Sex and periods

There's a theme I've noticed a lot in the sex blogs that I read - no sex during her period. People have various reasons for this, discomfort, whatever. I want to know, though, when people say "no sex," do they mean absolutely none? For her whole period?

Because, whoa.

My husband has never given a thought to if I was bleeding or not for us to have sex. Period? Okay, extra lubrication, yay! Consequently, I have never given it a second thought either.

Prior to my pregnancy, I had some serious issues. We're still not sure exactly what it was, doctors didn't know. I had a period that lasted for 45 days. No sex for 45 days would have killed me. I was already terrified by the constant bleeding, to remove the intimacy of sex from me as well would have completely destroyed my soul. I would bathe thoroughly every night, we kept a large towel on the bed to protect it from any mess that might be made, and we did what we do. Orgasms were also a major help for my pain relief, because I was having some serious pain.

I fondly remember one day when I couldn't even get out of bed with the pain, was bent over double screaming, bleeding like crazy, and he stayed home from work and gave me orgasms over and over.

After I had our child, we weren't supposed to have any kind of vaginal penetration-type sex for six weeks. So we did other things - face-fucking, anal, clitoral stimulation. God, I was ready for something in my pussy after those weeks - but I couldn't have lived with no sex at all. None at all? Argh.

So, tell me. Does no sex mean no blowjobs, no anal, no breast fucking? All of those things are sex to me. Or does it just mean no penis-in-vagina?

I'm also curious as to how my readers deal with periods and sex.

Comments, please!