October is all about ghosts and goblins, but the scary truths about the female menstrual cycle can be more haunting than a corn maze after 9 PM. In order to dissect what could really be wrong with a woman’s cycle it’s a good idea to first know what a normal period looks like. The quick and painless explanation is that a period should be anywhere between 2-7 days and your cycle should be between 21-35 days long. There are different reasons as to why there’s such a variation that is further explained in THIS blog post.
Loosing about 50 ml of blood is also normal, that’s equivalent to 10 regular or 5 super pads or tampons getting filled. If it’s more or less talk to a health care provider. Lastly, your period should not be painful. Go back and read that sentence again. Pain is the body’s way of telling us something. We’ve heard that explanation our whole lives and yet when it comes to something that happens every single month we tell women to suck it up and take Midol. If your hormones are in balance there won’t be pain when Aunt Flow makes her glorious appearance.
1. The length of your period could indicate your age, this is probably the weirdest and maybe scariest truth about your cycle. The female cycle is broken up into three phases, Follicular, Ovulation, and Luteal. The first phase, follicular, is on average 2 weeks long. During this phase your tiny little eggs begin the race to ovulation and this process is promoted by a hormone called FSH. Younger women create less of this hormone earlier on in life so this phase takes a little longer to complete creating a longer time span between periods.
2. How heavy or light your period is can be helped through diet. While this isn’t THAT scary, it can be daunting to make changes to something so personal. My recommendation is to start slow and with choices that aren’t so…heavy. A heavy period is not always an indication of a health issue but if so changing your diet can make an impact. Animal products such as fatty meats, milk and eggs from chickens who don’t ever see the sun can increase estrogen production creating a heavier flow. Plastics when exposed to heat can also create estrogen stimulates that can not only affect you but has been shown to affect children’s health as well.
3. Women can actually generate new egg cells, we aren’t born with all of them…necessarily. If a woman can still create stem cells they can grow new little egg cells! New research has shown how men aren’t the only ones who can regenerate! One study showed an increase in fertility rates in women under chiropractic care. One woman wasn’t able to conceive, but she was 65…and got her period back. Now that’s scary.
4. Your birth control could be decreasing your sex drive. Hormone changes in the body are like a domino effect, you can’t take one hormone and create balance. Usually there are changes across the entire endocrine system. Ask any steroid user, and they’ll admit to a series of different shots to make the alterations they’re looking for. It usually takes several different medications before a woman finds “the right birth control for her,” because birth control makes such a drastic change across the entire body. Making quick changes can often create more havoc than sticking to one for a little while. Or, if you can avoid it talk to your doctor about getting off birth control completely.
5. Labs can sometimes be deceiving. Labs are simply a snapshot in time of what’s going on in your body. Being stressed before, eating something unhealthy before or getting stuck in traffic on your way can affect your results. I prefer looking at levels that have a long term reading such as A1C, and Vitamin D3 for a better overall picture.
You might have to make some changes but you won’t die.
Scary movies and costumes are more fun to engage in during this time of year. Don’t let your period be what haunts you, there’s plenty of amazing resources that can offer a natural solution to what ails you. Start with your local chiropractor, preferably someone familiar with the Schaefer Method or has a good working history with women’s health issues. Often times they can lead you in the right direction of nutrition, exercise, supplements that can help!
