Controlling Uterine Bleeding

It's a topic that comes up in the course of many women's lives and it's hard to know what to do. Thanks to the cumulative advice and experience of the women of the uterinefibroids list though I've learned some simple things you can try at home to stem bleeding.

Lie down -- this reduces your blood pressure which will help to slow the bleeding.

Cold pack -- lie down and place an ice pack on your abdomen, wrapped in a towel of course. Don't have an ice pack? Try a bag of frozen veggies.

Take Tylenol or Ibuprofen -- take approximately 400 mg of an anti-inflammatory like Tylenol or Ibuprofen. Don't take aspirin as it thins the blood and won't have the same affect.

Vitamin C -- a natural anti-inflammatory that helps to constrict blood vessels.

This worked well (within 20 minutes after two hours of hemorrhaging) when I was having really bad flooding in Spring 2004 but I tried it during my second miscarriage and I'm not sure if it worked then -- that's sort of a different situation though.


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Here is good reference about NSAIDs and menstrual bleeding:

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for heavy menstrual bleeding
(Cochrane Review)
Lethaby A, Augood C, Duckitt K

Von Willebrand's Disease can cause bleeding problems and isn't regularly diagnosed by docs.

Here's my post about types of bleeding and quantities, to help you understand what is problematic bleeding.

My back is a well of sadness. Go figure.

I've started back with chiropractic treatments on my back as my spine has been totally out of alignment -- two incidents with whiplash have left things a little less steady then they would have been otherwise. My first two treatments just pointed out how bad things have been and left me feeling a little better and a little unstable feeling in my back. Then on Monday this week he felt how there were all of these awful knots in the muscles of my upper back that were contributing to the alignment issues, pulling at my spine. He grabbed some sort of electric massage tool with multiple nodules on it and started working on that area -- it was painful at times but he did loosen things up a bit. He told me to go get some massage work done.

Tuesday I woke up and I felt normal enough but by the time I got to work I realized that in addition to feeling grouchy as anything that I was having an awful black, black mood. I cried off and on all day long, yelled at my partner when I got home and fell asleep with the assistance of a muscle relaxant to try to help take further edge off my back. There was no chance in hell of any BD even though I was within the stupid fertile window of my cycle.

I felt depressed the rest of the week, but not nearly as bad as Tuesday. At my acupuncture appointment on Thursday I mentioned about all the above and asked if it was possible that the body work I had done on Monday was a trigger. I have friends who are massage therapists in town and they have told me that people can store emotions and injuries in their body. One friend in particular did a lot of work on people who had been sexually abused as children and would try to help them work out these trapped emotions, she said it could be quite intense for both she and the patient.

My acupuncturist agreed that the two experiences for me were likely related and told me to not think about people who are having their second child. I talked to her a little bit about how tired I was of this TTC business stealing my time and attention and not producing results. She mentioned that the things that I have learned and shared along the way with others meant that it wasn't all in vain and that helping others to find their way along the infertility path was a good thing. Yeah well, that's true but it still doesn't remove the sting. She gave me a handout with information about how to take fresh pineapple to aid in implantation -- it's meant to help break down proteins in the endometrium that inhibit implantation. I'll buy the pineapple but since I've done it before on my own without any results I'm not feeling like it will do anything but I do like pineapple at least.

Infertility sucks....the life right out of you.

Why do I even bother?

This has been going on for so long, the charting, timed intercourse, researching, seeing various docs, and at the end of the game I'm not really sure I'm getting anywhere at all.

Frustrations...

All the people who have gotten pregnant, had babies, gotten pregnant again, had miscarriages and gotten pregnant again, done ART procedures and gotten pregnant and had babies.

Sadness...

All the people who had miscarriage after miscarriage, or are still waiting to conceive again after a loss, sometimes a very hard-earned loss. And also all the gals I know who have had myomectomies after dealing with infertility and pregnancy loss and now are still waiting.

Saturday will be one year since my fibroid surgery. It's been a long year.