Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Megamind on November 08, 2016, 02:50:20 PM
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Does period pain get worse during peri? My periods have got closer together and although I rarely suffered with period pains before, for the last six months or so, I now suffer with really pad period pain. Did anyone else find this happened?
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I had awful painful periods from age 12 until I went onto The Pill at 16. What do you take for the pain?
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Yes I have friends who have always suffered badly as does my daughter but it never really effected me until now. I take paracetomol or ibupofren and when at home, I use those wheat bags that you put in the microwave. It also makes me feel really tired and drained.
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Oh I remember that excessive tiredness really well!
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I used to get painful cramps, abdo pain, during my period when I was a teenager. Then they happily went away.
Now I'm 43 and the last few cycles those same pains have returned, along with my cycles coming every 36 days from 28. And instead of just happening, my period will take a few days to get going, if that makes sense & then tends to linger to completion.
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Does period pain get worse during peri? My periods have got closer together and although I rarely suffered with period pains before, for the last six months or so, I now suffer with really pad period pain. Did anyone else find this happened?
Not for me. As my periods became less frequent and lighter, the pain all but disappeared.
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Mine did Megamind. I suffered with dreadful period pains up until I had my first child. They stopped up until I had my second child and then restarted again. In peri I've found that they have differed from cycle to cycle and I don't get them at all with anovulatory cycles.
My daughter suffers terribly with them too, she is completely wiped out. I organised Mefenamic acid for her (it was Ponstan in my day) and that and hot water bottles on her tummy and back with warm drinks ease it a little. I haven't had them for over a year now and do not miss them!
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Thanks for the replies. The period pain has eased off a bit today thankfully but now I'm starting to dread every month now I'm getting pain with it.
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Take medication a few days prior to when the bleed is expected :-\
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Megamind, have you tried mefenamic acid? It really works brilliantly well. It's suggested that it can be used just before the period is beginning to start as CLKD suggested, however, my daughter and I used it just as acute medication. Sometimes it takes until the second dose to kick in. I'm not someone who takes meds unnecessarily and never take OTC tabs at all, but if it allows you to manage the pain and therefore your life is it worth giving it a try? It's an NSAID like ibuprofen.
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'when expected' :-\ or immediately you get the start of bleeding
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Megamind, it was marketed as Ponstan but don't know that it is anymore. You have to get it on prescription and insist that NOTHING ELSE WORKS to the GP otherwise they may say 'take a couple of paracetamol': for serious period pain that would be like munching Smarties.
I had a serious run in with a locum GP once when I tried to get an emergency repeat script for my daughter who was weeping at home scrunched up in a ball. He actually said 'well how bad can the pain be?' I told him to imagine someone squeezing his testicles extremely hard whilst someone else was kicking him in the back - he wrote the script without another word!! Jeez!
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Are your periods heavier as well as closer together Megamind? If so that would explain the period pain although I gather this does not always follow!
All the treatments for heavy bleeding are listed here including Mefenamic Acid:
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/periodtreatments.php
Periods often become shorter just before peri-menopause - it is one of the features of the "late reproductive stage" - the last stage before periods become very irregular and you start to skip them or the cycle gets longer (again). I can see how difficult it would be to diagnose peri-menopause when your periods had always been irregular - but presumably once they started getting longer again, and you started experiencing sympotms such as flushes and sweats.
Hurdity x
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Ha ha Elizabethrose!!
Can teenagers take it? My daughter gets really bad period pain and has done since the moment her periods started. I might take her to the Dr to get her prescribed with that. My Dr's are normally good with giving you whatever you ask for.
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Well done Elizabethrose! Pain levels vary so what a stupid question to ask and a wonderful reply. Wish that I were that quick off the mark ;D
Himself is ROFLOL! ;)
Get your daughter to a GP! Pronto. My Mum told me that our GP would tell me to 'have a baby' - yeah, right - at 13/14/15, wouldn't that have gone down well >:(
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Yep, I started taking it at 13 after my mother had a similar run in with another ignorant GP, who'd suggested that if I wait until I had a baby my pain would stop. She was a force to be reckoned with, still is, and told him in no uncertain terms exactly what prescription to write, immediately!! My daughter first start taking it at 14. Good luck! x
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My daughter suffers in the same way as yours it seems, such a shame. She had a period with horrific pain on the day of her Italian oral final at uni. She dosed herself up, took in a hot water bottle and proceeded to explain in Italian exactly what was happening to her and how she felt. The examiner proceeded to discuss it with her at length before switching to the subject they were supposed to be discussing!
