of pill that may be less harmful or better suited to individual women), yet it has a mountain of law-suits for causing strokes, heart attacks and birth defects (that's not taking into consideration those not suing the ass off the Bayer pharmaceutical company or those who have suffered lesser or as yet unknown health effects).

There are some health benefits but equally there are health risks and side-effects to consider, breast and bone development are effected long-term (depo being a particular concern for this), and ability to care for sexual health is effected. Furthermore hormonal birth control used by doctors to cover-up underlying health problems - irregular periods, heavy flow, menstrual cramps, PMS, etc. - these are not part of being a woman, but all signs of an potential underlying health problem, hormonal birth control only hides these problems so they remain untreated. As Chris Hitchcock puts it; "In that case, going on the pill can be like hitting snooze on your smoke alarm".

Any doctor who advises ALL menstruating females to consider menstrual management shouldn't be allowed to practice medicine, period (excuse the pun). Such methods are not always safe or suitable for all women, and this way of thinking sees many women refused treatment and denied reproductive choices when doctors don't bother to educate themselves or their patients about other methods or treatment options, often then seeing women looking at different options as potentially more work for them and so to be discouraged or even belittled. By large menstrual management is seen as an advantage more because of social taboos surrounding menstruation, and it is all too commonly used by doctors to shut women up about health concerns.



By "a different person" this means women are no longer influenced by their natural cycles, because hormone levels are essentially leveled out, this can be as much a negative as a positive given as at certain points in their cycles women can be better able to deal with stress, more creative, more motivated, better at communication, more sexual, find it easier to commit to projects, and so-on - this goes for autistic women too. If a woman feels unstable during her cycle she can just as likely benefit from learning about her cycle so she can manage it through understanding, pre-emptive treatments and life planning...or if the instability is that of PMS then a woman should consider regulating her hormones or treating the underlying cause.

The idea that women are 'unsteady' due to those pesky hormones is an archaic and outright sexist idea.

Menstrual management/menstrual suppression is an option, and every woman has the choice to take that option if she should want, but there are serious ethical and sociological concerns as well as concerns over women's health and well-being - SOME women may benefit from menstrual management, but SOME women would also benefit from addressing individual issues such as regulating hormones, lessening flow, using different menstrual products, preventing cramps and understanding cycles.

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Ditching the pill for good

The first time I got my period, I honestly felt like I was going to die. The pain was that bad. I remember lying in bed all day in a darkened room whimpering in agony and terror, wondering when the ambulance would be coming to get me.

I am on the pill at the moment. Why? The off chance i have some sex.

All hormonal birth control can effect fertility. All you need to do is look up side effects of XYZ in google and hundreds of stories and support forums pop up.

Some women don't start to ovulate for over a year after the depo shot.

Lots of women also don't realise that their fertility can take a nose dive after they turn 25 and they will need to use reproductive technology. Things like endometriosis can be masked by using a hormonal contraceptive.

Also on the hormonal option, up to 25% of women still ovulate but due to the pill, they egg has trouble implanting because of the change in the lining of the uterus. Some pro-lifers feel this is an early abortion.


My period when not on a hormonal pill only lasts for 2 to 3 days at the most and is really light so that i don't need to use sanitary items. It is slightly heavier on the hormonal.

feel really gross all day and dont know when i need a change it and it hurts alot to

When I first started them, it felt like nothing and then it effected my hormones. It made me more emotional and anything that was said to me would hurt my feelings and I would cry. Even compliments would do it too. But I hated having them then. I also hated when the blood get in my butt hole and itch. Then I was put on birth control and it took away my irregular periods and hot flashes, cramping, and heavy periods. They became no problem for me. I knew when to expect them so I was prepared, no more bloody suprises or bloody accidents. I would put a pad in when I would end up in the green pill section for when my period would come.
Then I stopped taking them at age 20 and then a year later, the cramps started to come back so I started birth control again. Now I have not had a period in over a year now.


Fun fact: When you have a baby, you bleed for a while, at least six weeks but every woman is different so it could be less than that or more. But it's not called a period. It's just your body getting rid of all the blood that has build up in your uterus over the last nine months. I had that and it lasted for at least a month and then it ended. No bleeding since. Breast feeding will keep your period away but it can still come before your baby is weaned off your breasts.

It is called Lochea.

Also it lasts up to on average 6 weeks. you are meant to have your checkup at your doctors at 6weeks to make sure everything is ok.

It is safe to have sex after it has stopped. Mine lasted less then a week both times.

My period is VERY regular - every 28 days. A little scary, even. I'm surprised nothing has gone wrong.

I don't even have to use the Fertility Awareness Method - I can sense when it's coming. Two or three days before I'll get cramps, and start to expect it to come soon. I also become more overwhelmed by my sensory issues. It's heavier for the first few days but then it starts to phase out, and is gone by the 5th or 6th day.

I used to get very sick from it - I remember a time when I was 16 and in Chemistry, when I had to leave class every 15 minutes because I had to vomit. My teacher encouraged me that day to go on birth control... it was a little awkward, to say the least! Haha. But that hasn't happened since. I guess I got lucky?

Pads are annoying though. I don't like the plastic against my skin, and they're not good for the environment. I already use OB tampons, which don't have an applicator, but I've considered getting a menstural cup. We'll see.

I had to have a hystorectomy because my periods were so bad. So far I do not regret it and wish I could have had one sooner. The periods themselves never really bothered me until they started getting so thick they were black and they would go on for over three weeks. It was the allergic reactions I had to the products that were supposed to keep me from getting blood on my clothes that bothered me the most. My mother would never let me use tampons and when I finnaly tried one and finnaly got it in the right place, it was so painful I couldn't walk. I tried Depends but those bothered me as well. I begged the gynocologist to give me a hystorectomy and she did. I still don't regret it.