(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

On the subject of chronic pain while female[-assigned].

My odds of getting prokopetz to see my reblog and cite their source(s) are approximately, given the 40K+ notes, nil. Thus, rather than waste my time shouting into the wind on Tumblr: is anyone familiar with the literature on adult menstrual cramps and related medical conditions? (kaberett? anyone else?) I really want to know where prokopetz's numbers come from.

(Bc my cramps suck and I'm 26. Mom's suck lots worse afaict, always have, and she's about to turn 58. Though I think if I tell her, backed up by literature (or anyway SWAGs that have the scientificness outweighing the wild-assery), that that one doctor she saw in her young adulthood was right for given values, she'll find him and shoot him whether he's still alive or not. He told her she was experiencing "schoolgirl cramps" that would go away on their own. They never did.)

Comments

[everbright]

If you get any numbers on this I wanna know too!

[heliopausa]

There's a community on LJ which specifically aims to be: "an empowering and educational community about vaginas, vulvas, and sexual health". Maybe someone there might have useful info.

http://vaginapagina.livejournal.com/

[kaberett]

(I'm one of the mods there hence the shout-out to me! There's also a Dreamwidth-based iteration.

Alex, I see this post and am going to try to get my act together.)

[alexseanchai]

:)

(Take your time!)

Oh also my impression of the severity of Mom's cramps was false, she says. OTC meds solve them when she bothers taking them, she just likes complaining about having them in the first place.

[syntaxofthings]

WE NEED LITERATURE YES. Someone posted a comment on someone else's DW once about how a doctor told them once that "if you have cramps that are not able to be controlled by OTC painkillers (at OTC doses), there is something else going on". The gist of the comment has stuck in my head, as someone who has horrendous cramps every 24 days. And too much bleeding. And basically screws everything up for one week out of every four.

So, yeah, want, and wtf.

[untonuggan]

I have been doing lots of research on cramps lately because mine are horrible and I hate ob/gyn's but I finally went after the doctor who told me "some women are just crampy" (who got a Stern Letter), I'm getting a diagnostic laproscopy on Friday to see if I have endometriosis. my surgeon says "everyone deserves a look" when they are having symptoms that disrupt their quality of life. apparently, for surgeries he performs to see if people have endometriosis (so, self-selecting group of "people who have insurance and have found him which involves probably some hoops of other doctors and/or other tests to make sure it's not something else"), 50-66% of patients he operates on DO have endometriosis.

(if I *don't* and I still have the pain and fuckton of symptoms I have other options, including did you know there are pelvic pain clinics? and also that apparently if your muscles are clenched -- because of pain or injury or whatever -- then there are special exercises you can do to relax them, and actually doing core strengthening before dealing with it can ~make the pain and tightness worse~? YUP that's a thing too!)

fwiw this is a thread in which a lot about endo in the comments. it's in my "medical shit" access filter, which I can add you to if you want and you're not in it already.

other resources (based mostly on what I have dealt with and thus know things about):

endometriosis.org -- note that severity of cramps/pain is not an indicator of how much endometrial tissue is in your body. (I'm getting the surgery partly because I'm having "wth other body systems" involvement acting up with my period, which is apparently not a good thing because [scary things I won't share unless you really want me to].)

this book looks good but it might make me see flames:
Googling endometriosis: the lost centuries

The Guardian recently ran a special section on endometriosis

I also have PMDD (which means I have ~srs~ mood swings around my period). There is *one* doctor in my area who treats it, and until recently she did not take insurance. This place in Boston pioneers a lot of research on women's mental health (including PMDD, fertility and mental health, menopause, etc). If that may be a thing for you as well (for me it's always "why do i feel so terrible?!? the world is ending!" *looks at calendar* "ahhhh ffff not again.")

I probably also have PCOS, although that hasn't been diagnosed with anything other than symptomatic things versus an abdominal ultrasound. (But you don't *have* to have cysts to have it.) I'm on Metformin, a diabetes drug, as PCOS is linked to insulin resistance and Metformin-with-PCOS can help prevent you from developing Type II Diabetes apparently. Also for me it stopped the "eight months without a period" things, which sucks in a way but also having your uterine lining get super thick is also not a good plan?

i have many feelz about this

[untonuggan]

fwiw in addition to general "omg pms is awful" shit I have, my cramps range from "ow it hurts to move too much" to "take a deep breath, grit teeth together, pretend nothing is happening because I'm in public" to (more recently) "load up on muscle relaxants and Tylenol and ice packs and then just try not to move and maybe get through two days."

apparently *none of the above* is considered "normal", although for me I always considered the first two "normal."

when my surgeon asked me how long I've had painful periods I was like, "..." because I really couldn't figure out exactly what he meant by painful. but "at least a decade" seemed to raise some flags, even though tbh they have apparently ~always~ been painful by "most peoples' definitions."

ETA: also i have fibromyalgia so i'm used to tuning out a certain level of pain so I can get through my day. the only times I've ever hit a 10 (which for me is "hurts too much to breathe"), it's been abdominal pain that was ~mysterious~ and didn't show up on any scans and now if I go to the ER I get side-eyed even though *no one even looked at my reproductive system*.

note: following possibly triggery because cancer & death & fucking dr's being dismissive:

also also my aunt-by-marriage had two years of abdominal pain. her doctor sent her to therapy. she was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer, which might have been treatable if someone fucking took her seriously.

Re: i have many feelz about this

[quartzpebble]

WAIT. The first two of those are not normal?! My periods are better in terms of pain than they were when I was younger, and I still have the occasional day where I go curl up on the office couch for a bit because I'm not getting anything done staring at my screen and hurting.

Re: i have many feelz about this

[untonuggan]

From what I understand, periods are "supposed" to be manageable with a standard OTC dose of something like Tylenol. and not manageable like "now I grimace and put on a face of non-grimacing and force myself through the day." (this still seems like a myth to me based on my own experience, but.)

OTOH if you talk to a gyn, you may or may not get this response depending on how compassionate they are or how much they actually listen. >.> so. YMMV.

Re: i have many feelz about this

[kaberett]

... talk to me about endometriosis, yo. xx

[alexseanchai]

Resources! Shiny! I has no brain just now, so I will save these for later. Thanks.