Periods cramps.. how to prevent them?

[jellyybellyy]

It hurtss.. period cramps and then comes mood swings and then comes i hate my life phrase wat to dooo?

[NF_Nix]

I stopped my period, cramps and most other symptoms with the depo provera shot.I was so bad off at 14 with cramps and flow thats what my Dr put me on even though I was in no need of birth control

[specialmom]

That's true.  Some women do indeed begin birth control in order to avoid the pms/ heavy period stuff.  That's something to talk to your doctor about.  Wasn't thinking in those terms with my answer but that IS an option.  

[specialmom]

It's a real pain, isn't it?  For period cramps, I never found anything that necessarily prevented them but found ibuprofen helped very much to alleviate them.  For mood swings, being aware helps.  If you use an app (medhelp has a good one called mycycles that you can find under health tools)--  you can see the time period in which moodiness will most likely begin.  For me, it's week three of my cycle.  Like to the letter, that hits and watch out.  My evil twin arrives.  My emotional roller coaster twin arrives.  My twin that eats a whole box of ho ho-s arrives.  It is just not pretty.  But being aware that it's happening helps me.  Because then I can work on taking deep breaths rather than mouthing off to my husband because I know it's just PMS talking or I can give myself a pass for having a good cry over NOTHING and I can avoid buying the trigger foods that temp me to shove down my gullet during that week.  (oh, okay.  I still by the ho ho-s and just roll with it---  I shed a couple of pounds once my period is over every time.  And those chocolate covered goodies seem like they can straight from heaven when I'm cycling hormones!)  I try to keep exercising, get a bit of extra rest and just go easy on myself.  While it is a huge pain to be a woman . . .  what can you do?  Hang in there and get yourself some ibuprofen (and ho ho-s).