no boys allowed in the room!!!!

the plummeting estrogen during my period means that my pain tolerance decreases

oh hey, I think this may explain something I hadn't actually noticed was related. thank you roxy and nurse friend! uh sorry about your pain and possible arthritis though.

wait does that mean that estrogen makes us tolerant of pain/tuff?

iirc it's changes in oestrogen levels that make us less tolerant of pain, rather than presence or absence per se

yeah i think that's true

OH man yes I get major joint and back pain, and also sometimes cold and flu symptoms! :(

I figure its cause ive caned my liver so hard, my hormones are screwed up.

nah, I put my liver through hell, and I have so few symptoms of PMS that it's almost always a total surprise when i start bleeding

My estrogen droppage leads to abdominal/back pain and migraines; I now take low-dose estrogen during the droppage period to help with that. Still present are the need to eat everything that is not rapidly running away from me during the week before my period, and the diarrhea for 1 day (which my gyn says is a progesterone affect, and was apologetic that she couldn't offer anything to help with that).

Also for ladies who are not pregnant or wanting to become so, I have found it super-helpful to have a gyn who does not do OB; these docs are all over the birth control/period management/menopausal stuff, without any babby distractions--they get to focus entirely on non-preggos and their problemos.

no joint pain that I've noticed. I get major boob pain, like to the point where it hurts to walk around and I feel like I want to just collapse at the waist...and this year in particular my fking cramps and mood swings have been off the chain. Period itself is over and done in 3 days but fuuccck me the leadup is like, FUCK OFF.

Yeah my boobs hurt enough that I can't lie on my stomach to sleep :(

it's like living on the street where they hold the Rose Bowl Parade and hating football

I was needlessly cryptic upthread so yeah, I get back/shoulder pain days 1-2 and sometimes the day or two before and just generally feel stiff and achey all over, like it's hard work holding my body up straight.

I think. I haven't had a period since I came off the pill 2-3 months ago. Apparently this happens? But I do feel like my hormone levels are currently all over the place, and my previous post was me realising maybe that is why my foot problems have seemed to be getting worse lately.

i used to have no symptoms at all except about an hour of light cramping, then 2 days of bleeding. this gradually got worse until now, when i basically have one day a month that i can only lay flat on the couch with a heating pad on my abdomen and ice on my joints. still have a really short period, though. one of my older friends sad "it just gets worse and worse as you get older" - i'm sure that's not everyone's experience (obv) but i can't imagine the joint thing getting worse and i do not want to believe!

Get checked out for fibroids, maybe? That's definitely part of the problem with me - my doc says they exacerbate any discomfort, particularly as we age.

Hmm, sometimes I get joint/body aches, haven't noticed if it was PMS related. I am always hungry, farty, sweaty, and sore-boobed.

My period lasts 7/8 days but I feel like the cramps haven't gotten worse over the years.

My period has become increasingly terrible over the past year, to the point where I now go through 36 super plus tampons in less than 2 days, I have to miss work, I get horrible fatigue. Get this checked out, ladies, because I found out I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which was contributing to the heavy periods. Also, bonus: fibroids and polyps. I also have low estrogen and low progesterone. Basically, I am a wreck. I am strictly gluten-free, dairy free, and I feel a lot better and my period was a lot lighter this last cycle.

36 in 2 days! that sucks

wow, suzy and h2, you've convinced me to go to the doc. i've wondered if fibroids might be a factor.

I have 6 fibroids! I am trying to decide on names for them.

not "the duggars" !!

i wonder if i have a fibroid -- sometimes i get this really sharp pain in my ovary area before my period but i have never had it checked out

I am having a hysteroscopy in two days to scrape out polyps and fibroids. Super stoked. No, really. I cannot wait for this fucking period to ease up.

no kidding -- that sounds brutal and deeply unfun, like every waking moment stress 1x a month
good luck at the doc!

All women should get their thyroids checked. I had thyroid cancer in 2000 and that has made me super aware of thyroids and necks. Told two of my friends years ago I thought they should get their thyroids checked but they thought I was just all about thyroids and they were fine. I just noticed necks getting thicker, hair getting thinner, they'd complain about periods being heavier, being weird.... Finally they were checked at a health fair and one had Graves the other Hashimotos. My friend with Graves lost weight suddenly after a bad break up but it just looked odd to me, not the usual lack of appetite due to sadness. My friend with Hashimotos had years of bull shit trying to see why her periods were so heavy and painful and always got the run around, told it was probably cysts, given birth control pills....

