changes

I have been having changes in my period. I used to be on a 27-29 day cycle and I could predict exactly when my period was coming. But for the last couple of months it has been more like a 21-24 day cycle w/ my PMS symptoms coming a little over a week instead of 3 days before my period starts. The only thing I have changed during this time is I stopped taking my lithium. Could that cause this change? Is this something I need to worry about? I've never had this short of a cycle before, even before I started taking lithium. I don't know if I should worry.

My Pnurse warned me that sometimes Lithium can extend the length of menstrual cycles or reduce the amounts of cycles in a year even. If you quit lithium maybe the opposite will happen and you return to what is normal for your body. I have an IUD that stopped my periods so I can't comment about my own experience!

Amazonmom- Thanks for the information. No one ever told me this.

Well, another reason besides my mood to go back on my lithium. I see my pdoc in a couple of weeks, so I will go back on after talking to him. If this is my body's natural pattern, it sucks.

I am not sure if Lithium affected my cycles or not. I only started it when I had just had a baby so my cycles were already weird. I used to have cycles every 28 days like clockwork and they were HEAVY. I would pass out from pain and had awful PMS that made me so labile... But pregnancy/birth made my cycles much lighter in general.

The lithium side effects really reduce my quality of life but bipolar sucks too. Gah!