dehydrated but not wanting to drink + period

fattie92

fattie92

New member
Ok, so, I've always had an irregular period .. it lasts for months, as well as stops for months. this past time I think I started around late October (I know it was before Nov, but can't remember exactly when) and ended several days ago (but I'm still experiencing some of those "ending/starting type symptoms")

Anyway, I've been getting extremely thirsty since I started, but not wanting to drink anything. it's kind of hard to explain the feeling. like sometimes when your hungry but don't want to eat. that's how I always feel with drinking. my head is often throbbing from thirst, but I just have a very strong feeling of not wanting to drink anything. I easily go a day or more without drinking. Sometimes I'll force myself to drink some water, but then I just feel nocuous, and still thirsty.

I wake up often in the middle of the night from dehydration, but even after getting up and drinking until I'm so full I have to stop, I still have an intense feeling of thirst. I thought this was probably due to my period, but I'm still experiencing it even after my period has stopped.

I went through a faze a while back where I only wanted to drink juice instead of water, but this isn't like that. the idea of drinking juice is more repulsing than drinking water.

I've also been struggling with weight gain since around the time I started (gained like 10 pounds quickly, then lost a few, and have been bouncing between being 5-7 pounds heavier than I was before I started my period) .. but that could just be because of the cravings/bad foods I've had on and off during this time.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this annoying feeling of being intensely thirsty but not wanting to drink anything? is it just a normal thing people experience?

.. by the way, I'm 15 if that makes any difference.
 
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You've been having vaginal bleeding continuously since October? You need to get yourself to a doctor (your pediatrician is a fine starting place) ASAP. My cousin had something similar when she was a teenager, and IIRC it was easy to treat.

If what you meant was "My last period before this most recent one was in October, and I just had one, what's up with that?" it could be a couple of things. Most girls aren't particularly regular until they've been menstruating for a few years, so if you started when you were 13 or 14, it could easily be that your body hasn't found its rhythm yet. Alternatively, you may have dropped your body fat low enough that you're becoming ammenorheic - which is a sign that you need to gain some weight back.

Drink a sip or two of water every few minutes, whether you want to or not. Going more than a day without drinking is not good for you. If you weren't going long periods without drinking, I'd say have your pediatrician check your blood sugar, because irregular periods, extreme thirst, and weight loss are all symptoms of diabetes.

Based on everything you've written, including your goal weight in your sig, I suspect incipient eating disorder as the underlying cause of all of your issues. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses. You need to be talking to your parents and your doctor (or a teacher, or the school nurse, or any real live person), not strangers on the internet.
 
Hi allyphoe,

Thanks for the response :).

I did mean that my last period has lasted from October until now, continuously. but, I had my first period when I was 12, and my periods have always been like this. they usually last several months, and then I get a break for several months. my mom does know, and wants to take me to a gynecologist, but I desperately don't want to do that :S

The goal weight in my signature is just around where I'd like to be eventually. 95-105lbs, but I'm going more by size, looks, and feel than the scale ... I seriously doubt this could have to do with too low of a body fat percentage though ... my weight, before I started my most recent period in October, was 118lbs (which is the lowest I've ever been - aside from when I was much younger) and I'm currently 123-125lbs. meaning I'm pretty far from being underweight.

I really really really don't want to go to a doctor, they never help ... I've been to many of them throughout my life and they've either done nothing, diagnosed me with the wrong thing and done nothing, or diagnosed me with the wrong thing and given me a prescription that did nothing or made me sick. orrr, I'll go to two different ones who tell me two different things! hence, I really despise doctors.

I was actually researching online before I posted this thread and was wondering about diabetes too .. maybe I'll ask my mom what she thinks.

I'll try drinking sips of water as you've suggested. maybe that will gradually help the feeling.
 
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Go to the gynecologist. Seriously. You can probably find a pediatric gynecologist who deals primarily with teenagers.

Good luck! :)
 
Experiencing prolonged periods that last for months and excessive thirst is not normal.

If you are truly experiencing the symptoms you described, you need to get a complete medical evaluation from a qualified physician...period!

