Before my pregnancy, I had pretty easy periods. Slight breast pain the week before, a little cramping on the first day, light flow, over in a few days. After I had my son (he is now 16 months), my periods have been terrible! My cramps are at times debilitating. My back hurts, my abdomen hurts, there are times I double over in pain. I am so exhausted during my period. My pregnancy was very hard and somewhat complicated. I had to deliver via c-section, but didn't take much pain medication after. My period is MUCH worse then c-section pain. My flow is so heavy the first few days. I can't go out the second day of my period, because my flow is so heavy I leak on everything. The period lasts forever! Last month, my period was 8 days, with 3 or 4 days of heavy spotting after the 8 days. They've been longer then that, too. I don't really get PMS or attitude changes. That's the only thing that has stayed the same after my pregnancy. Has anyone every experienced this? I am hoping for some advice, because I'm not covered by medical insurance at this time. I certainly can't afford to see a DR. about this. Any advice would be appreciated!
SIDE NOTE: I am in my 20's. We don't qualify for state covered insurance. Other then my period issues, I am very healthy. I haven't been sick since I was a child. I am not on birth control and am not going to be. I know this can help some people. My body does not agree with birth control. I have crazy reactions to every kind of hormonal birth control I've tried. I can't do the copper IUD, because I am highly sensitive to copper toxicity.
In Addition: I have very regular periods and have been charting, the whole time I've been married. We only got pregnant when we tried, and we got pregnant the first month. I have a 29 day cycle before pregnancy, and have had the same since 7 weeks after birth.
I'm sorry I left this out. I DID go to the Dr. 4 months after my baby was born, to get this checked out. I didn't have Endometriosis or cysts...actually, there was nothing. She did blood work and there was nothing there either. I did have a slight hormone imbalance, but she said it was so slight, there is no way she'd put me on medication for it. (It was right before my period, so that's most likely why they were slightly off anyway) There was really no reason, at the time, for my periods being like this. I realize, that was a year ago and things could change, but my periods haven't become worse since I went to the Dr. I also will not go to planned parenthood. I don't care, if others do, as it's none of my business if someone likes to go there. I won't support a facility, that supports abortion. If I go anywhere, I will pay the ridiculous out of pocket cost to see an OB.
Have you tried calling planned parenthood? They may be able to help you out.
Ok, first off, almost every city has a health care place going by your income......most of which is free .........find one near you...........call around to the hospitals and see what they have to offer or call a health agency to see if they can help.......look on the internet.
There are many reasons for what you are going through.......you don't say how old you are, so I don't know if menopause is a possibility or not. If not, it could be your uterus is thickening......and there are many other reasons.......you need to get looked at......some could be dangerous to your health............
Please find someplace that will help you and make sure you are ok.........take care and good luck.
When I was young and without insurance, Planned Parenthood was my total health care, saved my life, really. If your baby were younger I would think you may need a D&C, actually sounds a little like you may have some birth residual still inside (yuck, sorry). But my periods also got worse after motherhood and continued that way (with medical care regularly telling me there are no problems), until now I am premenopausal. Really, I would try to see someone at PP, I would worry there is some afterbirth that was not delivered (this also happened to me, and I did have a D&C). Meanwhile Motrin can be your very best friend, depending on your weight you can take at least 3, 4 is the prescription strength. Good Luck, get well!
I had very bad cramps before I had kids and BC made them worse. My gyno told me to take 800mg of ibuprophen (sp?) 3 times a day starting the week of the placebo pills (about 2-3 days before period starts) through the time the cramps run. Basically if you know when the cramps start, start the ibuprophen 2 days before that. It prevents your body from making the horemone that causes the cramping. I did not believe him when I was sitting in the office, but it worked, and I only had to do this for about a year os so before my body stopped making it, however after having kids, i am finding that I am having to do it again. Good luck, this was the best thing I could give you and I hope it works for you like it did for me.
I agree that it does sound like you have a medical issue that needs to be address. It is NOT normal for periods to be that painful or that bloody, no matter what your doctor said. If I were you I would find another doctor. Also, you might try getting in touch with the FertilityCare Center of North Texas (http://www.fertilitycare.org/texas/) or ____@____.com charting your cycle for a couple months they can help diagnose what is going on with your body. It sounds to me like you have endometriosis which cannot be ruled out by ultra sound. The only sure-fire way to know if you have endo by having surgery (laprascopic surgery is pretty non-invasive--I know from personal experience). However, a trained doctor can diagnose many gynecologic problems if you start charting your cycle with the Creighton Method. You can also use your charts to help you avoid or achieve pregnancy. If you have more questions about Creighton please feel free to PM me. I have been charting for over 5 years.
Michelle,
I had the same issues before getting pregnant. The pain was so bad I had to go to bed at each cycle. My cycles were long and so heavy that if I went longer than 1 hour before changing my pads I would bleed onto my clothes. I could never wear white in the summer during that time frame. When I expressed concern to my OB/GYN he told me I was fine and that it was part of getting older. I thought DUH something is wrong and if you can't help me, bye bye. So I never went back to him. I started googling my issues and self diagnosed myself. I went into another doctor and described my symptoms and told him what I thought it was. Sure enough I had endometriosis (my diagnosis) and 3 small fibroid cyst. I had a procedure done called endoscopy or something similar (small incision under my belly button). Wow, the difference was huge when my next cycle came around. I was giddy with relief. Get that checked out. Try a state hospital or something. I know the pain and it is no joke. Like you I was/am otherwise a healthy person.
P.S. I was up to 500 miligrams of ibuprofen every 4 hours.
I know you say you can't go to a doctor but you really need to, you may just have to pay out of pocket to see one. A lot of docs will cut you a break if you are paying out of pocket and work with you.
You have signs of a few conditions that need medical attention. Ovarian cysts, endometriosis, fibroids, hormonal imbalance problems. I have had horrible periods, for 8 months prior to pregnancy and I hoped a pregnancy would change them but now 2.5 months PP and had one period and it was awful! I can't take any type of birth control either, I will be trying the non-copper IUD when I'm ready for that. Since I do not have fibroids or anything they can see with a ultrasound I decided to start using a bio-identical hormone cream to balance out any hormonal imbalances I may have that can be causing these irregular, painful, heavy periods. I have just started three weeks ago and a period is supposed to come soon so I can't tell you if its helped yet but I've heard great things about them. Something you may want to look into but again I would strongly suggest trying to get in to see someone. Aren't there planned parenthood or something around here? Even if you don't qualify for some sort of coverage you can still get seen at a minimal cost. Its really worth researching to death. You need to be seen it can be very dangerous if ignored. Good luck! If you want me to tell you how the cream helps me let me know and I'll message you :)
