Am I the only one that gets really bad period pain?

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After monitoring myself for many months, I've found the following has made mine TONS better.

1) Eat LESS food, not necessarily healthy food.

For about a week before your period, don't necessarily eat healthier, but eat LESS. For some reason the blood flow becomes less too, and the pain dramatically decreases, at least for me. Eating healthier only helps a bit, but not as much as actually eating less food altogether. Obviously don't eat below your daily calorie needs...but if you tend to eat too much, then cut back for about a week before, or go on a temporary healthy diet. Exercising more for around a week before seems to help too, and I don't know why.

2) Don't wear tampons.

The cervix can become very sensitive around the time of the month, and tampons can make pain far worse. It took me ages to realise this too.

No you're not the only one, thousands of women experience this. I'm on the pill now, but before that, I suffered from chronic period pains. My periods were always moderately light, but the pains were really bad. They were so bad that they became dangerous, so the doctor had to put me on the pill. By dangerous, I mean I used to get period pains bad in the morning, and I lost all my appertite with them so I couldn't eat, and then I used to feel really sick and want to be sick, but there was nothing to come up, so I used to strain all my muscles by trying to be sick. That was how bad the pains got, and generally I'm usually pretty tolerent with pains, so these pains must have been bad. It was OK because I got sympathy from other women, because they knew how I felt.

The pains were quite bad on the first three days of the period, but not that bad. Then I didn't really get any on the forth and fifth day, but my period used to linger and the sixth and seventh day was when I got the most agonising pains, and that was when the period had practically finished. And nothing would make these pains go away. Well, I took pain-killers but the pain was so bad that the pain-killers never touched it. And I did put a hot-water-bottle on my tummy which sometimes worked. But the only thing that worked the most was sleep.

Now I'm on the pill I get a headache on the first day or two (which can be treated by pain-killers), and I also get period pains too on the first day but they are much more tolerable and kind of go when you forget about it, and the period lasts for about 4 days. I love the person who invented the pill!! !

Unfortunately for me, the pill did not help at all. Before my daughter came along, I used to get weird pains for about a week before my period was due. It came in waves, didn't last long, usually came when I stood up or sat down, could take my breath away and subside again. When I was on the pill, I got that pain every single day, not just in the run up to my period. It does work for a lot of women, however.

Mine get pretty uncomfortable but not as bad as some peoples. As I get older I get more spotting between periods though which I hate and is annoying. If it was up yo me I'd get a hysterectomy.

I use Ponstan - the active ingredient is Mefenamic Acid. Works way better than any kind of pain pills,

The only other thing that I have found works is coca leaf tea, which sadly, is illegal here.

I used to have them really bad but birth control pretty much took away the pain.

no you are not the only one. my pains used to and ocassionally do get so bad that they send me to the ER

Nope. Lately, mine have been pretty severe. I can barely walk and my back aches.

Out of sincere curiosity, why would it matter to seek medical help for endometriosis, other than them giving you painkillers?

When I was 17 my doctor said she thought it was probably endometriosis but told me that the only way to avoid it other than taking painkillers was to be continuously pregnant... She said that there was some kind of invasive procedure that they would have to do to determine for certain and that it wasn't worth the risk to find out.

The pill was supposed to help me, and it really did a whole lot even though I still slept a lot to avoid the pain and symptoms, but now years later Yaz and Yazmin aren't covered under my insurance and the other pills don't work for me and so I've been struggling with the pain again for the last few months. I writhe and yell in pain because I just can't take it. And I feel like vomiting but I hate vomiting. It takes so much mental power to endure the pain that it's physically exhausting, even after I pass out and come to again. And I still have the flu-like feeling all through my body - shakes and aches.

This last time my fiance just held my hand so I could squeeze his hand and cringe until I passed out. He asked if I wanted to go see a doctor but even though at the moment it felt like I couldn't survive the pain I knew it was just pain and pain can't kill so I declined.

My mom and her mom had similar period pains. I haven't had children but my mom said that after she gave birth she realized that her cramps were similar to when she was giving birth/going into contractions. Is that how it feels for you?

