A-Z Of Reasons To Recover: C Is For Christmas

I would like to take this brief moment to wish you all a glorious Christmas and to thank you for your support over the last few months. It has been more difficult than I can say but I know for a fact that it would have been downright impossible without your help and constant encouragement. So eat, drink and be merry because, in the immortal words of the great philosopher L’Oréal, you are all more than worth it.

So all that is left for me to say is a merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight! À bientôt and go raibh míle maith agat!

Lots of love,

Niamhy xx

A-Z Of Reasons To Recover: B Is For Babies

No beating about the bush here, it’s time for a biology lesson (and for me to insult your intelligence…but it is really rather appalling how little some people know about this very vital aspect of everyone’s existence)! This is the female reproductive system:

In order for procreation to take place, a fertilised egg (ovum) must implant itself in the wall or lining of the uterus. For fertilisation to take place, an egg is released from the ovary once a month in the hope that some little enthusiastic chappy known as a spermy-wermy makes his way down the fallopian tube and decides he wants to fuse with said eggy-weggy. If fertilisation does not take place within a biologically determined window of opportunity, the lining of the womb collapses, positively distraught that it has to face yet another month of unemployment. This collapsing of the wall of the womb is known (amongst other aliases) as the menstruation cycle.

Well, that’s enough science-y spake for one day (I am an English student after all; I am essentially allergic to science). This is yet another blog post I deliberated about composing, fearing that it may be a socially unacceptable subject matter to discuss so openly. But then I had an epiphany: what does the fact that I feel that I cannot write about possibly the single most natural event in the world for fear of causing offence to some readers say about the society in which we live? Therefore, I have decided to put on my “Lady Bravery” cap, loosen my tongue and verbalise my thoughts in an act of disregard for this male-dominated world. And I’m going to do it in capital letters.

I, NIAMH LUNDY, HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED A PERIOD IN ONE WHOLE YEAR. I AM OFFICIALLY 322 DAYS LATE.

And who is the guilty culprit? Who is to blame for such an atrocity? Yep, you guessed it: the old villain Anorexia Nervosa. This absence of menstruation in women is known as amenorrhoea and the longer it persists, the greater the chance of difficulty in conceiving later in life. And I kinda want to leave my options open, believe it or not.

I hear ya, ladies. I know that monthly visit can be an absolute pain (both literally and metaphorically). But take it from someone who knows: YOU WOULD MISS IT IF IT WAS GONE. The most horrendous aspect of this consequence of AN in my opinion? My body is constantly in a state of flux, teetering on the brink of prepubescence and pre-menopausal. Yes, you read that correctly. PRE-MENOPAUSAL. At 18 years of age, I experience nightly hot flushes which often force me to awaken at 3am in a more-than-slightly disorientated state. It is no fun.

I shall stop myself here before I go into the really gory details (I’ll save those for the autobiography…you ain’t getting those gems for free) but I simply could not justify withholding the secret of this rather taboo but extremely serious consequence of subjecting your body to such savage mistreatment. When I decided to reincarnate my original blog, I vowed to approach it with complete brutal honesty. And I will not turn my back on this vow.

Over and out.

-Niamhy xx