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Period symptoms no one talks about

464 replies

TammySwansonTwo · 05/06/2018 19:16

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?

OP posts:
AuntyElle · 11/06/2018 23:33

I don’t know Year, when the flooding happened to me I wasn’t on HRT. But I do know that your body can take a while to adjust to HRT - I was told to give it 3 months before deciding if any given HRT was right for me. Another gynae said review after 6 weeks. Not suggesting that you should put up with bleeding for anything like that long though. Have you talked to your GP about it?
Are you on sequential? ie you have a week of progesterone and so get a withdrawal bleed?
I’ve found Menopause Matters is good for asking questions or clarifying things: www.menopausematters.co.uk/to_progestogens.php

It’s a clusterfuck, that’s for sure!

YearOfYouRemember · 12/06/2018 11:17

I haven't seen my GP since last Monday so she knows I was bleeding for nearly a week. Had nothing over night and then again this morning. Wearing a lot of dark trousers! Someone did tell me on my other thread which ones I'm on. I took day one on day one of my period last month then had two weeks of one colour and then two weeks of a different colour. My period came again on Friday as due but it feels like I didn't have a break.

I have a book on going through the menopause in a more natural way but no chance to read it yet.

Thank you.

Whisky2014 · 12/06/2018 12:52

Period started 2 days ago. Headache came on last night just as I was going to sleep. Woke up and oh my god its still pounding. Took Nurofen fast action and it's barely taken the edge off it. I always get headaches on my period but this ones bad.
Never got them when I was on the pill but i dont want to take hormone inhibitors anymore.

eggcellent · 12/06/2018 19:14

Sore nipples and clinginess.

lastnamefirstfirstnamelast · 13/06/2018 09:38

my trigmeminal neuralgia kicks off big time, I'm clingy and insecure too....soon as its all over i'm pain free and confident!

blitzen · 16/06/2018 11:16

Thought of another one, really weird. Just before my period, I am desperate to squeeze/pick any spots or blackheads! Like in an obsessive way. TMI sorry!

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 17/06/2018 20:13

So many of these I thought I was alone! Interested to see how many people have these alongside low thyroid and low vit d, which I also have and had to push to get treated.

In terms of what I get: Ovulation: I get a sharp pain for a day or so some months. That's relatively new but seems to coincide.

Before hand: easily stressed & easily tearful & easily angered pre period. 1/4 months or so I get sore boobs, like they've been weighted down and I have rubbed raw feeling nipples. My skin goes greasy, dull and spotty and my hair dulls with it. I look about 90 and 2 stone heavier and feel bloated.

During: I've been told I get very sleepy and cuddly- I am exhausted from pain, quite often and I I definitely feel the heat and flush easily. Physically, I spend a few days waddling. I get metal fanny- the entire thing feels rock solid and my labia feel weighted - and achey and stretched, may be like I've just pushed out a baby? I have what feels like a thin steel belt pulled too tight around my hips, causing pain in my hips and aches down my thighs (and my already clicky-poppy hip joints go mental). I feel like someone has kicked me hard in the base of my spine- like a boot heel is wedged in there. I get constipation and stomach cramps- they battle it out. Once every day or so my bowels win due to just being full and then for about 5 min I NEED to get to the loo ASAP for an horrific period poo that requires tampon being removed so it can come out more easily. I get about 10 min blessed relief before it all starts again. Clots and heavy cycle (been on the tube in summer and suddenly flooded, had to walk home with blood all over my bare legs and once stained a carpet in HoF fitting room. I was sat on the floor riding out cramps and bled through so fast!) and once had a huge chunk of un broken down lining just fall out- it was agony! Usually breathe through the cramps as if they are labour pains (not had the latter to compare, just got told to try this and it worked). Painkillers don't touch the sides so I don't bother with them. I use every colour/size of tampon that Lillette make. Sometimes changing every hr or so and adding a pad, too.

I am hypermobile in my leg joints and dyspraxic. I am slightly clumsier when I'm on and in pain but I have also discovered through reading up that these conditions will get worse when I'm due & I'm on. Some of my nastiest falls (fairly regular occurrence any way) have been just before a period. Took me ages to link that.

Also, period is never bang on time and my cycle and pattern of flow varies. Atm days 1-3 light sludgy discharge, leg pain & cramps. Day 4- heavy & all of the pain. Usually period last 8 days but the dribbly brown sludgy discharge at the end can bump it up to 10 or so. The weirdest was when I'd get pain between 11-3 every day but fine other wise. The only part I miss about being on the pill was the much easier period.

If anyone has any hints or tips, do tell! I would happily support a gynae page in Health topic if someone has the link to do so? I hate that everyone is suffering but glad we are not alone.

NameWithChamge · 19/06/2018 21:17

Oh thank God - a fellow Ovulation pain sufferer!

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 19/06/2018 22:43

What's yours like? I get a sharp, small pain in the same spot, high up. It's not awful but I wouldn't miss it. I think I can feel one side and not the other as I don't get it every month.

It is known that women can feel ovulation, the phenomenon of feeling it has a fancy German name, I think!

Marmalizes · 19/06/2018 23:43

Oh thank god I'm post menopausal. This thread has reminded me how bad periods were. What’s particularly upsetting is that your all still suffering so much. It seems to me that there’s been no improvement in gynaecology research/treatment or understanding in the last 20 years.

NameWithChamge · 23/06/2018 12:59

It was a really sharp pain on one side. I wondered if if was appendicitis! But only happened same time each month. Went and was checked for a cyst but no - and no other symptoms. Gone on the pill to avoid it now!

tobee · 24/06/2018 15:42

Period feet! My feet have often ached and feel a bit numb.

