Period pain kept me up all night!

[WiseFinch]

Surely this can’t be normal. Was up from 3am to 4:30am with severe cramping, every time I went to sleep it woke me back up again. I have diagnosed PCOS and I’m on the contraceptive pill. Due to the general inconvenience I have a withdrawal bleed every 3 or so months, I decide when this happens if I get spotting while on the pill or bleeding during sex.
Cant get a GP appointment and I’ve been on contraception for 5 years (since I was 17), prior to that, never had a period so I don’t know whether this level of cramping is normal. Have had GP checks and they don’t do anything they tell me to stay on contraception and come back when I want to get pregnant, and pain is normal. Keeping me up all night can’t be normal, can it?! Has anyone else experienced the same thing?

Hello, I’m sorry to hear you’re having such a rough time of it. It’s so difficult to know what is ‘normal’, but for what it’s worth, this was my experience of periods before I had kids. I would have debilitating cramps - having my second child without any pain killers was less painful than some periods I’ve had -, diarrhoea and sometimes would vomit or pass out from the pain. I also got migraines with aura. For me, I think it was connected to endometriosis, which was suspected, but not established until I had fertility issues later. I don’t know if they’ve looked at this for you at all? When they confirmed it for me, they said it had to be done by a scan where they could see the tissue where it wouldn’t normally be. I got little sympathy from the doctors in terms of the pain and impact - much the same response as you. That was thirty years ago though and with all the coverage of endometriosis now, I would hope it would have improved. You really should not have to put up with this and I would go back to your gp to try to press the issue. It may be you’ve already had scans and this has been ruled out in which case ignore, but I mention in case not.
ps for me, the endometriosis pain was towards the back of my body and with adenomyosis (more recently diagnosed) it’s at the front / tummy area.

It was normal for me but I have endometriosis.

I’d recommend paracetamol and ibuprofen.

GP can prescribe stronger painkillers if those don’t touch it,

It was normal for me as well. Probably the first 36 hours of my period were severe cramping pains. I was often unable to go to school because of it. I know women are often advised it will ease after having a child and, for me, that was true but, clearly, not all women will have children. Never diagnosed with anything but never really investigated either. The pill helped but didn't always want to be on it. I think Naga Munchetty was talking about this for her in Woman's Hour recently.

Thank you for the kind responses. The pain was at the front. I do normally get cramps but nothing like this before. I don’t think it’s endometriosis as I don’t suffer from a heavy period. I think I need to come off contraceptives and see if I ever get a natural cycle (never had one before in my life), but I’m not planning on getting pregnant at the moment so coming off contraception is a concern for me. Thank you.

Why is it not possible for you to get a Gp appointment?. This is unacceptable and I would find another practice that will accept you as a patient. Your current practice sounds rubbish frankly.

I did not always suffer with heavy periods but such pain is not normal and no one should tell you it is. I was diagnosed with endometriosis too.

Do not assume it’s not endometriosis. Severe pain is usually associated with endometriosis and PCOS can live alongside this quite happily.

Who diagnosed you with PCOS initially?. If you come off the pill your PCOS symptoms will ramp up and you won’t likely have any menstrual bleeding going forward.

I recommend the ibuprofen and codeine combination pills you can get over the counter from Boots. I take 3 at once or sometimes even 4 if the pain is really bad. Usually I only need to do this once or twice - usually on day 1.

I had severe pain with endo/adenomyosis. The only thing that ever helped was ibuprofen lysine 342 mgs( often sold as migraine relief) you can get it in supermarkets ect.

Seems perfectly normal to me. Periods hurt. Sometimes they hurt a lot.

Did you have a fever, start sweating, get chills? Unless something else also happened I wouldn’t be particularly worried.

I would talk to your doctor, but it’s not an emergency. Even if it takes several months to get an appointment, you will be fine.

There are a multitude of reasons for womb pain OP, as you can already see from the replies. I have pretty much constant period pain at the moment and mine is due to a large uterine polyp (which I'm finally about to have removed). If it's something that persists then keep trying to get a GP appointment. Personally I've never gotten through periods without pain relief though. I take mefanemic acid prescribed by my GP, and omeprazole to protect my GI tract.

