Advice on tranexamic acid

[OM27]

Hi

I've been having horrible hip pain and very bad cramps during period for over a year now, along with a lot of other endo symptoms! I have a pretty high pain threshold but the pain in my hips gets so bad I can't sit down and cramps during my period are so bad it makes me throw up. My GP prescribed the pill to take continuously to stop/limit periods and if this helped then it would suggest I have endo. The pill has limited the amount of pain I'm in- cutting it down to about two weeks of the month and period. However, when I tried to run more than one pill pack together I would bleed continuously so my GP referred me to gynae and told me that they would probably do a lap. I waited for months to get the hospital appointment and I so glad that I was going to finally get some answers. But when I attended the appointment the (male) consultant wouldn't even let me talk about the pain that I'm in, he just kept talking about heavy periods which wasn't even the reason why I was there! My GP referred me because of my hip pain but he just palmed me off and said 'that could be caused by anything, and I can't help you with everything'. I was so disappointed he wouldn't even talk to me about it. As soon as I sat down in the room he told me the only thing I could do for the heavy periods was to have a procedure that burns away the lining of my womb or have a hysterectomy - neither of which were suitable because I've never had children. He didn't even consider a lap to investigate anything. He then told me that I should get the coil fitted or else try Tranexamic acid. I explained to him that I bled continuously when taking the pill so I did not want to try the coil in case the same thing happened so he prescribed the tranexamic acid and told me it was a pain killer. I went home and looked it up and it's for heavy bleeding. My periods have never been so heavy that I couldn't deal with them. My main problem is the pain. Does anyone know if these are going to help with my hip pain? I don't want to unnecessarily be taking blood clotting medication. Sorry for the long winded story, just don't know what else to do and can't seem to get help.

[Hazel173]

They wont help with your pain, they just help cut down blood loss. Ive been diagnosed with endo through surgery and get hip pain too so it could well be a symptom. Ask your gp to refer you to gynae again and request a different doctor/consultant or ask to get refered to a specialist bsge centre as they should be more understanding. Alot of general gynaes actually dont have very good understanding of endo and just how severe the symptoms can be and impact your life and have not much understanding of how to control it with medication or hormones unfortunately.

[OM27 in reply to Hazel173]

Thanks for your reply. That's exactly what I thought. If my gp thought that I had an issue with heavy bleeding she would have prescribed it to me. It was as if the consultant couldn't be bothered with me at all. I was in and out within 15 minutes! Not going to take the tranexamic acid as I've been reading that you shouldn't take it and the pill together - even though the consultant told me that was the best thing to do! Hopefully my GP will refer me to a different consultant. Don't think we have any bsge centres in Northern Ireland. Thanks for your help!