Weird periods

[estrellafugaz85.livejournal.com]

For the 3rd or 4th month in a row, my period has started weirdly. I'll get some slight cramping and a little bit of blood/brown sludge and then have up to a whole day or two of nothing until my period starts properly. This month is the worst yet. I expected my period at the end of the week but yesterday morning had some bright red blood. Today I have only a tiny little bit of blood on my pantyliner, but I've been to the toilet several times and had no blood at all come out. Is this at all normal? All the other times in the past few months, my period has started for real after a day or two and been pretty heavy and lasted around 5 days. I'm not on HBC and my last pap showed mild abnormalities. I was told I had polycystic ovaries after an ultrasound last year, but was not diagnosed with PCOS as all the tests were normal and my periods have always been regular. I'm not sure whether this slight bleeding counts as spotting or whether it's just a weird and early beginning to my period, but it's making me nervous. Any help appreciated.

Still getting painful air bubbles, and questions about mucous

[corvidophil3.livejournal.com]

First, the curious question: Where can I find good descriptions, in words or pictures, of the normal variance of mucous? I've been to that one famed and informative page where a woman takes a photo of her cervix every day of her cycle for a month, but my goop isn't like her goop at all. I understand there's gonna be variance, but I've never heard anyone describe what I get.

Basically, for either none or up to six days in the middle of my cycle, I eject up to a third a cup of gunk a day. By "gunk," I don't mean the clear, slippy type of secretion, and I don't mean the mildly stretchy, egg white kind. I mean it's like half-dried rubber cement, and it stretches from my vagina to the surface of the water whenever I pee in a column as thick as a Sharpie marker. (I think the longest I've ever stretched it is one and a half feet, and at that length it was a little thinner than a cheap mechanical pencil) It's almost clear nearly all the time, but sometimes it's lightly amber. When it dries, it's a rich, clear amber. Doesn't hurt, but it's annoying. Very rarely, for a day right before or after the gunky phase, it'll be the consistency of wet boogers, and be white and opaque. Does anyone else get this amount of gunk for this long?

Second, I'm still getting painful bubbles of air inside of me. They come and go, sometimes I'll be fine for a day or two, other times they'll always be there as a presence and sometimes there as a lightly stinging pain- they've gone down in pain significantly since I last posted, though. Now they're just cringe-worthy to a little annoying, before I couldn't bring myself to shift my leg when they were bad. The whole lower vulva is still intermittently tender and painful upon pressure, too, but starting around the urethra on up, I'm fine. It's just around the vagina and the lower half of the inner lips that hurts. Hope this fades away soon.

Also, since a week and a half ago, sometimes I feel like the weight of my inner guts is all resting in my vagina and if I were to stomp up and down I'd prolapse. When I'm experiencing it, the jar from every step I take makes it feel like there's a lead ball inside my vagina about to fall out, and I'm clenching onto it while it bounces. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it's a weird, weird feeling, and I don't know what's causing it. Should I do clenching exercises, could this be the result of weakened/damaged muscles from stretching the tunnel out for the hymenectomy?

Condom effectivness?

[creativexangst.livejournal.com]

I searched where I could think and I couldn't find an answer.

A friend posted to her facebook the following: "I just got a flyer about birth control from my doctor. it says condoms are only 85% reliable! when did this happen?"

I've always heard that they were 98% effective, female condoms a little less so. I used to be a sex educator and this was also the information we were passing on. I know that the 85% isn't arbitrary, there's a reason behind it but I'm blanking on what it is. Could someone help?

Thanks!