Awake with horrific period pain

[Youngatheart00]

...woe is me 😫

I know this is normal, I’ve dealt with it for 26 years....but FFS. Feel like my body is trying to turn itself out. Just got up to take some ibuprofen after 2 hours of tossing and turning. Posting for something to do until it kicks in.

*inside out - can’t even type!

Hot bath?

This was me yesterday. Ibuprofen doesn’t do it alone for me. Have you got any Buscapan? If not take paracetamol too.

I don’t want to wake others up which I probably would do running the hot bath. It works well at other times, just depends on what time the bastard cramps hit. I swear some months it’s way worse than others too.

I don’t have any buscapan but may get that and some solpadine max (or beg DH to go out for me) when it gets to a respectable hour.

Find I don’t even breath properly as the pain is so bad, all down my legs and up my spine as well as the ‘Fanny daggers’

Ugh there is nothing worse - I remember how much I used to suffer before I went on the pill. Knees to chest pose can help if you're desperate.

I swear some months it’s way worse than others too.
Definitely.
I dread it happening when I’m at work. The pain is horrible. It only lasts for a couple of hours but It feels like I’m being stabbed.

Sympathies OP.
Definitely get a hot water bottle on your tummy and take paracetamol as well.

I would ask for a referral to gynae - sooner you do it, sooner you'll get the appointment. I had woeful periods for about a year which ended about 2 years ago when I had a hysteroscopy and they removed a polyp. Periods changed to normal. Now they're back heavy again - soaking the blooming mattress with night pads on (should have put a tampon in also, but it wasn't expected) and if the next one is the same, I will be requesting a referral to gynae again.

You don't have to live like this.

@HeathIns

I swear some months it’s way worse than others too. Definitely. I dread it happening when I’m at work. The pain is horrible. It only lasts for a couple of hours but It feels like I’m being stabbed.

Happened once at work - a complete flood. I felt it, but had a pad on, so thought nothing of it. Went to loos and discovered that the whole back of my dress was covered in blood. I asked my boss (female) to let me go out to M&S and buy a new dress. She was fine, but the next day asked me whether I had gone home lol. Nice. No, I hadn't gone home, but I had to find a fucking dress in my size, then go down to the knicker section, the tights section and the tampon section and the sanitary towel section and the baby wipes section so I was gone about an hour I suppose.

Strangely enough my most painful day isn’t my heaviest day. I do get one or two extremely heavy days with ‘flooding’ though. I have all of that joy to come but at least the pain won’t be as intense (I will be v uncomfortable for days though) I feel as if I can’t go to the doctor with this though, won’t they just tell me it’s normal? I’ve suffered for so long though I’ve forgotten what it ‘should’ be like.

Have you a heat pad or a hot water bottle? If you’ve paracetamol in the house don’t forget you can have that in-between doses of ibuprofen. (Well there’s nothing to stop you taking it at the same time, obviously, but in terms of spreading things out, often people find it useful to have the one in the space between the doses of the other.)

Period pain is normal, yes, but it isn’t meant to be so bad it disrupts sleep. Some GPs are much better than others when it comes to treating dysmenorrhea; but with pain that severe they should be willing to prescribe a stronger painkiller & if you’ve symptoms other than pain be thinking of if there’s an underlying condition needing treating (& thus whether a referral to gynae is needed).

Please book yourself a GP appointment - you shouldn’t put up with this for another who knows how many years.

Exaggerate. Or just tell them what it's like on the most extreme days. Anything to get them to refer you to gynae. My hysteroscopy happened pre-covid, but I know it was maybe an 8 month wait? Don't delay. Ring them this morning, tell them how much pain you're in, how much blood you're losing, if you feel faint at times. I'd fucking just tell them in graphic detail until you get referred.

I'd stand up from the toilet and the toilet bowl was just pure blood. The onset of bleeding could be sudden. The pain extreme. I managed to never become what's that thing when you're low in iron? But it was a male doctor who referred me ironically. I think he just wanted me to shut the fuck up. I suspect I was probably in tears on the phone as I used to get so weak with the periods - they were totally abnormal.

I'm sure you remember what normal periods are like or have they always been this painful and heavy?

Make sure you take enough ibuprofen. If the capsules are 200 mg. Then take 3. I am no expert but my close relative is a hospital pharmacist and she said up to 600 was fine one off, not a steady diet.

It helped me.

