Buckle in, folks. This one is a long ride. Maybe you’re reading the title and thinking, “This girl is crazy, there is absolutely no way.” You’re allowed to be skeptical. I was too.
For YEARS I battled with debilitating period pain and horrible cramps that had me calling out of work, popping ibuprofen left and right, and living in a hot bath just to try and get some relief. I never imagined that my period could be pain-free, largely because I was told that that’s just how they were. And I believed it.
But what if I told you that painful periods aren’t just your lot in life? Or that you could be a functioning human being on your period instead crying from how bad it hurts? The menstrual phase is just one of four parts to a female’s infradian cycle that is a HUGE health marker. Your extreme period pain and PMS…well that’s actually a symptom that something is wrong.
Your periods are not supposed to be painful, it’s not a part of Eve’s “curse” (that talks about childbirth not your cycle so let’s lay off the poor woman), and you should not dread a regular process that occurs in your body. This is not a how to, or a full explanation of everything I did or why. However, if you’re down for a long read, here are 10 things that I did to heal my period and have a pain-free cycle. Let’s dive in.
She’s batting controversial right out of the gate, folks! XD
Seriously though, getting off of hormonal contraceptives is one of the best first steps. This is not the post where I answer all the questions about how to not get pregnant, what about your acne, and what the alternatives are, or even why it’s a detriment to female health for that matter. This is simply the story of how I healed my period and this is what I did.
Hormonal birth control prevents conception by preventing ovulation. No egg equals no conception equals no period… wait, what?! Yeah that’s right. You’re not actually having a period when you’re on hormonal BC, it’s just a withdrawal bleed from the lack of hormones in the sugar pills (or if you just don’t take them that week) that mimics the natural drop in your reproductive hormones before your period.
So if your doctor told you the pill would “regulate” your period/cycle and help with any period issues you were having, they lied. You can’t regulate a period if you’re not having one, and all the pill is doing is masking your symptoms. When you get off of BC, they come right back and usually with a vengeance, like mine did.
What’s my liver got to do with is? Well seeing as it is responsible for detoxification of nasty stuff in your body and conversion of certain hormones, it has an extremely important role. And it doesn’t just filter out the toxins, it actually changes them to make them less ‘potent’ and more easily excreted through urine and stool.
Supporting the liver doesn’t mean you are going on green juice detoxes (although they have their place) to detox in its stead, it means you are SUPPORTing its natural processes and making it easier to do its liver job.
This can look like a lot of things but one of them is actually taking desiccated liver supplements which are incredibly nutrient-dense. Supplementing in this way provides our livers with the nutrients that it need to work properly that we don’t frequently get in our diet. If you’re thinking, yeah there’s absolutely no way, I hear you. It’s not part of our modern culture to consume organ meats, but not too long ago this was not such a “gross” thing to eat. Ask yourself why it’s weird to you, now?
Zee-no-estrogen. Weird word, all around us. Xenoestrogens are biochemical mimics of the estrogen hormone that can bind to estrogen receptors and our body interprets it the same way as estrogen. Now take into account the fact that estrogen dominance is related to nearly every reproductive health issue/hormonal imbalance in women today and it becomes pretty clear that the picture is not so pretty.
Plastic –yikes- is one of the biggest xenoestrogen exposures in our modern world. If you are still drinking from plastic water bottles, know that plastic leeches into food and water and so those xenoestrogens are just waiting to get swallowed up with your H2O and bind inside your body and wreak havoc. But plastic is just one culprit. Do a quick search to find out where else xenoestrogens are lurking.
But carbs are bad, right? Not exactly. There’s a massive difference between eating processed conventional bread and cookies and doughnuts and whatnot that has additives and preservatives and PUFAs (poly-unsaturated fatty acids) and a sweet potato or a glass of orange juice or a slice of sourdough bread with raw butter slathered on top.
All of those are carb sources, but none of those are bad for you. Carbs inherently aren’t bad, they (specifically glucose) are your body’s preferred source of energy. And you need them to have a functioning metabolism!! Carbs have become “bad” because of how processed we’ve created our food to be and what else is added into it. Don’t restrict carbs, your body loves and wants them. What you CAN do if you are concerned about how they impact your blood sugar is put “clothes” on them. In other words, always eat your carbs with a protein and a fat source. This could be as simple as eating a wedge of cheese with your fries, or even better, cheese fries! Doesn’t that sound amazing?!
Minerals are a nuanced topic, but most commonly you hear them referred to as electrolytes. This is things like calcium, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. While minerals are a WHOLE rabbit trail, it’s important to note that you probably need way more of each of these than you are currently getting. Yes, including sodium. Let’s not fearmonger.
