Girly Issues

[fireheart]

Guys, if you haven't already done so, leave. now. you have been warned

So whenever I get a visit from Aunt Flo, my cramps tend to be fairly painful. More so if I'm at work, and generally in both cases, accompanied by lethargy and tiredness, on occasion nausea.

Basically, all I'm asking is can I get some advice on how to relieve the cramps? I do have a few exercises, but they aren't as helpful as I first thought.

[Becks]

Pamprin? Usually works for me...

Perhaps chocolate milk and mild exercise?

[sarasquirrel]

mine are always horrible at work for some reason

i usually take tylenol and slap on a heating pad. and just keep tylentol in my system for the day

[JuniorMintz]

Drugs and chocolate aside, yoga works pretty well for me. Especially any pose that has you stretching your stomach or back muscles.

[Bright_Star]

Midol & chocolate...mmmmmm.

[katie kaboom]

Well, i used to get really horrible cramps before i went on the birth control pill. Once i went on it the cramps were a lot more bearable. So i don't know if that's an option or not for you, but it certainly helped me.

There's also those Thermacare heat pads. You can get them for cramps now too and they work really well.

[AdminAssistant]

I have a prescription for Naproxen - 1 of those basically equals 3 Aleve (or so the doctor told me). Works really well, and I only really cramp for one day anyway.

[blas]

Before on I went on the shot and never had to deal with a period or life altering cramps again, I used to use my mom's old school heating pad, lots and lots of Pamprin or Midol, and I did a lot of stretching.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Hot water bottle on your tummy helps, but I have found that nothing works nearly as well as exercise. I know, ironic that that helps when all you really want to do is curl up in a ball. But if you can make yourself go for a walk or something, it really does help.

[ArcticChicken]

A combination of naproxen sodium (aleve) and a calcium and magnesium pill usually helped me, before I went on the pill.

Neither calcium nor naproxen by themselves helped much, and I have no idea why the combination does, but I went from being completely unable to work to being perfectly fine when I added the calcium.

Also, caffeine and dark chocolate, obviously.

[KellyHabersham]

Excedrin works quite well for me.

[fireheart]

Thanks guys. I was just wondering for those who've had the implant (called Implanon in Australia, dunno what it's called overseas) does it make the cramps more bearable?
They're worse at work, dunno if that's linked to stress or not. One stage I think I nearly passed out, but I've been eating more iron-rich foods around that time of the month since then so that's helped.

[Riesie]

I had the implant put in three years ago, and two of my friends di at around the same time. For me, it was a miracle worker, andperiods became a lot more bearable (and infrequent, although this causes it's own issues since you never really know when you're expecting one..). I thought it was great, and really made my life a lot easier.

Neither of my friends lasted more than 3 months on it, and one of them spent the entire time menstruating and with severe cramps. They both had really bad mood swings and were generally miserable.

They were both older than me (I'm 23 now), and were told when they went to get it that it had been found to be more suitable for younger women, so (if I remember your age correctly) you'd probably do better than they did. Might be worth a few more months of trying to use exercise and the other suggestions people have made to see haow effective they could be, just in case. I don't know if you have the option, but I always found standing behind the till, rather than sitting was better for me.

[Eireann]

I've been taking a lot of Vitamin C lately, with the unexpected result that Flo doesn't give me hell the way she used to - and I've tried MANY different things. I highly recommend it.

[SengaKitty]

I'm on the implanon implant, and depending on the month (and my stress level) no the cramps aren't nearly as bad, just in the beginning more frequent. Now that I've been on it nearly a year, the periods seemed to have evened themselves out. I will say i do get some terrible mood swings..

As for cramps without the implant, naproxen is god's gift to women!