CarrieErbag · 24/06/2018 15:49

Mittelschmerz.

eyycarumba · 29/06/2018 15:22

Also get period bowel, Weirdly I also get the hiccups without fail, never throughout the rest of the month, but for the first few days I get them at least once

FizzForLunch · 04/07/2018 16:04

For anyone else that experiences the rage a few days before AF arrives, do you get a zen feeling on your heaviest flow day??

Xenadog · 07/07/2018 20:37

Jut to add my own symptoms, though I’m on the mini pill so very rarely have a period now thank goodness.

The pains in my thighs used to be so bad it felt like someone was pulling all of my veins out of my thighs up into my womb where they were then tied into painful knots. It used to take my breath away. Then add the paranoia, the urge to cry at a picture of a kitten or other such nonsense, there is also the clumsiness, the inability to park or even drive safely, the spots and the dark circles around each eye. The earaches were debilitating; like the worst hangover headache you could imagine and they lasted days. Oh yes and javelin arse - whoever coined that phrase knew what they were talking about.

I always thought I just had to put up with it, never crossed my mind to see a doctor. How crap is that?

Xenadog · 07/07/2018 20:38

Forgot to add period poo too. I thought there was something wrong with me for having this. Every bloody time!!!

toffee1000 · 15/07/2018 03:09

Thigh pain. Period poo... OMFG it’s exhausting, I feel the need to lie down afterwards!!

rosiejaune · 14/08/2018 14:12

I used to have more symptoms as described by others, such as rectal pain, nosebleeds, heavier/longer periods etc.

But when I went vegan they got shorter, lighter, completely regular (31 day cycle) and the only additional symptoms I have are slight breast tenderness just before, and loose stools during.

So I wonder if there's some contribution from hormones in animal products, for some people?

Also when I switched from disposable sanitary towels to organic cotton washable ones, the dryness/itchiness stopped.

I don't drive, so can't comment on parking, though as I'm dyspraxic, I'm uncoordinated all month anyway.

Amani · 15/08/2018 04:43

Thank you for starting this thread.
Another one with under active thyroid and vitamin d deficiency. I suffer from endo too so when I am on suffer from excruciating pain on right hand side (been refered to a&e and seen gp a number of times as it was suspected appendicitis but not). Had lap 2 years ago which confirmed endo, and been on pills on and off to control the endo but too many side effects so stopped taking these. Waiting to see gyne to discuss options as the pain on right hand is too much particularly when I am on. Been told a gyne appointment will come through in 3 months - not come through as yet, when I called hospital been told waiting lists are long and will need to wait another 2 months for appointment letter which will be for an appointment in 6 weeks time ....

Donthugmeimscared · 15/08/2018 06:19

I'm usually really quiet and a bit of a door mat but on the first few days of my period I'm much more forward and articulate. I wish I could be like it all the time.

A few days before hand I get suicidal though which really scares me. I haven't been to see anyone about it as other than give me anti depressants I can't see what they can do for it really.

I also get head aches, a bad back and extreme tiredness. Flooding is the worse part I can use a mooncup or the strongest tampon plus a night pad and they still leak everywhere.

PussGirl · 10/09/2018 19:48

Mirena for years so no periods for ages Smile

I'd get the constipation before & then poo & poo & poo for the first couple of days of bleeding.

Not diarrhoea though - normal consistency but several times a day.

OunceOfFlounce · 23/09/2018 09:58

I used to get migraines with nausea that would last a few days. I'd really wrack my brains thinking about what could be the trigger. In the end it seems like I just need to eat properly (full meals, till I'm full up -which I didn't always used to do) especially in the run up to my period.

To everyone saying they feel exhausted, perhaps you get anaemic? Same for getting restless legs - that can be linked to anaemia. And even (I think) night sweats! I think my anaemia caused my palpitations. In the day, the jolt would make me freeze or shift position and it'd stop, but I couldn't do that in deep sleep so I think they'd just carry on for ages and I'd start sweating. I know that all sounds mad but I don't get night sweats or restless legs now that I'm really conscientious about taking my iron pills.

And I thought ideas the only one with pre-menstrual bleeding gums!

Other than that, I get a burning fanny before I come on. I get a swollen and achey lower tummy, bigger boobs and little red blotches on my fingers.

Maybe I get quite rambly, looking back over this post Blush. But lastly I just wanted to say I've felt quite teary reading what some women have to go through. How long till the medical profession starts taking women seriously?

Aberforthsgoat · 12/03/2019 23:23

I know it’s bad form to resurrect an old thread but this one is so useful I didn’t think people would mind. I know there is now women’s health but it’s so helpful to read this all in one place

I’ve genuinely thought I’ve been going mad with some of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing during my period so it’s a relief to see them mentioned here multiple times even though it’s horrible so many people suffer!

My worst are the dreaded period poo, feeling shaky and so weak/drained of energy I can barely get off the sofa, feeling sick, feeling like my insides are trying to punch their way out of my abdomen, insomnia and cramps in my calf muscle and aches in my thigh.

Currently in the midst of it now, mine got worse after an unsuccessful pregnancy so I was lucky for many years! It’s horrendous what so many women have to put up with

Animum2 · 14/03/2019 07:02

Mine on average are 4-7 days and I completely lose my appetite for the first 3 days, after binging on rubbish before it arrives, usually get a few cramps and the period poo that some have talked about

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