Monday, September 29, 2014

ANALGESICS FOR MENSTRUAL PAIN


The presence of nausea during menstrual pain leads to loss of appetite, which makes me advice that analgesics should be taken with food to prevent stomach ulcer.
Some analgesics are just dangerous; piroxicam (felvin®, feldene® etc) should be taking 20mg in 24 hours with food. Many people overdose with this drug, some as high as 120mg daily. This is dangerous and can cause very fatal side effects. This particular drug has been removed from first and second line treatment in the UK. The maximum dose that can reduce pain is 20mg; any extra mg increases the tendency of side effect.
Stomach ulcer is a major side effect of many analgesics especially piroxicam and indomethacin (indocid®). There is a higher population of women with stomach ulcer than men and apart from women being more stressed and doing more fasting I feel this wrong use of analgesic has contributed to this population tremendously.
Most analgesics are usually recommended for menstrual pain but some work much better. My personal favourite is a combination of paracetamol and orphenadrine citrate (orphesic®, Anorol®). Celecoxib is good, so also is mefenamic acid. Orphenadrine is my personal favourite because it reduces pain without affecting the normal movement (peristatis) that helps the menstrual flow.

For severe pain especially associated with fibroid I suggest drotaverine (Nospa®) + diclofenac potassium powder (voltfast®). Always consult your physician for advice.

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