Period symptoms no one talks about

[TammySwansonTwo]

Day 1 of my period today which is always horrific (double whammy of endometriosis and adenomyosis) and was just thinking about how many weird symptoms I think of as normal, because no one ever talks about them.

The main ones for me are javelin arse and the feeling that my vulva has run a marathon. Oh, and the fact that I had no idea periods were supposed to be red until after my first surgery - I thought I was bleeding to death.

So much isn’t talked about that many women put up with awful stuff for years, and illnesses like endometriosis take years to diagnose. I think we should talk about it more!

What are other people’s weird period symptoms that they believe(d) are normal / universal?

Just to add, my PMT moods have always been dreadful and life affecting - ranging from being in floods of tears and just so unspeakably sad • some months, to terrible awful rage other months.

It was never, ever taken seriously by doctors. I was dismissed and made to feel stupid for even considering that my cycle may be affecting my mental health and weak for not just putting up with....for years.

4 years ago my doctor changed (to a young man actually!) who listened patiently when I listed the mood symptoms I was getting with PMT (it had taken a turn into really, badly dark moods, suicidal thoughts etc). He offered me a low dose of Prozac and couldn’t believe nobody had ever offered it to me before as it has decent success rates with treating PMDD. It has totally transformed my life! I still feel like a sack of cold shit for a week before my period, but my moods are manageable...no more terrible dark thoughts or tears or rages.

It’s a travesty this isn’t talked about more and that women are made to feel stupid for raising the issue.

Yep, I’ve been written off so many times. That’s why I’m now privately testing my thyroid levels (and all of them, not just the TSH and maybe FT4 if you’re lucky that doctors do). Costs me about £80 every 2 months but I’m finally seeing changes, and I’m hoping they will act on them. Also means I can test when I feel ill, rather than whenever they have an appointment, since my levels are up and down.

This thread has been really useful, not least because I have learnt that I have something called a Pouch of Douglas?!

Yes, I was quite surprised by that too when my specialist told me. He also gave me a lovely DVD of my surgery which was quite fascinating!

lovetheway I’m sorry but not at all surprised. How are you doing now? I would push to a gynae referral.

Dragonlight I think it’s a great idea for this to go into Classics, I think we absolutely need more personal accounts of this stuff to be visible and discussed.

I always had horrid PMT the day before. Poor DH couldn't do anything right. Then major headaches and fatigue.

After my 4th c-section, my periods became incredibly heavy. The clots were enormous (as big as my thumb) and numerous. When a big lump passed, the only way I can describe the flow that followed is as a similar feeling to your waters breaking. It literally gushed. And this would last for 8-9 Days out of 28 day cycle. I hated going out as I always seemed to leak despite using incontinence pads and it really brought me down.

I put up with this for 2.5 years (just thought it was my lot) until DM made me go and see my gynecologist. I had an Endometrial ablation in December and whilst I still have very light periods, it has changed my world. Can't believe I put up with it for as long as I did.

One day of vicious diarrhoea followed by a week of constipation; terrible clumsiness and no hand-eye coordination; restless legs; awful mood swings. I once cried because I knocked over a bag of dog biscuits and when DH suggested I just pick them up, I shouted at him that I'd miss my train if I did that in the time it took me to shout at him about it, I could have just picked them up and left!

I get javelin arse but only during ovulation. I came off hormonal contraception for the first time in ten years to give my body a break and the first time I got javelin arse I thought I was going to die. I woke up in the middle of the night, sat up halfway and gripped the sheets until it passed. I'm back on depo so thankfully that's gone!

wanting to killl someone the week before...
Feeling savagely hungary
The smell
The draining feeling.

I forgot the flu-ey feeling too. Cold, shivery, sore throat, aching. Starts a day or so before and lasts a few days after bleeding. It's horrid.

A friend of mine worked in the hospital of a woman's prison and reckoned that PMT played a major part in most of the women being in prison.

Yes, @MNHQ, could this thread be moved to classics please?

I get really emotional and get angry over nothing and terrible self loathing I literally can't walk past a mirror without slagging myself off. I get bloated really badly and my boobs turn into bowling balls that feel like they are burning.

Fooffloof that's exactly the kinda thing the studies I'm talking about in my thread about women not being diagnosed properly were looking at.

If you'd been a man I bet you'd have been given a more thorough examination and the pneumonia found quicker.

I've a family history of thyroid issues (which I HAVE told them) I've been 'tested' 3 times for this and only been told I'm "fine nothing to worry about" but I've read on mn and other places that

A they only test one chemical
B the range considered "fine" by the nhs with lower levels of TSH would be considered too low in most other countries.