The procedure you are talking about is a laparoscopy. You have a general anaesthetic, your belly is inflated and the doc puts a camera in through an incision in your belly button. Then he/she will have a look around to see if they can spot anything. It's not that invasive. You get out of hospital the same day and go home to rest for a few days. With endometriosis, you can have cysts and adhesions, which can be helped with surgery and small spots of it can be lasered away too. This can be done at the time of the exploratory op. For women who are suffering due to the cysts and/or adhesions, the surgery can help the pain and fertility. It's also worthwhile knowing whether you do have it or not. There are medications aimed at treating endometriosis, not just easing the pain. I had injections to stop my periods for 6 months, whilst I waited for IVF. Some people have similar types of injections, without the IVF, and they can really help. After having my daughter, I haven't considered myself as having endometiosis any more. I have very little pain now, only a couple of paracetomol, at most, is needed. And yes, the pain was very similar to labour pain, not as severe, but the same type of pain.

I'd urge to seek medical help. It sounds really bad. BTW My Mum had the exact same problem, as well as the reduced fertility.

The thought of my belly being inflated, anesthesia, and probing through my belly button is making me nauseous right now. I don't know if I could get over my anxiety to actually have that done. I'm nervous about reduced fertility though, because my fiance and I have plans for a couple of kids in the future (once we can get our lives together, that is ).

Gah, it sounds like it could be so helpful but just the thought of anything near my woman parts being laser-ed away or surgically removed is freaking me out!

I have menstrual cramps too, but it only occurs on the first day. It almost completely disappears the next morning.
A couple ibuprofen pills do it for me.

That's a shame. It really isn't that bad, honest, you're asleep too. You might be a little uncomfortable afterwards, but it's OK. Have you had an ultrasound scan? If you have any cysts, they would show up with that.

The last one I had was years ago when I was 17. The guy said that the only thing he saw was a lot of fluid, which he speculated was probably from a burst cyst. He also said something to the effect that I was a "regular egg factory", so I guess I don't have to worry about lack of eggs being a fertility problem.

The thought of being asleep makes it sound worse!
I absolutely hate gynecological exams. The feeling is sooooo uncomfortable and the tools hurt and it hurts when they do the swabbing. I don't know how to describe it well but it feels like someone is trying to pull my guts out or something.

Do you think it would be a bad decision to just take a bunch of ibuprofen and just bring on the hell once a month? Other than the mind-altering pain, do you think it would really cause that much harm to let it go for a while?

This isn't a practical solution at the moment, but you mentioned that it got better after you had a child. Is that the norm? I haven't looked it up. I will have to ask my mom since we share a lot of the same female issues. I had hopes of being ready to try for a child within the next year or two but I decided to go change my major to biochemistry and I'm nearly starting all over with school, so I don't know how viable it would be to raise a child and go to school right now.

It really has to be your decision. I suppose in days gone by, women had these problems and never had them investigated. They never had good over the counter painkillers either, so we're much better off than them. But, although it's not malignant, it can spread to other parts of the body. I'm pretty certain I had some in my nose, as I used to get small amounts of blood from there, just before my period started. This wasn't a problem, but spread can cause major problems for some people, especially if the bowel is affected. I've spoken to two women who had to have emergency surgery because of that. I'm not trying to scare you, you do want to know if it's OK just to leave it and I'd be lying if I said there were no risks.

As for pregnancy, yes it does seem to halt it, in most women. I'm fine now. I had a few years of really heavy periods, but that was unrelated to the endo - not sure of the cause, probably more age related than anything. I'm taking turmeric now, which has solved it, for now. Getting pregnant in the first place is the biggie, not that everyone with endo has fertility problems (sometimes it's only discovered during a c-section). In my case, we got married when I was 21, we waited until I was 24 to start trying, but I was 32 before I got pregnant. At the hospital, I was treated as someone with an unknown cause of infertility. Although I had a dagnosis of endo, I had no adhesions and no other physical reasons as to why I was unable to conceive. This happens with endo. Why it causes infertility is not completely understood.

Good luck, whatever you decide x

I had my period at age 12...the pain really hurts until my mum gave advice to me to reduce my ice drink
Apparently it helps and i did control few months without ice-cream, cold-drinks and anything cold stuff

The pain reduce as time goes, but i love cold stuff and just take it occasionally. Thank god, the pain now i got during my menstrual on first day is still bearable.