This is not something you need to just accept and anyone saying you should (even if they are a doctor) is talking bollocks.

Ibuprofen is good for pain relief and can also reduce some bleeding if/when that should become a problem. Try it and see.

Paracetamol also helps some people, as does mefenamic acid, although that one I believe is only on prescription so you would need to extract it from your GP.

I’ve spoken to GP about this before and been dismissed as normal for PCOS and to try coming off contraception. I agree with you in terms of how will coming off contraception “fix” the PCOS. Doctors told me at the time to take contraceptives to regulate my hormones and “kick start” my periods. No advice whatsoever on how to come off it and the possible side effects. I’ve been on contraceptives my entire adult life.

its not normal. It’s normalised (as the gynae consultant told me) but pain that interferes with every day life or wakes you from sleep isn’t normal)
I was told all my life it was normal until they actually investigated, horrified at how bad it was and spent over 8hrs cutting endometriosis out of me

The two consultant gynaes I have seen over the years have both told me that severe period pain is not normal and that women should not have to put up with this

op

Indeed the contraceptives just mask PCOS and coming off contraception will
just ramp up the symptoms which are already suppressed . I would find another gp
practice .

@marmite2025 This sounds horrific. May I ask if you were getting pain outside of your period? I get bad period pain but only usually immediately before and for the first day or two.

Yes, pain all through my period, then ovulation pain and then eventually when the endo got really bad it was just random flares that I needed morphine for

Yes, I get pains that wake me up in the night. Some months it makes me vomit, and 50% of months it totally incapacitates me. Thankfully the really extreme pain tends to only last 24hrs. I too have been told by various GPs that this was normal and to be expected (I totally disagree with this view BTW, but it's like hitting your head up against a brick wall trying to get help). There has been no difference in the pain levels over the last 30 years whether on the pill or not, before and after having DCs, or now at the start of peri. During the birth of DC2, I suffered a uterine rupture that was dismissed until the critical point when they were left with literally minutes to het uer out, because I "wasn't in enough pain to be rupturing" - it most certainly was extremely painful, but not much more than my period some months, which probably meant I appeared to be coping 'enough' for the other signs (including me stating that's what I thought was happening!) to be overlooked.

What I find helps it taking pain relief every 2hrs for that first 24hrs, alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen eg 8 am 2x paracetamol, 10am 2x ibuprofen, 12pm 2x paracetamol etc.
Hydration levels also make a huge difference, but this needs to be kept on top of before you hit a vicious circle of becoming so dehydrated the cramps ramp up and cause extreme nausea, which in turn means you struggle to drink enough and keep it down.
Hot water bottles, even in a heat wave. Ideally two: one for your tummy, one for your lower back or, if you only have one, moving in between these 2 places regularly.
Fold-over waist band trousers used for Yoga, as these put as little pressure as possible on my tummy.
Frequent trips to the loo. My period causes diarrhea, so I go frequently anyway, but even a partly full bladder presses on my uterus enough to dial up the pain considerably.

It’s appalling that you are having to do all that to combat pain. It’s no life.

Have you never seen a gynae wombat?. In your car I would pay to see a gynae for an initial consultation. And I’d put a crisp fiver on it that endometriosis is the root cause of your symptoms.

I had a load of scans after being admitted from A&E with what they thought was a burst ovarian cyst (they couldn't see anything, so it remains a complete mystery what caused the blackout-level pain. My bloods showed there was infection however, so it wasn't all in my head! I was in hospital for a few days with that). I also had scans to check everything was ok after the rupture had healed. I would have assumed endometriosis too, but it's not been picked up either time.

I would push for further investigations. Scans and the like do not always detect endo if it is present mainly because the endometrial deposits are very small. What you need from a gynaecologist is a laparoscopy which is the usual way endometriosis is diagnosed. Did A and E not refer you onto gynaecology ?.

If finances permit I would now phone a private hospital who also has a gynaecology dept onsite for an initial consultation
because you cannot go on like this.

I’ll very rarely have an off month where I’m kept awake with the pain but since it’s not consistent I put it down to having a bad one every so often.