Period Talk

 Strategies for Menstrual Health or Taming Your Periods
 
You'll have about 400 periods in your lifetime, so track them, learn about your experience and how to thrive before, during and after each cycle.

1. Eat a primarily plant based diet.  Pork, ham and processed meats can irritate your periods.  Real food + mostly plants + not too much (with kudos to Michael Pollan) = healthier periods.  Research it and think Mediterranean Diet.  At least 3 pieces of fruit (not processed, not juice) + olive oil daily were important factors in research in Spain.
2. Optimize your bowel health.  Your bowel removes extra hormones.  If you're constipated at the same time each month (think luteal phase when progesterone is higher), you'll hold back icky hormones.  If you're loose (right before your period begins when estrogen/progesterone drop and prostaglandins spike), eat less fruit, more vegies.  Think full, painfree, complete and satisfying daily morning BMs with enough fibre (be boringly consistent), adequate hydration and relaxed pelvic floor muscles for toileting.  Your GI tract and healthy microbiome are important in estrogen metabolism (i.e. how your periods work). These are hormonally determined in women.  Track your cycle.  Become an expert on yourself.
3. Spices that may help  are Cinnamon, Fennel and Ginger.  Use ginger (tea, in food, topical cream/oil, capsules) in the week prior to your period as it's anti-inflammatory and pain killing.  Fennel is helpful for bloating and GI issues….use in cooking, as tea, essential oils in massage.  Cinnamon is warming, pain reducing (duration + intensity) and anti-inflammatory on morning oats, and in tea/coffee.
4. Sleep.  Disrupted sleep with cramps/bloating/anxiety/Gi issues causes increased pain perception.  Turn off blue lights 1 - 2 hours prior to bed.  Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.  Have a cool room + warm feet.  Use a journal prior to bed (write everything down) and leave it, with your cellphone, outside your bedroom.  Empty your bladder prior to bed when you brush your teeth and, if you're constipated, have a glass of tap hot water.  Reduce light in your bedroom and make sleep time a priority.  No compromise on making sleep your job!
5. Stress management.  Notice if you're down (depressed) or anxious at the same time each month.  PMS and painful periods are higher in people who are anxious/stressed and vice versa.  Finding ways to reduce your stress will reduce the challenges with your periods.  Exercise is the best studied option, so good on you for exercising.  Sleep and a healthy diet support exercise.  If you think it would be helpful to talk with someone, find a counselor (professional or someone safe with whom you can be vulnerable).  Practice a gratitude journal - write down 3 things each day that you're grateful for.  Learn self-compassion, being as kind to yourself as you are to your bestie.  Start the minute you look in the mirror in the morning, saying "Hello bestie!".
6. Caffeine and Alcohol?  Caffeine helps your bowel move but interrupts your sleep…..which are you and which time of the month is that true?  Alcohol is different……daily use of alcohol raises your levels of estrodoil (pro-estrogen), so your liver is on guard to remove the alcohol toxin and ignores the extra estrogen, leaving it circulating when it should have been removed.  It is linked with Alzheimers and breast cancer, so is best done without if either are in your family story.  If you do have a drink, enjoy it on a special occasion (best at 1 - 2/month).  If/when you do drink, for women the "dose" is one beer, on 5 oz. glass of wine or 1 oz. of hard liquor at a time…..then stop!  Be informed and make your best decision.                                                                                                        
   
7. Heat?  A hot water bottle or warmed wheat bag are helpful, not too hot, wrapped in a towel and snuggle down with it tucked into your low tummy!  It reduces your pain perception and simply feels wonderful.  Every woman knows.
   
8. T.E.N.S.  Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for painful periods to endometriosis pain is well researched.  Talk to your pelvic physio about learning how to use one, borrowing a machine and trying it, then buying one/applying it yourself at home.
9. Manual Therapy.  Compared to Ibuprofen by itself, manual therapy had better pain relief in low back pain + headaches + diarrhea + fatigue + PMS.  Think massage therapy and physiotherapy (for therapists:  QL, Obturator Internus, Psoas, Iliacus, Adductors, Diaphragm, Pelvic Floor, MFR and post manual therapy relaxation techniques for hip rotation, abduction, flexion, extension).  Why did it work?  We think it's because it decreased threat, created safety, re-established healthy/free movement and the body's ability to be at ease.
10. Vibration.  You can use a vibrator over the low belly/uterus (from the outside) after heat for 15 minutes for 3 - 5 minutes with an empty bladder to reduce period pain.  The same effect was found with exercising on a power plate (whole body vibration) 3x/week.
11. Orgasm.  Orgasm reduced period pain….either with a partner or yourself.
12. Water.  1600 mls/day of water during your period can reduce your period pain.  Drink more.
13. Movement.  During your period, yoga and a gentle walk can be best options.  Think half cat/cows with your tummy released/hanging freely on a big out breath/deep sigh.  Think sphinx/baby cobra to child's pose, back and forth with your breath.  Think windshield washers of your hips/knees in sphinx (TV watching pose on your belly).  Think deep, low belly breaths throughout your day.  When we want to curl up in a ball with a hot water bottle, it can increase pain output in the end, so we're trying to go gently outside of that.  Breathing deeply and well, increasing your out-breath and being able to stretch your belly again may be surprisingly enjoyable (open up the front line of your body).

 
Try one idea at a time to learn what works best for you.  You are unique as are your cycles.
 
What looks like a good idea for me?  Practical?  Applicable? 
During, before or after my period begins?

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1. My Choice:_________________________________________________ Date:___________________

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1. My Choice:_________________________________________________ Date:___________________

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1. My Choice:__________________________________________________Date:___________________

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Property of Full Circle Physiotherapy, updated July 2022, not to be copied without permission.  JG