Do your periods change as you get older?
- Yes.
- Mine hasn’t.
- Mine only changed after I had a baby. Before they were really painful and were heavy-ish over 3-4 days. Now they hurt less (maybe due to the muscles stretching during pregnancy?) but extremely heavy on one day only.
- Yes, they got lighter but more unpredictable.
- Shorter, lighter, more consistent (may be effects of hormonal contraception too).
- Possibly a little heavier but they’ve been quite bad throughout, no matter what age.
- Mine haven’t yet.
- They are all pretty much the same as I’ve been on contraception for the last 12 years.
- So far it hasn’t changed.
- Mine are more painful.
- Yes they have – more regular and consistent.
- Oh yeah. I used to get horrible migraines when I had my period, and really bad cramping. Now I don’t get migraines anymore and the pain has lessened, not gone, but not as debilitating.
- Yes they have.
- Yes? Heavier?
- Yeah, they’ve changed. I got the coil recently and they’re a lot lighter but so much more painful.
- Yep.
- They are generally getting lighter.
- Not really.
- Not sure, but they certainly changed after having my two children. They're much less heavy and shorter now.
- Yes, for me they got heavier and more painful.
- They’ve gotten longer and lighter.
- No.
- Periods have felt more painful as I've got older. Have also changed due to contraceptive pill.
- I’m not sure.
- Yes.
- I was on the pill for five years until 2019, so hard to tell how long the progression took, but now they are regular. I don’t get anxiety around the time of my period like I used to. I also used to forget things (like passwords and pin numbers, it was a nightmare and the main reason I went on the pill!).
- It got so much worse with age! When I was in my twenties, I would feel a bit of breast pain for a couple of days and back pain the day it came, but now the cramps have gone wild. I thought it was because of the Covid vaccines, but it might be that I’m getting old!
- They are generally less painful than when I first started getting periods as a teenager. I get less intense nausea and rarely vomit anymore (which used to be a regular occurrence). However, I do get more back pain now as an adult.
- Fortunately, it’s improved a lot since I stopped taking the pill ten years ago. Everything else is the same, unless I am stressed (more painful) or really worried and sad (then it’s late).
- No, I just learnt how to tolerate pain.
- I was diagnosed with endometriosis at age 23, but no major changes in the four years since.
- Yes, they get heavier.
- I think they got worse.
- Depends on contraception.
- Mine definitely have, I’m sure everyone is different though.
- Yes. I feel more lethargic now than I did when I was younger.
- Feels like they get worse – worse PMS.
- Yes.
- Yes! Mine got better in my mid-twenties.
- Yes, mine have got heavier and more painful unfortunately.
- I’ve been on the pill since I was a teenager and I'm in my late twenties now, so I'm unsure how much it has changed as the bleeding you get on the pill is technically a withdrawal and not a real period but mimics the same symptoms.
- Haven't so far – or not that I'm aware of.
- Yes, and there are more symptoms.
- It's got to do with too much or imbalanced hormones like prostaglandin, oestrogen levels etc…
- I am 45 years old and mine have been very consistent since my first period when I was 15.
- They seem to get less intense as I get older.
- Yes, hurts more. The first couple of times (I was 13) it was mainly spotting. Never understood those movies where people haemorrhage heavily when they start their period.
- Not that I have experience so far.
- Yes, mine are getting closer together.
- No, not really.
- Yes – they are longer.
- Yes, they’ve got lighter, shorter and one ovary gives me a more painful period than the other when it has been its turn to ovulate!
- When I first got my period it was a heavier and longer flow, but for now it’s predictable and unchanging.
- Yes, mine has become more regular.
- Yes, I used to have a pause day on Day 3 when I was younger. I no longer get a holiday mid way through 😑
- Not yet.
- They did, but it's because of different stages in my life – I was on birth control for a while and they were super regular and no cramps. Since coming off, it's back to being terrible.