Period pain or dysmenorrhea: solved!!

Hello everyone!!

In this post I am going to tell you how I have managed to control my period pain (also called dysmenorrhea). In a previous post I talked about how it always comes to annoy me in the best moments and how I got rid of pain for a few years with contraceptives, but how when I left them the same pain and the problem of managing it returned.

Although ibuprofen (some people use other anti-inflammatories) is the best solution to menstrual pain, I also had to deal, for a while, with the fact that it was too strong for my stomach. Many times, the pains started in the morning, when I got up, and I couldn’t eat anything. Then I would take the ibuprofen with an empty stomach, and that’s not good, several times I even vomited. I solved this by always taking an omeprazole (stomach protector) before taking ibuprofen. I recently read that ibuprofen works faster on an empty stomach, but if you take it on an empty stomach it is very strong and can cause ulcers more likely than if you have eaten. So, in short, what I did was to start taking omeprazole always before taking ibuprofen, whether I had eaten before or not (although it is more necessary if you have not eaten before).

However, the big problem was still that the ibuprofen was taking too long to work. At least half an hour and even until 3 hours is the time that I have been lying in bed, writhing like a lizard with my contractions, until finally it took effect. And what if all this happens when you’re not at home. Aside from the comfort, one of the reasons I moved to live next my job, literally five minutes away, was in case I had to rush home at the slightest sign of pain (and I had to do it twice).

As always, I continued investigating but could not find a better solution than ibuprofen with omeprazole beforehand and the electric blanket while spending the moment in bed. Something that I did not do either, but I had my reasons, is to take a dose of, for example 600 mg every 6-8 hours since period stains began. And I did not do it because what I found is that when, for work reasons, I took ibuprofen as a preventive measure (without any pain yet), the period took much longer to come. Once I spent up to 5 days taking ibuprofen for nothing because I had stained a bit, and I tried that method until my period finally started. Normally, from the time I start to stain until my period finally starts, it takes a day or a day and a half, not five. And taking into account the cardiovascular risk of ibuprofen, and that when I am on my period I reach the maximum recommended dose (1200 mg) or even exceed it, I did not want to unnecessarily add more. So I did not adopt that method, but may be for someone it works well. I am not sure what relationship may exist between taking ibuprofen in a preventive way and the delay in the period once the process has already started, but I suppose that since it is an anti-inflammatory, if you have some “obstruction” there, not having that kind of initial contractions due to ibuprofen causes the whole process to take longer.

Anyway, what I discovered this summer, by pure chance while watching YouTube, is that there is ibuprofen with arginine, a component that makes it act much faster than taken alone. Just what I needed! According to the advertising and the leaflet, ibuprofen alone takes half an hour to work (many times longer for me), while ibuprofen with arginine takes only a minute!! This month I almost wanted to have my period to check if this was true, hahaha

I bought ibuprofen + arginine in 400 mg sachets. And it has worked! Finally I have not squirmed like a lizard for at least half an hour in bed. I took a 400 mg sachet and waited 10 minutes, and as it kept bothering me I took another one, and in another 10 minutes it was over. The other times (I took the medicine 3 times, after 6-8 hours the effect wears off) I already took two sachets directly. I usually took between ibuprofen 800mg-1200mg at once, but this time I didn’t go over 800mg. Another important point is that the medicine in a powder format, diluted in water, also accelerates the effect, and is less harsh on the stomach than pills. Also, although it is not my case, there are people who cannot swallow the capsules. The disadvantage of sachets is that being around it is more difficult to take them, because you have to find a glass and a teaspoon. And they taste really bad! This month I did not take the omeprazole before the ibuprofen because I forgot it, but it did not hurt my stomach. Regardless, I will continue taking omeprazole before taking the medicine.

Ibuprofen with arginine is available in both sachets and capsules. Since the effect is faster in sachets, I recommend them more, although it can be good to have capsules on hand if one does not have access to a glass and a spoon. In Spain there are several brands that sell ibuprofen with arginine, and all have the same list of ingredients, among which is aspartame. I didn’t like this because aspartame is a sweetener that has been found to be a carcinogen. But since I could not find any brand that does not use it (they are supposed to put it to remove the bad taste of arginine, but even so it tastes really bad), I’ll use this medicine anyway. Hopefully with time this ingredient will be removed (I already wrote to the company to ask for it).

I hope this will help those who suffer from period pain every month, I am very happy with this product that I found by chance!