darkwater

I agree, you should be checked for endometriosis, PLUS fibroids. Both of these are notorious for causing very painful periods and crazy heavy bleeding. I have one of these conditions and suspect I may have both, and I have always had quite painful periods, and as I have gotten older, more heavy periods. By heavy, I mean I go put in a super-plus tampon and within 15 or 20 minutes, blood is running out onto my clothes and whatever I am sitting on. I too have to double up with tampons and pads sometimes to just have maybe an hour when I don't have to run to the bathroom. I have found out that wearing two tampons at once works well, too. Yes, if your vagina can hold a penis, it can hold two tampons at once very comfortably. There are times, especially if I want to get a few hours of sleep without worrying if I am bleeding all over the place, I put in two tampons and wear a pad. I don't have a really heavy period every time, just maybe 4 or 5 times a year. Other times, I am light for a day or two, get heavier on days 3 and 4, then taper off on days 5 and 6. I am not on birth control to make my periods lighter or shorter, so six days is pretty normal. But when I was on the pill, it did seem to help with pain and lighter, shorter periods.

For pain, I swear by 600mg (three tablets) of ibuprofen every 5 hours, like clockwork for the first couple of days of my period, or for however long your pain lasts. Don't skip doses, even if you have to get up and take it during the night. I know the bottle says take less than this, but my doctor advised me that when needed, it is fine to take higher doses for short periods of time. She even said I could take 800mg (four tablets) every six hours. This has worked for me for twenty years now, since high school, and it keeps me pretty pain-free during my periods. Just be sure to take it with food and/or milk, or at the very least a lot of water or other liquids, as it can cause stomach problems in there alone. Other people say Aleve helps them, but it tends to upset my stomach more than ibuprofen. I also tend to have strange gastrointestinal symptoms right before and during my period. Strange diarrhea, gas, and bloating, and sometimes vomiting. My food doesn't seem to digest right, for some reason.

This female equipment is so much trouble sometimes. Hope you find a solution to your problems that doesn't involve surgery. You really should try birth control pills taken strictly for medical reasons, since you have already had your tubes tied. But if nothing else works, a surgical procedure, such as uterine abiliation or even a hysterectomy may be in your future. I only say this because so many women I know have problems of this nature and sadly, the medical community has a very limited number of solutions to offer. It may be that you have so much scar tissue after three c-sections that the muslces in your uterine wall can't contract normally and expel the lining without causing you pain.