Period pains: Can anti-inflammatory drugs help?
Anti-inflammatory painkillers like diclofenac, ibuprofen and naproxen can help relieve severe period pain. These medications sometimes have side effects such as stomach and digestion problems.
Period pains and cramps (dysmenorrhea) are common. Most girls and women have pain of varying intensity at some point during their period. In some women the pain is so bad that they're unable to carry out their usual daily activities, like going to work or school, on one to three days every month.
In many women who have bad period pains, the womb produces too much of the chemical messenger prostaglandin. This leads to painful cramps in the lower abdomen that might also radiate into the back or thighs. Benign (non-cancerous) growths such as fibroids sometimes play a role too. Very severe period pain can also be a symptom of endometriosis, where the type of tissue that lines the womb grows outside of the womb.