I've recently been tested again (in relation to my mh) and again just been told "fine" I'm going to ask what the actual result was I think and do some more investigation/querying.

That we have women that don't know there's 3 holes "down there", who don't understand menstruation/ovulation/conception properly is truly shocking and unacceptable.

More discussion. More openness definitely a good thing.

OMG this thread.....I thought I suffered alone. As a teenager is used to get extremely heavy periods and they'd last 10+ days, never had any sort of period pains or anything though and wondered what other girls moaned about. I had a friend that moaned about pain but managed to use a panty liners all the way through her cycle while I had no pain and kept flooding through the the biggest pads.

Now I'm 28 been on the pill about 8 years after problems with the implant, I still get heavy periods but they last 5-7 days, I get headaches throughout, awful aches like I've been kicked in the stomach, pain where my ovaries are, period poo for 1 day then constipated for days and the newest problem that seems to be called.........javelin arse. I didn't even know that this was a thing. It's been happening to me for about 6 months or so and it's fucking awful. I thought there was something wrong with me. I just want it to go away, I'm used to suffering the other problems now because they gradually started to happen over years but the pain of javelin arse takes my breath away. I fucking hate men.

Oh and i forgot the aches down there, it feels like something sat inside waiting to be pushed out! What's that all about??? Numerous time I've thought that perhaps my super plus tampon had reached it's limit or something coz there's this weird heavy feeling but it's not my tampon. This comes and goes for 24 hours

Haven't read the whole thread yet, so probably not adding anything new.

Few days before: increased anxiety leading to an increase in OCD behaviours. If I have allowed any eyelashes and eyebrow hairs to grow in the previous month, they tend to get pulled out in a frenzy (trichotillomania). Spots around mouth and chin.

Day before and first day of: insatiable thirst. I can down a litre or more and the second the last gulp has been swallowed, it's back again, raging, and my mouth is instantly as dry as a desert.

First couple of days: period poo. Never knew that was a thing till reading Mumsnet! Also, intense aching in thigh bones. The only pain I ever feel due to my period.

That's horrible, Flooffloof!

DM still tells the story from 30 years ago when she went to see her doctor about bad pains and was told it was OVULATION. She was 35-year-old, had had several kids, and fucking knew what an ovulation does or doesn't feel like. She had pneumonia... I would have thought things had improved in 30 years. :(

Graphista you’re right, they were testing my TSH levels only for years which were supposedly fine, although my GP admitted they were actually borderline when I saw her after finally getting a diagnosis.

You do have the right to request a printout of your blood test results from your GP surgery. I’m lucky enough to have made a friend with expertise who could give me advice and interpret my results correctly, she also told me that the levels we consider ‘normal’ in this country have to be taken in conjunction with how the patient actually feels. Something that seems to pass some GP’s by, especially with women.

I get loads of these symptoms and terrible heavy periods with large clots, had polyps removed last year but that hasn’t helped. My dsis was diagnosed with endometriosis and I’ve read that it can run in families but my gp said no it doesn’t. I do wonder if I have it too though?!

"Gastric issues especially during periods are a strong indicator of endomitriosis"

I thought it was quite normal to be constipated before and have dia. on the first day? You'd have to have bad period pain as well for endo to be suspected wouldn't you?

Snowspeckled it certainly can and does run in families. It's incredible how much misinformation from health professionals is out there.

Gwen some people with endo have no or very little pain at all, so pain is not always an indicator.

Ravenously hungry with the need for chocolate and carbs
Dreadful sleep the night before -
No PMT and can feel quite upbeat / energy - until the day after I finish - when for a couple of days feel quite tearful, anxious and tense .

"A GP once told me that it was not possible that diarrhoea could be associated with my periods."

What an idiot GP. A quick google would explain it to you.

Ovulation pain - like a big elastic band pinging my ovary. I always know which side has ovulated and sometimes it makes me cry out loud.
PMS: sore tits, clumsy, hypermobility gets worse, oversensitive to noise, can’t stand being touched as it makes me want to scream. Oh, and chin spots.
Period: skitters, occasional javelin arse, sawing pain and flooding on day 2, pissing like a racehorse, intense desire to hide from the world.

Snowspeckled your GP is wrong a fucking idiot

Me, sis and 3 aunts all dx and I suspect my gran also had it based on what mums told me of her difficulties both with periods and repeated mc.

"You'd have to have bad period pain as well for endo to be suspected wouldn't you?" No - as with any ailment not every sufferer gets every symptom - but Drs seem to spin this crap re gynae issues.