Help me, vp, you're my only hope!
Jan. 23rd, 2013 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomling posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
vaginapaginaSo I'm having Serious Ongoing Issues with periods-related stuff and I was hoping that you guys might be able to help me get more informed and deal with this stuff better overall.
Background: I have PCOS and diabetes (type 2). My history with problem periods, usually their being extremely long, heavy, erratic and painful, is long and stressful. I've tried a number of different management solutions, but my body seemed to have "calmed down" over the past few years, and I was quite happy with my current situation of very infrequent (3-6 months apart), usually light and pain-free periods. (I also suffer from severe depression which may be relevant to some of the following.)
My recent visit to a new endocrinologist to help with diabetic control changed all that. Along with new diabetes medication, she prescribed me progesterone for one week a month to induce a withdrawal bleed. She expressed concern that my uterine lining would build up and build up and possibly that could lead to cancer - I've later learned this is called endometrial hyperplasia. (We'll leave aside for now the part where I'm still suicidal enough to not really care whether I get cancer or not.)
So I'm currently having my first withdrawal bleed, and it seems that I'm getting all the shitty symptoms I used to get, which include:
-Extremely heavy bleeding, including soaking through my pad to my underwear and jeans in the course of a 90-minute shopping trip or a 90-minute nap.
-Constant pain, sometimes gut-wrenching, sometimes just a dull ache, apparently not particularly affected by ibuprofen.
-Digestive issues (a worsening of the pain/flatulence/diarrhea triumvirate caused my one of my diabetes medicatons).
I can't do much for the digestive issues, I don't think, except take incessant diarrhea medication which I'd prefer not to do. They're not so terrible that I can't live with them. (Indeed I've been mostly living with them without complaint for 3ish years.)
But I am concerned about the heavy bleeding and the pain.
First the heavy bleeding: sometimes this seems to be about just not changing quickly enough, but when "every 90 minutes" is "not quickly enough", that's really quite exhausting and frustrating and doesn't mean I'm exactly looking forward to a good night's sleep. But sometimes this seems to be due to pad placement - eg, the blood is mostly "missing" my pad and soaking through my underwear and clothes. I can't insert anything in my vagina without pain/intense discomfort, so tampons and cups are really out as a solution, but I'm wondering if there is anything more heavy-duty out there, pad-wise for these really heavy days. I'm currently using the largest, most absorbent pads I can find from the Always range (I'm in the UK).
Then there's the pain. It really feels like ibuprofen does next to nothing for it. (I know this might be due to me not taking it regularly.) I'm reluctant to keep using nurofen plus (ibuprofen/codeine) because it tends to make me a bit groggy, but at this point I'd rather deal with the sleepiness than the constant pain. It would be great to have painkillers on prescription for this stuff, but I have had exactly no luck on getting doctors to prescribe me pain medication. So thoughts on pain meds in general and also on how to communicate how much my pain sucks to my doctor would be really welcome.
So they are the more short-term solutions: deal better with the excessive blood, manage the pain. More long-term, I'd like to get off this rollercoaster sooner rather than later. As a younger woman, I was told repeatedly that I would want kids so having my ovaries/uterus removed would be bad when I changed my mind. I'm 32 now, and I haven't changed my mind (plus I'm in no situation to support a child and don't expect that to change in the near future). So I see two options.
One is medically-induced menopause, which I know is a thing, but last I heard was not a thing that could be sustained forever.
Another is hysterectomy.
If any of you have any resources you can point me to, about either solution or any other that I haven't thought of, that would be great. Similarly, if anyone's been down the medically-induced menopause route or the hysterectomy route, and has experiences to share, I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks, everyone.
(Sorry, mods, I have no clue about your tag scheme and don't really have the spoons to investigate right now.)
Background: I have PCOS and diabetes (type 2). My history with problem periods, usually their being extremely long, heavy, erratic and painful, is long and stressful. I've tried a number of different management solutions, but my body seemed to have "calmed down" over the past few years, and I was quite happy with my current situation of very infrequent (3-6 months apart), usually light and pain-free periods. (I also suffer from severe depression which may be relevant to some of the following.)
My recent visit to a new endocrinologist to help with diabetic control changed all that. Along with new diabetes medication, she prescribed me progesterone for one week a month to induce a withdrawal bleed. She expressed concern that my uterine lining would build up and build up and possibly that could lead to cancer - I've later learned this is called endometrial hyperplasia. (We'll leave aside for now the part where I'm still suicidal enough to not really care whether I get cancer or not.)
So I'm currently having my first withdrawal bleed, and it seems that I'm getting all the shitty symptoms I used to get, which include:
-Extremely heavy bleeding, including soaking through my pad to my underwear and jeans in the course of a 90-minute shopping trip or a 90-minute nap.
-Constant pain, sometimes gut-wrenching, sometimes just a dull ache, apparently not particularly affected by ibuprofen.
-Digestive issues (a worsening of the pain/flatulence/diarrhea triumvirate caused my one of my diabetes medicatons).
I can't do much for the digestive issues, I don't think, except take incessant diarrhea medication which I'd prefer not to do. They're not so terrible that I can't live with them. (Indeed I've been mostly living with them without complaint for 3ish years.)
But I am concerned about the heavy bleeding and the pain.
First the heavy bleeding: sometimes this seems to be about just not changing quickly enough, but when "every 90 minutes" is "not quickly enough", that's really quite exhausting and frustrating and doesn't mean I'm exactly looking forward to a good night's sleep. But sometimes this seems to be due to pad placement - eg, the blood is mostly "missing" my pad and soaking through my underwear and clothes. I can't insert anything in my vagina without pain/intense discomfort, so tampons and cups are really out as a solution, but I'm wondering if there is anything more heavy-duty out there, pad-wise for these really heavy days. I'm currently using the largest, most absorbent pads I can find from the Always range (I'm in the UK).
Then there's the pain. It really feels like ibuprofen does next to nothing for it. (I know this might be due to me not taking it regularly.) I'm reluctant to keep using nurofen plus (ibuprofen/codeine) because it tends to make me a bit groggy, but at this point I'd rather deal with the sleepiness than the constant pain. It would be great to have painkillers on prescription for this stuff, but I have had exactly no luck on getting doctors to prescribe me pain medication. So thoughts on pain meds in general and also on how to communicate how much my pain sucks to my doctor would be really welcome.
So they are the more short-term solutions: deal better with the excessive blood, manage the pain. More long-term, I'd like to get off this rollercoaster sooner rather than later. As a younger woman, I was told repeatedly that I would want kids so having my ovaries/uterus removed would be bad when I changed my mind. I'm 32 now, and I haven't changed my mind (plus I'm in no situation to support a child and don't expect that to change in the near future). So I see two options.
One is medically-induced menopause, which I know is a thing, but last I heard was not a thing that could be sustained forever.
Another is hysterectomy.
If any of you have any resources you can point me to, about either solution or any other that I haven't thought of, that would be great. Similarly, if anyone's been down the medically-induced menopause route or the hysterectomy route, and has experiences to share, I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks, everyone.
(Sorry, mods, I have no clue about your tag scheme and don't really have the spoons to investigate right now.)
