Does anyone have severe cramps, to the point that you feel nauseous?

To be clear I'm talking about menstruation cramps. I have asked my friends (not that I have many lol) but no one irl has experienced this. I also feel hot flashes, break out in a cold sweat, and become dizzy and constipated. (Sorry if it's TMI) My mom never had cramps that bad, but my grandma (her mother) would be in bed for days.

My periods are also heavy and I feel fatigued for days. I have told all of this to my former doctor and she recommended birth control, but since I have migraines she said that any form of BC would make my migraines worse. I take ibuprofen and wait for it to kick in. I just want some form of relief from these cramps, they are awful.

Yes I did, when I was younger. I went on the pill just to help with the pain. It worked too. Still had some pain but it was manageable. (most of the time, I still had those months) Have you talked to your doctor?

I took motion sickness pills for the nausea. Two to three days before I started my period I took motrin around the clock. Two days or so before I started I tried to cut out caffeine.

Have you tried a heating pad? I would curl up on the couch and put a heating pad on my belly for hours.

Hang in there.

My daughter had severe pain all thru her midsection during her period for several years, and heavy bleeding. They did ultrasounds and ct scans and offered tentative diagnoses, but didn't really know what was going on. She took high powered pain meds for a few years for it. She was 28 and had 4 kids so Dr offered her a hysterectomy. She had it done, and they discovered after removing her uterus that the problem was an enlarged uterus. (Basically the uterus doesn't "empty" everything each month and it builds up over time. Hers was 4 times the normal weight.) You might have your Dr check for this condition. There is also endometriosis, and other conditions that can cause pain. I hope it gets better soon.

Thanks buzzbee and IrisBloom.

Yes, I have spoken with my primary care doctor and she didn't seem to concerned about it and told me not to worry. That's when she offered the birth control pills but nixed that idea since I get migraines. Heating pads only help when the nausea, dizziness and constipation have passed. I'll have to try the motion sickness pills, maybe that will help.

Iris, I'm so sorry that your daughter went through that. That's so horrible. If you don't mind my asking, does she feel better after the hysterectomy and/or experience further symptoms as a result? I will definitely have my doctor check for those conditions that you mentioned. I'll have to educate myself on them. I only have been to a primary care with my concerns, but I think it's time to see a gynecologist. My PCP has had a habit of blowing off any concerns that I have since I disclosed that I have depression.

So I guess it's time to find a new PCP too!

They only took her uterus, so she didn't go thru menopause yet. She stopped having pain like before, but continues to have lower back pain, which may or may not be related. I hope yours is nothing serious, and gets better soon.

Its more common than you think. The pill really helped her!!

I did when I was younger. Unbelievably bad. I read an article in that famous medical journal, The National Enquirer, that said the problem was caused by excess prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have hormone-like actions in the body and they're the natural body substance that starts labor in pregnancy.

If a woman produces excess prostaglandins in the time leading up to her period, she can go into a state akin to labor. Every month.
NSAIDs, like ibuprohen, are prostaglandin inhibitors. They'd just been discovered and were available as the then prescription drug Motrin. You can now get Motrin and several other similar drugs OTC.

The gyno said to take 600 mgs of Motrin twice a day FOR TEN DAYS before my period was due to start.

He said Motrin would help mild cramps if it was taken on the first day of the period, but for the severe kind of cramps that put a woman down in misery, it has to be taken days in advance to lower the body's level of prostaglandins. Generic OTC versions would work just fine, but they come in a dose of 200 mgs.

It worked like a miracle. No cramps at all and no PMS. I wasn't always regular, but if I took Motrin for even a couple days in advance, it helped.

I had missed three days out every month due to my period since I was 12 years old. The ibuprophen (in the form of prescription Motrin) changed things.

That's a high dose and it can cause stomach and intestinal problems in some people. If you want to give it a try, I recommend talking to your doctor, just to be on the safe side. And if you get a bad stomach ache -- not cramps and you'll know the difference -- stop taking it.

Thank you for this SnakeCharmer! I will definitely bring this up to my doctor.

I haven't got sick from it, but I have had it to the point I couldn't walk once or twice, and usually it's bad enough for me to cancel anything I planned to do, like shopping/cleaning.
As with other people the pill has worked amazingly for me. If you aren't happy with what one doctor has told you then I'd go to another. It should be looked into that you don't have a medical condition. As I mentioned in a recent post I was just diagnosed with endometriosis, I left it longer than I should have to get looked into. No pain like that is normal and you may need more than a bit of medication.

