New to Forum! Not new to Crohn's... Q for females

[curiouskitten007]

Hi all, I am new to any type of crohn's forum usage but am at the point where I need some help. I'm 24, and had crohn's for about 15 years. I can't say I was ever healthy enough to know exactly what would trigger my flares or what wasn't because I was so sick for a great part of my life, on and off meds and trying different diets. I'm finally at a point where my medication seems to have a pretty good grasp on the disease and the "norm" is when I am not sick.

Here's my big Q that I wonder if any other's have experienced, specifically any other women with CD. Without fail, EVERY MONTH my period will trigger a flare. Maybe has to do with the hormone fluctuations? But my body will become completely inflamed and I will flare for a full week and then take another week or so to get back to "normal". My doctor is talking about having me use Pred every month just to combat it. But I have to use Pred enough to combat other bad flares and coming on and off it all the time is just too much for my mental state to handle.

My thinking is I need to find a good OB-GYN but that has knowledge of IBD and how everything is working together. I'm not currently on hormonal BC because honestly I was trying to keep my meds down to a minimum. But maybe there would be one that would help regulate the hormone swings that are causing flares?

So my main questions for the female CD community out there is 1: Have any of you noticed a direct correlation with your periods and flaring? And if so, have you found anything that helps?
And 2: How to go about finding an ob-gyn that will be knowledgable in the IBD field as well.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I definitely have a bit of an increase in symptoms during that time of the month, but not a full-blown flare. Usually just a bit of an increase in cramping and diarrhea and that's it, nothing too awful and I can definitely deal with it just with my usual go-to things like using my heating pad for the cramps and eating safe foods to keep the diarrhea to a minimum. I agree that it would be good for you to find a specialist who can figure out what exactly is going on and how best to treat it (throwing a bunch of pred at it every single month sounds awful!). There could be something like endometriosis going on but it could probably be a number of other things as well. What specifically are your symptoms each month when this happens?

What country/area are you located in? We have a doctor directory on the forum which might be a good place to start. If you're in the US and have insurance, you might also want to see which local doctors accept your insurance and what their specialties are and narrow things down from there. You could also talk to your primary care doctor and see if they know of any specialists that they'd recommend.