I’m not someone who would ever say no to the vaccine. It did help alleviate my covid symptoms when I got it for the second time. But the hormonal consequences have been life changing, and not for the better.
Since I was 16 and first got my period, it’s been extremely heavy, I had to miss days off school because I would’ve leaked through my uniform within half an hour even with a super plus tampon and two nighttime maxi pads on. I would also go ghostly pale and have no energy, ending up sleeping through my alarms and feeling light headed all day.
I tried the combination pill which would stop the bleeding for a few days and then in turn make the period worse, it would be even heavier, last for over seven days, and I’d have horrible cramps for the first time alongside it. The majority of studying for my GCSEs was done under extreme stress that I would leak through or smell or have any pain.
I got the implant which made my period disappear when I was 18, this was the BEST decision I’d ever made! I got my life back, got stuck into work, classes, sports, and finally I started to feel like I could get stronger again and work on my mental health.
This was until I had two doses of the covid 19 Pfizer vaccine in August and September last year. After the first I remember having a somewhat heavy but manageable period that month. I was a bit worried but it didn’t affect my job, and then I got the next dose in September and I’ve been bleeding ever since.
My periods before were bad, but this is honestly debilitating. I’ve slept through pretty much all of my second year of university, I’ve been in contact with the mental health teams and the gp since October after I realised my period was constant. I got put onto a 4 day medication to try and make the blood stop, then the ten day pill, and now a constant combination pill. And I’m still bleeding.
I will say that the blood is very light in comparison to the last seven months. However my mental health is all over the place.
Cravings, snapping at people, wanting to have sex again and again and then not wanting anyone to touch me, horrible ingrown hairs from constantly wearing pads everyday, spending so much money on tampons and pads!, not being able to go to football practice, not being able to wake up to go and meet friends or go to lectures, spending all day in bed falling in and out for sleep, thinking I’m the most amazing person in the world then wanting to kill myself the next day, no energy ever, disassociating all the time, upping my antidepressants because my emotions are too much.
My life is at a standstill and I have no idea what to do. I’ve done blood tests, I’ve tried contraceptives, I’ll try anything at this point. My friends nickname me sickly Victorian child because I look like one (hence the username) and even if I get a cold I’m bedridden for days. I just don’t know what to do anymore, I look like I’m using my period as an excuse all the time but no one understands how low I’m feeling all the time. I don’t know what to do.
The last thing my gps have said is that I’ll have to wait until testing results come out about the covid vaccines, and then I might be able to have better care given to me. But I look for articles and reports and texts about the hormonal side effects on women that this vaccine has had and there are hardly any. It feels isolating, like we’re being left to fall apart.