Menstrual Cycle & Hormonal Fluctuations

This is likely going to be more interesting for the ladies, but the gentlemen can certainly contribute!

I wanted to start a thread that was just about hormonal fluctuation's effects on Fibro pain. I have reached a stage in my condition where I can now watch and tweak my self care practices to find what works and what doesn't. What I have found, through highly devoted note taking and diligence, is that it does not matter one iota what I do for self care (heat, sleep, exercise, diet, supplements and medications), at a certain point in my cycle (4 days prior), I can no longer steer the ship and inevitably flare. If I am super careful I can control the size and duration of the flare's impact, but ultimately I am no longer captain and must give in or I will make myself flare worse from frustration and anger.

What I am finding, through help with Wikipedia, is that a few days before menstruation, the body suddenly ceases secreting hormones. It seems this dip may be responsible for pushing my body into a flare. Is it possible that our bodies (Fibro?) can go through a little mini withdrawal? For me, no amount of pain med, OTC, heat, excercise, etc will help. I seem to have more shooting pain, more nerve pain (my Lyrica just stops working), more stiffness and it takes much longer to get my body to cooperate with eye-hand coordination (face, meet door jam, rinse and repeat).

Keep in mind that I am not even worrying about cramps -- this post is just about fibro body pain. And for the most part, I can handle the cramps since its the other soft tissue pain that is so much more noticeable. And I don't even are about the fatigue since that is also a normal menstrual cycle symptom.

My husband's first suggestion is always birth control pills but my experience with them has always been awful. And thanks to Lyrica, I *just* got my sex drive back. I am not about to run out and take something else that will squash it AND make me mean 30 days of the month.

I asked my Rheumy's PA who is my provider 95% of the time, who spent 15 years in pain med before 10 years with my Rheumy researching Fibro, and he said the menstrual cycle 'can certainly impact fibro because your body is so stressed out' but didn't go into specifics, which leads me to believe that this particular area isn't of particular interest to researchers.

Does anybody have some info on this, anecdotal or otherwise? If I was qualified to study this professionally, I would LOVE to. It's like night and day in my body and I have been doing so good these last few months that I simply can't ignore the relationship anymore.

It totally helped and I have no idea why. I did a quick search and less than 5% get this particular 'side effect' and that it only lasts for the first 30 days. We will see. It could be that it allows other 'good' signals to shine through...? I don't know. I'm just grateful! Lol

And as for my pain cycle - I mean, even my hands and skin are killing me. It's a total flare and I took really good care of myself. Just woke up like this and I start tomorrow.

Waaah.

Post Edited (AnnaBananna) : 12/22/2013 4:23:50 PM (GMT-7)

Hmm. If I am pre menopausal, could I take the progesterone cream too? If so, I am in! Thanks for the info! :)

Thank you so much! :)

Hope, how are your pain levels this month?

hopegirl: Thinking of you. A few years back when I was premenopausal, I had several long, heavy periods (no big pain, though). It sort of scared me, but as it turned out, it was just due to menopausal changes, evidently. It cleared itself out after a while.

I hope the meds kick in for you soon and things are better. This sort of thing is definitely not fun!

Best wishes!

Hope-I, too, had a biopsy done, and it really hurt and stung for days. I understand.

They didn't figure out the problem, though.

So my flare has finally receded this morning...and I'm about to ovulate. I'm telling you, my body is so tied to my hormones it's almost funny.