Looking for answers from strangers on the internet and doing some reading on your own is doing absolutely nothing to accurately diagnose and alleviate any medical condition you may have.

fattie92 said:
I really really really don't want to go to a doctor, they never help ... I've been to many of them throughout my life and they've either done nothing, diagnosed me with the wrong thing and done nothing, or diagnosed me with the wrong thing and given me a prescription that did nothing or made me sick. orrr, I'll go to two different ones who tell me two different things! hence, I really despise doctors.
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Excuse me, but you are only 15. You don't have enough life experience or knowledge at this point to accurately judge what is best for you or who is qualified to help. If I were your parent/guardian, I would be dragging your ass to the doctor...kicking and screaming if I had to.

Believe me, as a teen, we all go through the "know it all" and "invincible" phases. You are neither...none of us are.
 
I would honestly talk to your mom about going on birth control. Even if you are far away from having sex, I did this when I was about 15 because my periods were very irregular and lasted various amounts of days. Besides this I was in excruciating pain from cramps and was missing school because of it, so something needed to be done.

If you are embarrassed about the Doctor checking you out - just tell him/her that you would like to go on birth control to keep your periods regular. It is so much nicer because you will know exactly the day that it starts, and the day it ends and on a monthly basis.

As for the dehydration - I've never had this problem:p Do you exercise daily? Maybe train yourself to drink water after you do some light cardio. You are most likely going to crave the water at this point, in which perhaps that feeling of not wanting to drink it might go away? Or gradually train yourself at times throughout the day to drink a glass.

My one friend had a problem with never being thirsty at all. She had to program her watch to go off at various hours of the day in order to make herself drink liquids because she never got dehydrated. This could also be a solution:)
 
Like the others I suggest seing a gyn AND a doctor, because if you are bleeding more than what is normal you are probably anemic. Anemia can cause either excessive thirst or lack of thirst depending on what kind you have. Either way it isn't a good thing.

Some doctors don't have a clue, but most are pretty helpful. No sense in getting ill over something that can be fixed with something simple. If I can make a suggestion on what is wrong with you, I'm sure and individual who has had many more years of schooling can figure it out too. And they will probably give you a blood test to check for anemia. Either way, I'd up the water and up the iron intake (with veggies).

Women lose iron when the menstruate, which is actually not a bad thing as adults have iron overloads. But it seems to me you have lost too much and being 15, this is not good.

Also lack of drinking water can cause all kinds of GI Tract problems that can lead to colon cancer or other types of cancer in the future. Water is very important. Even if you have to force it down, do it. It is not worth any complications in the future.
 
Yup, see the doc.

I can empathize with you a lot though, my wife HATES all our doctors, mostly because they are like mechanics: they hear a noise, pop the hood, run the checklist, and the whole time they don't grasp that it's a foreign car with metric screws. Just like your car, you need to find a mechanic you like (can you tell a guy wrote this?)

Being an active member of your healthcare team starts with finding a doctor you can talk to though, and develop some kind of rapport. Your situation sounds serious enough to make sure you do this this week. Write down all your symptoms BEFORE you go, because once you're in a cold little room being poked a bit, you tend not to speak up so much.

I'm certain that any gynecologist would recommend the pill, but in my wife's case with her irregular periods, the pill F*CKED HER UP! Bad. Her periods are finally normalizing four years after the agony of synthetic hormones. I'm not saying they would affect you that way at all, just that these chemicals affect different people different ways. I had a girlfriend in college who was on it for years with no problem, and now my wife can't even take them if she wanted to (she doesn't).

Finally. Water. Drink it. Or Die. It's that simple.
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone!

CurvesAhead said:
Excuse me, but you are only 15. You don't have enough life experience or knowledge at this point to accurately judge what is best for you or who is qualified to help. If I were your parent/guardian, I would be dragging your ass to the doctor...kicking and screaming if I had to.

