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Luteal phase intense cramping pain
Women's Health | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (37)Comment receiving replies
@lacycat thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I am in Australia so I'm actually not sure whether they will provide this as an option for me. I am heading to the GP tomorrow to get a referral to see an endocrinologist. Did you have any tests to confirm that it was definitely progesterone that was the issue or any tests to prove you were allergic to progesterone? I initially was put on a progesterone only pill and that made things worse in that the pain was occurring all through the month but not as intense but still worse as I'd rather only get the pain for a set period! The progesterone only pill also made me bleed and spot all the time. I gave it 4 months and stopped (gyno gave me the progesterone only pill because i assumed it was ovulation which was causing the pain but the pain starts few days after). Before this i was on a combined pill for 5 years (for birth control) and didn't have any symptoms. I came off the pill 3 years ago and started having these symptoms however fell pregnant so they went away! But after i had my baby and my periods started the pain started again every month without fail. I'm scared to eat as eating brings on the pain but at night it's every other hour or so. Can i ask if you had an MRI as well? My next step after seeing a gyno was to have a laparoscopy to see if there is any endometriosis but my DIE was negative and my gyno actually doesn't believe my symptoms relate to endometriosis as the symptoms stop a few days before my period! Also after reading this forum i don't feel like a laparoscopy would help as some people who have had the surgery and had some lesions removed still experience pain every month.
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@misss of course! I am very happy to help. So I did have an MRI. They found a tiny fibroid but that wasn’t causing the pain. I didn’t get a test for a progesterone allergy but based on my own evidence collection it seemed like the likely conclusion for me. Some thoughts on your situation: pregnancy spikes progesterone so that is interesting to me that the symptoms went away with pregnancy (although the body suppresses a lot of immune responses in pregnancy so it could be they counteracted each other), it could be that your condition only started after going on and then stopping combined birth control (mine randomly started in 2021, also I have a progesterone IUD but it is very light on hormones and localized). Regardless make sure you see a reproductive endocrinologist, I saw a normal endocrinologist at first and while she was lovely she had no idea about reproductive hormone control. Additionally, you can normally get the mifepristone pill as part of a “just in case” abortion care kit here in the states. Not sure about Australia but it probably is easier to get there. If so, I would recommend trying to get like 2 pills and trying it out for two months and see if it works. I think the worst that will happen is your cramps either don’t go away (then you know this probably isn’t a progesterone allergy) or they do and now you have to figure out how to get the pill long term. Definitely in my opinion (I’m a medical researcher/epidemiologist but not a doctor) less risky than getting a laparoscopic surgery that might not find anything. But of course consult with a doctor first! Just be aware this is not a normal treatment plan so some doctors might be skeptical. If so, you might want to ask them to tell you based on the scientific evidence what their actual concerns are for your health. I had a few doctors tell me that taking mifepristone would be bad and when I asked why and told them I had read all the research on using it low dose they had no answers for me. Oh also there are other drugs that are progesterone antagonists but based on my research mifepristone is the safest. Other ones have show to have liver toxicity in studies so that is why I went with mifepristone.