Alternating Tylenol & Motrin

[thelurkylulu]

I have horrible period cramps today. I took Tylenol at 630am. When can I take Motrin? I can't remember if it's every 4 hours or every 2? 2 doesn't sound right but it's giving me hope because I'm in so much pain. Please help me not overdose. TIA

[TR]

Eh, even if you take it too soon I don't think you need to worry about overdose from one day of too many Motrin.

[jennistarr1]

I would wait 2 hours and then take motrin, probably continue with motrin, every 4 hours from there

[Deleted]

Tylenol sucks for cramps. I usually take 3 Advil liquigels for horrendous cramps and that usually gets them to a manageable level and then the key is to take the meds within the time frame on the bottle so the pain doesn't come raging back.

[pooh8402]

Motrin is 100mg/hr. 1 tab is 200 mg. When I have period cramps, I take 600mg (3 tabs) every 6 hours.

[textbookcase]

You can take them at the same time and then alternate, as far as I know. I would take Motrin first next time, I think it works better for cramps/inflammation.

[pinkeggs]

Alternate every three hours

[dirtyred]

Feb 21, 2017 9:33:16 GMT -5 aeg511 said:

I would take the Motrin now. Tylenol won't do anything for cramps.

(Not a doctor, just a woman who's had cramps)

This.  Tylenol is useless in this situation.  Ibuprofen or naproxen for the win.

[Jalapeñomel]

I take 800 mg of motrin three times a day regularly, and this is the only thing that kind of touches pain.

[greysgirl]

I've taken both of them at the same time for headaches. I'm far from a doctor though.

[miso]

Another vote for Aleve. It's better for pain of this sort.

[mich1]

Cramps are best alleviated by taking an NSAID. Both ibuprofen and naproxen can work, but in my experience, you just have to figure out what works for you. Personally, I did not find naproxen did an effective job on my cramps, and it was equally lousy at dealing with my arthritic pain. However, ibuprofen did a much better job for both.

[sonrisa]

1) Tylenol sucks. Coffee will do more for you than tylenol. Switch to a real medicine.

2) Tylenol is the one you need to be careful about having too much of. It's isn't the same active ingredient as either motrin or aleve, so you don't have to worry about spacing the other option out. But don't have tylenol (or other products with acetaminophen like midol) more frequently than the package says.

Acetaminophen is basically a useless placebo that can kill you via liver damage if you take too much.