Hi all, I'm new here but I hope that you guys can give me a little insight.

First, a little about me. I'm a 22 year old vet tech from Houston, TX that likes to be lazy and eat junk food. Health-wise, I'm okay... I suffered cancer of the kindey as a young child, but have been a survivor for nearly 17 years now with no signs of recurrence.

As far as gyno health, I've always been fine. I started regular cycles at age 11 and have been pretty darn regular ever since. I did a 2 year stint on Ortho-Tri-Cyclin, on which I gained a little weight and had even more regular cycles. I stopped taking them in mid-2005 but still have always had regular cycles. I have no children, nor have I ever been pregnant.

This week, however, things changed a little. My regular periods always follow a rough week of mood swings, increased appetite, breast tenderness and achiness. This Thursday, I was taken by suprise. Nothing has really changed as far as environment, diet or exercise. I tried to remember the exact day I started last month, but can't, so counting forward from there is difficult. Also, flowrate is much less than my normal cycle.

The biggest change recently is a new partner. Without bragging, he's the ...most endowed... partner I've had. It's been a while since I've had frequent sexual encounters (my previous relationship in which I had regular sex lasted 4 years with a guy who was also "not small" and I never had this issue). So far, my new partner and I have done the "horizontal hello" about 3 times in the last week. The last encounter was no different than the first two, but during clean-up, I noticed the tiniest tinge of redness accompanying my normal fluids. "No big deal," I thought, because my womanly skin is delicate and we weren't pretending to be characters in a smoochy-smoochy romance novel.

The next day (Thursday) started like any other. I peed when I got up and no blood, no cramps, no anything. I took another pee break at work later that morning and whaddya know... No warnings, nothing, but there it was. I started cramping mildly after that, but I did take 2 Ibuprofen after getting to work for a minor headache.

Since then, I haven't experienced hardly any cramping or back aches like I usually do. I've been taking Tylenol Sinus because of a drippy nose, but 650mg of acetaminophen usually doesn't cut it for menstrual cramps. I'm pretty confused. Is it possible that this isn't just an early period, but a uterine or vaginal tear instead? I am going to the doctor next week for a regular check up and plan to discuss this with her, but I kind of wanted to get a jumpstart on it.

Any advice or comment is welcome!

Thanks,
-Amanda