Unusal reaction to evening primrose oil?

[Family4Christ]

I took one 500mg gel orally yesterday and within 2 hours, I started cramping (never happens) and my BHs picked up.  This went on intensely for about 4 hours and I felt mild twinges for a couple more.  Now, my body is sensitive to *everything*, so it's not a huge surprise.  I was going to take one 500mg gel every other day to deal with scar tissue, but I'll need to wait a few weeks.

I'm a bit nervous to use it vaginally at 36 weeks, as I'm a VBA2C and didn't respond well to prostaglandins on my cervix with my first labor.

Anyone else have unusual reactions to such a gentle oil?

[Family4Christ]

I guess I'm just really odd then lol

[bella99]

Nope, you're not that odd.

Apparently while it's somewhat rare to have that kind of reaction, it's not unheard.

When I was trying to get pregnant this time around, I took EPO by mouth for several days and was completely convinced that I had the stomach flu for those couple of days until I looked up possible side effects, saw what they were, stopped the EPO, and the symptoms went away.

But I'm just about 39 weeks now and have been using the EPO every other day for the last 5 days or so, without any negative side effects.  I wouldn't worry about using it vaginally, since it's very gentle and semen is a much stronger prostaglandin and I assume plenty of women with VBAC have sex during pregnancy, even late pregnancy.

[Family4Christ]

Thank you, mama!

[Max'sMama]

I don't think that it's odd at all.  I was prepping for an herbal induction so that my husband would be around for the birth of our third and oral EPO gave me tons of contractions.  I was to take it from 36 weeks on and had to stop after 3 days when we noticed that the EPO was causing hefty contractions.  I ended up taking it orally for 2 days before the induction and then on the cervix the day of the induction and had a 3.5 hour labor.

So, not odd at all.

[tourist.]

IIRC, when taking EPO to increase/enhance cervical mucus you take it only through ovulation, then stop taking it after ovulation because it is known to cause uterine cramping/contracting.  Definitely not unusual.