Allow me to begin this post with a caveat. I share my story in hopes that it will help others, but I know each individual is different with their own histories and health journeys. This is what has worked for me, and I hope it can be helpful to others. Read on for ten tips on having pain free periods.
My Story of Painful Periods
I remember the moment as clear as day. It was 2004, in my first year of AmeriCorps service, working in an office in downtown Arlington. I was doubled over on the floor writhing from pain. I experienced period pains since I first got my period at age 12 and remember monthly cramps and all the annoyances that come with having your period but it was never this bad. Something had to change but it didn’t until many years later when I realized that it was not my fault but, instead, it was because I was a product of my environment. Now, nearly 20 years later, I experience my periods most of the time with little to no pain. The big secret to this is….clean living.
Misunderstanding Our Periods
A woman’s moon cycle/menstrual cycle/period is another aspect of being a woman that is misunderstood, colonized, normalized in harmful ways, misrepresented, and feared, causing shame and embarrassment. Girls are forced into awkward conversations in elementary school. We dreaded getting our periods and some of us cried when we did. It felt like a punishment. We’ve had embarrassing moments in school or work with leaking, and we’ve felt a lot of pain along with moodiness, cravings, body changes, and so much more with little empathy at home or work. Yet, no one informs us that period pain is not normal or teaches us how to have healthy menstruation or that menstruation is an indication that you can have babies someday, surely something to be celebrated.
The requisite learning about our cycles in school is surface level and perpetuates embarrassment and fear, which we carry on into adulthood, knowing very little about how our bodies work. As adults, we hate, dread, and resent our periods when we are trying to conceive or celebrate them when we’re hoping not to be pregnant. We learn the most about our own bodies when we are trying to conceive, often times too late. Period pains are common and normalized though they are not normal. It is the toxins in our food and environment that causes this. I didn’t learn this until I started yoni steaming a few years ago.
What’s Common is Not Necessarily What’s Normal
You are not supposed to be in pain during your period, yet most people don’t know this. I finally have achieved pain free periods with these ten tips, but I consider myself to be fortunate to have been exposed to this information. This realization of what is not normal took many years, as I learned what things were widely accepted but were having a negative impact on my menstrual health. Period positivity is returning with a deeper understanding of our different phases and what is happening in our body during our moon cycles, what exercises to do at which phase, what to eat, and even how it impacts our contributions in the workplace. I want to help other women have healthier periods as well and so want to offer some tips.
Ten Tips:
First, out with the old:
- Throw Away Conventional Pads– Yes, please!! Even though I haven’t used conventional pads in many years, an OB recently warned me of the dangers of Always pads. Get rid of them fast. Companies lace conventional pads with all kinds of chemicals that have direct access to our bloodstream. Cue- extreme pain, PCOS, fibroids, infertility, etc. There are health friendly pads, cloth pads, Diva Cups, and so many more alternatives.
- Clean Up Your Diet – Limit or toss the processed foods, sodas, sugary drinks, fried foods, etc. I have a sweet tooth and don’t eat well all the time, but making dietary changes over time has resulted in better periods. Drink lots of water too.
- Clean Up the House – Toss all the hormone disruptors lurking around- household cleaners, body products, air fresheners, etc… Do a little at a time over time, if you have
- Birth Control – I support it, but I don’t subscribe to it. I absolutely believe in the power of women to have control over their reproductive health. Absolutely. But… I don’t trust the safety of birth control. I have taken one birth control medication in my life, and it sentenced me to a lifelong condition that doctors did not even acknowledge for the first few years. The silver lining there is that it led me to a path of natural and holistic health. Pharmaceutical birth control has harmed thousands of women. It has also harmed the women on whom the birth control was tested, such as Puerto Rican women. Many of these women who died in the process of testing birth control for American women. We still don’t know the extent of the harmful short term and long-term impacts of birth control. At the rate which doctors prescribe birth control to regulate periods or address painful periods is another example of creating more problems instead of addressing the root cause.
Then, in with the new!
- Move – I love yoga and dance, and I do more of both of them than I did when I was in my 20’s. Having a routine of movement every day has been good for my body and mind.
- Steam Your Yoni– This is an age-old practice during which a concoction of herbs based on your ailment is prepared and put into a pot of boiling water. The steam from this pot nourishes and heals your yoni. Since I’ve been doing this, my reproductive health has improved so much. See my post on Yoni Steaming. (Aside: You don’t Yoni Steam when you’re pregnant or immediately postpartum. It’s better to Yoni Smoke)
- KNOW Your Cycle– Track it, Rest When You Should, Be Active When the Time is Right and Celebrate that Amazing Gift (which most of us haven’t and still don’t see as such) that allows women to tap into their divine feminine, have babies, etc.
- Follow the Experts – There has been a resurgence in understanding our moon cycles and how we can have better experiences, and I’m learning from these lovelies.
- Look into Holistic Remedies – There are essential oils like Ylang Ylang that can help with discomfort from your period or Chinese Herbs like Free & Easy that can help with mood swings along with homeopathy and Ayurvedic remedies.
- Reduce Stress, Meditate, Have Community – These are some of critical ingredients to those who live the longest in the world. Stress, as we know, affects everything. Your period is no different.
Period Positivity
Whether You make a Period Positive basket for your daughter, niece, neighbor, coworkers, daughter, bonus daughter, etc. or share what you learn with other menstruating women, don’t keep this to yourself. Check out this Period Positive store, only one of its kind in the world!
Please share these tips with others. These changes can go a long way, and I’m sick and tired of hearing about ovarian cancer, fibroids, PCOS, infertility, secondary infertility, vulvodynia, vulva vestibulitis, and on and on from which my sisters are suffering to no fault of their own. Ladies, it’s time to take back our period health and enlighten our girls.
- I can’t wait to embarrass my own girls and celebrate their moon cycles instead of making them feel ashamed and encouraging them to rest on those days! Congratulations to Spain (and others) for now offering a paid period leave! There are definitely two period positive baskets that I’ll be putting together in a few years. Are you interested in a period positive basket? Let me know in the comments! Check out my period positive resources here!
