Painful Periods

Ouch! I feel your pain. I have painful periods as well, and they're so difficult to deal with! It feels so unfair that we should spend so much of our life in pain just because we were born female. I went to my doctor about my painful periods, and she prescribed birth control. Excessive cramping can be caused by hormonal imbalances, and birth control can help fix this. And it really does help. When I'm on birth control, my periods are lighter and my cramps are manageable. Off it, I'm back to missing classes and work because I'm in so much pain. Heat helps a lot, too. If you have a bathtub, take a hot bath, and just relax. Putting a heating pad on your lower back or abdomen can help a lot. If you don't have either of these, you can try putting a dry towel in the microwave. Another helpful tip: period medicines like Midol or Pamprin DON'T WORK! Ibuprofen (Advil) and/or naproxen sodium (Aleve) both have an effect on period pain because they actually alter the chemicals and hormones that are causing the pain. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) does not do this, and does not work for cramps. However, every period medicine on the market uses acetaminophen as the primary pain reliever. A common-sense healthy lifestyle can help, too. Before and during your period, try to avoid fatty foods, excessive sugar, and caffeine. All of these can make cramps worse. Also, try to get a decent amount of exercise. During your period, when you have cramps, try doing some light stretching or yoga. This works pretty well for me. There are also any number of herbal remedies for cramps. Chamomile tea is an easy one to find, and you can get red raspberry leaf tea at a lot of grocery stores and most health food stores. For other remedies, try www.herbalremediesinfo.com. I hope some of this helps!

I get painful periods but not so painful that I can't do anything anymore or can't think straight anymore. I suggest a hot compress. Fill up a glass bottle with hot water, wrap it in a towel and put it below your tummy, it really helps.

Well, there were days when i was in so much pain that i could not even get out of bed. i had been checked for endometerois and everything else, i did not have that. there were so many things like long periods a short time between. I would take 500mg motrin and sometimes yes it help other it did not. heat pads and warm baths. finally this past may i had a hystercotmy and they took everything. You have to watch things like this and talk to your doctor about it. i put off for years going to the doctor.

I had such painful periods that would cause the pain to wrap around to my back and shoot down my legs!!! There were times that I swore that my insides were going to fall out. Which, 4 years ago, did happen. Just to explain, I had a prolapsed uterus and my cervix was so displaced that I was turning inside out. TMI? Yes...but I say tell you this because I want others to know to be careful when you have TOO much pain. If you can not cope with the pain, see a doctor. It is soooo important because pain is a good indication that there maybe be something else going on. And something else was going on with me. So within days of seeing my doctor, I was on an operating table to remove my uterus. Today, I am healthy! At that time I had dropped to 90 Lbs. VERY unhealthy and I had no clue it was linked to my illness. So, if you are in too much pain that meds can not help. Please see a doctor. It saved my life and my children from being motherless!

i used to when i was younger but they put me on birth control pills and it's much better. i used to have them so bad i couldn't walk for 3 days. i would throw up and cramp really bad. i would end up in bed with a heating pad for days. no pain reliever would help it not even midol. so if you don't take any birth control try it because it helps your periods to be better and you'll feel much better once you've been on it for about a month or 2. good luck

I had painful periods for my whole life and as they got worse the doctor had put me on anaprox which helped for awhile. It got to a point where it would incapacitate me for 2 to 3 days even with the pain medication. I could not understand why so many women I knew didn't have this problem and was it just because I couldn't take the pain. I finally approached my doctor about it and he put me on birth control pills which didn't help. At that point he believed I had what is called endometriosis which is the lining of the uterus starts growing outside of the uterus in the abdomen which can cause pain. He sent me for a sonogram which showed nothing so the next step was a laproscopy procedure to confirm it. When I woke up from the surgery he said I had one of the worst cases he had ever seen and lasered all the tissue that didn't belong there out. To make a long story short, I am on Depo-provera which stops your period (which is what causes endometriosis in the first place) and pain free for many years. Maybe you should ask your doctor about it. Sometimes it can be managed just with the birth control pills, Unfortunately that wasn't my case. Don't give up, keep searching for an answer because extreme pain is not normal.

OMG yess!! I have had mad pain since i can rememeber..and it got worse the last year or 2..I get so bad cramps i double over..and laying down in a fetal position helps me..and taking a warm bath and using aromatherapy or using a heating pad on my lower abdomen or back...btw// If you don't have a heating pad, a heating pad can be made by filling a sock with rice and heating it in the microwave. and of course midol helps..and if you have to go out and about..buy a Therma Care for menstal cycles..they heat up to 12 hrs and they are sooooo wonderful!!

I'm not sure how old you are Dara but I use to have them bad when I was a teenager. I would even faint. But as I've gotten older they have eased up. I think even after having kids maybe they have not been so bad. I do know lots of people who have it hard though. I hope you can find something that helps.

I usually don't have painful periods. When I was younger- my first day I would feel sick and sometimes have so much pain that I needed to lay down and stay warm in bed. But right now I'm having some bad cramps but soon the pain medicine will kick in and I'm going to lay in bed. Try to take your mind off of the pain.