Let's talk about period pain!
Do you experience painful cramping, bloating, headaches, and other unwanted symptoms leaving you wanting to lay in bed curled in a ball during your period?? Let's learn about some ways to improve this pain and get you out of bed and ditching the ibuprofen every month!
What causes period pain??
Period pain is referred to as dysmenorrhea.
Primary dysmenorrhea is most common and is period pain that is not caused by another condition. The cause is usually too many prostaglandins, which are chemicals that make your uterus tighten and relax, leading to cramping.Â
Secondary dysmenorrhea often occurs later in life and is caused by a condition that affects your uterus and other reproductive organs such as endometriosis or uterine fibroids. This pain may begin before your period starts and last after your period ends. For secondary dysmenorrhea, the treatment often depends on the condition causing the problem. In this case, treatment may need to be more individualized and potentially even need surgery (example: excision surgery for endometriosis).
What can we do to improve period pain??
Now, let's get to the good part - all the strategies you can utilize to improve your period pain!Â
1. Eat more plants! A plant-based diet has been shown to reduce menstrual pain.
One study showed that eating less than 2 servings of fruit per day raised the probability of experiencing menstrual pain!
In this study, menstrual pain was lower in those who consumed olive oil daily!
Action Step -- Aim for 30 plants per week! Each time you eat a fruit, veggie, or nuts/seeds, that counts as 1! You could also aim for 10 plant points a day with the same idea that every time you eat a fruit, veggie, or nuts/seeds, that counts as 1 point!
2. Optimize bowel health - Our bowel health impacts so many things from urinary symptoms to even menstrual cycle symptoms. We need to ensure we are having daily, smooth bowel movements!
During your cycle, if you tend more towards diarrhea, eat more veggies than fruit!
Action Step -- During your cycle, if you tend more towards diarrhea, eat more veggies than fruit to help! Also, consider taking magnesium glycinate or citrate for bowel movement regularity.
3. Use herbs/spices to your advantage! Cinnamon/fennel/ginger have been shown to effectively reduce pain intensity and cinnamon shortened the duration of pain.
Action Step -- Add ginger to a stir fry with your favorite protein, veggie, and rice/cauliflower rice for a healthy, nourishing meal during your period. You can add cinnamon to yogurt or a smoothie when on your period to help with menstrual pain!
4. Stress reduction
I know this one is easier said than done, but painful cycles have been associated with increased stress.
Action Step -- Try to practice gentle yoga or meditation, utilize a gratitude journal each day to write down 3-5 things you are grateful for, spend time with loved ones, laugh, or other forms of movement you enjoy can all be beneficial in reducing stress!
5. Manual therapy -Â This is where a pelvic health PT/OT can be helpful to perform manual therapy on the abdominal wall, back muscles, hip and pelvic muscles, which has been shown to reduce severity of headache, back pain, diarrhea, fatigue, and PMS when compared to use of ibuprofen.
Action Step -- Reach out to your local pelvic health PT for an assessment. In the meantime, try out some abdominal massage techniques! Here is an example that can be helpful.
6. Yoga/Movement - Gentle movement can be helpful to reduce period pain. This is often a time where we need to listen to our bodies, slow down, and perform movement such as walking, yoga, mobility, etc. However, some women are able to continue their typical workout routine with no problem! This is very individualized!
Try this quick yoga flow for period pain to get some blood flow to the area, improve mobility, and reduce pain/cramping!
As always, please email me at restore.physicaltherapy614@gmail.com if you have any questions!
If you're interested in working with me 1:1 in-person or virtually, fill out my contact form and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!
Here's to better periods!!
Dr. Kaitlin
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