Healing Painful Menstruation
Are you one of the many women who struggles with painful menstruation or irregular menstrual cycles? The good news and the bad news is that you are not alone. Nearly half of women struggle with painful menses, or dysmenorrhea.
Symptoms of imbalanced and painful menstruation
- Big emotional mood swings
- Unmanageable cramps leading up to or during your menstrual cycle
- Nausea and vomiting
- Dizziness
- Migraines and headaches
Common Medical Treatment of dysmenorrhea
NSAIDS: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like Motrin and Ibuprofen are common treatments for period pain. While they do alleviate the pain in the short term, taking them frequently as a long term conclusion for chronic pain is not ideal due to side effects of liver damage, which links to fertility issues in some women, gastric bleeding and even heart attacks in women.
Birth control pill: Many women take this to control menstrual pain with varied effectiveness. The pill can have similar side effects as NSAID, with additional risks of hormonal cancers in the future, such as uterine, breast and ovarian cancers.
What causes painful menstruation?
Inflammation underlies pain anywhere in the body. Excessive production of inflammatory chemicals in the body called, prostaglandins are responsible for our experience of menstrual pain and cramping.
What factors increase the production of painful prostaglandins?
Stress
Stress increases our cortisol production, which can increase inflammation. Stress also often drives us into our less productive and supportive habits and patterns around food, self-care and exercise.
Endocrine disrupting hormones
We find these everywhere as a result of pollution of the atmosphere from fossil fuels and pollution of our food system from herbicides and pesticides. Many of these chemicals mimic our own hormones. When we think about the chemicals that “beef up” our crops to make them look big and succulent, we can imagine that these hormones and chemicals are essentially doing the same thing to our own systems. and so essentially bind to the hormone sites made for our own “endogenous” versions of those hormones.
Uterine Position
Truth, when our uterus is not in right alignment in our pelvic bowl, it can truly wreak havoc on our pelvic health. A few of the issues we see as a result include, painful menstruation, fertility challenges, frequent urination, chronic UTIs, interstitial cystitis, chronic back pain, pain with sex and so much more.
ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕨𝕒𝕪𝕤 𝕥𝕠 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘
𝔽𝕠𝕠𝕕
💧Make sure dairy and meat you consume are hormone free and raised in healthy environments. When the animals are stressed, we take that in hormonally.
💧Eat plenty of greens and vegetables, organic when possible, and include fermented veggies to aid in healthy digestion
💧Put your leftovers in glass or stainless steel containers, and if you do use plastic for your leftovers, avoid putting it in the microwave.
💧Find a glass or stainless steel water bottle, to avoid drinking out of plastic regularly.
ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕝 𝔸𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕊𝕦𝕡𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕤
🌿 Motherwort – Nourishing love of the mother in herbal form
🌿 Tulsi – A great adrenal tonic, supporting resilience to stress
🌿 Ginger – Decreases inflammation and helps to move stuck blood
🌿 Cinnamon – Balances blood sugar, decreasing inflammation and supporting balance in hormones
🌿 Crampbark – Eases menstrual cramps
🌿 Magnesium Glycinate – Supports better sleep when taken at night, nourishes the nervous system and can reduce severity and frequency of hormonal migraines
🌿 B Vitamin complex – Nourishes the nerves especially if you are a vegetarian or vegan
𝔸𝕝𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 ℙ𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕖𝕤
⚕️Maya Abdominal Massage – Contact me or check out Abdominal Therapy Collective to find a practitioner near you
⚕️Holistic Pelvic CareTM - Contact me or check out The Wild Feminine to find a practitioner near you
⚕️Healthy Posture – When standing, make sure not to lock your knees, and keep your feet hips distance when walking. Visit my website for more information and FREE practice videos!
⚕️Orgasm! Yup, personally, I love clitoral orgasms if I get cramps, but whatever is your pleasure, though my teacher Rosita Arvigo always advised against inserting anything during menstruation. Let it be a time of outflow!