While you should absolutely be getting these through a whole foods diet, sometimes your body and adrenal glands need a little extra support. An easy way to do this is with an adrenal cocktail:
4oz organic orange juice
4oz coconut water or aloe vera juice
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Bring in the sourdough, boys! Truly we have gotten away from ancient methods of food preparation, especially for our grains and legumes. When it’s so easy to buy bread from the store that has commercial yeast to make bread rise at the drop of a hat, who needs to soak and ferment their flour until a natural yeast colony has formed to leaven their loaves? Quite ridiculous, one might say.
On the contrary. Using sourdough, soaking your beans and rice and quinoa and oats and nuts and seeds and etc. makes them immensely more digestible to your body. Perhaps we wouldn’t have an epidemic of food intolerances and digestion issues if we still prepared these things in a way that broke down the anti-nutrients in them that actually deplete the nutrient reserves in our bodies. Just a thought…
Find Carrie Vitt’s blog post on how to soak grains, legumes, and nuts HERE.
Sleep! Oh how I love…and hate thee. As a self-proclaimed night owl I have fought so hard for years to get into bed before midnight. I even made fun of people my age (and any age really) who went to bed before 10 pm because then you were “old.” But years of wisdom later (more like lack of stupidity), I understand how the body’s physiology WANTS you to go to bed earlier.
Did you know there are regenerative processes that occur in your body at night time that if you stay up past the time in which they are supposed to happen, you just don’t get it that night? That’s why going to bed by 10pm is supportive of your liver because then you’re sleeping by 11pm when it wants to go to work.
Here’s what I do for sleep hygiene (and there’s always more ways to grow!):
- Go to bed by 10 pm
- Get at least 8 hours of sleep
- Be consistent in sleep schedule
- Limit screen exposure at least an hour before bed because of blue light
- Get outside and expose my eyes to sunlight for 5+ minutes after waking
Ladies, we’ve got to quit under-nourishing our bodies. Most of us would be surprised to realize that we are on average eating 1200 calories per day which is enough for an 8 year old girl. Our bodies are highly adaptive so if you haven’t been feeding yourself enough, it will interpret that as famine and create fat stores, slow your metabolism, wreck your period, and literally eat away at the nutrient stores in your tissues if it’s not getting it through food.
Or maybe you’ve even been TOLD that eating 1200-1800 calories is an effective way to lose weight or that it’s healthy and good for someone “of your size.” Let’s just cut through all the garbage and wave goodbye to diet culture because none of that is true. Your body needs to be properly nourished and fed to function correctly and then all the other things will come. Eat enough, eat frequently. And EAT BREAKFAST! If you “don’t feel hungry for breakfast,” start eating enough throughout the day and your body will adjust. It already adapted to you not eating breakfast, it will love you even more when you do.
And eat more protein for goodness’ sake.
With the crazy busy world that we live in, it’s close to impossible to actually remove all the stressors in our lives. I know I can’t just lay down all my responsibilities for the sake of my health…things still need to get done. But what I can do is more of the things I love and set boundaries around the things that don’t serve me well.
We don’t get stress enough credit for how it impacts our health, and your body’s ability to deal with it is a huge marker for how well you are doing. Take an account of all the things that you are involved in and prioritize. What can you remove? What can you do less of? How can you set boundaries around what remains? If you are struggling with that overwhelming feeling, read my post Your Pie is Falling Apart.
SHEESH. This is a big one. I am an all-or-nothing kind of girl, and when I don’t see results fast I’m ready to move on. But take into account the amount of time you have treating your body negatively or exposed to environmental toxins. All of those things culminated into the point of me having horrible period pain, among other health issues. So should I really expect it to change overnight?
You can’t microwave your health journey, it takes time. Some more than others, and often you’ll see slow change quickly. But give yourself time and GRACE when you are walking this road. Even on the months where you are so incredibly frustrated and ready for this pain to be gone, take a breath and remember every small change makes a difference. Don’t beat yourself up for taking the pain medication if you still need it even if you want to not be in that place. Slow change is still change.
Wow. That was a lot of words, I know, but I hope you find value in this post. I want to see each of you thriving and having amazing reproductive health just like I’ve experienced. I was skeptical too, but you CAN have pain-free periods and I believe that you will.
Let this be a springboard that propels you into your own research and searching. I can’t give you all the answers, but I can cheer you on as you seek them out. If you want a few more ideas on how to get started on your health journey, check out this blog post. May your cycles be regular and your periods pain-free.
I couldn’t resist commenting. Very well written!