There’s a way that just might induce a period two weeks sooner than when you’re expecting it.
It worked for me, though at the time, I didn’t know it was going to happen.
Normally, my period had intervals ranging from 24 to 32 days.
There were a handful of intervals between 21 and 23 days, but most were 26 to 30 days.
Some years ago I arranged to go on a trip to Hawaii for 10 days with my parents.
When my parents told me the departure date, I immediately checked it against the time range for the start of my next menstrual cycle.
I was mortified to learn that day 26 would be the first day of the Hawaii trip!
This meant that if my period came at any point during its typical interval range, the entire cycle would be during my Hawaii vacation!
I was livid. For the next two weeks, I just fumed over this. To have an entire period while vacationing in Hawaii would totally ruin everything.
It’s not that I planned on going swimming. I didn’t. But due to vaginismus, I was not able to use a tampon.
I was anticipating:
• Hassling with always having sanitary pads on me to prevent soaking.
• Worrying I’d be somewhere where it wasn’t convenient to just traipse off and change a pad, like on a boat for a whale watching excursion or at Disneyland.
• Agonizing abdominal cramps with the potential for confining me to bed for several hours.
• Nausea, possible vomiting.
• Low backache, upper leg ache.
Every day that got closer to the departure date, I grew increasingly infuriated. How could this happen to me, with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
And no, it was impossible to change the date.
I mean really, I was p’d to no end.
Then I began spotting. A few days later I was flowing: my period! It was 14 days after the first day of my previous menstrual cycle!
This was unheard of. Other than the two week headstart, there was nothing remarkable about this menstrual cycle. It felt and behaved like any other period.
I had stopped flowing by the time my vacation began. I’ll never forget sitting on the plane on the way to the islands, still in disbelief that I would be free of the burden and pain of my menstrual cycle.
What made my period come two weeks sooner?
Common Sense 101 tells me that my fury over its projected coinciding with my vacation somehow altered my body chemistry.
It seems that the mind—the amazing machine it is—reset my hormones so that my next period would start two weeks sooner than usual.
I’m postmenopausal now, and this two week sooner period occurred many years ago.
So since then, there were many opportunities for this odd event to repeat itself — if it was just a coincidental fluke, that is.
But it never repeated itself. I can only conclude that my frequent stewing over my menstrual cycle ruining my vacation triggered hormonal changes in my body: mind over matter — without my consciously making this happen.
Nevertheless, if you’re anticipating menstruation coinciding with a planned vacation — you’ll want to discuss solutions with your OBGYN.
