"Delayed" or, "Half" Period?...

[boneden.livejournal.com]

Hello all I have a quick question regarding what appears to be a "half" period. Now I know some of you are thinking this is a possible pregnancy post, but I highly doubt that's what's going on...

Alrighty. For the past year my cycle has ranged from 29-33 days or so, and normally my period lasts between 5-7 days. I had my period right on the dot on April 27th and it lasted five days, heavy bleeding and all (the type of bleeding where it... pardon... FLOWS out. Yes that's normal for me ;) )

Well oddly, I've started what appears to be yet another period just yesterday. Started off with the characteristic brownish, older blood and today I'm experiencing fresh blood.

Take note that I have had a ParaGard IUD for three years, and my boyfriend and I last had sex a month ago with a condom, the condom was to avoid mess more than anything, lol.

I'm wondering if this could be a stress induced period. Over the past three weeks I have been INCREDIBLY stressed and worried about several work related issues. Combined with the fact that on my April 27th period I only had one day of heavy bleeding compared to my normal 2-3 days of heavy bleeding.
I don't think I have PID or any other problems with my uterus because I've been feeling just fine since April 27th, no stomach aches, no pains, nothing wrong. However I HAVE been told by my doctor in the past that I have cervical cysts, which she told me are normal and most women have them.

I'm wondering if the stress I've been going through cut my April period a bit short and now that things have calmed down it's picking up where it left off... is this possible?

Should I be concerned about this "half" period or wait it out and see what happens?

Comments

[ehhhhnotreally.livejournal.com]

The stress thing sounds like the culprit to me. I'm absolutely positive that you aren't pregnant (well, as positive as I can be within the remaining .0000001 percent or whatever chance of risk that a combination of both an IUD and condom has!), and since you are saying you're very stressed and your last period was a little weird, I would definitely DEFINITELY say that's what it is.

Also, and this is just my own observation, I've found that once a year or so, even if I'm on HBC which generally regulates my periods to a T, I will sometimes have a mid-cycle round of old blood/light period-looking stuff... It seems to me that maybe it's just my body's way of totally cleaning itself out? It happens, like I said, once in a blue moon, and doesn't ever seem to occur in combination with anything else of note (stress, diet, etc.)... so I chalk it up to the uterus's reputation as being totally weird and sometimes freaking out the mind of the person who houses it :)

[ehhhhnotreally.livejournal.com]

Oh and just to add... unless you're having some major pain or anything else note-worthy along with the bleeding, it doesn't sound to me like a cause for health concern at all :)

[archangelbeth]

I'd wait it out for a cycle -- sounds like stress (especially with the lack of normal heavy-bleeding for you). Other possible culprit might be ovulation bleeding, if ParaGard doesn't have hormones... (IUDs are right out there in "Ya got me" land, so I could believe that they did or didn't have magic hormonal coatings and would have to research to be sure.)