How can I "lesson" menstrual cramps? :(
 

I want to send back my monthly gift...haha
I took pamprin for pain and had been laying on my back with a laptop on my belly and now I am sitting with a heating pad on my back-it seems to help.
I don't even want to think about exercise today! I don't want to move...I don't want to eat, but I am just eating light meals.
This always happens...usually. Sometimes I have "good" periods and sometimes not.
I've been googling how to relieve cramps, trying to find some ideas. For the most part I do eat healthy-lean meats, fruits & veggies and try to limit processed foods. Sometimes I eat sweets, but try to make it minimal (like 90% of healthy food and 10% of the time I might have something) but it isn't a daily thing.
I eat lots of fish and veggies, and this week I was GOOD with eating. So I don't understand...
And they say exercise, but I do that too.
I can't imagine how I would feel right now if I haven't been exercising, eating fish/omega 3s, veggies and fruits and just ate junk all day long...yikes!
Any suggestions? :(

Unfortunately I'm in the same boat. I've been doing all the things I'm "supposed" to do to relieve cramps but I'm laying here miserable and in pain. I would also like to send back my monthly gift!!!! :-p I'm going to keep my eye on this thread and hope that someone has a new suggestion!

Hope you're feeling better soon!

I swear by vitamin E! I learned this little trick from my mother years ago. If I remember I start taking it a few days before I start but if not, when I start I pop anywhere from 8-16 a day for the whole time I am having my period. I don't know how but these babies work. I still have to take my Midol but the pain is soooo much less. I buy the big bottle of 400I.U. from Costco so they last me almost a year and I always have them on hand.
Hope this helps, it sure has made my "gift" more tolerable.

Thanks Gelene, I will try the Vitamin E for next month!
Tiffany, I called customer service but they put me on hold. Apparently there is a long line of other women wanting to send back the same gift...;)

Go on The Pill, it's a godsend. My cramps and super-heavy periods literally used to cripple me for three days every month but now, there is no pain and my periods are so light I haven't had to buy shares in Bodyform :P

And it helped me lose weight because it put my hormones under control and stopped me from overeating due to PMS. It really is the answer to all women's problems.

I have found Evening Primrose Oil capsules very helpful, and sometimes magnesium.

Some other things which have helped me over several decades:

Drinking less caffeine
No sugar or artificial sweeteners
Fewer animal products and those organic
Regular exercise and sleep
Drinking more water

Movement and exercise to release tension in the pelvic area

Removing stress factors from my thinking and lifestyle

Staying warm enough, using a hot water bottle or heating pad
Keeping my feet and ankles warm enough
More naps and rests
Curling up with a blanket and a pillow behind my back

Having someone kindly hold my lower back for a little while

Really comfortable shoes which support my feet well

All the best to you! :)

Really? I have always heard that the pill causes weight gain...so Ive been afraid of trying that...:?:

I seem to try to do some of these already, but thanks. I never drink coffee or soda/caffeine anymore. I have been avoiding foods with things like HFCS and unnatural sugars unless it is a cheat (I try to be good 90% of the time)
I drink a ton of water each and every day. I try to exercise 5 days a week, but I do get plenty of sleep...like I said, I would hate to feel the pain if I haven't been doing all of this stuff!

Dagny, I wish I knew something else that would help. Am sending you lots of good thoughts. :hug:

Some women do find it easier to gain weight on the pill - maybe even most women, but it's certainly not universal. Many women find the opposite (and I think it's often not listed as a side effect, only because it's usually complaints that are reported, not "perks").

I'm another person who found birth control helped me lose weight and control hunger. Withour birth control, I have severe cramping, extra heavy, extra long periods (up to nine days), a short cycle (23 to 25 days from period start to next period start), and severe mood swings, cravings, and out-of-control hunger.

You know that lapband commercial where the woman says lapbaqnd turns her hunger "lion" into a kitten - well my hunger "lion" wasn't calm like the one in the commercial. My hunger lion was rabid and raging during the days just before and during my period.

For most of my post-pubescent life, I would gain weight during my period and it would take consciencious dieting just to keep from gaining every month. At best, I'd have a 5 to 7 day "window" to lose weight, because I'd gain weight during my period, take two weeks to get the gain lost, and might be able to lose a little bit in the remainder of the month before the cycle would start all over again.

I complained to doctors, but none had a solution for me. Occasionally a doctor would suggest that birth control "might help," but that there was also a possibility I would gain wieght.

For a long time I wasn't willing to risk that possibility, but eventually got desperate enough to try birth control.

WOW, what a difference. It was astonishing. I no longer felt like I was going to go mad with hunger every month. I still had to be vigilant, but I didn't feel like a trapped, caged, wild animal with rabid hunger. It was manageable.

Unfortunately my medicare prescription drug coverage recently dropped coverage of the birth control that was the most effective. So I had to switch to another birth control - which is still better than being without bc, but isn't quite as effective as the previous pills.

i also had to accept defeat and go on the pill. between being so heavy i couldn't leave the house, and being in so much blinding pain that i would be doubled up on the floor vomiting and shaking every month... it was just too much. with the pill- i have a little bit of spotting every month, and like quarterly a real period. it's pretty great- other then the fear of going off it if i ever want to try to have children.
i also taking vitamin E for fibrocystic breast changes. i wonder if vit. E helps with cysts in general- because that was what was causing me all the pain and bleeding.

a friend of mine has it as bad as me but refuses to do the pill. she went to a pain management class and it helped a lot. she just takes a lot of ibuprofen the few days before it's scheduled to start- and has some vicoden for the really bad day or two.

actually, excersize helps mine.

The only 'side effect' the Pill has given me is that my boobs are staying stubbornly big. They refuse to shrink even though I've lost weight.

I think it depends on which pill you have and how much any overating is related to hormones. ALL my food issues were related to my hormones so the little pill was absolutely magical for me. And it's made me a much nicer person, actually. I'm not megab*tch once a month, lol.

I'd give it a shot if I were you. If it doesn't work, or causes problems, then you can always go off it. You're not written into a contract to take it for the rest of your life, after all. But I found it really, really helped me.

HIJACK What's with "lesson", Dagny? Did you intend a play on words? END HIJACK

I had really bad cramping when I hit puberty and after highschool I joined the army and went through basic training-all that running around and PT really helped and then I went on the pill which helped even more.

the weight gain thing-(making an assumption- you already now you have a problem with weight or you wouldn't be posting to 3fatchicks) just keep track of your eating and exercise and see if you do have any weight gain.
My weight gain came from basically over eating and under moving. But I did have Norplant for 5 years and when I got that removed I miracously lost 10 pounds in 1 month without changing anything.