vomiting/diarrhoea before period - any ideas?

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Four times in the last few months, I've had a day with seriously sudden and violent diarrhoea and vomiting. The first couple of times I thought I'd just picked up a bug, but now I'm starting to notice a pattern - it seems to be a couple of days before my period or the first day of my period.

I used to get terrible period pains til my early 20s, that often included vomiting because of the pain, but this is different - no pain or cramps at this point. (Sometimes I get them a bit later, but they're not horrendous and wouldn't cause vomiting). I also occasionally get menstrual migraines, which involve a lot of dizziness and a mild headache, and sometimes there's vomiting associated with that.

But this is different. It comes on quite suddenly, and before I know it I'm vomiting repeatedly over the afternoon and evenings, and unlike sometimes where you have a little control about where and when, this is really running-to-the-loo it's going to come sort of thing (sorry!). Either a few hours before or a few hours after, I get terrible diarrhoea, feels like I've totally turned to liquid.

Doesn't seem to be connected to anything I've eaten, nor whether or not I've eaten (I'm often feeling totally fine earlier in the day and have eaten normally). And once it starts, I can't even keep water or anything else down. Once it's over, I can eat normally again - doesn't feel like a normal digestive upset, where you want to eat easy-to-digest foods, if you see what I mean. I do have mild IBS, but it doesn't feel like that, either.

I'm starting to dread the onset of the next period, because this is so unpredictable and uncontrollable and sudden, and feels so awful. Anyone ever heard of this sort of pre-menstrual symptom? It could be that it's just coincidence, but that seems unlikely now. I've taken Buccastem for it, as I've had it around for migraines, which is supposed to stop nausea and vomiting, but it did absolutely nothing. Will the doctor be able to give me anything else? I am 40 this year; I suppose it could be hormones changing, but I've never had anything like this before. It's odd that it's not associated with pain or cramping or headaches or anything. My doctor is not hugely easy to talk to, and I don't really want to go unless there's something she's likely to be able to give me for it. I don't really want to go on the Pill.

any ideas?

I doubt very much this is anything to do with your hormones.

Endometriosis may well be behind all of this. Have you ever had this properly investigated by a gynaecologist?.

At the very least you ought to be getting this properly investigated by seeing the GP and getting an onward referral to a gynae asap. Any symptoms that are cyclical in nature should be checked out medically to see if endometriosis is the cause (and it can also cause havoc with the bowels and intestines). Its often a root cause of terrible period pain and it used to cause havoc with my bowels as well.

Also endometriosis can be misdiagnosed as IBS.

If your GP is not easy to talk to then I would actually see another one within the practice or change GP practice.

thanks, maybe I will go see her then. I've not had it investigated yet as it's only been four times so far, and it wasn't til this last one that I suspected that maybe it was period-related (the coouple of times was 3 days before I started, then 1 day before or so, then this month it was the first day). So I didn't really notice for a while - specially as there's no pain, doesn't feel cramp-like at all, nothing like the cramps I had in my teens and 20s, etc. Everything I read always talks about pain as an additional symptom, or pain-causing-vomiting, etc.

She's not easy to talk to - very very brisk and efficient, which I guess is good, but when I'm not good at talking about awkward things, it's hard. She hates having written lists, too, and is very much one-appointment, one-problem, which is hard when sometimes you think that more than one thing might be related. Also I'm very much not keen on having any kind of internal exam, though I guess I will if I had to. I just want something to stop the vomiting when/if it next comes!

thanks

finally got an appointment today, but was no use. She just said wait and see how it goes, take the same medicine for vomiting that I've already tried, that it can't be anything serious as it's just an acute episode, and that women get all sorts of symptoms connected to their periods and just have to put up with them, basically.

I guess the fact that I don't really have pain with it (well, nothing unusual) makes it weird and not worth investigating further, as anything serious would probably have much more pain. But it's still very unpleasant.

Oh I am so sorry you're having this

Fwiw I'm a couple of years behind you, and I sometimes feel very sick around/just before my period. I think it's hormonal - it's not anywhere near as bad as you get, from what you describe, but it can be incapacitating, it's sudden, I've had to send a taxi for ds before as I couldn't leave the house.

I've never been tested for endo either - I get pain sometimes but not usually that bad and not when I'm feeling sick. It's later.

It almost feels like being pregnant, to me. So I connect it with an imbalance of maybe progesterone or something, which drops off after I start to bleed.

I think you need a better doctor...please try and get a second opinion. You can't suffer like this.
Btw buccastem is crap isn't it! I got my gp to prescribe metoclopramide which works really well for me...I have a packet and use it as and when, probably on average one pill a month, sometimes none, sometimes up to three a day when it's bad.

Good luck and hope you get it sorted soonest xx

Did you ever find out what was causing you vomiting. I have suddenly started having the same problem