Dr Katy Vincent

Brief Outline:

Dr Katy Vincent is a consultant gynaecologist, who looks after young people with period difficulties including period pain. Her research includes looking into how period pain can impact on young people and how they can be supported.

Dr Katy Vincent encourages any young person with any aspect of their periods or period pain that are worrying them or getting in the way of things to speak to a doctor about them.

I think people often worry about whether their symptoms aren’t bad enough to go and see a doctor. They don't want to be wasting their time, for example. But I would say if there's anything that is getting in the way of your life or anything that's worrying you or anything that you, feel you need advice about, then please come and ask us. We'd always be happy to see you.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that your poos can change with your period cycle. This can often be managed with changing diet, or being aware, but if you have difficulties or worries then this is something doctors are happy to talk to you about.

As well as having painful periods or heavy periods. Lots of people also find that their poo changes with their periods. Sometimes that can be that you become constipated, sometimes that can be that you have diarrhoea. Both of those can be normal, and you might be able to find ways of managing that by changing your diet, drinking more, eating more fruit, and veg, that kind of thing.

But again, if it's something that worries you, then come and ask us about it. And I know people often feel quite embarrassed talking about poo, but doctors don't. We do this all day.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that at any age, or however long you have been having periods for, if your periods or period pain are bothersome, then there are things that doctors can offer to help with them.

Sometimes people have been told that they'll grow out of their symptoms and therefore they don't want to come and bother a doctor until the symptoms have been there for a lot longer.

And we do know that for some people that periods will change with time. But actually, if you're worried or your periods getting in the way of your life, then please come and see us. No matter what age you are or how long you've had periods, because there might be something we can do to help.

Dr Katy Vincent explains about endometriosis and adenomyosis and how these can sometimes be related to period pain and bleeding. However, she says the most important thing is having support for impactful symptoms, whatever the cause.

So, endometriosis is really common. About 1 in 10 women have it. We know that you can have it when you're younger. For other people, it develops when they're older. The endometrium, that's the tissue that lines your womb. So that's the tissue that grows each month and that you then shed when you have a period. Endometriosis is where that tissue ends up outside of the womb.

So, the most common place we find it is on the lining tissue of your pelvis. But we can also find it on the bladder, on the bowel, on the ovaries, or sometimes in sort of further away places. For some people, they don't get any symptoms from that at all. But that tissue does grow each month and it does bleed in the same way the lining of the womb in the right place does. And so, we do find that for other people that will cause some inflammation and some irritation and some pain, and that can then go on to cause some scarring and some thickening of tissues. And so that's what endometriosis is.

Adenomyosis is a related condition. But this time the lining of the womb stays within the womb. It just ends up in the muscle layer of the womb. And again, it still behaves exactly like the lining tissue in the right place. So, we see that it grows and it bleeds. And muscles don't really like that happening within them. So, they get a bit sore and bruised, a bit like if you had a little tear in your calf muscle, for example, when you over exercised.

And so, people with adenomyosis will often find that their periods are really heavy and really painful. I think the important thing to know, though, is that both of those conditions are much less common than just having period pain or heavy periods, for example. So only 1 in 10 people will have endometriosis where it was 30 to 40%, so 3 to 4 out of ten will have period pain bad enough to interrupt their life.

So just because you have period pain doesn't mean that you have an underlying condition like adenomyosis or endometriosis.

But what's important is if you have symptoms, then come and see us. We're happy to see you and we're happy to offer treatments. Whether or not we find a disease underlying this.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that over the counter painkillers can be effective for period pain and are safe for most people, but need to be taken in line with the guidance. This means they should not be shared with friends to make sure they are taken safely.

Painkillers can be really helpful when you've got period pain, and we would absolutely encourage people to use painkillers.  And it is really important that we use them safely. So, the dose that you can take all the time between doses will vary depending which type of painkiller you're using.

And it's important not to share medicines between you and your friends. We know that happens all the time because it's really hard to get around how you can take these medicines at school, but systems at school should be set up to allow you to take medicines safely, and you need to understand what that system is within your school and get your parent, or your teachers or the school nurse on board to really help you set up a way of making sure that you can take medication when you need it, but that you're taking it safely and not sharing it with your friends.

