painful cramps

[badger]

over the past year or so, my menstrual cramps have been getting progressively stronger. I'm 39, and when I was younger periods were a breeze but now I'm finding them more and more difficult.

Last night (about 24 hours after period started), I felt like I needed to move my bowels. En route to the toilet I had this doubling over pain. I've had these before, and they're always related to my wanting/needing to move my bowels in the first day or two of my period. Very annoying, but it was pretty much just that, annoying.

What was different last night was that after sitting on the pot for a bit, I started getting very nauseous, and then I started sweating and felt like I was going to faint. I saw the colour completely drain from my face.

So I laid down on the tile floor (it was nice and cold) and suffered through a few more blindingly painful cramps and after about half an hour I felt ok enough to get up. I went to bed shortly after that. If nothing else it was frightening not to know what was happening to my body.

I've read a bit this morning and it sounds like the symptoms of endometriosis. I'm hoping not.

Coincidentally I have an appointment with my dr. to re-insert a new IUD next week, so at that point I'll obviously ask and find out what it is. Maybe it's just time for me to get the IUD out. At least they have an ultrasound machine to have a better look.

Anybody else here who have/had similar symptoms??

[Grog]

I'm sorry to read about your pain It reminds me of the pain from follicular ovarian cysts bursting, especially if as you describe the pain was acute and temporary. It would happen to me as I walked to university and I'd have to stop, sit on a bench and cry. After about half an hour it would subside. (The thought of a cool tile floor is somehow comforting...) I hope it's just your IUD that needs to be removed. The good thing is that follicular cysts can be controlled pretty easily by hormones (although I not every woman tolerates the pill all that well...).

As far as I know there is only one way to know for sure if a woman has endometriosis: go and look (i.e. surgery). It is not visible with ultrasound imagery (unlike cysts). However, there are ways to rule it out and/or treat the symptoms through some hormonal methods that simulate menopause. My sister-in-law just went through this and it wasn't very fun.

Please keep us updated... I think it's important for women to share their experience of pain. Our sense of "normal" and of what is appropriate to talk about is so skewed sometimes... When I finally got a diagnosis for my cysts, I talked about it to women around me and found out that so many others had gone through the same. Had I known earlier that it was a possibility, it would have made things a lot simpler at the initial ER visits.

[badger]

thank you for your empathy, B! and yes, we should all be able to freely discuss matters like this without embarrassment or stigma.

I just had a quick glance on wikipedia about ovarian cysts, and I suppose it's quite possible I ruptured one last night as it was so acute.

I guess I'll just have to wait til next week to find out anything about it. I do hope I don't need hormone therapy as I was miserable on the pill when I took them in my 20's.

[malkin]

Don't let bad 'pill' experiences from the past ruin your present. The formulations have changed a lot and continue to change.

If you have good notes on what brands were miserable for you it can help you and your doc try things that might work.

For me, dysmenorrhea and wildly erratic unmanagable bleeding are currently managed on OCPs.

Good luck!
If your doc isn't helpful, find a new health care provider!

[Ambikes]

When I was researching copper IUDs, an increased risk of cysts was mentioned as one of the possible side effects. This is especially true for women that are on hormonal birth control that switch to copper IUDs. Basically, the hormones keep you from ovulating, which keeps you from forming cysts in the first place. I think it's more prevalent in women that have recently switched, and I know you've had your IUD for quite some time. It's definitely still possible though.

Do you have any of the other symptoms of endometriosis?

Also, I empathize completely with your pain. Hang in there.

[Zen]

As far as I know there is only one way to know for sure if a woman has endometriosis: go and look (i.e. surgery).

transvaginal ultrasound

[Grog]

transvaginal ultrasound

The most awkward of ultrasound procedures! (Especially when done by a beginning resident at a teaching hospital...... But as a resident's wife I note here that I'm all for being a practice case as long as someone checks after them.. for examinations anyway.)

Unfortunately, the uterine lining is not only one place where endometriosis can form, it can be all over the place. (Really: all over, including, in hard-core cases, just about any muscle of the body.....) The transvaginal ultrasound gives hints, but it can't rule endometriosis out.

[shootingstar]

Let us know badger of the next diagnosis from dr.

I have a good friend who has an extreme case of endometriosis...but it was because she put off having a Pap smear, etc. for so long (several yrs.).... She had surgery..which affected her bowel.

