HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Crohns and bad periods

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/3/2008 11:03 AM (GMT 0)
I have crohns and was doing okay and like a light switch all of a sudden get woken out of sleep with diaherra, backache, pain.  Im figuring it was my period because i knew it was coming.  Seriously this happens to me for about 10 days a month.  I m just about at my wits end and can no longer deal with this.  Nausea, vommiting, diaherra, backache, dizzy,  cant eat, lose a couple of pounds etc.. It is like im having contractions everywhere in my abdomen.

Is anyone on pills for this or is there like some hormone i should take. Have appt with my gyno dr to go threw this with him.  Seems like this happens every month or every other month.  Tylenol mydol none of them work had to take imodium ad because this constant diaherra.  I kinda thought i was in remission but then with this period 1-3 days before it even starts i have never felt worse.  NSAIDS not supposed to take.  Is birth control the only option? I do not want children and at this point i would like to donate that entire organ to whomever wants to deal with it because i no longer want it.  I have been in bed for 4 days now and my period just started.  so it will probably be about 10 days long and i just pray that the diaherra and nausea will stop and i can eat again.  I was reading about dysmenorrhea and the protaglandins and swear this sounds very similiar to me.  Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated before i lose my mind.  

entocort, probotic, humira once a week, pentasa 

Posted 8/3/2008 12:21 PM (GMT 0)

((((Hugs))))

My period started yesterday and this time around has been AWFUL!  I have been having awful stomach pains, diarrhea to the point where I am afraid to leave the house, and I spent most of the day in bed yesterday.  I have been extremely nauseous as well.

I hear you about wanting to donate your parts!  I would give mine away right now if I could!

I saw my OBGYN about two months ago and she wanted me to take the pill, because at that point, I was on a higher dose of prednisone and I went 3 months without a period (boy was that nice!  :-) ).  I might wait and ask my GI about taking the pill, just to be sure it is ok with this dang disease!

At this point, I just take Tylenol.  I sure miss the NSAIDS though!  My heating pad also helps--I don't know if you have tried that or not.

I hope you feel better soon!  Having Crohn's and then "that time of the month" together is awful!!! 

Take care and if you find something that helps, let us know!

-Nicole

Posted 8/3/2008 12:54 PM (GMT 0)
My periods are bad every month too. Sometimes I vomit right before it starts. Its awful!! I'm usually doubled over in pain
and often times have to miss work because my period is so bad. My GI said most women have a horrible time with their
CD around their period. I tried the pill but it just makes my cramping and that worse so I can't take it. I just deal until its over.
The nice thing is I don't have a period every month so I only have to deal every few months. I have PCOS on top of Crohn's
which causes me not to regular.
Posted 8/3/2008 1:55 PM (GMT 0)
Hi I had horrible periods to so I looked into the Mirena and decided to do it. Man what a blessing My cycles are now very very very light its getting to the point of not really having one. If your insurance will pay for it do it. If not its like $700 up depending on the dr and their fees.

 

Posted 8/3/2008 4:41 PM (GMT 0)
I use to be miserable for 3 weeks out of the month. I ended up having a complete hysterectomy when I was 36. I had already had my tubes tied after my kids and felt why should I suffer like this every single month. I now only take a estrogen supplement. In my personal opinion that was one of the best things I ever did for myself. When I was on BC that really helped, but once I got my tubes tied all H*ll broke out, hence the decision for the Hysterectomy.
Posted 8/3/2008 5:21 PM (GMT 0)
I always seem to have issues around my period as well. I start having trouble a week before I get it and it goes on until a few days after my period stops. It is really frustrating because it makes you wonder how you will ever get into remission if your monthly pal kicks it off every time. My GYNO suggested going on one of the birth control pills where you only get a period every 3 months or so. I have not gone down that path b/c I would like to have children somewhere in the near future but after that i may consider it. I actually have PCOS as well and only got my period every few months. I started treatment on metformin for the PCOS last year and now i get my period every month. Good for trying to get prego bad for the crohn's.
Posted 8/3/2008 8:27 PM (GMT 0)
I, too, have serious issues with my period and cd.  In addition to the D and the pain, I also suffer major pms.  I had tried bc pills before with no luck.  But there's different types now so I tried again with Yasmin and it is really really helping with all symptoms!
Posted 8/3/2008 11:47 PM (GMT 0)
MY GYN has said she's seen a few Crohn's patients that get more symptoms during their period. She told me that it's not quite understood what the hormonal connection is there. My symptoms do get worse with periods, which is why I skip most of them with birth control pills. My periods also got REALLY messed up over the past 10 years. Barely much of a period one month (like it would last 2 hours) to heavy bleeding, to nothing at all. Not to mention sever PMS (cramping, mood swings, and migraines). So my GYN felt it was better for me to not deal with it, but about twice a year. It has helped A LOT!
Posted 8/4/2008 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
There is definitely a connection to periods and CD going whacky because of the hormonal fluctuations...when I was on the pill my CD was whacky all the time just like the way it is during my periods...the pill contributes to bacterial over-growth (reason why so many women get issues with yeast infections) so it's only natural that it will make the CD worse for many of us even when we aren't having our periods.

:)
Posted 8/4/2008 12:48 PM (GMT 0)

thanks guys for your responses. But how do you guys really handle this?  I mean just go on birth control because being in bed and in the house for 10 days is really getting old and to the point were i have had enough. 

I doubt it at 26 a hysterectomy dr's would allow.  i would def do it just because i do not want children. I can do the pill is it better to do the one were you get a period every 3 months? I was on ortho tri cyclen for 6 years prior to all this and periods went from 9 days to 7 not as sick but still the periods were bad. From not eating that much and from all the diaherra can easily lose 3-5 pounds that time of the month.  How do you handle this mentally and physically? 