Believe me, as a teen, we all go through the "know it all" and "invincible" phases. You are neither...none of us are.
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Your basing this solely on my age? Come on now ... you have no idea how much life experience or knowledge I have. Going to X amount of doctors in a life span of 15 years is just as valid as going to the same amount of doctors in a span of 40 years. And I'm not sure how you got the idea that I think I know it all, or that I think I'm invincible, because I don't think either. In fact, I don't recall a time I ever thought I knew it all, and I realized I wasn't invincible at 7 (it's actually kind of funny that this came up, because I'm currently writing an English paper about that learning experience haha.)

nikegirl24 said:
I would honestly talk to your mom about going on birth control. Even if you are far away from having sex, I did this when I was about 15 because my periods were very irregular and lasted various amounts of days. Besides this I was in excruciating pain from cramps and was missing school because of it, so something needed to be done.

If you are embarrassed about the Doctor checking you out - just tell him/her that you would like to go on birth control to keep your periods regular. It is so much nicer because you will know exactly the day that it starts, and the day it ends and on a monthly basis.
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Thanks for the advice, nikegirl24. I have asked my mom in the past about taking birth control, and she gave a pretty indubitable n-o. It's kind of a difficult subject matter to be persistent with her about. Especially considering this is the mother who doesn't even allow me to use tampons :\

Thanks for the info, busy91. I'll look into some of those things, and try to up the veggie intake :)

Abilor said:
Finally. Water. Drink it. Or Die. It's that simple.
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haha, very well put.

Yesterday I tried to drink more water, and today I've drunken 9 cups so far ... but so far, I only feel nauseous from it .. and still have the thirsty and dehydrated feeling.

I don't currently have a regular doctor, since as I've said, I've been through a number of them (specialists included) ... but maybe I'll reconsider going to another doc :S

Thanks again for all the advice everyone!
 
About the period thing... it could be nothing or it could be something. It doesn't hurt to go to a doctor and just talk. I am 27 years old and have never had regular periods (unless I've been on the pill). I felt the same way as you...I did NOT want to talk to my doctor about it and I did NOT want anyone to go probing up my skirt. This is not unreasonable. Its awkward. I finally got around to it when I was 20. Now when I look back I should have just gotten I over with sooner.

Here's what happened. I talk to my doctor (no probing required) and she sent me for an ultrasound. There was a chance is could be ovarian cysts. It turn out that it wasn't. We did a few more blood tests over a couple months and they didn't show anything out of the normal. She said that there was probably nothing to worry about. Sometimes some people are like this. A couple years later, I went on a low dose birth control pill. It did the trick, my period was regular (it was nice to not have to be paranoid about being caught off guard when it started). When I went of the pill for about 8 months, my period went back to its old tricks. Sometimes people will find that it becomes regular on its own after being on the pill, some don't.

I'm not sure what Abilor meant when his wife was f*cked up after being on the pill. This is not normal and there are many different types and dosages of birth control pills. A good doctor can help you find the best one for YOU. Now you are still quite young, so I am not saying that the pill should be your fix, but you really should talk to your doctor. If you are comfortable talking to your mom about this, take her with you. It will make things easier.

Talking about periods is not always an easy thing for many people. Even though I have two older sisters, it took me years to feel comfortable talking about it with anyone (I was in my early twenties).

Bite the bullet. Find out whats going on.
 
No tampons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would die!!!!!!!!! haha Sorry.......I just could never go back to pads:p My mother still uses them, and I never had a tampon lesson until college - but I will never go back and I wish I had known about these miraculous products sooner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Sorry to get off topic)

I hope all this info is helpful to you though!
 
I know plenty of people for whom hormonal contraception has had intolerable side effects; enough that I'd be hesitant to put my own kid on it for convenience (as opposed to for contraception or some medical reason) if she were a teenager. Birth control pills don't regulate your period, or fix any underlying issues. They trick your body into essentially thinking it's pregnant, so you don't ovulate. And the bleeding isn't a menstrual period; it's a progesterone withdrawal bleed with absolutely no medical purpose - the companies that first developed the pill included it because in the days before OTC pregnancy tests, bleeding every month gave you a quick way of knowing that the pill was working and you weren't pregnant.