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I have a friend who was told to have a baby and she did. She had two. ;D
Unfortunately, she had endometriosis and it just got worse and she had a couple of ops followed by a hysterectomy at 35, so it was probably the right advice in a round about sort of way, as things turned out. ::)
I was much the same as you Megamind - loads of periods - 24 days apart and over a week long. One afternoon I suddenly had pains, and heavy flow, in a meeting in a place without disposal facilities on Day 3 of my period. Thank goodness for my 'Menopause Survival Kit' *
* Spare knickers, ST, large tampon, drawer liners, Ibuprofen, packet of tissues and a couple of nappy bags and a biscuit.
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Hi Hurdity,
Yes they are heavier but they still only last 3 days or so like they always have. I went to the Dr earlier this year and had blood tests and although they didn't show up anything in particular she said they're not reliable and Dr's tend to go on symptoms. So she asked me about my periods I told her they were now 26/27/28 days whereas they used to be in the 30's. I told her they were heavier. She asked if I had sweats I said yes particularly in the night and they woke me up. I told her I had lost my libido and that I was very dry down below and other peri symptoms I have. She then offered me HRT! I was shocked actually after reading so much on here and reading how some women struggle to get prescribed it. I declined for now and she said if I change my mind just come back. She prescribed me sylk for the dryness.
So reading what you wrote, makes me think she was a bit premature in offering me HRT?
I'm not sure Megamind. Some women seem to be fine on starting HRT at this point, but if it really is before peri-menopause proper - sometimes the oestrogen surges can be very big so maybe at the ovulatory peak would be even higher? However some women unfortunately do experience sweats and flushes even while the ovaries are still functioning - presumably such women are very sensitive to the large drop in oestrogen which happens just before a period. In these circumstances a constant background of oestrogen as part of HRT would prevent levels dropping extremely low, and the extra progestogen would help keep the lining thin and perhaps reduce bleeding a little. If you are one that does suffer with these it might be worth trying?
The NICE Guidelines are quite clear about how they define peri-menopause and when to prescribe HRT and I think this is because its effectiveness is less guaranteed while you are still having regular periods. You can see I'm thinking out loud here.
Some gynaes prescribe the Pill at this point because it gives a constant dose of oestrogen and progesterone and suppresses ovulation, so cycles are more predictable and bleeding usually lighter. The two that are similar to HRT (they contain estradiol) are QLAIRA and ZOELY, but you need ot be happy with high doses of progestogens.
Hurdity x
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Never forget the biscuit! ;)
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I have a friend who was told to have a baby and she did. She had two. ;D
Unfortunately, she had endometriosis and it just got worse and she had a couple of ops followed by a hysterectomy at 35, so it was probably the right advice in a round about sort of way, as things turned out. ::)
I was much the same as you Megamind - loads of periods - 24 days apart and over a week long. One afternoon I suddenly had pains, and heavy flow, in a meeting in a place without disposal facilities on Day 3 of my period. Thank goodness for my 'Menopause Survival Kit' *
* Spare knickers, ST, large tampon, drawer liners, Ibuprofen, packet of tissues and a couple of nappy bags and a biscuit.
I have a few friends with endometriosis. They were all advised to have their babies before they were 30 but in fact all struggled to conceive and all ended up having IVF which they were eventually successful with but interestingly, they all still had horrific periods after the babies. I think that's the endometriosis.
Ha ha, I like the biscuit in your survival kit!
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Hurdity. I think I was right to refuse at this stage but at least I know they will say yes to it when I ask in the future. I think I will keep a note of my flushes as they're not every night but will be interesting to see what stage of my cycle they are coinciding with. In fact, I had a bad one the other night and then I got my period a few days later.
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If you are 'dry down below' you need localised HRT.