Your uterus (if you have one) might react to relocation too

I came to Canada in August 2015 and it wasn’t until mid-October when I realised, I have been missing my periods. I was so occupied with everything else that this vital issue completely slipped my mind. The good thing was that my periods have been irregular ever since I got them but the part that worried me was having to go to a doctor alone (for the first time).

I am not a fan of hospitals and luckily, my campus’s healthcare centre did not feel or look like one. It seemed like any other student service offices with a friendly person at the front-desk. I mentioned I would prefer to see a female doctor and booked myself an appointment. I was nervous but my doctor was very friendly and for the first time in my life, I had complete autonomy over expressing my issues to a doctor. I was told that it is very normal for international students to face this problem because of a major change in lifestyle. There was the change in climate, time zone and a massive change in my diet too – I was not eating the regular food that I had at home because a) I didn’t know how to cook those and

b) I could not make the time.

Later in a psychology course, I learnt the term “circadian rhythm” which gets disrupted when a person travels internationally. The interference in my sleep-wake cycle as I travelled from the east to west did not just cause me to feel fatigued but also affected my hormones.

The doctor also mentioned stress being one of the causes, but I said I was very happy and I’m sure that wouldn’t apply to me. She explained that the good kind of stress can also have an impact on one’s hormones and disrupt the menstrual cycle. Now, I was a little worried and agreed to running the tests that she recommended. I got the blood work done on campus but had to go to a local hospital’s lab for the ultrasound. I was annoyed thinking about all the running around I would have to do for the tests and then collecting the reports during the mid-term season but the worker at the lab told me that reports get directly sent to the doctor and the patient is contacted after that. It doesn’t work like that back home, so this information was both a pleasant surprise and a relief for me.

On my second appointment, I was told that I had PCOS (Polycystic ovaries syndrome) which is a very common condition among girls my age. Cysts develop in one’s ovaries which can cause them to either miss their periods or have prolonged ones due to the ovaries not releasing eggs in regular intervals. The doctor suggested that I could start medication. She gave me 4 weeks and asked me to make an appointment again if I didn’t get my periods by then. She decided that she would consider prescribing me the medicines after that and walk me through the side-effects it could have. Luckily, we didn’t have to go through it back then, but the same problem reoccurred in second year and I decided to go ahead with the medication this time to put an end to this problem.

A little about menstrual products:

I brought 1 year’s worth of menstrual product supplies with me every time I went back to India. I was not comfortable with the idea of trying the products you find here in Canada because I wasn’t sure if they would suit me. I have used the same brand of sanitary napkins /pads ever since I needed them, so I had no wishes to experiment. However, I would recommend others to try out local products that they haven’t tried before like tampons, menstrual cups, etc. or a local brand of what they have been using back home. It’s a huge convenience to be able to buy them off your regular grocery store instead of having to worry about running out if your trip back home gets cancelled for some reason. Moreover, I have had friends who have found products that they like better than what they used back home which can be a great relief especially for girls who have heavy menstrual bleeding and extreme cramps. It took a little bit of experimenting but its been about a year for me that I started using a brand here. Also, I have been under medication since early 2017 for PCOS. My periods have been on schedule ever since and it also drastically improved my skin. So kudos to the second year me for making the right decision! :D