Please help- Ibuprofen and aspirin question!!!!!

[meloney1]

i usually get some minor discomfort and cramping with my period. I usually take ibuprofen And or aspirin as I’ve found that’s most useful in helping it. But, when my period starts, I usually lose my appetite and don’t feel like eating or drinking. I obviously try and drink as much water as I can and I try to eat, but I do sometimes end up taking ibuprofen on an empty stomach with it.

I only just found out that you shouldn’t take ibuprofen and aspirin on an empty stomach and it can cause stomach ulcers and inflammation! Is it one of those risks that they warn you about but it’s actually very very rare and not ideal but usually ok, or is it likely to cause stomach ulcers etc even if I only take it on and off on an empty stomach for a week or so?

it helps a lot better than paracetamol etc, but obviously if it’s too risky then I’ll force myself to eat or drink before taking it, but when my period starts I really go off food and drink and I feel sicker when I eat so I really prefer not to if possible! Just not sure if it’s risky but still very unlikely to cause problems, or if it should be avoided altogether.

urgh, periods are the worst.

Even if it doesn’t cause ulcers, it is definitely likely to cause upset. Taking it that often would be a risk beyond one I’d take personally. If you can’t stomach food then try a glass of milk to line your stomach.

I know I shouldn't, but I've almost always taken ibuprofen (5-6x a month) on an empty stomach 🥴 I've never had an upset stomach because of it and have been doing it for 20yrs. Who the hell knows if it's actually done any damage but I've not had any issues I know of so far

Regular Ibuprofen OR aspirin on an empty stomach can cause inflammation, ulcers and rarely severe bleeding. Taking both together increases that risk. Even if you can manage a glass of milk it will help but try not to take them both at the same time on an empty stomach. Ideally a slice of toast or something would be better. You could piggy back them (take each but 3 hours apart so say ibuprofen @ 8am, aspirin @ 11am, ibuprofen at 2pm) Especially as the pain relief dose of aspirin is pretty high (we see patients get ulcers from a 75mg per day dose of aspirin)

alternatively you can get a PPI over the counter like nexium to offer some stomach protection while you need to take them. X

@AmazonPrim its more regular use, or taking for an extended period of time that tends to cause a problem (like regular doses, every day for a week for example) what you’re doing shouldn’t cause any major harm but I would still recommend a milky drink or similar when taking them x

Yes, both aspirin and ibuprofen can cause gastric irritation, and should always be taken on a full stomach/with food to lessen the risk of ulceration and bleeding. You should only take aspirin OR ibuprofen, not both, but you can add paracetamol 4 times a day as it’s from a different family of painkiller. If necessary you can add small doses of codeine - again a different family of painkiller, and available in small doses over the counter in combination with paracetamol (co-codamol e.g.). Larger doses only available on prescription.

An ok. Well I will often have them with a milky coffee. Not sure if that helps at all. I get migraines a lot and bad period cramps and 400-600mg ibuprofen is the only thing that helps. But at that point I rarely want to eat anything as I'm feeling so terrible so I don't usually.

The best way to take Ibuprofen for period cramps is to start it a couple of days before your period is due to start. On the days you don't feel like eating could you just manage something like a couple of crackers or a few spoonful of cereal or soup before taking the tablets? It would be useful to speak to your GP as there may be something better like the combined pill or some prescription painkillers, do you think you may have endometriosis? The symptoms are heavy painful periods, I used to feel bruised after the pain ended, my stomach, tops of my
thighs & back were always very sore & I passed clots during my period with labour type pains. You could ask to be referred to a gynaecologist, the gold standard for diagnosis is a laparoscopy.

You mustn't take both and gastritis is very, very common - it's probably the cause of a lot of your nausea after a couple of days.

You could try taking a liquid ibuprofen and aspirin instead of the pills and have them with a couple of crackers. I think the liquid ibuprofen and aspirin have less risk of causing an ulcer. It's the pills that can cause ulcers on an empty stomach.

It’s not great to be honest and probably contributing to your nausea. It’s not the water that is important it is the food that will line your stomach by sticking to the wall. Try and have something light to eat.
aspirin or ibuprofen not both… add in paracetamol.

Don't take aspirin and ibuprofen at the same time. One or the other and yes you should eat first.

Great, thanks for the advice everyone 👍 I will avoid taking it on an empty stomach. For some reason on my period I go completely off food, it’s as if I feel full up and don’t want to eat but obviously it seems it’s better to eat if taking aspirin or ibuprofen so I’ll make sure I do in future.

Actually, I was unwell last year with a bad stomach upset, it was around the time I was taking ibuprofen and aspirin as I had my period for the week leading up to it and took it for cramps but eating made me feel sick so I had an empty stomach. I had blood tests and everything was fine- if it had been related to the aspirin or ibuprofen, would it have shown in the blood tests? Just wondering how if that was just a bug I caught or if it was the result of taking the tablets for my period on an empty stomach.

Please don’t take aspirin and ibuprofen, OP, as I and lots of people have already said. They’re the same type of drug. Take one or the other - ibuprofen is probably better and longer-lasting - and add paracetamol and/or codeine, which don’t have the same gastric side-effects and are from different families of painkiller.

The advice is to (and only if you have periods that are extremely predictable and like clockwork) to take it only 1 day before periods to lessen both the amount of blood and cramping. Ibuprofen has an effect on prostaglandin production so can help with blood loss.
If you have unpredictable periods the advice is to take it when you first see blood.

Taking it a couple of days before won't do anything as Ibuprofen has a half life of two hours and is excreted out of the system completely in 12 hours (sometimes up to 24 hours) and so you would be taking medication unnecessarily and putting strain on your liver and kidneys and stomach for no reason, thereby increasing the risk of gastric problems etc.