health/ hormones/ period stuff, but not really tmi

I'm going to turn 30 in a few months! In the last... maybe... five years or so, I've noticed the feelings/symptoms associated with my periods changing slowly and gradually.

(Note: I am not and have never been on birth control or any other medication that affects hormones... to my knowledge.) (Another possibly less relevant note: my genetics are around 30% sturdy Polish Catholic peasant and another 40% Ashkenazi Jewish and the rest is European and UK Immigrant Soup.)

• I've always gotten cramps, although for years the pain was only in the small of my back (now it's front AND back!). When I was 15-17 I took 800-1200mg ibuprofen at a time for ~3 days (when I was 19 and suffering from Bad Psychiatry aka Horrible Medication Side Effects, I was too nauseated to eat 80% of the time and one time I consequently got too much ibuprofen too fast because empty stomach/ibuprofen don't mix, and it was such a standout unpleasant experience, even in a year full of nausea, that I never take ibuprofen without at least like 2 slices of bread now, if not a full meal and a full 8 oz of liquid). Nowadays, the cramps are like ½ to 1½ days but sometimes more intensely painful.



• Hormonal headaches are now a part of the proceedings (sound and occasionally light sensitive but not really bad enough that I feel comfortable calling them migraines?). When I first started to notice them about 5 years ago, they typically arrived at least a full day after the cramps. Nowadays the headache frequently arrives on day 2, but the worst headaches are still after the cramps.



• For several years I've been craving fatty food for the first four days or so - this frequently results in eating an entire bag of potato chips at a time, which always leaves me feeling gross and slightly queasy. This month I bought two avocados instead, which are definitely more expensive than even the most expensive chips, but way more satisfying when eaten for breakfast (in the form of guacamole) two days in a row.

to do, or else post to the kinkmeme

1. RPF AU. Dylan O'Brien is coaching Little League and Tyler Hoechlin is playing college or minor league baseball and they meetcute when he stumbles into helping out as like a recurring assistant coach. I will probably not end up writing this because my baseball knowledge is practically negative so I'd need a cowriter who knows baseball. Unless someone wants to volunteer.



2. FPF AU. tarted_up found out that Hoechlin majored in Sociology on his baseball scholarship and then we sort of outlined an AU in a fit of giddiness where Derek is the grumpy new Sociology professor doing research on pack behavior in teenagers or something and Stiles is his TA and Derek has moved his whole pack there because he got this job and they're like 'ughhh you're just using us for your research subjects!' and then I was thinking borrowing some elements from the Sentinel, like, idk, maybe Derek has published something about werewolves and Stiles seeks him out for info after Scott gets bitten (like the first meeting scene in the Sentinel <3 but in reverse and uh, with Scott). And then... well... we didn't really talk about a plot, to the best of my memory. Maybe Allison's grandpa is with some secret part of the government that wants to capture and dissect werewolves and they have to retract their research or something. If a plot is really necessary. This is probably the only one I'm likely to try to tackle since it's the only one I already know enough about (sort of) to do.



3. FPF AU because of that thing where Derek does a kickboxing move and knees the Kanima in the head. Stiles can be playing Spiderman or some other superhero in a new superhero movie and Derek can be the head of the stunt team and in charge of training him in muay thai techniques (I just say that because Scarjo said that's what she studied. I can't actually tell one martial art from another) and Stiles has to practice strangling Derek with his thighs a lot. I'm guessing in the end they would use as many stunt doubles as possible though, since Stiles is so amazingly clumsy.



4. FPF AU where Derek is some kind of grumpy mechanic neighbor who fixes Stiles's car for free but then he turns out to have the soul of a poet or something and be an artist-painter-sculptor. Because Wax and I watched this Beauty and the Beat youtube video that ThePandoraBoxx linked to last night, and it reminded me of the recent Sense & Sensibility update From Prada to Nada, where that is the secret of the Col. Brandon character. And Wax said "Derek could be that!" right away, of course. Or a Regency one would be fun too actually. Mr Rochester (right?) meets Col Brandon, awww.