You marvel at your friends who barely bat an eye when they get periods, simply shrugging and getting on with it. Your periods, on the other hand, come on like an attack, leaving you in pain and unable to function all that well.
Called dysmenorrhea, painful periods are quite common, and 80% of women have some experience in this arena. More serious is the fact that up to 10% of women experience periods that deliver enough pain to disrupt their lives.
If you dread your periods each month because of high levels of pain, you’re in the right place. At Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley, our experienced team, which is led by board-certified OB/GYN Dr. Fernando Otero, routinely helps women to get to the bottom of painful periods, and here’s what we want you to know.
Let’s first look at why there’s any discomfort during your menstrual cycles. During each cycle, the lining of your uterus (your endometrium) thickens with cells, tissues, and blood to prepare to host a fertilized egg. When that egg doesn’t arrive, this lining flushes out to prepare for the next round of ovulation.
To help push the lining out, your uterus produces hormone-like chemicals called prostaglandins that cause your uterus to contract, creating menstrual cramps.
For many women, these contractions are uncomfortable, especially during the first day or two of the period. But, they’re manageable and not all that disruptive.
For other women, these cramps are severe and cause debilitating pain that prevents them from functioning well, which is the topic we’re addressing here. In addition to the pain, many of these women experience bloating, nausea, dizziness, headache, and diarrhea.
The first thing we want to determine is whether your painful periods are primary or secondary. With primary dysmenorrhea, it means that the discomfort is tied solely to the prostaglandins that are causing contractions in your uterus. Women with primary dysmenorrhea have likely had the condition since they first started their periods.
Secondary dysmenorrhea is a painful period caused by indirect issues — often an issue with one of your reproductive organs — that affect your menstrual cycles and periods.
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the more common culprits behind secondary dysmenorrhea, which include:
Sometimes, a gastrointestinal issue, such as Crohn’s disease, can lead to more painful periods.
As you might have guessed, we first need to do some investigative work to figure out what’s causing your painful periods.
If we find it’s primary dysmenorrhea, the goal becomes treating the pain during your periods, and medications like ibuprofen work well in reducing and controlling prostaglandins. We can also try certain hormonal birth controls that work well in regulating menstrual cycles and reducing cramping and bleeding.
We can also recommend some great steps to take at home, such as heating pads and light exercise.
If an underlying condition causes your painful periods, then we will target our treatments toward that condition to find you relief.
In most cases, we can find conservative solutions for painful periods that can help you weather your menstrual cycles more comfortably. In less common cases, women undergo an endometrial ablation or even a hysterectomy to put an end to painful periods, once and for all.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s first sit down together to get to the bottom of your painful periods. To get that ball rolling, please contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule an appointment.