Doing shots taking pills all i want to do is get in remission and this period thing is def preventing me from getting to were i want to be for my quality of life. Thanks for any advice!!  

Humira once a week, pentasa, entorcort, probotic, multivitamins

Posted 8/4/2008 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
I know this will probably sound gross, but one of my coworkers is oriental and they have some awesom remedies.. When I start to cramp she told me take fresh ginger, slice it really thing and put it in the bottom of a hot cup of tea. ( i like green tea it relaxes me). It taste normal till you get to the bottom if you don't stir, if you stir it is pretty good all the way through..and some people let the ginger stay in untill like 20 min and then take it out while you finish drinking.. But it really really really has helped me when im cramping at all.. even when my back is killing me from the crohns.. I hope it helps you.
Posted 8/4/2008 4:23 PM (GMT 0)
For years, I had very severe cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea when my period started. Eventually I did some research to see what might help, and I found this study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8935744?ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

I did check before starting to make sure that the recommended dose of vitamin B1 was not dangerous, and then took it for 90 days as instructed. I wasn't expecting much, and was very surprised at the results. No more vomiting, far less cramping and diarrhea (mild, not disabling), and I maintained the improvement after completing the course of treatment. (I don't know, but maybe those who have malabsorption from Crohn's, and tend to be deficient in vitamins, might need to repeat the treatment occasionally.)

It's been a long time since I suffered like this, but I remember how horrible it was, and I hope maybe this can help someone else.

Posted 8/4/2008 10:00 PM (GMT 0)
I had my tubes tied when I was 28 because pregnancy and my CD did not go well together, but then my periods and CD didn't go well together either. But my bones are also bad from prednisone so my Endo wants me on B/C pills so I can absorb more calcium. So I take the pills that you can take for 3 months straight. I only have to deal with it for 4 weeks a year and it is much lighter than it used to be. Its still pretty miserable, but I'll take what I can get. And oh joy, it should be starting in about 6 hours, no wonder I've been eating all day and grumpy!!!
Posted 8/4/2008 11:56 PM (GMT 0)
I had all the above symptoms, plus I would pass out from the pain, got on depo toook about 8 months but sooooo much better! Been on it for 14 years...
Posted 8/5/2008 12:13 AM (GMT 0)
If you are very sure you do not ever want children, you can have a proceedure called an endometrial ablation. It is where they fill the inside of your uterus with very hot water and it burns off the inside lining of the uterus. After that you have no more periods, period. It is heaven. My once easy periods turned into a complete nightmare that lasted most days of the month The pain was so strong it was like having contractions. I was on two birth control pills with no help at all. You are very young, so this would perhaps not be a procedure if you every do decide to have a baby. But, it has been a wonderful thing for me. I have no more trouble at all except that I still do get migraines. That's how I know that I am on my period.
Posted 8/5/2008 2:01 AM (GMT 0)
With the endometrial ablation procedure, you don't always stop having a period completely. A friend of mine had it done and still had light bleeding, then ended up having a hysterectomy to stop it completely.

As far as the periods go, I had NASTY periods for years. I was misdiagnosed as having endometreosis even though only 1 of 6 laparoscopies actually showed adhesions. I was on depo for years which completely stopped my periods! It was great! I worried at one point about not being able to have kids from being on the depo for so many years plus being dx'd with endo. Once my husband and I went off the shot and started trying, I was pregnant the second month. In the end they believe it was a slight case of endo 12 years ago and a result of surgery scar tissue (my bowels adheared to my pelvis and had to be removed) which is probably what triggered my crohn's. I def think there is some kind of connection with the crohn's and female issues!

As for what helps, heating pads and HOT baths helped me...sometimes I would take 3 or 4 hot baths a day to relieve some pain.
GOODLUCK!!
Posted 8/6/2008 8:44 AM (GMT 0)
I have been asking for a hysterectomy for years. My family has a history of HUGE fibroid tumors(mother's sister(7 pound tumor) and mother), my mother died from breast cancer when she was 37 years old, my paternal grandmother died from ovarian cancer, I had a benign tumor removed when I was 22 years old (33 now), and I can get my period ANY time of the month and I tend to bleed as though someone stabbed me and I bleed like that for 10 days. The drs involved have told me this is normal because they can not find anything on the ultrasounds. I have tried b/c with no results. All drs involved agree that pregnancy sparked my Crohn's. I have my boy and now I am DONE. I had a tubal a year 1/2 ago. I have clips in the tubes that look like metal baby barrettes. I hope you have better luck! I hope you feel better! sad

I also have Fibromyalgia and I am a MAJOR WIMP!
Posted 1/19/2013 11:30 AM (GMT 0)
I have had Crohn's disease for 8 years and during the 8 years I have not had a relapse. I went on holiday to India and came back with a loose stools and blood. I went to the doctors and they said to me i am experiencing an inflammation. They put me on prenisone 6 tablets a day along with my 3 pentasa. I've been on the prenisone for 8 weeks and my symptoms cleared up, i only had 6 weeks l left of the prenisone so I was looking forward to seeing how my bowels would cope without them until the other day I went to the loo and I had blood in my stools. The day after I then came on my period. I previously found that when I was due on my period my stools were a lot looser And I would go more frequently. Now there was blood in my stools the doctor has put me back onto 6 prenisone tablets a day and 6 pentasta. I feel so down about doing so well and then I have another relapse. It seems that every month will I be relapsing and going back onto steroids??! Although I have had CD for 8 years I feel everything is all new to me because this is the first time I have experienced a relapse.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply