For the ladies

I don't mean only ladies can read this, or this only affects ladies and am really interested to hear men's responses also, especially if their wife/partner has crohns.

My question is in regard to periods (I'm not sure if a post has been made on this topic previously, as there are so many posts to read!!!)

I'm just wondering, when you get your period, does your crohns flare up more? I find I get a lot of the dreaded D even when in remission with my period.

Just wondering if others suffer with the same thing

(sorry, not a delightful topic, but neither is our disease!!) hehe

I too seem to notice more severe D around that time as well. As if dealing with one was not already enough!!

I get the exact same thing and always have. Damn hormones :voodoo:

YES!!! It always happens to me. It got so bad to where I started taking a birth control where I only had a period every 3-4 months. That helped a lot.

Yes, huge! The only time I didn't have lots of pain is when I was on high doses of pred! Since I was a teen, major pains.

Here is a link you may be interested in...........

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=12115

Dusty.

Yes! I've found this to be the case as well.

Honestly i'm going against the crowd and saying no here. I'm also on The Pill so my bleeds aren't proper periods, and I have them every 7th week.

Yep...I do notice a change in bathroom habits....

Yep I have more D and I have more pain as well.

Birth control or not and remission or not, I've always had this problem.

Ditto for me. It struck me as odd that the pain and other period-related symptoms were getting worse in recent years -- now I can guess that it might well be related to the gradual development of Crohn's. I use Yasmin daily and do not take the 1 week break each month. I take the occasional break to prevent unexpected break-through bleeding -- or sometimes don't and simply keep an eye out for when this might happen
(usually I'll have some cramping as as warning sign). Life without a monthly crampfest and 2-4 days in bed is pretty darn good, especially since Crohn's on its own is plenty enough to deal with sometimes!

treehugger, I love your chakra chart!! Are you into the new age stuff? I have both reiki levels 1 & 2

AH! my period is WAY worse with a flare. i seriously am useless during this week. i have horrible pains and lots of D. the pains of being a female...

Thanks girls, I was hoping it wasn't in my head!! hehe

I am finding the older I'm getting the worse the pain is getting. Last period was the worst I had
DAMN EVE EATING THE APPLE!! hehe I joke!!

Yeah Crohn's Doll, I do love new age stuff. Only problems was when my friends and I started getting into it (when we were 14) we were classed as witches! It wasn't as acceptable as it is now hehe.

Reiki *drools* I love that stuff! I've had a few treatments of it and it's so relaxing. First treatment I had I cried lol
I have agoraphobia now, so kind of hard to get to the reiki lady!

Thanks everyone for your responses and thank you so much Dusty for the link.
I figured there would be other threads, but there's just so much to read!

Thanks girls, good to know I'm not the only one

Yes, but all of my friends without Crohn's have softer, more frequent bm's during their time of the month. I actually did an informal poll at work.

Tree hugger, I'm sorry to hear you are in a bout of agoraphobia, I've been there myself. I hope you can get out to see the reiki lady soon, baby steps. Crohn's is difficult enough and with agoraphobia I know what it's like.

CDC has contraception advice for some ill women
by Mike Stobbe
ATLANTA - U.S. health officials have for the first time released contraception safety guidelines for more than 1 million women who have had weight-loss surgery or have certain medical conditions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, released Friday, say it's safe for women with medical conditions to use most contraceptives.

But the CDC issued some warnings, including some concerning birth control pills, the most popular form of contraception for American women. The pill may be less effective for women who have had one kind of weight-loss surgery because the procedure may leave them less able to absorb the active ingredient.

Another warning: Some women with inflammatory bowel disease have a higher risk of blood clots. Those women generally should not use the estrogen-containing form of the pill, which may further increase their risk.

The CDC borrowed from international guidelines, but also wrote new advice for women with certain conditions more common in the United States, such as inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

CDC officials say women should talk to their doctors with questions about contraception. Many doctors may have felt uncomfortable prescribing contraception to women with some of these conditions, said Dr. Herbert Peterson, a University of North Carolina professor of maternal and child health.

But the new guidelines should answer doctors' questions about potential risks from certain forms of birth control. That, in turn, may make it easier for more women to get birth control, added Peterson, who led a panel of experts that helped CDC write the guidelines.



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Hi Ladies, I posted this before but in case you didn't get to read it I reposted it again fyi:

I found this article and just wanted to share it with you.

I don't know if you are aware of this as well but I also learned this when I had my stroke 5 yrs. ago from all of the doctors (including the residents) who took care of me--- When an IBD pt. flares, their blood tends to become "sticky" because of the inflammation in their body thus, it is STRONGLY advisable for women to AVOID being on any type of hormonal birth control as it can cause the blood to clot faster. I had told them when I was admitted, that I don't take them b/c I had known about how dangerous this was from my GI and Gyn & I only use NFP because it is safer and won't interfere at all w/my Crohn's medication. They were relieved to hear this as my clot was 12" long on my brain and had hemorrhaged out. Had I been on the pill, I would have died per the one doctor who oversaw my case as I was in very bad shape in ICU.

hope this helps. take care. Gutless Wonderwoman :rosette2:

Woah, thanks so much for posting this, Wonderwoman. I will peruse the literature and bring it in to discuss with my GP ASAP.

Thank you GW for passing this information along and telling us about your experience, it's invaluable.

