Periods

[FloralBunting]

It's the middle of the night, and I cannot sleep because the cramps from my period are so intensely painful it is taking my breath away. I've come on FWR because it helps to distract me. I've taken painkillers. Twice today I have flooded and I suspect the intensity tonight means another heavy gush is incoming. It's also quite a warm night, and my temperature always goes up a bit when I'm on which is making the discomfort worse. The pain is coming in waves, much like early labour, from the small of my back, deep into my abdomen and radiating down my thighs. Every few minutes I am gasping when it gets a bit too much.

Of all the things about being a woman that are difficult, periods are one of the suckiest.

I hope you feel better today Floral.

Thankfully I'm a dried up hag now, don't miss javelin arse, palm sized clots and dreadful radiating pains at all. Oh and Period Poos, delightful - NOT. Hurrah for meno.

Thanks all

SirVix, as nasty as the details are, thank you for your post, it was rather reassuring, as I was considering an ambulance this morning at around 4am when I did indeed flood so badly I thought I was haemorrhaging. Not a good night.

Still in considerable pain today, but no work until tomorrow, so I can rest at least.

It really sucks sometimes, and you get people pretending to have periods.

I was on the pill for years without any bleeding, then a pill mess up at Christmas 17 and I have had irregular bleeding since. Another mess up bank holiday weekend (DH collected the wrong prescription for me) means I have another cycle today.

Today my tummy hurts, I feel totally sick and too am waiting for the floods to start.

Like a pp I get the night before insomnia.

Sorry for others in the same boat.

Floral

I am right there with you - haven't slept since Thursday night/morning at 3am.

I have stage 2/3 endometriosis and not peri or menopausal yet. It's an odd thing, wanting to be a mom and at the same time would love to leave all of the pre/post menses pain behind and be on the other side.

This pain is blinding - I get ocular migraines with psychedelic patterns/colors overlaying most range of sight with spots that are literally blank, not black or white but colorless and shapeless... like my brain is trying but can't complete the picture. I drove about a mile away yesterday (I wanted to make kale chips and egg drop soup for lunch) when I had a break from the vision issues but when I got back in the car I couldn't see well enough to drive. I sat in the parking lot for 2hrs - bled all over the seat and lost consciousness at some point. I came to with my face on the gear shift and had to use my right foot to push the clutch to shift gears and drive with my left eye shut to get home. When I got home I had to crawl up the stairs I then laid on my concrete porch in humid 95° weather until I could pull my body up and into the house.

The ocular migraines are a bitch but nothing compared to my cramps beginning near uterus and tubes radiating outward like a nuclear blast. My pain tolerance is insanely high but between being hypoglycemic (always have been) and anemic (HCP confirmed) due to excessive blood loss and pain that I cannot properly describe (worse than post surgery bilateral TMJ recovery, worse than broken bones, worse than being burned by fire w/ 2nd & 3rd degree burns, and even worse than being burned by boiling water on my pelvis which rolled the skin off of my body like sausage casing) my menses are a road block to peaceful life for a little over 7days every 21days.

I lose consciousness because my body goes into shock - I can't take in enough iron or sugar as I puke and shit everything that goes in out within a few minutes of ingestion.

Floral, I feel your pain sister. I wish that I was the only woman to experience menses this way - it would feel like a lovely sacrifice for my fellow women but as I am not alone it feels pointless and like punishment.

A hot bath (when alert, don't lay in there semi-conscious - I almost drowned in the tub a couple months back so I am now restricted via agreement with DH that I will not take a bath during cramps when I am home alone which is just shit) is helpful. Mark my words a HOT (almost too hot - emulating a full body heating pad) bath and then on to two heating pads (one against back, one on front) plus Soma helps. Narcotics do nothing for this pain so I focus on managing it - the Soma relaxes the muscles and joints which somewhat lessens the uterine contraction pressure. Hot soup warms from the inside so it is a helpful addition to post bath heating pads and Soma.

I also find that regular exercise outside of that 7days helps as stronger muscles in your core etc. seem to get less sore and less likely to be pulled as you drag your pain-riddled body through those 7days.

Floral I so enjoy your posts and your candor - and I am so sorry that you are suffering.

Please do try what I have described for some relief - I hope it works for you, it does just enough for me to keep me sane.

my hysterectomy was lifechanging it did take 6 months recovery though but such a short amount of time compared to the benefit.

I had terrible migraines in perimenopause but the Merina coil has helped enormously and not had a period since.

Floral hope you're ok.
Bet your really tired by now too.

I think I'm approaching the perimenopause - they're betting heavier with more instances of flooding. Not even my mooncup can cope some months.

I make sure I take paracetamol but also keep fully dosed with ibuprofen. If I keep regular dosing for the worst 2 days the. The cramps are helped.

I also use those handwarmer type pouches (the ones where you tear open the wrapper and give the pouch a shake) that heat up. Home Bargains sell the back pain ones that can stick to the skin and they're perfect for period pains. The constant gentle heat really sorta me out. I've even been known to stick the handwarmer size pouches down the front of my big knickers next to my abdomen. Worth a try

The final year of periods (I was in peri menopause) I had 16 in total - each lasting longer than a week, mostly heavy flow. Utterly dreadful, painful, debilitating. Like Lass I had an ablation, and never had another period. No idea at what point the menopause actually arrived (I was 49 when I had the ablation and am over 60 now so details a bit hazy). Except for how shit it was before the procedure. Had it under sedation and it was not a big deal, but it was life-changing. Hope something helps - it sounds horrible for you.

I had dreadful period pain in my teens but was lucky in that my DF, a GP, took them seriously and arranged for me to be prescribed the pill and mefenamic acid.

