I'm not diabetic but I'm prone to low blood sugar. It's been checked and it's actually 3.2-3.5 when I start sweating and shaking and feeling horrid. I quickly eat sugar or juice and it goes. I find this happens almost daily in luteal, even if I snack more or whatever. Help! I can't eat tons of protein as I have phenylketonuria, so upping healthy fats is my only real thought... but doesn't seem to help.
I feel really stuck with birth control now, but I've already posted about that in a rant. I tested a bit of the Caya gel on my inner forearm and it came up in a really red and itchy patch. I just want to know if this has happened to anyone else? the ingredients are common food things and only 6 ingredients including water. So I'm really at a loss and my GP has asked the allergy clinic for their input, but in the meantime I'm really stressed. I'm scared to eat the ingredients and I just feel really worried. I have no other allergies so I'm just scared of why I reacted.
I think I've run out of options. Tried IUD, it expelled after 2 years and gave me recurrent thrush and mood problems (depression) when it was in. I don't like the 1 in 3 risk of it expelling again. Can't have combined methods. Desogestrel (zelleta) gave me such bad panic attacks, so I can't have it or the implant. I think I'm really sensitive to progesterone because of the iud and mini pill's wild impacts on me. My only hormonal option now is Slynd I think, but I'm terrified to try it due to how horrific the impacts of desogestrel were. I couldn't eat for a month and I still haven't put the weight back on. Otherwise I'd be tempted by Slynd, but the fact that progesterone has done it to me twice just really makes me think I won't have a different result.
I was prescribed a Caya diaphragm, but I had a really uncommon reaction to the gel. It's so uncommon to react to those ingredients that I'm being sent to an allergy clinic. So, I've been sent back to the complex contraception route and speaking to a specialist again.
At the moment I'm relying on condoms and abstaining when fertile (I track bbt). But this really doesn't feel safe enough, and I have a health condition that would make an unplanned pregnancy really dangerous for the baby. and a planned pregnancy still dangerous if not carefully managed. I'm not opposed to an abortion and access is free and decriminalised where I live, but obviously I don't want to be in that position and also I think my mental health wouldn't cope with the hormones.
I'm only 24 so I don't really feel ready to be sterilised and I just feel so unlucky and almost grieving that these are my circumstances. The health condition is genetic and just cards I've been dealt. I'd love to want a pregnancy and have a healthy one, and I'd love to have a birth control option that works. But I just really feel so stuck and the fact that I've sort of run out of options is a real strain on my life. I imagine that if I ever get married I may pass the responsibility onto a vasectomy, but when dating this isn't something I can think about obviously so I'm not safe for the foreseeable future.
I guess what I'm wondering is does anyone have any experience of this or something similar? I was assured that the specialist has 'some tricks up her sleeve', but I have very little faith despite her being wonderful. I really feel like I'm either just remaining down the condom route or gritting my teeth and making the hard choice to get sterilised. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable having the kind of pregnancy I would have, but I mourn what my life would have been but for the health condition. It's very possible to have a healthy baby with my condition, just requires planning and medical management, so there's a decent chance I'd change my mind in ten years or so. I'd love your thoughts.
24f, in the UK so this would be on the nhs and therefore free, so insurance is not a concern.
I am a fence-sitter currently regarding whether or not I want children in general, but I am, at this time and for a while, 100% sure I do not want to be pregnant. My desire to have kids is very small and entirely dependent on having a suitable partner to share the load, and I would not be unhappy without kids. The reason I am undecided about sterilisation is due to the possibility that I would get older and be more amenable to pregnancy. Note: amenable, not desiring.
I have had an iud expel, which makes me extremely scared to have another, and I have tried all but one possible other method. The last method is Slynd (drospirenone), but I'm reluctant to try because the mental health impacts on other methods have been so torturous that they genuinely ruined my life, made me lose so much weight from not eating etc. Currently I am just relying on condoms. I track bbt and try to abstain when fertile too but this isn't really reliable as my cycle isn't regular since coming off birth control. I tried to pair this with Caya diaphragm but I had an allergic reaction to the Caya gel, which felt like a cosmic slap in the face at this point. I am speaking with my doctor this week about whether there is an alternative gel or option as I'm scared of Slynd, but I fear there won't be. The other gels are either the same formulation or harsher spermicides (guess I could try but ??)
I have a health condition that makes pregnancy quite challenging - to experience, not to conceive. Without a lot of work and careful medical management, there is a big risk of disability to the hypothetical baby. Some women with my condition (unnamed as it's rare and I want to be anonymous here) have found pregnancy challenging but okay and worth the extra effort for their beloved children. However, many have also found it extremely difficult and a brutal experience.
I should add here, that an unplanned pregnancy is where the bulk of the risk to a baby would be. So I could get pregnant planned or go through IVF later and still carry if I wanted to, and it would have a high risk still but not as extreme as before. I'd obviously rather not do this risk.
There is also just my general health anxiety, and the other more widely understood reasons to not want to be pregnant, like those featured regularly on here. These also apply to me at the moment. I suffer badly with my mental health (anxiety and ocd), and the mini pill has made that AWFUL before, so I am convinced I'd get postpartum worsening of this, and I know that can happen even just after a short time being pregnant and abortion. But this is where my uncertainty comes in, because there was about a 6 month period 2 years ago where I liked the idea of being pregnant suddenly. It was never there before and hasn't come back, but I'm wary of removing the option as I'm only 24.