This only happened to me for about 3 years after my first period started around age 13. With time, my cramps became less and less painful for some reason. Someone once mentioned it could be a medical issue, like cysts or something, but I never got evaluated about that and it obviously resolved on its own.
My periods were also a lot heavier back then, I'm 22 now, I'm also on birth control and that makes my periods lighter. I still get cramps maybe one or two days throughout my entire period but they aren't as severe as they used to be.
I used to be moaning in pain on the bathroom floor about to throw up, sweat running down my face, in a fetal position. Felt like I was dying it hurt so bad. Like someone was twisting a knife in my gut. Horrible.

Oh my goodness yes! I used to experience the same thing. Vomiting, cold sweats, and severe mood swings were the worst for me. I started on birth control and after taking that for a year it's subsided. I hope you find a remedy.

So glad this came up! Last month of Sept, I was cramping so bad and for 2 days (this was new to me), my back and stomach was hurting so bad. I felt like I was gonna throw up every time I saw food and tried to eat a pizza, only ate half of it and gave it to my boyfriend which he knew I was on my period.

My back was hurting so bad it felt like labor pains without the baby! It also felt like swords going in and out of my spine, I felt like I was gonna cry at work. Every time I breathed, I could feel my stomach hurting more and more. It almost got to the point at night that I was gonna tell my coworker that I was gonna leave and go home. I kept taking aspirin like no tomorrow. I am 28 yrs old still have heavy bleeding and was on birth control when I was teen until I was 21-22 and stopped taking them becoming too dependent on them. One time a few months ago, my period was heavy for 3 days that has never happened before. A gyno told me in 06 that having a heavy period was normal for me because I am young not when I have seen blood clots in the toilet when I use the bathroom!

I have had cramping bad in my vagina to the point I had to go lie down and hated sleeping when I had to part my legs to get comfy and can feel the flow of blood moving. They never did any testing on my body just you are young, you will change when you get in your 30s, yep, almost there!

Thank you everyone for your replies!

I'm sorry to hear that others know how it feels, but it's good to know that's it's a common problem. It's horrible to go through all that and still be expected to function like normal when in reality I want to go to bed! I'm 30 now and I hope that this lessens in severity, and soon!

Being on the birth control pill literally makes my cramps disappear. I stopped the pill a few weeks ago and I'm having horrible cramps today, haven't felt these since I started the pill months ago. I'm going back on the pill just to stop this from happening.

I am on my period right now! Heavy flow for one day and medium today which never happens really odd. I can't wait for Sunday so my body can relax and I remember my doctor said with my heavy flow I am losing a lot of red blood cells need to replenish using iron in my diet and that's when I found out I am anemic.

I remember being younger and seeing my aunt pass out her cramps were so severe. Starting about age 15 my grandma had to keep her home from school and on pain meds for about 4 days every cycle because of cramps. Birth control pills didn't help her. Took until she had her first kid for them to find out that she had cysts in her ovaries and that was what caused the horrible cramping and bleeding. After her third kid they did a full hysterectomy and she said she wished she'd done it years earlier.

Good luck to you on finding some relief.

Unfourtunt6ely yes. I had severed cramping and vomiting and felt like I could move at all. I almost went on birth control, but the intense cramping and vomiting went away before I did. I will keep you in my prayers

Those of you that bleed heavily, please get checked for fibroids. I had to take vicodin because of the pain and I also was badly anemic from so much loss of blood.

Birth control causes migraines? I've never experienced that and I've had plenty of migraines. When I was young, my periods would be very heavy - a tampon every two hours. Cramps, mood swings, migraines, nausea, diarrhea and constipation galore. I would be sick three weeks out of four. Birth control pills lessened the symptoms somewhat but not much. Once I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and started using a CPAP machine, I stopped waking up with migraines, but I still had PMDD. I got a Mirena IUD 7 years ago and have never felt better! My migraines stopped several months after the IUD was inserted. So did the heavy periods, insane cramps, violent mood swings, etc.

Before I got the IUD, I found that progesterone cream really helped lessen the symptoms. Make sure it's natural progesterone USP. I liked the pump bottles. One pump delivered the correct dosage. Just follow the directions on the bottle.