Girly Stuff

I know at my work we have several people on varying prescription meds for acne. Epiduo is very popular. The problem we (well, customers) run into is the price. Most dermatologists seem to be oblivious to the price of these medications and/or the budgets of the people they're prescribing them too. If you can get coupons or have it stretch, they might well be worth it.

I've only been able to keep my face to mildly cleared up. I've learned being regular with cleaning my face helps. (Duh. )

Also. My curly hair= frizzy hair and it sucks. I can never find a good in between. It's either super dry and frizzy or way too greasy. Doesn't help I'm lazy about hair care products. Or products in general.

Epiduo is what I'm on right now, and it's expensive but my doctor's office gives me those coupons. It's like $30. But the tube I have now has lasted almost a full year (it's super drying so I can't use it every day during the winter.)

The antibiotics I took were generics so none of those were expensive. They just didn't do anything. =/ I read somewhere about other hormone therapy... that kinda freaks me out a bit, I'm just not sure how much I really want to screw with my body to avoid pimples. Supposedly the best thing for acne in women is testosterone... hm.

Only dry lips/nasal passage. The dry nose thing was the worst but temporary.

Pleasant, girly smelling body wash recommendations? My current body wash is some crap from Walmart. Something that is at least slightly moisturizing is a plus. Something with matching shampoo/conditioner would be nice, but not required.

I use Live Clean shampoo/conditioner/body wash with the Argan Oil.

OMG THANK YOU! I love them! I bought two and my hair is up right now and LOVE. My arms are too sore to braid but they can whip it up into a bun win-win


What're those?? More wonderful things??

ETA nevermind, I'm a dope. LOL

But yeah, Spin Pins make my life complete. I would hack all my hair off if not for those!

I finally got around to going to a bra shop for a fitting.

I've been buying 34C/D bras from Target for YEARS.

Turns out I'm actually a 32E. The tshirt I wore in looked SO MUCH BETTER on the way out with this new bra.

Had this conversation at work today with a lady whose college aged child I tutor.

"X is doing so much better in his class, we'd love to throw you a little thank you dinner! Your boyfriend could come as well!"
"Oh he's in japan and really that's not necessary.."
"Why is he in Japan?"
"Oh for work"
"What does he do?"
"He's a marine"
".. oh.. I never really took you for one of those girls... honey but you're so smart. Well I've got to run dear!"

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

Ugh so now I feel stupid for being upset. Like who cares what this lady thinks?! I'm smart enough to tutor her idiot of a son. (he really isn't an idiot, he is just an athlete that nobody really took the time to teach because he could always play) and I am incredibly happy with my boyfriend. Happier than I've been in any relationship to date.

but nobody has ever really roundaboutly called me stupid before.. or called me "one of those girls"

It's stupid that I'm upset but I am.
like there is this huge "people who date military people" culture that I know nothing about and everyone else is judging and I just.. I dunno.

Sorry if this is the wrong thread I just figured it was a girly thing.

What a rude bitch! Who says that to someone?

So..there are kind of career girls that kind of look for guys in the military so when the guys get deployed, they get to sit home with the guys' salary and bonuses and not really have to work or anything. Girl is never really expected to get a serious job because the military moves them around and then she has babies and is a housewife and that's that. In my opinion? If everyone's happy with that arrangement, then everyone's happy with that arrangement. Then there are girls that if it doesn't work out with that one military guy, they move to the next.

But, that said, that is most certainly NOT every girls' intentions that end up with a military guy. It's not common, or the norm, but it does happen enough that it is a 'thing'. Obviously it's not your thing, and quite frankly it's none of that woman's business, and she should not have said something like that. Ugh.

For those of you with PCOS (and those without) what BC are you on\worked best for you? I made a doctors appointment and I'd like to know what women with my issues recommend. Also, if you do something other than a pill, why and what's the process? (I believe Lyz has Implanon)

I'm familiar with the costs of most BC medications, since I work in a pharmacy. But I'd like more personal experience than straight out drug facts.

It's tough to really "recommend" birth control because all our bodies and hormones are so different that everybody will react differently. A friend of mine recommended NuvaRing to me because she loved it, and I had horrible side-effects on it, not the least of which was really bad depression. I tried three different pills, and none of them worked well (gave me multiple periods every month and I was trying to AVOID the so-painful-I'm-puking periods.) I love being on depo provera, but I generally do not recommend it to other people and lots of women have trouble on it. I tried Mirena and didn't like it, I think it was 7 or 8 months and I had it removed. Implanon I was going to try but it was pretty expensive, especially since I had already paid $$$ for the Mirena and it didn't work out, so I just went back on the depo because I knew it worked for me.

Ultimately I went with depo (and back to it) because I have NO periods on it. Which means NO painful cramps, NO puking, NO missed work (or school when I was still in school.) Every 10 weeks I go to the doctor, they stick the injection in my big fat butt, and ta-da! I did spot almost constantly the whole first year, but it was without cramps so I was willing to take the trade off - and it went away entirely after the first year.
Every woman should take a calcium + vitamin D supplement with their birth control but especially so with depo. However the bone density loss women encounter on depo has been shown to be completely reversible once you go off it. I was off depo for a little over a year because we thought maybe it wasn't working as well, tried NuvaRing and Mirena, went back to depo and it's been fine since.

My BC is to treat for endometriosis and not PCOS though. I am also more willing to play biological warfare on my body than some other women might be. If I permanently damage my uterus, that's okay with me... not okay with other women.