Thanks again,
Dusty

Thank you so much Wonderwoman!
what an experience you had

I was aware I wasn't able to take the pill due to those reasons, as my doctor was pressuring me to take b/c and I read up on it and said 'umm, not sure I should!' lol


Thanks again for your advice, absolutely invaluable (as Dusty said) for people that just trust what's said to them by doctors

Thanks CrohnsDoll
This forum is certainly helping <3

Dusty put me onto this thread...thankfully! I'm only new to this forum (and this disease).

Yes, I get more D and pain - in fact I know it's just about to start when I get a massive case of the D's!!!

Will discuss this with my doc next time - definitely something to consider!

I always had D with my period, even when I was a teenager and long before UC and Crohn's appeared in my life.

I haven't had a period in 9 months. Not sure why. My gyn wants to give me meds to bring on a period and I keep putting it off!

Ditto for me aswell, was off of the pill for 3 months now and my last period cramps nearly killed me. So i started taking them again, i just cant suffer like that every month, not with my line of studies.

Dras, have you tried taking a muscle relaxer for the cramps? I get really bad cramps as well but have found that by taking a muscle relaxer for the uterus contractions, that really helps with the pain. Also, for the stomach spasms, you can try Bentyl (it's a generic brand of Dicyclomine).

Also, I don't know if your GI told you this but folks with IBD shouldn't be taking anything like Ibuprofin, Aspirin, or Aleve as it can cause a serious GI bleed. I'm speaking from experience. The only thing we can take is Tylenol. If that doesn't take the edge off your menstrual cramps, you can ask your Gyn for something stronger such as Tylenol 3 w/codeine, Darvocet, Demerol, or Oxycontin seeing as that time of the month does cause "hormonal flare ups". Be sure to talk to your Gyn about taking stronger pain medications though so it won't cause any interactions with the meds you take.

Feel better.

I've taken them a few times and it works wonders, cause Lord knows taking a tylenol doesn't help me at all. Thanx for reminding me of it. Isn't there perhaps another hormonal pill that doesn't cause blood clotts? I will have to ask my gyn and my GI about this.

Not that I'm aware of. The only thing I do know is that I always make sure my GI, Gyn, and hematologist are up-to-date on the latest information when it comes to women's health issues and that everyone is on the same page before they start messing with my female parts. lol

LOL!!! Thanx for the advice

Ohh oxycontin scares me!
My mums was on that and was crazy (well vauge, couldn't hold a convo)
Scared the bejesus out of me!

Based on the advice of GW (Thank You!), I did some reading about estrogen-based contraceptives, which I use to control painful periods. I took this information to my GP. She isn't concerned about me using estrogen just based on having Crohn's -- however, my blood pressure has recently been skyrocketing (to the point that there was question about whether it would be safe for me to have a double-balloon colonoscopy this past week). For that reason, she was receptive to hearing about my preference that I go off the estrogen. Might as well do whatever possible to lower the blood pressure -- and considering I already do the exercise, low salt, etc. things, and since I can't just stop the Prednisone (which is probably the largest contributing factor), stopping the birth control is one factor that I *can* change.

I'm going to try Depo Provera, a 4x/yearly progesterone shot that will help with period pain and may stop the periods altogether. There is risk of bone density loss, so I will be continuing with the calcium/Vit D supplements. Else, my GP anticipates that this could be a good solution. Have others tried Depo Provera? Am interested in hearing about experiences. Thanks!

Isn't having softer stools usual during periods? I know my mum gets that, and my sister, they have no IBD. I've always had it, long before I was diagnosed.

I get horrible diareah durring my period flare or no flare.

@ wonderwoman what is NFP

I talked to my gyn about having a partial histerectomy as I am 38 and have 3 kids but he said because of the crohns it would cause way too much scarring and wouldn't do it. But he said there is a procedure called essure that is safe for people with crohns.

Hi Chrismas: Yup, soft stools are relatively common during periods. Whether an individual has Crohn's or not, though, debilitating pain across several days and heavy bleeding (needing more than 1 pad/hour) can be viewed as clinically significant symptoms. In my case, I had brought those symptoms under control w/ estrogen before the Crohn's started up, but now they are worse than ever.

dustyd, have you looked into endometrial ablation? I'm looking into that with the help of my NFP practitioner. She told me that it would help w/the heavy bleeding I'm having and would even assist with the CD symptoms and reduce the pain to the point of it being managable --little to no bleeding.

Did you read the risks associated with Essure? It states that if you have it, you can't be around a microwave device and that they didn't do many studies of women who've undergone this procedure with MRIs to a certain point (folks with IBD go through so many tests I don't think they thought of this ) so ask your Gyn if it's safe to have it done and still have MRIs, CT scans, and Xrays done. Heck, go to the drug company's site and down load the brochure. Better safe than sorry. Good luck to you.
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Here is part of what I found on the Essure site:

The use of microwave energy near metallic implants has been shown to pose significant risk of serious injury to patients. Use of microwave endometrial ablation devices near the Essure micro-inserts therefore should be avoided.

This has always been the case for me. i believe it's related to your hormones running amok during you period.

Hi, all! I'm new, but this definitely caught my attention.

I've found that when any muscles down there cramp or tense up - from my period, being cold, or really having to pee - my Crohn's will tweak for just a little bit. It's as if one muscle is attached to another, and if one isn't happy then none of them will be. My Crohns' just kind of teeters between how I'm doing at that moment and something a few degrees worse. Taunting really!

Hope this helps!

Jessica

I agree with almost everyone else - D is definitely worse before/during my period. I did notice it was a little better when I was on the pill, but I'm off of it and won't go back on... so, guess I'll just have to deal like everyone else.

My period really really makes my Crohn's act up, to the point where I am totally housebound. My ER visits almost always coincide with my period.