Painful periods

[Snowy_Owl]

I am a 17 going on 18 year old, and ever since my very first period, when I was 12, I have always had really painful periods. But the we rid thing is that the painful periods only happen every other period, not every single one. Some periods I have just has very little to almost no pain while the next one will be causing me pain that lays me up in bed or on the couch for hours, sometimes days, on end. I have not really changed my routine within the last year, year and a half. I usually have to take Ibuprofen or some other kind of over the counter medicine, but it doesn't always help. My question to you is this: Is there any kind of vitaimin, pill, or special diet plan that I should be doing? If you could help me please then thank you.

[Mandee94]

I suffered the same problem. I'm 19 and had my period since I was 13, always very painful but sometimes the pain was much less every other or every few periods. I can't give advice on pills because I have a disorder that limits what I can take, but I found in the last 6 months that the best things for you to do to prevent extreme cramps is:

~exercise regularly (I do yoga 15-30 minutes and walk every day; helped a lot!)
~decrease the amount of caffeine and sugar in your diet
~increase vitamins/minerals in your diet (I found that getting more Vitamin C helped most)
~ drink lots and lots of water, especially in the week right before your period is due
~ Midol a day or two before your period begins (pain is cramps, and your body starts "preparing" - for lack of a better word - what causes cramps almost a week before. So start nipping cramps in the butt when they are due to set in)

If having cramps:
~use heat/cold. Some women find heat helps, others say cold, and then people like me say switch back and forth.
~Do not curl up in a ball. It helps to lay flat on your back for some reason.
~Apply slight pressure on your lower abdomen.
~Drink lemon-ginger tea to calm the digestive system and therefore put less strain on urinary/reproductive
~Do not stay laying down. Exercise and move around no matter how much it hurts at first because it gets everything in your body moving and helps flush out the producers of cramps.
~Drink plenty of water.
Sometimes it helps to go to the bathroom often as part of the pain may be constipation/diarrhea or needing to pee more frequently and just unable to tell because the cramps cover up the "I need to pee" feeling.

I know since I started using these a couple months ago, my periods have gotten less painful. On a pain scale of 1-10, I went down from a 10 to a 2 or 3, and I really hope these tips help you the same way!

[thatquietgirl]

A regular exercise routine may help somewhat.  You might consider going on the pill to regulate your periods if the pain is affecting your quality of life, which I would say it is even if it is only every other period.