Yes I’ve had the heavy dripping of blood you describe. Strangely it seems to happen a couple of days before my period starts properly. I think it will be a gp call. I can’t live like this

Ibuprofen isn't ideal as it can cause stomach upset and eventually ulcers. Paracetamol would be better and ibuprofen only on a full stomach. Yes, you can use both in tandem, but my rule of thumb is, if paracetamol ain't hitting the pain, then I'm fucked and need something stronger (ibuprofen kills my stomach). I'm currently in a lot of pain (not period related thankfully) and I'm on codeine with paracetamol except I've run out of codeine. So I suspect I might end up in A&E for pain relief as GP surgery pretty crap at prescribing pain relief. That's on them. Not me. Just give me what works for the pain and doesn't fucking give me an ulcer!

Go to the doctor, firstly so you get some decent pain killers and secondly to get them looking in to it. The more women that speak up, the better.
Cura heat pads for back pain are brilliant but make absolutely sure they don't directly touch your skin and you've got decent thickness knickers between you and it(!) they get hotter than you would think.

@Youngatheart00

Yes I’ve had the heavy dripping of blood you describe. Strangely it seems to happen a couple of days before my period starts properly. I think it will be a gp call. I can’t live like this

You're right. You absolutely do not have to live like this. They need to investigate. Women's troubles and such get put to the back burner so often - often by women! If you're in horrific pain and bleeding heavily, you need investigation. Don't be backwards at coming forwards. You deserve help and investigation as much as anyone else with untoward symptoms does. You ring them first thing. Get an appointment and don't hold back on the graphic details. If there are clots, spell it out, if you're flooding the place, spell it out, if you're panned out, spell it out, if you feel weak, spell it out, if you're in any way feeling something that isn't just normal bleeding with pain that paracetamol treats, then you spell out every gory detail to them until you get that referral.

@MMfanalltheway
You can get esomeprazole OTC in the UK - if you’re having to take ibuprofen on a regular basis taking a PPI will protect your stomach. If your GP was prescribing you any kind of NSAID they should have prescribed a PPI alongside - even if it was a while ago you’re entitled to raise a complaint over failure to do so. Have you a pain clinic near you you could ask to be referred to? Though ending up in A&E due to pain may trigger a referral if there is one anyway; or at the very least, urgent referral to relevant specialist who’ll request GP prescribe whatever they consider appropriate in circs as well as sorting any additional relevant pathways.

My last 3 periods have been terrible at the beginning - first day, I feel pains that are similar to labour and the blood loss for these two days are terrible. I was in school on Monday and I was hanging on to the radiator and panting for relief - it was awful. I then bled over my mooncup (and through a pad), through my clothes and onto my blue fabric chair.

I had to ask the caretaker (thank you M) what to do - known him for years - I was in tears and feeling humiliated - and he promised that no one would ever know and that he had a daughter and for me to stop apologising.

I'm 48 and they're getting worse - I suppose I'm peri-menopausal but I know when our pupils come back, I can't do this - the pain is unbearable.

I know I should see my GP but I can't bear the thought of a coil and the tablets they prescribe (can't remember the name) make me vomit.

Massive sympathies OP and anyone struggling. I feel I have no cause to complain because it's only in the last 5 years I've struggled.

How are you now OP?

*on Thursday (not Monday)

DH went and got me some otc cocodamol. I didn’t get back off to sleep again and was just hot and sweaty tossing around in bed so I guess he felt he may as well (oops). I took them 20 mins ago and I think they’re kicking in.

@BlackAlys sorry to hear about your horrible experience this week. I’ve had something like that happen at work and the shame still burns now

Fortunately mine have been much more civilised since having children. (My uterus being stretched to the size of a swiss ball probably means that it can't clench so hard again! 😆 )

I remember being well into my 2 hour pushing stage and suddenly being more lucid when the pethadine wore off, feeling on fire from my ribs to my knees and getting flashbacks of certain periods! I would actually take DS2's 10 hour back to back labour over certain periods as at least it was shortee, and didn't involve trying ti blunder on as normal.

I had a prescription of mefanamic acid, but my periods were very irregular so I had no clue of when I was due, not which week, nor which month, so suddenly I'd get the pains, it arrived and there was no time to get pain relief into my system and I'd just be overwhelmed rapidly in a curling up on the floor at school or work type of overwhelmed.

It's hard when that is your normal from the start. Having them fairly civilised now, on a "bad" month I take a round or two of ibuprofen and then carry on as near normal, it still surprises me how different it was from that level of pain that consumed me.

It is wrong that women are expected to just accept a significant chunk of their life is rendered unfunctional as being normal.