Menopause and Pain — Some Days You Just Cry

Just because our periods are gone doesn’t mean we don’t still have pain associated with them. Bloating, leg cramps, headaches, lower back pain.

And a woman’s period can start early in life. As early as 8 or 9 years old to 16 or 18. Maybe even earlier or later. I was 11 ½.

My period pain was always bad. It was horrible from day one (1) and my body lived off Midol until my hysterectomy at age 44 (could have been 46).

There are so many levels of pain and how much each person can take is different. If you asked ME today what my level of pain is, I would say about a 3, but I have also tolerated most of my pain for years. Some days, it’s an 8. Some days, I just cry.

So, I became interested in how they started testing for pain because, again, we are ALL different.

From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1317046/

“Pain assessment is critical to optimal pain management interventions. While pain is a highly subjective experience, its management necessitates objective standards of care. The WILDA approach to pain assessment — focusing on words to describe pain, intensity, location, duration, and aggravating or alleviating factors — offers a concise template for assessment in patients with acute and chronic pain…

Despite the existence of evidence-based guidelines, acute pain is not adequately addressed by health care professionals. Suboptimal pain management is not the result of lack…