Girls only question?

Has anyone heard of menstruation pain treated succesfully as TMS?

Since I stopped the bc pill, my monthly cramps have been increasingly bad. And at the moment I'm in hardly any muscle pain, but the cramps are really horrible. I take a lot of painkillers, and then still it's terrible. I feel sick! When I don't take painkillers, it's unbearable.

Could this be TMS? I've had these terrible pains since I was 12. I started taking the bc pill because of it, at a young age. I don't want to take all those hormones anymore, but I will have to if this goes on... It's not compatible with my profession. I had an audition today. It wasnt a great day...

Who has experience with this?

 

Hi Ruth. I used to get cramps many years ago but haven't in years.

I'd check in to see what Dr. Christiane Northrup and Dr. Lissa Rankin say about female issues, which is their specialty. They are both very insightful (and have websites too). I do think it could be something we are conditioned to believe happens to women, and/or stress-related.

Warm hugs,

Lori

 

Thank you very much Lori, I will check it out!!!!

 

Hi Ruth;

I too used to suffer horrible cramps. But there wasn't really anything I could do but get through it. I think now there are suggestions out there ( as Lori said) that will help. You could be missing a mineral or something else that would help with this. Is it TMS? Interesting question. But first check out anything physical that could be the issue. I wouldn't want hormones either. Good luck and hope you feel better soon.

BG

 

Hi Ruth,

Hard to know. I have always felt that the constant barrage of commercials for PMS meds, period pain relief pills, etc. sets us up to believe that something normal like the menstrual cycle is catastrophic and needs medical intervention (and also feeds into the belief that women are weaker). I remember reading about an anthropologist who travelled to a non-Western country and the women there were shocked that anyone would have cramps or pain from periods.

All that being said, I've had some pretty serious non-TMS gynecological issues over the years like fibroid tumors and endometriosis. Unlike TMS these weren't painful but caused other problems. Endo. does seem to have a strong mind-body connection but is not TMS (I asked my TMS doctor).

Personally as I never want kids I've just taken the pill forever with no side effects...but if you don't like taking it maybe try acupuncture/Chinese medicine--that seems to have pretty good success with treating gynecological issues and is less invasive. It's probably good to see your primary care doctor or gynecologist first just to rule out anything more serious.

~ Veronica

 

V, Dr. Northrup speaks about both conditions in her books. Very interesting ideas as to their causes. I remember her on tv when someone asked about their fibroids and she had a few probing questions for the person. . .

Hugs!

 

I don't have any symptoms now but I'll still take a hug

 

Hi Ruth, I'm not sure about cramps, but my daughter had severe endometriosis the entire year she was in an extremely stressful job. She quit the job and it was gone within two weeks. Maybe it wasn't classic TMS, but it was definitely stress related.

While you are checking out the physical side of things, you might consider finding a naturopath who could help you get a saliva test for hormone imbalance. Estrogen dominance is pretty rampant these days, and bio-identical hormones can work wonders, with none of the probems of synthetic hormones.

Good luck!
Terry

 

One person you could ask about this might be Abigail Steidley. She's a TMS coach whose own TMS focused on vulvodynia and other pelvic floor stuff. In fact, her first blog was called "The Vagina Dialogues." Clearly that is different from menstrual pain, but she might still be a resource. Occasionally, she comes up on this forum:
http://tmswiki.org/forum/search/700508/?q=abigail+steidley&o=date

She moved her website to anamsong.com, but you can still find her old blog on the internet archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090604140127/http://vulvodyniacoach.wordpress.com/about-abigail/
(may take a second to load)

 

... though my guess is that while menstrual pain may respond to some of the skills we learn to manage TMS, it probably has substantial "body" causes unlike TMS.