Hi dianne! This doesn't sound like any cause for concern. Sometimes, periods can be a bit different to what they usually are, even for the most regular of people. No-one on earth is going to have the same kind of period every single cycle! Too, when we're stressed, we often have some changes to our ...

Yep
One min and I'll log in

Yes, I am. (Was having a little break, here again now.)
Would you like me to go into chat with you?

Now's fine. Just give me a minute to grab a glass of water first and log in

Hi Tigger,

yes, I'm happy to do that for you! I'm here working at the moment, so I can log into chat whenever suits you, really, from now through the next few hours.

(cross-posted with Heather, but probably both responses are useful to you :) ) When something very major happens, it often takes quite a while for our brain to catch up and process it, which is basically what your brain is trying to do at the moment. And like Sam said, replaying what happened and th...

Referring to a few posts back: well, we find humour where we can in tough times :) I'm so glad your boss has been so sensible and supportive! Working from home sounds like a really good thing to try, to enable you to have some normailty with work and something to focus on, while not having to deal w...

I also wanted to address the part where you said you'd had pain while having sex. By "sex", I'm guessing you mean intercourse, but please let me know if I got that wrong! (When we - and other sex educators and sexual healthcare providers - say "sex", we mean a whole lot of other ...

Yep, getting an increasing amount of body hair in one's 20s and older is pretty common :) I remember a while back Heather said in a thread somewhere that often our world neglects to mention that our bodies are in a permanent, life-long state of change. For sure, more changes happen during puberty an...

You probably can't know that. No-one can know that about their own body unless they've been doing detailed charting of basal temperature and cervical fluid carefully every day for at least the previous six months, and can see clear patterns in their charting records and knows how to interpret those ...

It's really, really understandable that you'd just want your life back and something to focus on. It absolutely stinks when someone who assaulted us was also in a work or social environment - as they so often are, sadly - and that puts extra barriers up. Ugh, those people. How people think they or o...

Ugh, I'm sorry to hear that. Sometimes I really wish that people behaved better. And you're right, it Was the first day, and the first day is usually the worst. If you need HR to do anything that would make it easier for you, or you want to reasses your situation, it's their job, so they should supp...

People don't usually forget assaulting someone else, if that's what you were asking. Very rarely, someone may not remember if they were under the influence of some mind-altering substance or experiencing certain kinds of serious mental illness at the time. But, otherwise, the vast majority of the ti...

I get what you mean about the group session. Group sessions can be very helpful indeed for tackling some common post-assault issues, like feeling alone and isolated, and learning how to apply the compassion and understanding that we probably feel for everyone else and their situations to our own sel...

Enlarging a bit on what Sam's said, have you already said to him exactly what you've said here to us? If not, I'd suggest bringing this up with him at a time where you and he aren't having any sexual interaction: that tends to make things less loaded and make sure that everyone's attention is fully ...

Hi Tigger, for sure, groups - or particular groups - aren't always the right fit for everyone. I'm really glad you've been able to reach out and seek different supports so that you can find enough different ones that do fit your needs. Totally, things can feel upside down, inside out and who-knows-w...

You're not weak or stupid. You're having some feelings which are hard for you, and your brain is presenting you with some thoughts and feelings that worry you or make you feel bad. That's truly not weak or stupid: it's simply human. It happens to everyone sometimes, and for some people, it happens m...

Do you already have a follow-up appointment scheduled? When someone gets the implant, it's usual for the healthcare provider to schedule a follow-up to check that everything's okay several weeks later. If you don't already have that scheduled soon, it's a good idea to contact the provider who did yo...

Too, I wouldn't describe early teens to 30 as a "small" age range. Especially considering the amount of personal development and changes that happen for people over that time, I'd say that's a pretty big age range! It's not unusual for people in their early or mid teens to not feel much at...

Obviously, extreme caution should be used if anyone's considering ordering medication online, because unlike most kinds of goods, it's not possible to know whether it's what it should be when it arrives. There are too many scammy or unreliable people doing this kind of "service". I've left...

Looks like your old account was on the old boards, so that's fine, there's nothing that needs doing between that account and this one you're using here. And eesh, email hacking... Given that you couldn't get back into the old account anyway as you have neither the password nor the email, I've banned...

Thanks for being so conscientious! If the old account you're referring to was on the old boards and not these newer ones, that's absolutely fine: the two board systems aren't internally connected and everybody has/had to make a new account on these ones. People should, I think, still be able to log ...

Also, "income" usually means the amount of money that comes in to a person or a household, whether that's per week or per month or per year. Usually, when something official asks about income, they want to know how much money is coming in from paid work; sometimes, they also want to know h...

Hi MusicNerd, I'm thinking that a bit of perspective from the "I've-been-there"/"I've-seen-many-other-people-there" kind of place might be helpful to you right now, so I'm going to put in some thoughts, and as always, feel free to take what seems helpful and relevant and set asid...

From our Peeing on a Stick: All About Pregnancy Tests : Whether you are taking a urine test or a blood test, pregnancy tests look for one thing, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) . When you see television commercials that talk about “the pregnancy hormone,” they are referring to hCG. This hormone i...