I went gluten free despite never having had a thyroid disease, the two go hand and hand. Had a terrible stomach ache for 10 hours and it felt like I swallowed jalapenos. It burned and radiated. Went to see a doctor that day and did all these tests, asked for a Celiac test, just out of the blue, and I tested positive.Being gluten free has made a huge difference in everything.

yeah, I second what Tera is saying - both me and my sister have Hashi's, and now I am reading about how like 40% of people with Thyroid probs are undiagnosed. Even if your TSH is normal, you can still have problems. My TSH was 3.4 (technically "normal" according to some labs), but my thyroid antibodies are sky high!

i got a baseline test done a few years ago just so there would be something to compare to should anything go awry. i'll make the appt but i have no idea what to ask for. what tests should i ask for when i go to the doc?

Thyroid antibodies
Free T4
Free T3
Reverse T3

That should do it.

Also I think most women should get a full hormone panel. Free Testosterone, Total Testosterone, Estrogen and Progesterone tested on Day 21.

ok thanks! seriously.

ALSO if you can, Cortisol and DHEA. I know this is a crazy amount of testing. I ended up seeing a hormone specialist who doesn't take insurance because I was tired of jumping from doc to doc. This new woman I am seeing is incredible. Every visit I have with her is like two hours.

omg
what a nightmare
i am really bad at going to the doctor
thanks for the tips!

Basically for the past six months every doctor has dismissed my problems. A Gynecologist dismissed my heavy periods by telling me it was just because I am overweight. All she could offer me was a birth control pill. Then my primary doctor just told me I was anemic and nothing else was wrong with my labs. Still, though, I had horrible fatigue, hair loss, extremely heavy periods, difficulty losing weight. Then I went to an endocrinologist specializing in reproductive medicine and she told me my thyroid labs were normal and that I didn't have PCOS because I didn't resemble a typical PCOS patient.

So now I went to this new woman, and yeah, I have a thyroid problem and I also have PCOS and it was because no one was doing the heavy labwork to really uncover it.

Wow! That is all exactly what my friend was told!

Ive had tests for thyroid stuff, pcos, fybroids, all those things that case this shit and nerp, I have none of it. I'm just cursed with a broken body for no reason. YAY :(

what are your symptoms trayce?

Flulike symptoms and cramps up to a full week before my period... really painful cramping for about 2-3 days during, sometimes insanely bad PMS mood issues as well (uncontrollable anger mostly, ugh). Sometimes I even cramp quite badly mid-cycle. I'm not on any BC at all, dunno if that does or doesnt help. I mean its good I dont have pcos or anything, but a little frustrating :)I've always just chalked it all up to not treating my health too well.

I mean I even get an actual fever and sore throat 1-3 days before my period, how the hell does that work!?

sounds like low progesterone to me.

I've also had mysterious flu-like symptoms off and on for years. My sister and I both have. Sometimes I'll just feel like crap for no reason, and I'll go home from work but then feel fine a few hours later. Now I am wondering if it was when antibodies were attacking my thyroid.

Hmm I'll look into that further, thanks!

I had horrible fatigue, hair loss, extremely heavy periods, difficulty losing weight.

this is me

well, I don't want to make you bummed out, but if you have rheumatoid arthritis symptoms (that's an autoimmune disorder), it's very likely you may have another (like a thyroid problem). Definitely get it checked out!

Unfortunately, we all have to be a little pushy to get the care we want. Your standard GP will only test for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), and call it a day if it's in the normal range. Really, though, to get the complete picture you need to look at symptoms and the labs, not just labs only--and more than just TSH. Ideally, you need all the ones I listed above to see what's going on.

I finally looked into this seriously because I had a vaginal ultrasound in July on Day 27 of my cycle and I had not yet ovulated (the doctor called out the fact that she could see the egg hangin' out in my ovary still). Two days later my period started. Sooo, I had definite confirmation that I hadn't ovulated at all. I knew that wasn't really a very good thing for someone 33 to be experiencing.

Quick aside: two good cartoons re street harassment that I've been shown or stumbled across recently!

http://the-toast.net/2013/08/21/suggestions-for-street-harassment/

http://toastcdn.manderleyllc.netdna-cdn.com/okay/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/punished.jpg

I'm just going to link to this one, after seeing how small the previous img is. http://www.ihollaback.org/resources/street-harassment-etiquette/

I love that Toast comic so much.

I knooooooooow! "They look really practical but also stylish!" ftw.

OMG there's a link in the comments of the Toast comic to someone's FB where theres one of ThoseGuys that there ALWAYS FREAKING IS who has to pull the "but not all men are like thaaaaaaaaaaaat" whine.

Jam a fedora up it, ya knob.

Ergh my grammar was all over the place there but you get the idea.

haha yes I know exactly what you're saying. The universal language of Fedora Guys.

I don't even know what Pretty Pretty Princess is, fyi.

It's one of those "Huh, I am getting pretty old..." things where the kids I follow on Twitter reference cultural touchstones that I've never even heard of.

Actually I didn't know who Lisa Frank was until I looked her up a few months ago because somebody kept referencing her on a blog I read.