Then in my 30s I started getting pain and the most horrendous flooding. DH used to take the piss out of how much furniture I'd ruined. But a Mirena resolved it like magic. My GP told me all the women who worked at the practice had one.

Much sympathy, Floral. I used to think of how my body moved like the tides of the sea and went through its cyclical dance like the moon. I found that comforting.

Well, FWIW, while I would very much like the causes of extreme pain for women due to their reproductive system to be a priority in research so that women didn't have to go through it, and while I acknowledge there is no particular worth or meaning to our pain, the fact that so many of us share this suffering to some degree at least engenders a sense of solidarity and understanding between women.

For all that some of my co religionists have taught about it being a punishment, I find that the determination to overcome, and the opportunity to support others as this thread has provided, means I reject that idea. It's not punishment, it's just horrendous fucking hard work, and we're none of us alone in it.

I find controlling my breathing helps, and I'm going to do the hot bath this evening in the hopes that I am recovered enough to cope with a 9 hour shift tomorrow.

At the very least that are an inconvenience at the worse can totally ruin a number of days in a month for many women and girls

And yet we can’t speak about them openly or about all the other symptoms that hormone changes in our body’s create

I sympathise i thankfully rarely suffer with period pains but I do when ovulating and the cycle of hormonal changes is emotionally and physically draining at times

But we best be quiet and only talk in whispers

I used to have heavy, painful periods. I'm now on my second Mirena Coil and haven't had period pains for 6 years. It's wonderful. Also no periods.

I'd thoroughly recommend trying one if you can.

Feminax was my lifesaver. It's not manufactured any more (what they call Feminax now is just very expensive ibuprofen). The original had paracetamol, codeine, caffeine and hyoscine. I used to make myself a facsimile: cocodamol with half a Joy-Rides and a strong cup of tea. This really helped. And had the advantage that I could omit the cup of tea at night and increase the hyoscine (the Joy-Rides). Feminax was wonderful, but I'm ridiculously sensitive to caffeine so it gave me insomnia.

Oh yes, feminax was good, for the brief times when I had period pain.
Floral you can call NHS if the flooding is very bad. They didn’t tell me to go to A&E, but a friend with the same thing happening did go in and was given progesterone to halt the bleeding. I was told to see my GP, who prescribed a drug, but the drug possible side effects listed were lengthy, so I didn’t take it, and actually I didn’t have a repeat that was ever quite as bad. Then I went on HRT which sorted out the bleeding for weeks on end.
I am still trying to get my iron levels back up though, so take iron.

Oh yes. The joy of a 3 weekly cycle plus pmt from hell for a week, migraine and nausea 24 hours before I come on then 2 nights of insomnia accompanied by leaks and lots of laundry. I'm fucking sick of the perimenopause.

I have had crippling endometriosis in the past, and now sing the praises of my Mirena coil. I'm on my second one now (they have a five year lifespan) and I experience some mild discomfort maybe twice a year at most. Mostly, I am period-free. Should be perimenopausal at my age, but the Mirena has it 'masked', if you see what I mean. It might be worth considering.

We're in sync floral, commiserations. Though I don't get much pain, it sounds awful!

Of course, mine came the day after dh & I had a blazing row. Again. Since hitting 30 my pms is worse than a teenager, and I don't recognise it at the time, I'm always surprised. Ffs could I be more of a stereotype...

Feminax was my lifesaver. It's not manufactured any more (what they call Feminax now is just very expensive ibuprofen). The original had paracetamol, codeine, caffeine and hyoscine

It did work. I didn't know it is no longer available. Migraleve Pink can't be had for love nor money. It's not officially discontinued but chemists can't get stocks.

My stupid reaction to codeine meant I could never enjoy the benefits of feminax and paracetamol rarely did the trick. I always had heavy periods and after having my second child, was bleeding so heavily I was still using, and flooding through, maternity pads. It's shit. Like others, my gynae recommended the merina. It has definitely helped in that I don't bleed more than spotting but I still get raging pmt, cramps and insomnia (currently flicking between here and ikea planning new wardrobes) and I'll have 18-30 hours of crippling ovulation pains to deal with in 12 days. My cycles are slightly erratic but shorter by about 4 days in the last 4 years. And to cap it off, the spd I have since being pregnant 8 years ago (that medics keep fobbing off) gets worse for a few days so I feel like my leg is detaching itself while a bowling ball weighs on my pelvic floor.

Hope you get some rest tonight, floral

Another mirena fan here.
No periods, no hormone swings...and I'm prone to hormonal migraines but I am not getting them either.

You can sort of recreate the old version of Feminax if you get the ibuprofen + codeine available over the counter in Boots, and take it with paracetamol. There's no caffeine so you don't get the sleep difficulties - in fact, it tends to knock me out, so I wouldn't use this combination during the day, but it's great for that first day of a heavy period when you'd otherwise be awake all night.

I experienced flooding for the first time a couple of months ago. I'm peri, and I've been quite lucky in that my periods have generally been getting shorter and closer together, but there was one time when it was about a week late and the heavens opened, so to speak. I was at work and I had to hide in the toilet for 20 minutes until it passed - and even then I got blood on the back of my skirt and had to shuffle round all day trying not to turn my back on anyone. That was a nasty shock after years of heavy and painful periods that were still at least regular and manageable!

To recreate Feminax, take cocodamol and half a Joy-Rides with a caffeinated drink.

Cocodamol is only available on prescription, isn't it? I'm not even sure what Joy-Rides are... are you outside the UK, JellySlice? I'd like to be able to get cocodamol over the counter but suspect it'll never happen.

You can get cocodamol over the counter.

I never got PMS. Instead I got very horny two or three days beforehand. DH used to look forward to it. Does anyone else get this or am I weirdly lucky?