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What Causes Abdominal Pain While On Plavix In An Elderly Person?
Posted on
Tue, 21 Mar 2017
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Wed, 22 Mar 2017
Answered on
Thu, 13 Apr 2017
Last reviewed on
Question : I'm a 66 yearold woman who has not had a period for 11 years, I'm taking 75mg of plavix and have been for 2 months. This mornoing my body feels like it is cramping and aching and trying to start a period. There is spotting but it's brownish and not a lot. Could this B caused by the plavix or do U think there is more at play here?
Brief Answer:
testing is required
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
since your period had stopped 11 years ago, this incident is not related to it. Plavix may be part of the problem because it causes the platelets to malfunction (and thus prevent the formation of clots) and may cause bleeding. Spontaneous bleeding is not common with plavix though and some sort of injury is required. Otherwise testing should be done to check for various bleeding disorders.
The tests I would have asked a patient like you to do are the following:
- a complete blood count
- international normalization ratio (INR)
- actived partial prothrombin time (aPTT)
- bleeding time
I would have also referred my patient to a gynecologist to check whether an underlying or hidden disorder caused the bleeding (like a growth for example).
If everything turned out to be normal and the bleeding went on, I would have blamed plavix and stopped it to see what would happen.
I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!
testing is required
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
since your period had stopped 11 years ago, this incident is not related to it. Plavix may be part of the problem because it causes the platelets to malfunction (and thus prevent the formation of clots) and may cause bleeding. Spontaneous bleeding is not common with plavix though and some sort of injury is required. Otherwise testing should be done to check for various bleeding disorders.
The tests I would have asked a patient like you to do are the following:
- a complete blood count
- international normalization ratio (INR)
- actived partial prothrombin time (aPTT)
- bleeding time
I would have also referred my patient to a gynecologist to check whether an underlying or hidden disorder caused the bleeding (like a growth for example).
If everything turned out to be normal and the bleeding went on, I would have blamed plavix and stopped it to see what would happen.
I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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