Obviously the health condition considerations won't ever go away, and I feel I owe it to my children or non-children to provide them with the best chance of full health. So I am leaning more towards sterilisation. But there's just a voice in the back of my mind that doesn't want me to remove the opportunity yet? Despite being so terrified of pregnancy. I've often written in my diary that my dream would be to find my future partner now (I'm dating someone but not yet seriously defined) and him to want/have a vasectomy. Obviously I'd never ever push that on someone but it's just a fantasy of solving all my problems and not having this massive burden, okay?
I'd LOVE all your input. I anticipate you will all say to hold off until absolutely certain, so what I want to know is how do you reach certainty? What deep diving did you do to find this certainty? My mother made the joke after the allergic reaction to the Caya gel that maybe the universe wants me to have so many babies. She gave me the genetic health condition and I kindly reminded her of this. How can I decide?
Thank you for your help!!
I've always struggled with mascara smudging. Usually really soon after applying. And I've always struggled to get it off so that I don't wake up with horrible under eyes in the morning, even with every oil cleanser etc I've tried. Yesterday I tried the maybelline tubing mascara and it was incredible! it didn't smudge even in wind and watery eyes, and came off in seconds with micellar water. I did have to be a little careful because right when I applied it I thought it may turn spidery, but it actually wasn't at all in the end. Just thought I'd share in case anyone is looking - especially if you have oily eyelids!
I went to buy some online and couldn't! Another website says 'while stocks last' and it's on offer. This is such a good match to my skin it's actually unbelievable. It's literally my skin colour. I will be devastated if it goes, I've used it for years. Help!
I'm going to see a guy I'm dating tonight and he goes wild swimming in places that are known to be really dirty. 56 hours before his swim this morning there was sewage discharged further upstream. He also swam on Friday. So obviously I'm freaked, but I do really want to see him. He's showered really thoroughly apparently. Anyway, I'm just wondering if he's contagious in a meaningful way before showing symptoms? He says he feels fine.
I'd love some advice please, as I don't know if this is just my phobia or if it's actually risky. Considering the illnesses from rivers can be quite dangerous...
mid-20s, UK, completing a law masters currently (LLM Medical Law) and not sure what I want to do after. I don't really know if I want to do the SQE and become a solicitor. I often think I do, but the application process for TCs is insane and I don't feel confident that I'll get a TC. I would need one that would pay my SQE fees. I'm not sure I want to be a solicitor anyway, I just want a job that I find stimulating and enjoyable. I think the bar is actually more my thing, but...
Over the past year and a half I've had quite a lot of debilitating anxiety and I'm still getting through my agoraphobia. So the thought of having to start an in-person job at the moment feels like too much. I worry that this is a theme in my life that would prevent me being successful at the bar, because it genuinely may leave me in financial difficulty being self-employed as opposed to contracted and paid with medical leave allowances etc.
A TC would start in 2028, which feels fine, but obviously assessment centres would be in person. I'm no stranger to interviews though and I don't really have an issue being confident in those situations. Although I do struggle with imposter syndrome.
And, I'm feeling a lot of reluctance to continue with law, but also a reluctance to leave it. What I really want is to do a PhD, but I'm not from a financial background where I could fund anymore study, and I couldn't survive not being employed following it (I know the job market in academia is particularly horrid at the moment and have been advised away from a PhD for this reason... as in, what would it lead me to).
My areas of interest are particularly in the intersection between medical law and women's healthcare. Any job that fits those would be excellent too. I would feel sad not being either a solicitor or PhD though, as those were my alternating goals for the past few years. Yet I don't have a medical background, so I'm struggling to find anything that I'm actually qualified for, and I've accepted that I'll have to start from rock bottom in that field - which is a little sad when I have a great qualifying law degree and could have been a solicitor by now.
tldr: I don't know if I want to stick with law, and I'm stuck for other options. I love my degree subjects, but law feels like an impasse now. I'm disheartened by the lack of job opportunities and particularly from my background and personal circumstances that feel like I'm a step behind now
I'd love any thoughts and advice! Thank you!
I get so tired and like today I just walked outside for 30 mins and then up a flight of stairs, and it made me feel so dizzy that I've had to spend the last 45 minutes horizontal. It's only been like this in the last 7 ish months since I've come off the mini pill. Should I be doing anything to help this? I can't go back on birth control. It's kinda ruining my life though, like I was invited to go out tomorrow and I had to decline because if I'm like this today I know I will be tomorrow. Does anyone else get this? How do you cope?
I ate about 30g of mixed nuts, and when I got to the end I saw one split in half. Inside the nut was a sprout. Hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds. I looked in the bag and inside all the nuts was a little sprout. I have major health anxiety and and I've just never seen this before. I know it may have been caused by improper storage. They didn't look mouldy and they tasted okay. I can stick my nail in them, but I don't know if that's normal level of softness or if they're bad? Now I've eaten them I'm terrified due to my health anxiety. If anyone has seen this before/can reassure me I won't get symptoms I'd love to hear. Thank you.