To think that periods in your forties are hard

[Karinatootoo]

I turned 40 and omg my periods have been horrendous.

Instead of getting pain just during the week of my period, I know get period pain for three out of four weeks. I get painful cramps the week before my period and the week after my period aswell. So I'm now in pain for three weeks out of every month. My actual period has also become a lot longer. I used to bleed for five days. Now I bleed for 8-10 days.

I've been for scans and checks and they can't see anything specifically wrong.

Is this just what it's like in your forties? It's hell! I'm now on heavy painkillers.

I’m 58 in a couple of months. Still regular periods. I’m pretty fucking furious about it to be honest.

Mine were horrible through teens & 20s until I had children. Writhing on the floor painful. Since then they've been regular, lighter and managable with regular pain relief. The luteal phase is a bummer with several phases of PMT affecting mood then energy, but it's tolerable and I'd rather not mess with my hormones as it's better than being incapacitated by pain.

At least this way round, I appreciate what I've got relatively speaking.

Hormones suck.

I'm in my late 30s and mine have been horrendous for the past year I think it's the start of perimenopause for me. It's crap because i had no symptoms at all in my 20s apart from when I actually had my period.

I am 46. My periods are easy but they always have been. Possibly even easier now, which I think is to do with weight training. I don't even get the little warning cramps I used to get the day before it arrived. I do get quite grumpy. I think generally I have been very lucky with my period though.

Mine went haywire in my 40s. Cycle used to be every 25 days like clockwork if I wasn’t on the pill. Now it can be anything from 21 to 61 days. So I went back on the pill.

I wouldn’t just assume it’s age and please do push for more tests if you’re unsure. I’d never had a single issue until I was 40. I then started having a lot of issues and got diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis and adenomyosis. Yours does sound like maybe adenomyosis could be considered. It can show on scans but they need to know what they’re looking for/specialists.

I’m 43 and have the implant. I have 2 days of light bleeding every 2-4 months. Least I’ve had to worry about periods since they started. Not sure if I’m in peri or the implant is just minimising bleeding.

Since being sterilised ive felt ovulation for the first time in my life, periods were longer and took a while to settle but the past 12 months my cycle is shortening and so are the days of bleeding. Last 3 months it's been a 23 day cycle, 3 days bleed. I'm 42

Try still having periods at 58. Not fun! I’ve had periods now for 48 years.

I was quite happily on the mini-pull until around 46 no periods no hassle. Then out the blue I started bleeding again every month, very heavily, GO was concerned sent me for a load of tests all ok “just” peri-menopause.

Came off the mini-pill and first we went through the heavy periods section, one every 2-3 weeks. Went in HRT, helped with other symptoms always had periods, got tranexemic acid which helps a bit.

Now I’m almost 50, cycle is 23-27 days long, periods are not too bad helped with transexemic acid. I get terrible PMS, I’ve put on a stone since all this started, I have fibromyalgia too so I don’t know if symptoms are down to peri or fibro but I feel like I’m falling apart most days.

I'm currently laying on a water bottle (NOT HOT WATER BOTTLE because I can't find it) filled with hot water because I still get horrific pgp sometimes.

I have the kyleena coil and find it usually helps. But maybe every 6-12 months I get the pain.

My periods became terrible around 42 ish. Up till then 30+ years of wondering why people carried on about the pain. They became extremely heavy, I need to sleep on a waterproof cover as they flood through overnight. 2-3 days of really heavy, painful bleeding. I swear I can feel the lining shedding. So painful.

It's been 10 years and there's no relief in sight 🙁

I could have written this post, OP!

I’ve gone from a 35 day cycle to a 28 day cycle, and the pain has definitely intensified. Sometimes, the pain is worse during ovulation. Then there are the digestive issues thrown in during ovulation and the week before my period. Oh, what fun 😩.

Sorry... though it is important to share these things... when I got to my mid forties, I thought, not long to go... then 50 thinking, oh, average age is 51 nowadays, not long to go... forgetting average includes a lot of early menopause, so must include a lot of later ones too.

Came on to mumsnet at the time and there were so many stories of heartbroken women with early menopause and I felt a bit mean for complaining. But gradually so many more fed up women came on the board that it didn't feel like I was a weird outlier any more.

I have put half a stone on in a year but my friend on it hasn't. I haven't exercised and have eaten crap so it may will be that 😂

I’ve never had cramps, but I’ve started getting awful hormonal migraines in the last few years. I’m 43.

I had horrendously painful and heavy periods all through my teens and early 20s. Then went on the pill because I couldn’t deal with them anymore and this helped the heaviness and to some extent the cramps. Then I had babies and for years after each baby my periods were amazing- not too heavy and very little pain and I relaxed and thought that my years of vile periods were over. Then last year at 43 my periods have become horrible again- very painful, very heavy, sometimes lasting much longer (although a few have been very short), and some months my cycles are shorter then other months. I’m also getting a lot of cramping in the week leading up to my period so two weeks of every month are spent cramping. I am so fed up with dealing with periods.

Not at all . 👍

I'm in peri and on the mini pill plus HRT but they are still horrendous even with tranexamic acid. Yesterday evening I went through 3 heavy duty re-useable pads in under half an hour. Just lucky I was at home and not at work!

Mine were awful in my early forties too, once dd1 started hers at 12, I decided I couldn't cope with both of us (sounds odd but I was really struggling with pain in particular with mine). Got a Mirena coil and within 3 months it settled right down. I had no periods at all for years. Now on HRT so get random v light spotting but still no pain.

I did have a scary massive clot thing in the first month or so of Mirena - rang GP who was completely unbothered and it never happened again.

Another vote for the mirena coil!
Mine had become difficult as well and the coil sorted it.

You have my sympathy. Mine became like that as soon as I hit my 40's.

I'm now in late perimenopause and my hormones, periods and everything else have reached a whole new level.
I am still considering HRT.
Everything comes with pros and cons and everyone is different.

If you have a chat with your GP they will tell you your options.
I would advise definitely seeing a female doctor. They are more likely to understand what we are going through. I had a very unpleasant experience with a male GP recently.

Oh bloody hell. 😥
I'm so sorry you are still having them.

I'm 49 and have completely had enough.

Mine became really painful, so much I couldn't breathe.

I now do the "caveman diet" for a couple of days before it starts until a couple of days in. Also take buscapan for the cramps. It's really helped.

I had horrendous bleeding in my late 40s. It could last for two weeks and was also painful. This was cured by removing the womb lining with laser treatment and I never looked back. You have to have completed your family before they will consider this.