Period pain - how much (if any) pain relief do you need?

[Pandsbear]

I've had terrible periods for years - found out last summer that I have endometriosis and have since had surgery and medication that stopped my periods for 9 months. They have now started up and I am back to feeling grim grim grim and on prescribed painkillers. I was hoping my period etc would be less painful now. I am sure that when I was (much) younger I used to just have my period and maybe took a paracetamol occasionally. For those of you who have no issues with their periods do you need any sort of painkillers?

I have had scan due to painful periods, they found nothing. I would describe my pains as about 8 hrs into labour, I take co-codamol if I don't time it right they don't touch it. I have sweats and diarrhoea its that bad.

tmi- my periods are very heavy, When at its heaviest I can flood a super plus tampax and two night time towels in less than five mins. I also lose huge clots.

I used to need to be up to my eyeballs on drugs. I would be unable to do anything for at least three days a month. I missed a lot of my sils wedding because of it

The only thing that helped was having babies
Not really the best cure if that's not what you're planning anyway
I still get pain but it's a paracetamol and ibuprofen makes it bearable pain

i agree after having three kids the pain lessened, but then I got sterilised and since then the pain has been bad.

Mine have been hugely variable over the years and one of the reasons that I was on the pill for 10 years+ When I was a teenager I used to take Feminax, nurofen and paracetamol - I did used to scare my dad I took so much stuff

When I came off the pill I had quite a bit of pain and was investigated for endometriosis as I suffered with mid month pain but that has gone now. I have been off the pill for over a year so they are pretty settled and I don't need any pain relief at all now.

I occasionally need a couple of paracetamol/Ibuprofen perhaps on one occasion across a whole period. Wouldn't kill me to go without though.
Your situation sounds awful, sorry I don't have much helpful advice!

I find that if I take magnesium supplements all month I have virtually no pain at all.

I forget. Every day.

So I take paracetamol and curse myself.

Prescribed co-codamol and co-dydramol for me, nothing else really touches it. I'm a but useless with it; either spaced on painkillers or in too much pain to walk/talk.

I loved my mirena, no periods for years - that was the down side of TTC. I had investigations and there was nothing 'wrong', just pain.

I don't have endo or anything but it was suspected because of the pain I used to get. My legs and lady bits go numb and sore. If I miss the window to take pain killers, nothing will get rid of it.

I can't lie down, my back is excruciating, I can't walk or do anything.

I take a bunch of Ibuprofen (400mg) - no shits, I take about 6 of them to start and then I take about 3 or 4 at 4 hourly intervals.

Having children has made a big difference to the amount of pain I have although I'm beginning to notice some discomfort sneaking back.

Before having children I had to take ibuprofen quickly or the pain would kick in and take ages to go. I used to feel that I would pass out from the pain and I had diarrhoea.

When I was in labour the pain of the contractions was just like my period pains up until I was 8cm and then they went up a level.

I have t suffered so bad since having DD now 4 but I used to take co-dydramol and volturol every four hours, spaced so took something every 2 hours, volturol was recently changed to naproxen.

I used to have such bad pain I just wanted to die. I used to take two days off work. Suspected endo but have never list enough weight to be able to have a laparoscopy. Doctor found cysts on ovaries when going pregnancy scans but said smaller than two inches so nothing to worry about.

Now I just take a ciu

I realise it's an old post but I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself and needed to vent...

When I was on the pill I don't remember my period pain being a problem at all, but when I came off I experienced what it was really like. If I don't take Ibruprofen the minute the bleeding starts the pain builds up badly until it kicks in. Today I decided to try another method of controlling the pain so took some tincture of crampbark instead of ibruprofen and paracetamol. Well, I took it at 8am when my period started (no pain at that stage), but by 9am I realised it wasn't going to work as I was really uncomfortable in my belly, back and thighs and took some Ibruprofen. By 10am I was in so much pain I was pacing about, desperately trying to find a position that eased it, with a hot water bottle pressed to my belly. I was going hot and cold, clammy and puked twice, but thankfully it seemed the painkiller had left my stomach so I didn't puke it up, and eventually it started working. An hour or so in bed later and I felt better but completely shattered and now have a lot less energy that normal. So much for the happy periods in tampon and towel adverts!

Pandsbear

I did not even have to read the word endo to recognise your symptoms (this is what I also have) in your initial post and was not surprised to see that you have this at all. I too used to get similar pains and use a hot ater bottle in a similar manner (the pain down the legs is usually caused by the sciatic nerve being inflamed).

BTW internal ultrasound scans do not detect endo if it is there - it is usually only diagnosed through laparoscopy.

Endo can recur post lap surgery - did they just do a diagnostic lap or did the surgeon actually remove as much endo as he could see?. My guess is that he did not manage to remove all of it.

Pill masks the symptoms of the underlying problem; not at all surprised to see that your endometriosis was far better when on this because it is suppressed in these circumstances.

It is imperative that you see a specialist cons gynae with both up to date knowledge and a specialist interest in endo rather than a gynae who may not have up to date knowledge on this disease as well as its treatments. It is fair to say that some gynaes are far better than others at treating endometriosis/ I would ask your GP to refer you to a specialist gynae asap, you do not have to put up with this.

www.endo.org.uk is a helpful website and has lots of information on it. Knowledge too is power!.

Hey pands, I have started a support thread for Endo sufferers on general health. Come join us! Can't answer your question as I do have issues with my periods, and take quite a few painkillers all month!