the Nocturnal pill.

Ok girls, I need you to read this with an open mind.

Boys, sod off.

A week before our trip to Bali, I paid a doctor near my house a visit - because my period was late. (no, am not pregnant!) It usually will be late by 2-3 days and it's no big deal, but this time it's taking its own time too long already and it kinda screws up with our 4-month planned ahead Bali trip.

We bought the tickets in January and there's no way that we can reschedule, so I decided to look for an alternative. My sister told me about a pill she took to delay her period, and advised that I go see a doctor before taking any pills.

I looked online and there's a lot of info on this pill, Norcolut which contains norethisterone - a hormone pill which functions to treat menstrual cycle problems, painful periods etc. Supposedly it is commonly taken by women especially when they want to delay their periods prior going for umrah, haji and overseas trip.

So after doing my research, I went to see the doctor the next day. She's surprisingly young for a doctor (at least to me) and super pretty, felt like she belongs in those Hindustan movies.

After telling her my condition and my planned trip to Bali, I asked for her advice on the pills. I didn't mention the name of the pill, Norcolut, assuming she's already familiar with them.

Apparently, there are two kinds of pills you can take :

• contraceptive pills - to treat/postpone your period, you'd have to take the pill non-stop for 21 days. You will not get pregnant during this 21 days period, and after the 21 days, your irregular period will be as per a normal cycle (28 days) and this will help you to do your family planning because you can predict when you ovulate, fertile and so on. However most women believe this will affect your fertility.
• hormone pills - same purpose, you can take this for short term (7 days) or how many days your doctor advise you to/you would like to take. Works for short term mostly when women want to postpone their period for some reason. Doesn't affect fertility (the doctor tells me so). Taking this pill while you're pregnant is not good for the baby (can cause side effects) so the doctor advised me to take pregnancy test first. "But doctor, I've only married for, like, 2 weeks.." "Doesn't matter, TAKE NOW"

I opted for the latter, because swallowing pills 3 times a day for 21 straight days sounds awful to me.

Here's the funny part.

"Ok doctor, I think I'd go for the Nocturnal pill for now. After all my trip is just for a week, so I need my period to be after the trip"

She looks puzzled. "Oh you mean the hormone pill? Ok ok."

After that, all the while I was referring to the pill as Nocturnal - and the doctor had her puzzled face again and again but never mentioning anything to me.

On the way back, I was still thinking about her puzzled face when suddenly I heard on the radio,

"...the song from YUNA's latest album, Nocturnal.."

Quickly googled and found the reason why the doctor was puzzled. In my defense, I was up too late the previous night doing my research hence the names mixed up! Kudos to the doctor though, for keeping her cool albeit her puzzled face.

Told him the whole story, and he burst out laughing. "How can you mixed up the names?? I mean, you did your research and everything..."

At least someone thinks I'm funny.