Once again....ladies how bad does your period mess with your UC?

So the usual has happened, I had my period last week (after 12 weeks of the pill) and now my UC seems like it may be acting up. I was doing awesome before last week. I was tapering my enemas down to just once a day with no issue at all. Was feeling great - no gas really ever, no bloating, no pain. Just felt 'normal'.  Now the past few days I feel crappy - alot of gas, some soreness/pressure in my bottom after a BM, bloating, indigestion even.  I've went back to my mesalamine enenmas twice a day but no change as of yet.

I have 2 Cortisone enemas left over from the last time I had my period in November - would it even help to use those for 2 days?  Or should I not even bother?

The worst part is my body clearly didn't even need to have my period. It never even really came until Saturday (the last day) and then it was barely nothing.  I had cramps all week though and of course the hormone drop - apparently all it takes to affect my UC. It would have been better off just continuing on the pill.  Very frustrating!

My pill seems to work pretty well, I take Yasmin. Plus it has dropsprinone in it which is supposed to help with hair loss (which I totally suffer from, especially since I was on Prednisone for a year). For awhile I was taking the pill non-stop, no period, which my doctor said was ok. I may just go back to that. If my body wants to have a period it will tell me. No use in trying to make it have one when it doesn't want it.

I have always had issues with UC when I have my period - it's actually the reason I started taking the birth control pills back to back over 10 years ago. I used to flare up every month when I had my period, it was pretty annoying!

I for one, never thought I'd be begging for menopause to hurry the hell up in the hopes that it would calm my IBD down some (a lot would be nice actually) before getting sick I never had major issues with my bowels during my stupid periods...the older I have gotten (especially starting in my 30's) the worse my bowels are just before, during and just after my periods...I hate them...and my bowels too!

Do you get bleeding, too, or just the gas and bloat? I have only had UC for a year and a half, but yeah, every month it got worse around that time. The worst part was when I started going into remission. I would have 3 weeks of no blood, then my period came and I started seeing it again (and yes, it was rectal blood, not just from the period itself). It always took a while to get back on track.

I had to get off the birth control this month because I got a blood clot while in the hospital for a bad flare. When I stopped I immediately got my period and of course everything got worse. I am curious now, though, without it if the periods will be as bad. I can't imagine hormones helping us, really. But I guess we'll find out.

When I was diagnosed with UC, my body was a horrible mess (extreme pain and exhaustion)!
After one year of hormone therapy, I had the worst pain, passed blood, realized it came from my bum hole and went to see my internist. UC was diagnosed in Dec., my meds helped but I was still a mess. Internist and GYN agreed on a hysterectomy the following March, and I was so excited! So, I had to have help in both areas to begin getting better and it took about two years. Plus two months later in May, I had to have my gallbladder removed! Looking back, it was so hard to understand what was going on with me. I would take 800 mg ibuprofen, at least three a day and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't touching the pain! Oh, the damage I must have been doing to myself!

Edit: I am 50 years old, so hysterectomy was a nice option. My uterus was in very bad shape, hard to know which problem triggered the other problem.

Post Edited (Coffeencake) : 2/11/2014 12:41:43 PM (GMT-7)

Coffeencake, I actually thought of getting a hysterectomy. I almost had one a few years ago when I had some rare cancer cells in my endocervix and they weren't sure they got them all out. But I ended up not needing it. I always wondered if it would have made my UC better in the long run. Plus it would give my colon alot more room in there to do it's thing! :) I always wonder if the uterus cramping during your period somehow affects your colon by hitting it during cramping, therefore making your colon spasm too. Just a thought....

My issues are worse around ovulation, especially when my left ovary is releasing. I always get a day of faster motility, more gas and thinner stool at ovulation. I have always tended towards constipation right before my period which I view as aplus these days. I had a mirena after my youngest was born but I has it removed a year and a half ago. I had constant spotting with it and hated that! A year later I developed UC.

I wish it was constipation, that would be awesome! Although I tend to have that when I'm in remission. I'd rather have that though then gas and bloating all day, and always feeling like I have to go.

When I get my period, usually on the first day, maybe the 2nd day too, I usually have abdominal cramps and a couple of really big poops (my theory is that the muscle cramping in by belly is just pushing out everything - menstrual fluid, poop, whatever's in there... lovely!). This is the way my periods have always been: cramps, blood, and lots of poop. But I had never had blood IN the poop until I was diagnosed with UC 4 years ago. So now that I have UC, sometimes I think the UC is worse when I am menstruating, but not always, it doesn't seem consistent. So overall, I don't know if, or how much, my period affects the UC.

well....the good news is, women with IBD are likely to go through menopause ~4 years earlier than those without. BTW, from an evolutionary standpoint, women never bled every month b/c they were either pregnant or nursing. One school of thought out there is that it is therefore not natural to have a period every month. Who needs them? As others noted already losing enough blood as it is and yes they do seem to make flares worse

I agree, I wouldn't even care if I had menopause in my early 40s! Although I'm guessing the hormonal changes would just make my hair fall out more so I don't really want that to happen. I am almost 40 though (a few months), who knows. It already seems like my hormones are changing since I really didn't even have my period last week at all. One thing I like about being on the pill, my hormones are always steady. And I think I may take the advice of just not even trying to have my period anymore. Moss, my ob/gyn also says it isn't natural to have your period.

I have horrible periods during which my colitis is always acting up (bleeding), but i also have bleeding in the half of my menstrual cycle. In my case there's a definite link between menstruation and uc

MNBeachgal, I strongly disagree, I'd rather have D than constipation (which I've been dealing with) at least with D you get to feel the relief of something coming out and don't generally have to work as hard to get it out...I swear my eyeballs are going to shoot right out of my head and through the wall one of these times with all the straining I've had to do.

Canada Mark, you might also be interested in knowing that pregnancy hormones have caused many of us to develop our IBD as well....I was fine until 18 months after having my first baby...granted there were the perianal crohn's skin tags present before I got pregnant but pregnancy made them worse and woke the disease up in me internally (18 months after having baby #1), I was much happier when I didn't even know I had CD before getting pregnant and only having the perianal crohn's skin tags come and go on their own with no rhyme or reason (was told by every doc that they were just hemmies). I'm sure it was going on birth control in my teen years that started the perianal crohn's skin tags (my bowels still behaved normally until after first baby). This disease is disgusting.