Flu like symptoms with my period

Hi,

I previously posted here about two years ago. At that time, it had been about 4-6 years that I was experiencing flu symptoms before and after my period. I was so tired all the time, and had no idea what was going on, life was hell. My ferritin kept testing around 3 to 5, yet my female doctor didn't think this was low enough for concern. I was having chest pains, heart palpitations, flu systems, dizziness, allergies, fatigue, red eyes, and I told her that if it wasn't the low iron then what? I finally broke down and cried in her office one day, and she referred me to a pyschologist! but I also asked her to refer me to an iron specialist, and that specialist is a hematologist who finally understood what I was going through. The hematologist told me that taking daily iron pills was like trying to fill a swimming pool with an eye dropper, that I would never, ever get my iron back to normal levels this way. It has been about 1 year now that I receive monthly intravenous iron at a hospital, and it has only been about 3-4 months now that I am finally free from flu symptoms before and after my period. I still feel tired and run down at times, but nothing like before. My red blood cell count is generally over 130 now, but dips down to 120 at times, and my ferritin hovers around 20. At one point it went up to 37, but it's back down to 17 now. And this is with high concentrations of iron!

I believe that anemia and low ferritin / low rbc (for me it's becausae of heavy and frequent periods, I'm 39, we've been trying to have a baby for 3 years and still are, reason I am not on pill or other meds) is the reason for the flu symptoms, and I encourage all of you to try to pursue iron by iv treatment. I live in Canada and thankfully I have access to this for free through OHIP, although I'm afraid they will decide that I've had enough at some point and cut me off. My life is finally getting normal and it's not all about how sick I feel every day. My anxiety and nervousness are also much better, I sleep better, life is just better.

I tried many other remedies and now take regular vitamins, calcium magnesium, fish oil, vitamin C, iron pills, and eat healthly and exercise. This all helps, but the key in my opinion is the iron iv.

I hope others who are suffering from this will try this as it worked for me.

Dear Fifi, try getting of the pill. I had these flu-like symptoms for a atleast week pre-period before I quit the pill. Now I get them 1-2 days, which is still annoying but does not mess with my life as much. take care! LL

thank you so much.now i know i'm not the only one.

I am 46 and am just now tying these symptoms to my period. I have had an IUD now for a few years. Mine is the non-hormonal kind and I don't take birth control pills. I'm trying to make it through the whole menopause thing without taking hormones. When I was younger and taking birth control before having children, the BC pills made my emotional stress so much worse, I gave up on them! I go through times I skip my period completely and every once in a while it shows up twice in a month or every 6-10 weeks... But now I've been back to regular for a few months and every time I've gotten sick with what I thought was the flu! It's ridiculous! My boss probably thinks I'm just a big flake! I've finally figured out it's somehow related to my period because it comes on right before and stops almost immediately on the 1st day of my period!

Thanks so much to all of you who posted here. I thought I was a bit crazy thinking that I had these flu like symptoms each month before my cycle. Now I know I'm not alone. The only thing I have thought of is that I am near menopause, but since many of you are much younger, it probably isn't that. Back to t he doctor I go.

Wow, this is super weird. I too have had these symptoms since turning 35. Nothing I have found has helped except for using birth control to eliminate my period, as in taking pills back to back and never doing a placebo. However, this only worked for a time and then I started spotting which brought on symptoms. I am trying a new BC pill this month to see if that makes any difference. I also found limiting refined sugar and white flour helpful as well as taking vitamins and drinking kefir.

Wow.. I thought I was the only one for awhile. I've noticed the day before I start, I have HORRIBLE cramps, the kind that takes your breath away, and sting. And I feel the cramps all the way up to my rib cage. I start getting hot, like my body is on fire, then my head is sweating. The day of, I have all of this and it gets worse, I break out in cold sweats and shakes, I can hardly move without cramps killing me. I feel lethargic, and can hardly keep water down. Last night, my friend took me to dinner, he finished his food In a normal amount of time, by the time he had finished eating, I had only had 6 small bites of a pancake and one bite of toast, and knew I was not going to be able to eat anymore. We were at dinner for 2 hours, because he was worried because he said "you need to eat, you look like a dog with parvo" while we were there I had gotten cramps, and broke out in a sweat and everything went blurry. My doctor says getting flu symptoms around your time of the month is normal for some women. But I don't think a lot of what I'm experiencing is close to normal...

Hello there, how many chico leaves Im going to boil and how frequent should I take it. There are many chico trees in the neighborhood and came across your post when Im looking for an herb for myoma. Thanks! God Bless!

You might want to get checked out for Lyme Disease. I had all those symptoms and a slew of other symptoms but was extremely heightened a week before my period and didn't find out it was Lyme Disease until 5 years later. Seriously ask your doctor to check you because I had such bad mood swings almost bi polar like, my shoulders, neck, jaw, and head just ached and my whole body just ached, I felt extremely brain fogged and had pins and neeedles and would feel very cold before my period, I also had my hands start to turn blue a week before my period and it took the doctors five years to find out that i had Lyme Disease. I never saw a tick or anything but i guess I was bit by one. I seriously seriously urge you to have your doctor take a blood test for Lyme

I used to get all of the symptoms your are referring to and then I went on the depo provera injection for a few years and it was the best thing I ever did as they completely stopped, unfortunately you can only be on this contraception for a few years and not ongoing.  Since I came off this and had my son the symptoms have returned which can be unbearable at times, I may try the iron supplement thing and see if that helps.  Thanks for all your posts its good to see were not alone.

Hi, I'm 31 and for the past year I was getting sick once a month.  Even before that, I used to get colds/flu more often then other people I knew, and it just got progressively worse over time.  So after trying many things, a friend recommended cutting on sugar.  Which I tried, and I haven't been sick since, it's been 5 months and I'll maybe have a bad day once a week, and get my sugar fill. But all in all I'm convinced sugar has been compromising my immunity. And yeah 5 months no colds, and over winter, is pretty much a miracle for me.

I have given up those types of foods. it has been going on for the last 3 months. Never ever happened before. not got an IUD in either. thank god I googled it. I feel so bad for all you women who have this. I cannot believe it.

thanks for posting this. sugar, or should I say chocolate, mostly is the one thing I was eating a lot of. I knew it wasn't carbs (gluten) because I gave that up a few years ago.

i took putitans pride vitamin b complex and my symptoms vastly improved almost immediately. try it.

omg you could be me. my boyfriend thinks i'm "faking" it. i'm 46 y.o. and i smoke cigarettes but thats true extent of my wild ways. i take Topamax for depression and i have a low thyroid and a mild blood pressure problem which i monitor both religiously . somedays i feel like i just wanna scream cause there is no way i should feel like this unless i'm out beating up my body w/ drugs and alcohol or have something serious wrong w/ me! when i finally get my period it gets better but i can't function like this anymore. i'm seriously considering asking if there is a way to get my uterus removed because my tubes have been tied for over 5 years now. i can't take this anymore