She menstrual cramps strong enough that she nearly fainted when we were walking about when she visited me.

She is a highly unusual case...

[Crankin]

The first time I had a transvaginal ultrasound (in the doctor's office, done by an ultrasound tech), I said, "You want me to do what with that thing?"
The second time, no big deal. Better than them doing it.

[nscrbug]

I just had a transvaginal ultrasound done 2 weeks ago...it was nothing, really. Personally, I think a pap is more uncomfortable than the ultrasound was...but that's just me. Once the wand is inside, you don't really feel it much (at least I didn't).

[zoom-zoom]

over the past year or so, my menstrual cramps have been getting progressively stronger. I'm 39, and when I was younger periods were a breeze but now I'm finding them more and more difficult.

Last night (about 24 hours after period started), I felt like I needed to move my bowels. En route to the toilet I had this doubling over pain. I've had these before, and they're always related to my wanting/needing to move my bowels in the first day or two of my period. Very annoying, but it was pretty much just that, annoying.

What was different last night was that after sitting on the pot for a bit, I started getting very nauseous, and then I started sweating and felt like I was going to faint. I saw the colour completely drain from my face.

So I laid down on the tile floor (it was nice and cold) and suffered through a few more blindingly painful cramps and after about half an hour I felt ok enough to get up. I went to bed shortly after that. If nothing else it was frightening not to know what was happening to my body.

I've read a bit this morning and it sounds like the symptoms of endometriosis. I'm hoping not.

Coincidentally I have an appointment with my dr. to re-insert a new IUD next week, so at that point I'll obviously ask and find out what it is. Maybe it's just time for me to get the IUD out. At least they have an ultrasound machine to have a better look.

Anybody else here who have/had similar symptoms??

As I was reading this my thought was endo. I have stage 2 endo (along with adenomyosis) and I have been through similar symptoms, though mine were definitely worse in my early teens and have abated post-childbirth. Mine was not diagnosed until I had my laparoscopic tubal when I was about 30, but my symptoms have been there since my first period at age 12. I have adhesions on my bladder, bowels, and other areas of my abdominal cavity. One ovary looks pretty covered, from what my OB/gyn said, as well as the incision around my c-section. Frequently my menstrual cramps feel like they are coming from my bowels, because they are. Endo makes places outside of your uterus cramp.

I am one of those women looking forward to menopause and have given thought to hysterectomy, though I would need to have both ovaries removed to combat the endo and would not be able to take HRT, since estrogen feeds endo. At 37 I'm not ready to go into menopause cold-turkey.

I hope it's not endo, in your case. Perhaps it's perimenopause symptoms? My cycles have gradually become shorter and shorter in recent years, while my periods become longer (sometimes I am literally bleeding for half the month...which really puts a crimp in the ol' sex life, lemme tell you!). I think my body is trying to throw out as many eggs as possible while it still can.

[badger]

I had my appointment today, and when I told her about my most recent episode, she said as horrible as it was for me, it's still within "normal". My responded to pain stimuli and that's why I became nasueous, sweaty, and faint.

She did check me well with a trans-vaginal ultrasound as well as manual manipulation and she was happy with the results. So out came the old IUD and in went the new.

She said it's unlikely endometriosis at my age, and never mentioned the ovarian cysts and didn't seem at all concerned, just empathetic for my pain.

She did also say that it could have been that my IUD was sitting too low and that could have produced more cramping.

So, a guarded "yay", and hopefully no more horrible pains.

[KnottedYet]

I had two very early miscarriages that felt like what you describe. We had a hard time getting pregnant, and it was heartbreaking.

Doesn't an IUD work by causing miscarriage due to a foreign object being in the uterus? If that's the case, what you felt is probably not abnormal, hence the doc kind of brushing it off. Maybe the doc can prescribe you some heavy-duty pain relievers for those harsh ones?

(as I recall, they were horrible!)

[NbyNW]

Badger, sounds like a scary episode. I do hope the new IUD proves to be more comfortable and that that's all there was to it. Take care --

[badger]

it actually did cross my mind that perhaps I was having a miscarriage. I was 5 days late, so I suppose it could have been. But my flow wasn't any heavier, in fact, it actually ended a day earlier than normal.

Whatever it was, hopefully that was the last I would feel "menstrual cramps" that badly!