Um, Body? Few Things:

[strina]

A) That was totally gross, B) I am pretty sure that's not how that's supposed to look in a healthy system, so I'm now going to have ohshitohshitIthinkmyuterusisbrokenohshit on a loop until I get a doctor's opinion, THANKS, and C) your timing is suspicious and disquieting (see Thing B re: loop of doom).

So I had several months of no period or black/brown/grey discharge with occasional spots of red blood. Then a week and a half, two weeks ago, I got an actual period: weirdly light and unusually free of cramps, but actual healthy looking red blood; I was disturbingly excited. It tapered off into brown/red discharge and ended three days ago. I had a little bit of red blood when I peed earlier, but that was it, so I was like, okay, weirdly delayed last gasp, whatever. Hours later, I'm sitting at the computer with my legs up, shift position, and suddenly feel like I've wet myself! What the fuck. Look down, see blood, go to the bathroom, GIANT CLUMPS OF SPONGY BLACK/RED. Plus lots of regular blood. LOTS. But mostly the horrible congealed-looking mess is freaking me out, because it felt like mucus, rubber, and cottage cheese had some kind of science-cannot-explain-its-evil progeny and abandoned it in my boxers. Like, I used to get blood and chunks of mucus-y stuff, but the dead congealed ick is new and awful.

Normal-if-gross or DANGER DANGER SEE GYNECOLOGIST IMMEDIATELY, your ovaries are preparing to fall right out?

Comments

[lightgetsin]

I had something similar after a lot of birth control onning and offing, and it was explained to me as very old uterin lining coming out long after it should. Freaky, but not dangerous.

But obviously see your doctor anyway.

[strina]

Whew, thanks for sharing.

[ineptshieldmaid]

Sounds like regular clotting to me! I used to get clots - smaller than what you're describing, but same substance - a lot when I was in my teens. What you're describing sounds *exactly* like what my mother was getting in the first half of menopause.

I would say see your doctor, because skewiff cycle + unusual clotting could mean some kind of hormonal imbalance. But I wouldn't panic over it :)

[inkstone]

I third the suggestion of going to the doctor. I don't think it's OMG DANGER DANGER but it's unusual for you so it doesn't hurt to have it checked out.

But it does sound like clotting. I still clot during my period and what you're describing sounds similar to what I get.

via Network; women's health educator weighing in

[commodorified]

It's probably not in itself dangerous; it probably is your body playing catch-up. There are very few things that can come out of a uterus that aren't normal for SOMEONE. (OK green and yellow and bright-red-in-quantity are pretty much never okay) What you're describing isn't uncommon, exactly; I had it once post-surgery.

But it's not normal *for you* so yeah, get it checked out. That you're shedding old uterine lining isn't so worrisome, but you shouldn't have been *keeping* it in the first place, and something there probably needs addressing.

[shopfront]

Definitely sounds to me like the lining of the uterus was just hanging around longer than it should because of your irregular cycles. I also wouldn't be screaming danger either, and while a doctor is good just to make sure it's nothing sudden and serious/scary also make sure to talk to them about any possible long term problems that may have gone undiagnosed until now. Things that mess up hormones for instance, like polycystic ovarian syndrome, can mess with how regular your cycle is, and you sometimes have to push for a doctor to get that handy little lightbulb above their head with stuff like PCOS.

It might help hold off the panic if you did and can think of any unusual activities you did over the last day or two that could have dislodged the old lining. Sometimes stuff like certain types of vigorous exercise, orgasm, other muscle contractions, etc. can prompt things to go moving all sudden like. Of course, it could also have just been a time factor after the irregular periods.

[zillah975]

*waves* Here from my network, and just wanted to add that I agree with others who've said it's probably not DANGER DANGER but is also "see gyno as soon as you reasonably can".

(This is where I say stuff that you may well already know, but I can't not say it, just in case you don't; feel free to ignore: when you go, be sure that if there are other symptoms you've been having -- even if you think they're probably totally irrelevant -- you share them with your gyno. Some serious problems can have very normal-seeming symptoms. I got lucky in 2005 because I had an uncommon symptom that got me to the doctor, but later discovered that all the stuff I thought was normal given the other stresses I was under (gas, bloating, constipation, indigestion) are also symptoms of ovarian cancer. The symptom I did have, I also thought was normal - I thought it was stress-related weight gain, in which the fat builds up behind the abdominal muscle so you kind of look pregnant, but it turned out to be a cyst that my ovary was developing because of the cancer. I literally owe my life to that cyst, and to the friend who prodded me into going to the doctor when I was all, "everyone gains weight in their forties, I'm just being a speshul snowflake to think it might be something wrong! I'll feel silly going to the doctor for this!" It's never silly if you feel like something might be wrong.)