Does menfenamic acid actually do anything for periods? Anyone have any experience?

[PumpkinPie99]

I've been prescribed menfenamic acid for period pain and heavy flow.
I've to take it 2 x3 a day in the few days before I'm due and while I'm on my period.
Does anyone have any experience with this medication as my periods are really painful, heavy, give me diarrhoea and make me vomit :(

Didn’t work for me :( I know other ppl who swear by it though

Yes. I take it as necessary. I go from being doubled over to pain free and it reduced my flow too. Indecently I've taken generic ibuprofen lysine when I was away and came on early and the pain relief was great.

I couldn't manage without it but sometimes had to take extra painkillers.

It drastically reduces my pain, if I start taking them as soon as I get an twinge and keep them up at the recommended dose I can have a whole period now relatively pain free.

I had a bad reaction when I took it, it completely floored me for the entire weekend and I was still in agony 😔 Gone back to regular doses of ibuprofen for the two days the pain is worst.

Yes it works for me and relieves the "OMG my insides are falling out" feeling and means I can sit down without wincing.

I have no advice re the medication op but have you had investigations? This does not sound like normal period pains!

It works for me

DM, Dsis and i all took it at one point or another to stop 'the floods'. Worked for us.

They tried me on this before I went on the pill. It did an ok job but the mini pill does better.

Works brilliantly for me. I had investigations, nothing wrong, I just have heavy periods and a lot of pain. I must say the Mirena has been better, tho.

Didn't do anything for me just made me violently sick.

Depo on the other hand. Total game changer. I must bore the tits off the nurse every time I go for it waxing lyrical about how it's quite literally life changing to not have horrendous heavy painful periods anymore

It helped a bit. It did make me feel a bit nauseous though.

It didn’t do anything for me but tranexamic acid has helped enormously. Good luck!

Seems that people have had a mix of effects from it.
Today is day 1 of my period and I've taken it 3 times. Hasn't had a great impact so far, taking the edge off the pain, still having to lie here with a hot water bottle on my stomach tho :(

Yes it helped hugely for pain as made them lighter BUT I quit them because of the nausea and groggy feeling as meant I couldn't work and felt sick as a dog.
Game changer (life changer) for me was the Mumsnetter who told me to try ibuprofen combined with lysine (can get tesco own, asda own, superdrug own etc) I don't know who she was but thankyou,changed my life, means I can go to work for the first time in years while having period, helps with the bowel cramps and diarrhoa especially

(I wasn't prescribed the mefenemic for heavy periods.. they weren't heavy just v v painful,)
Now I'm very heavy with flooding, which is an entirely different problem. However I can manage the pain with the ibuprofen lysine.

It's a similar drug to ibuprofen, and only a bit better in my experience. Worth taking but not miraculous.

It's definitely worth taking paracetamol at the same time as the mefenamic acid, if you're not already doing it.

I've had it. Had horrific periods, flooding, clotting, doubled over, crying in pain type ones. Didn't even touch the sides.
Nothing has to be fair.
But I have a friend who takes it and she swears by it. I think its luck of the draw who it works for and who it doesn't.

As per pp my main concern is do you have a diagnosis for the cause?

Is this a new symptom for you? Or are your periods always painful and heavy? Is it every month?

Do you have DC and if not do you want to in the future?

I tried it, was ok, diclofenac didn’t help much either. A gynaecologist suggested it may be referred pain from a menstrual migraine (crippling pain, literally sweat soaking through clothes stuff). I found zomig helped, if pain killers don’t work might be worth looking into that.

Sorry I meant it was treated eventually as a migraine caused by hormonal shifts and that did make a massive difference. Neurologist took some convincing because zomig is usually only prescribed if you have days of extreme pain whereas mine was only for two days, but it made such a big difference to me. It was a revelation. I didn’t vomit but felt like it, dizziness, vision disturbances etc. I think maybe ask them to consider it as a possibility if mefamic acid doesn’t work for you. Spent years in agony and one convo with a bloody good doc changed a lot for me.

Total lifesaver for pain. I never had heavy periods so can't comment on flow. I had to take it on empty stomach (instructions be damned) b/c my pain came on suddenly & would make me puke so I needed fastest digestion possible. Oh.. and I misread instructions so took double the prescribed dose, but only when the pain started. Usually only needed 2-4 pills each period. My menstrual cycle length was (?is) irregular so I would have been on M-Acid half the month if I tried to guess when was 2-3 days before.

So given the fact I didn't follow instructions... it was great :).
I lucked out & stopped having horrendous pain after DC.

Had zero effect for me.

Mefenamic Acid is a non-steroidal anti-inflamatory drug so works in a similar way to ibuprofen but with a stronger effect. If you find that ibuprofen helps but doesn't do enough then MA should do the trick.

You're supposed to start taking it a few days before your due date as this should help reduce the volume of stuff that has to come out.

Personally I found that it certainly helped bring the my periods under control but the side effects of how it affected my digestion an bowels were not great and I didn't feel it was a good solution for me.

Getting a Mirena coil fitted was like a miracle for me. Instead of a monthly week of agony, anaemia and nausea, my periods became extremely light, mild and pain free. I know that's a matter of luck though.