<p>I am 50 and still getting my period like clockwork. In the past 9 months I have taken several airplane flights. On the last 3 trips I have gotton my period again on the plane outside of my regular cycle. The weirdest one is the last one where I had my period 2 weeks prior to the trip. Had another cycle on the beginning of my trip starting on the plane. I have now been home a week and have my period again (which would have been the date if I had been on my regular cycle). Has anyone else experienced this? Is it age?</p>
<p>This happens to me, too. I wonder if it’s because of the altitude change or just nerves brings it on.</p>
<p>I think it is, but it would not hurt to double-check with your ob/gyn doctor. I remember my mom going through hell and high water with her periods just before her menopause - and she was mostly getting them during travel (she was about 50) - :eek: I’m so not looking forward to what genetics and Mother Nature might have planned for me in the coming years :)</p>
<p>Did this happen before turning 50? If not, it might have something to do with age. If so, you’re just weird :)</p>
<p>I’ve flown extensively all my life and have never had that happen. But the timing went berserk after 50.</p>
<p>Welcome to perimenopause, which can, and often does, start in your 40’s. I had crazy periods (although not related to travel) from age 49-51 before things settled down. By all means go see your gyn, but it sounds pretty normal to me.</p>
<p>I also experienced airplane travel triggering my period. This occurred shortly before menopause. I was lucky to be finished early, at age 48.</p>
<p>I think when you are in " perimenopause" that your periods are generally wacky, including more frequent, before they start getting more infrequent. But then again, that is just something I read. About 8 yrs ago, when I was 45, I started having hot flashes/night sweats ( or so I thought), so much so that I read Lonnie Barbach and started mentally to prepare- but then it went away and I am still having regular periods with all the lovely features that go with that, including breasts that are so tender it is almost like I am nursing. Oww!
But still regular- but then again, I don’t really fly & when I do, I hadn’t noticed a change ( I also didn’t change time zones)</p>
<p>I can remember desperately searching the Minneapolis airport–where you can buy German sausage, get a manicure, buy books–for a pair of undies after a particularly bad unexpected start on a flight. None to be had. None. Flew on to Seattle after washing everything out in the airport sink.</p>
<p>My last period was just over five years ago–right when I turned 50–and I haven’t missed it a bit. Not even for a second.</p>
<p>Mine reoccurred after a welcomed hiatus when DD returned home after a semester in DC while in high school and then when she went off to college the same thing happened at xmas. She is now a rising senior and fortunately that strange phenomenon has ceased.</p>
<p>Yep, happened to me too. Long flight coming back from seeing dd in Argentina. I didn’t think we would ever get through customs (no bathroom there). I don’t miss periods.</p>
<p>I went to see my doctor after having a very LONG period. She sent me to a ob/gyn who not only did a biopsy (?) of the area, but had me come in for an ultrasound.</p>
<p>I had the audacity to ask if the ultrasound was necessary – her response, “no, but if you end up with uterine cancer, don’t blame me!!!”</p>
<p>She also made it clear that she was a Yale med school grad, so that it was inappropriate for me to question her judgement…</p>
<p>Six months later I’ve had another extensive period and now I’m wondering if I should go through it all again…</p>
<p>You’d think a general practitioner and an ob/gyn would have more of a sense of what was normal / abnormal in terms of periods during perimenopause, but that doesn’t seem be the case.</p>
<p>I had no idea that flying could make you start, but add me to the list. I flew in May after not having a period for 3 months, and started the day I arrived. I’m going to see D next month and now I wish I hadn’t made my flight reservations already. I’d rather drive 2200 miles round trip, seriously. :(</p>
<p>48 years old and in perimenopause. Periods can be 55 days apart or 21 days apart. Since dd has been home for the summer, regular periods. We’ll see what happens when she leaves. Also, periods are extremely heavy now. I must sit on a towel, etc. It’s awful. Was just at the gyn yesterday. Due to another issue, I may have to undergo surgery. Seeing the surgeon next month.<br>
fendrock - I would never go to that terrible ob/gyn again. She was really nasty. You are the “customer” and had every right to obtain information regarding your own body, imo.</p>
<p>Fendrock, I had the same thing happen to me 2 summers ago. I had a 16 day period that was uncharacteristically heavy with clotting. I also went through the internal ultrasound and a uterine biopsy. Doctor discovered that I have ridges in my endometrial lining that trap extra blood and that I could expect to have some heavier periods for the next couple of years sporadically, which I have had.</p>
<p>I think the period fairy just knows when it is inconvenient- I was recently on a remote island in Alaska with no supplies, and few females around. The period fairy visited me with a vengeance ( I hadn’t had one in 3 months and sort of forgot about it- duh!). I had to borrow tampons from every female of age on the island.</p>
<p>Now I will always travel with supplies, until I am 100 or so. It was horrible.</p>
<p>TMI? Sorry!</p>
<p>worknprogress2, I had a similar thing happen, but when my daughter started her period. I was 46 and had been having very infrequent, light periods for two years. My 13 year old gets her period and bam, my periods are back like clockwork! It was another four years of regular periods before things started to lighten up again this past year. </p>
<p>fendrock, that dr. sounds awful! Makes me wonder what they are teaching at that school in New Haven! Certainly not bedside manners!!!</p>
<p>I had similar symptoms but not associated with flights. I went to my doctor and asked them to do a procedure my friend had where she didn’t have a period for five years. I had insisted that I didn’t want to live with the problems. My doc refused but put me on the pill which helped immensely with regulating the time and flow. Go see your OB/GYN.</p>
<p>I have no idea about flying, but just saw my OB GYN and talked about the irregular cycles, etc. I went four months and was elated and then had a six-day cycle just three weeks ago which he said is normal, along with skipping months and having two in one month. I thought I’d have a break after the six days, but no. Last night I started a headache and by the time I went to bed I was intensely nauseated. I spent the whole night as nauseous as I’ve ever been with my tummy hurting and feeling generally lousy. Sure enough, this morning another cycle. Now it’s afternoon and the other symptoms have abated and I’m left with killer cramps that have me swallowing Advil like candy. I really feel that no one should have to put in more than 40 years of this and hate how every time involves a full day of misery. I am so ready to be done. </p>
<p>Re the Yale doctor – to be fair, my daughter loved her New Haven physician who did her undergrad at Yale and her medical fellowship there. She had terrific clinical and people skills and DD hasn’t been as happy with doctors since she graduated.</p>
<p>knitknee, that sounds similar to what I have had – anothermom, this all may be TMI, but it is nice to know what I’ve been experiencing is not abnormal!</p>
<p>I have no intention of returning to the snotty Yale grad ob/gyn - actually it was totally accidental I saw her at all as her partner (with whom I had the appointment) unexpectedly did not come in and so she saw me instead.</p>
<p>The visit to the GP also included a mammogram which resulted in a biopsy (day surgery) – so I had quite the tour of the medical profession, all due to said long period…</p>
<p>ebeee, I think you are referring to endometrial ablation, an in-office treatment for women who have excessive and/or erratic bleeding during perimenopause. </p>
<p>[Endometrial</a> ablation](<a href=“http://women.webmd.com/endometrial-ablation-16200]Endometrial”>http://women.webmd.com/endometrial-ablation-16200)</p>
<p>Add me to the list of people for whom air travel sparks a period. What the heck?!?</p>