What you're describing is not "irregular periods" - if it were, I'd suggest you do fertility charting (which can tell any ovulatory woman exactly when she'll get her period with very little effort and no artificial hormones). The majority of women don't have a 28-day cycle, and varying cycle lengths aren't unusual or abnormal. Bleeding that continues for months at a time is unusual and abnormal, and not a matter of "some people are just like that."
 
allyphoe said:
I know plenty of people for whom hormonal contraception has had intolerable side effects; enough that I'd be hesitant to put my own kid on it for convenience (as opposed to for contraception or some medical reason) if she were a teenager. Birth control pills don't regulate your period, or fix any underlying issues. They trick your body into essentially thinking it's pregnant, so you don't ovulate. And the bleeding isn't a menstrual period; it's a progesterone withdrawal bleed with absolutely no medical purpose - the companies that first developed the pill included it because in the days before OTC pregnancy tests, bleeding every month gave you a quick way of knowing that the pill was working and you weren't pregnant.
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Thank you. Now I don't have to explain to someone why my wife was in agony.
 
Just to clarify. By no means, whatsoever, am I suggesting that the pill answers all problems or that it does create them. It is different for each person and each kind of pill. When I was fifteen I probably would not have taken them. This is why it is so important to talk to a very knowledgeable doctor and to weigh the benefits and consequences.

Abilor, I hope that you weren't offended by anything I said. When I said that it "wasn't normal", I didn't mean that your wife was an the only one who had problems. What I meant was that not all people react to the pill like your wife and that not all pills are created equal. I am sure that there are many women who have had problems. I apologize, it seemed like I was suggesting that your wife was in anyway abnormal.

Allyphone, thanks for providing some very useful information. I can only speak from my own experience. I agree that the pill is not natural and works on the premise of tricking your body. It will not correct an underlying health problem (that is why I suggest a doctor). However, it can help some people, such as myself that do not have a regular cycle. I have no underlying medical condition. When I charted my menstrual cycle for a couple years, including hormone blood tests, it never followed any semblance of a pattern. There was no way to predict when it would come (unless I had a blood test). True the pill never magically fixed this because the week of placebo pills only cause your body to mimic a period, but nonetheless, it made my life a lot more livable. I am not suggesting that the pill helps any health condition, I am only saying that it can help certain people's quality of life.

As for prolonged bleeding, it should be checked out it often is a symptom of other problems. However, from what I have heard, it some times is only the result of irregular hormone levels not related to any medical problem. It should be checked out by a doctor.

I apologize if I have mislead anyone.
 
lusciouslemon said:
Abilor, I hope that you weren't offended by anything I said. When I said that it "wasn't normal", I didn't mean that your wife was an the only one who had problems. What I meant was that not all people react to the pill like your wife and that not all pills are created equal. I am sure that there are many women who have had problems. I apologize, it seemed like I was suggesting that your wife was in anyway abnormal.
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Oh, hey, no worries. My reply sounded a lot snippier than it was; she really did just save me the trouble.

Besides, I'm just used to my wife having a hard time with a lot of conventional medicine. She confounds doctors with her symptoms, and then they usually mess her up more with harsh medications. The current situtation is that she has ovarian cysts, and they wanted to put her on the pill, but the pill just attacks her system. She's totally miserable on it. Now, though, she's easing out of cyst country slow and steady. She's eating well and exercising, and her flow is finally becoming quite regular.

She's wee, too, like 5' 2" and 110 lbs soaking wet. We look like an odd couple, but it works.
 
Ablior,

Sorry to hear about you wife's ovarian cysts. It is definitely not a nice thing to have. I was checked out for them, but luckily I didn't have any. Irregularity is probably the least of her worries. Hopeful when she's out of "cyst country" she stays out of it.

Ha,ha, odd couple. My sister and I are an odd couple as well. She has always been tiny , she's 31 and still is only 5'2" and about 95lbs. People look at us and wonder what the heck happened genetically. She can't manage to gain weight no matter how hard she tries and I have to struggle to lose weight. LOL! Really, if she wasn't my sister I'd probably hate her ;)
 
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