I had my period every 10 days

A WOMAN who had her period every 10 days says she is now “forced” to choose between buying a home and having her eggs frozen.

Erin McDermott, 29, is facing the heartbreaking decision after taking birth control pills for 13 years – which has “veiled up” her health woes.

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The student began taking the pill in her early teens after experiencing unusually frequent periods after starting at age 10.

Despite her unorthodox menstrual cycle, Erin claims doctors never ran tests to find the root of the problem.

After more than a decade, she decided to go off the pill in December 2020 to give her body a break.

Erin, from Coventry, then checked her hormones using a home testing kit – and was horrified to find she had an imbalance.

After her GP confirmed the problem, the 29-year-old discovered that it means she’s likely to have a shorter fertile window and lower fertility.

Erin feels her chances of conceiving are now “low to zero” – but faces a dilemma deciding between a future family or a home.

She’s struggling with deciding whether to freeze her eggs if she ever wants to have children or save to buy a house.

The student told the Manchester Evening News: “I feel like I’m kind of forced to make a choice when it’s not really a choice I can make in my headspace.

“I’m not in a relationship and I never really thought I had to think about it that way because you just assume as long as you’re fit and healthy it won’t be a problem.

“It wasn’t necessarily the pill that caused the problem, but it was the pill that masked a problem.

“It should have been examined sooner,” she fumed.

“They should have investigated why I had my period every 10 days – my hormones had gone out of control to cause it.”

Erin, who lives in Manchester, said she was “frustrated” that medics had not followed up on investigations into her abnormal cycle sooner.

She continued: “It couldn’t have been prevented as if that was your natural cycle, there’s nothing you can really do about it.

“But at least if I had an awareness when I was 16 or 18, it probably would have been a more appropriate age to talk about it.”

Erin is now on a mission to warn other women to listen to their bodies – and wants hormone education to be taught in schools.

She has started a petition calling on the government to include the subject in both Key Level 2 and Key Level 3 curricula.

The 29-year-old added: “Hormones affect every other aspect of your life. It might open a can of worms but I think it’s positive!

“If you suffer from mental illness or struggle with weight, hormone issues could also be barriers to those experiences.”

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