I think for PCOS most women tend to have success with the pill... it's also the easiest to change should your body be like NOPE THIS ISN'T WORKING ANYMORE.

My Implanon(progesterone) experience was/has been sorta 50/50. Getting it inserted was extremely painful, either because I had a bad reaction to the lidocane or because my doctor hit a nerve when she did it. I didn't feel it when she inserted it, I didn't look. At least until she said, "Oh, that has never happened before" and turns out the rod came OUT OF MY ARM AND SHE HAD TO DO IT AGAIN. It bruised my arm pretty well and was uncomfortable for a few weeks. You don't realize how much you use that part of your arm until you can't. But the process itself shouldn't be that difficult. They stick you a few times with lidocane to numb you, they take a giant needle(don't look, you won't feel it) and insert the rod with it. Tell you to feel it to know it is there. Wrap you up pretty tight to help with bruising and such. And...that's it. I think I just had a crappy doc.

Periods were sporadic and all over the place. Not regular at all. Went from 30 days to 40 days to 30 days to 50-60 days at one point. Now just this month I've bled 3 times over an extended period of time. It's frustrating. Cramping has been getting way worse lately and it's almost as if the Implanon isn't there at all. All the same symptoms I had before Implanon. Acne, horrid cramping, irregular periods, lately I've been having issues with other hormonal things like BO and mood swings.

When it worked, it sorta worked aside from just never knowing when I'd have a day or two of really light bleeding/spotting. But now that it's bad...it's bad. I really want it out. It's been nearly a year since I got it, and things haven't leveled out at all. I've had two cysts rupture in the last six months, so I know it isn't doing much for me. Except making me not pregnant.

I was on Yaz(estrogen). I was regular, skin was clear, no hormonal issues or PCOS issues at all. I just happened to be mentally insane with crazy bi-polar mood swings and dreams I was getting killed. Insomnia and depression and all those things. Could have been Jin, though. opcorn: I've considered going back to it, I just don't like taking a pill every day.

I don't want something shoved up my cervix and I've heard Depo is either PERFECT or NIGHTMARE AND comparable to Implanon so that's probably out for me too.

That probably wasn't very helpful. Sorry.

Depo, Mirena, and Implanon are all progesterone-based, so if one doesn't work well for you, there's the definite possibility the others won't either (conversely if one works you will probably be fine with the other.) My success on depo is why my doctor felt comfortable giving me the Mirena... and also since I was 25 and told her no, I don't want kids. She said something like "Welp, at 25 you're probably certain, so okay!"

That said I had some side-effects on Mirena that I don't have on depo... but one of them was a clear side-effect from something hanging out on my cervix. "It's like my vagina constantly has a runny nose" is how I read it described on another forum and I was like YES THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT'S LIKE. My breasts were also really sore and tender all. the. time on Mirena and aren't like that on depo.

The biggest problem with depo is once it's in your bloodstream, there it is. And you're pretty much stuck with it for 12-odd weeks. =/ Sometimes they try to "fix" your side-effects by giving you a SECOND injection of it and I guess for some people that actually works, but if I was having a reaction to something, the last thing I'd want to do is have more of it shot into me. Yikes!

Yeah, my doctor suggested progesterone based because of my reaction to Yaz. Like, "One of them has to work" type of things. Generally women either go one way or another, aside from a few side effects. I went with Implanon because it wasn't a reoccuring shot and not something up my cervix. But Implanon definitely is getting worse the longer I'm on it, so I might end up back on Yaz. Estrogen based BC is mostly in Pill form. I'm cautious about Nuva Ring and certain....activities. Lol

That, and I'd really like a birth control I don't have to think about. That's something about Implanon I do love. I don't have to think about it, ever, except once every 3 years or so. No reoccuring payments, no appointments, no "Crap, forgot". It's extremely easy.

LOL - I've actually heard of women who take the NuvaRing out before engaging in "activity." Then put it back in when they're done.

I really did like the concept of NuvaRing! It was easy-peasy. You could try it and see what happens. It worked great for my friend. And really, when I finally made the connection between my depression and the NuvaRing and yanked it out, my depression got better rapidly. Like I immediately felt better the next day and over a week things just got better and better. And since you insert it/remove it yourself, you don't have to make an appointment for removal, haha.

Fran, she called you a tag chaser. You're not, so don't even worry about it. You're not dating him for insurance thinking you're going to get a boob job out of the deal, you're not running around calling yourself Sgt so and so's girlfriend, you're not after BAH and you're certainly not trying to get knocked up so he's stuck with you forever. She's a jerk. I know plenty of tag chasers, and you're just... not.

So, girly issues: HOLY MOOD SWINGS. I've been pretty ****ed up lately. Seemingly high for days, then low for another few days, then back again. I'm not even enjoying the manic phases.

I need to get back on Kaiser and find a doctor that will return my calls.

I was like that on Yaz. No physical issues, but the mental ones were intense. I was suicidally depressed with hourly mood swings. I don't think it was Jin - don't get back on Yaz.

I have this, too! I always had some sort of discharge (which is normal) but now I feel like I'm going to the bathroom to clean up several times a day. It's kind of gross. Like constantly being horny without the fun of, you know, actually being actually turned on.

My breast soreness only started on Mirena, too, and I usually know my period is coming based on how much it hurts when I walk into a door. Or jog. Or attempt to put on a bra.

I've never even heard of that. What the hell. . .

Yeah. Tag chasers, Cosmo Wives.....there is a dozen names for it. Regardless, that isn't what Fran is and that woman would do better being more polite.

Also good to know about Yaz.