Most painkillers are really safe for everybody. You can buy them over the counter, in the supermarket, in the chemists. You wouldn't be able to if they weren't safe drugs. But there are some people that can't take these drugs for specific reasons. So, it is really important that you know that the painkiller you're taking is safe for you and for that reason, you should only take medicines that are yours. You shouldn't borrow medicines from your friends, but also you shouldn't give your medicines to other people just in case they might not be safe for them either.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that there are different ways to explain pain, and use what works for you. It can be helpful to have notes or practice before an appointment. You don’t need to say everything at the first appointment, you can go back.

People often wonder how they're going to start a conversation about pain. Because pain is such a personal experience, it's really difficult to put it into words. But I think anything that you find helpful to tell your story is what we want to hear. So, you might describe pain in terms of how intense it is, the number that you would score it at.

Or you might describe pain in terms of the emotions or the sensations that go with it, or the words that come to mind. On the other hand, it's really helpful for us to understand what bits of your life it gets in the way of, because actually, it doesn't matter how strongly you score it, if it stops you doing the things you want to do, then that deserves treatment.

If you're struggling to think about how, you might start that conversation, why don't you write down on a piece of paper what you want to say to us? Or, practice talking about it with a friend or with your mum or your sister before you come. So, you feel really confident in telling us the message that you want to get over.

But if you find that you can't get the story over in the first appointment, you can always come back and tell us again. You don't have to tell us everything the first time you come to see us.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that using medications for periods and period pain can help treat symptoms. It is important to keep talking to doctors and let them know what helps, and go back if the first treatment has not suited you.

When people come and see us often, the first thing we'll do is offer you what we would call medical management. That can be things like painkillers, tranexamic acid to reduce how much bleeding you have or hormones. And that can be hormones to try and reduce how often you have your periods or even stop your periods altogether.

We know that all of these approaches are safe. We wouldn't prescribe them if we didn't think they were safe. And people often worry that we just masking your symptoms by giving you treatments like this. But actually, what we're doing is trying to understand what's going on. Because certain types of symptoms might respond to certain types of treatments, but also, we might be treating anything underlying that's causing the problem as well.

So actually treatments like hormones have lots of different reasons why we would suggest them.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that there are lots of options for helping people with periods and period pain. Sometimes people have to try a couple before finding one that suits them, and it’s important to go back to the doctors and talk about next steps.

One of the challenges for us is trying to work out the right treatment for the right person.

We have so many different options that often we just have to go through a few before we can find one that suits you. So, if you find that the treatment really doesn’t work or has side effects that you don’t like, please don't sit at home and suffer or just stop the medicine without coming and discussing it again. Please come back and then we can try to understand what it is about the medicine that isn’t suiting you and also offer you an alternative.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that if you find a medication that works well for you, make sure you know how to order more, so that you don’t run out at an inconvenient time!

If you find that the medicine we prescribe works, then that’s fantastic. But at that point it’s really important you understand how you can continue to get that medicine.

What we don’t want is for you to run out of tablets and then find your symptoms come back again. Particularly if that’s at a really inconvenient time in your life. So, make sure that either you or your parents are taking control on keeping an eye on how many tablets you’ve got left and thinking about when you need to order some more. We can’t turn around new packs of tablets very quickly so make sure you give us enough notice that you see your coming towards the end of your supply and go back and ask for your next pack.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that treating periods with hormones can give control of when you bleed. Some choose to do this all the time and others to help with things like exams and holidays. It takes time to settle so see a doctor a few months before.

We know that stopping your periods with hormones can be really helpful, and we also know that that's a really safe approach. Some people might want to do that all the time, but for other people, you might just want to do that around the time that something important is happening and that might be around your exams. Or that might be around nice things like going on holiday.

The important thing, though, is that we have enough time to get a bit of a run in. Sometimes it takes a while for bleeding to settle down, or for us to make sure that those hormones suit you. So, if that's an approach you'd like to take, and it's definitely one that we often recommend, then please come and talk about it with enough times that we can get you settled on a treatment.

Don't come and ask us the week before the exam.

Dr Katy Vincent explains that people in families might have periods that are similar to each others, or very different. Either way, doctors want to see anyone with period bleeding or pain that is getting in the way or stopping you doing things.

We often hear people describe their periods in a way that comparison to other members of their families, to their mum, to their sister, to their aunt, for example. And we know that that can be a really useful way of understanding what periods are like and learning about periods. But actually, if your periods are getting in the way of your life, then please come and see us.

We don't mind if they're not as bad as your mum's or if they're worse than your mum's. Either way, we'd like to see you.