Period Care 101: Female Bodied Wellness
Our WHOLE health as female bodied beings is dependent on our hormonal health and wellbeing. As menstruating women, our period is our greatest ally in this regard.
Understanding the process.
The first thing to know, is our periods are a monthly cleanse. It's the body’s natural detoxification process to keep us as women in optimum health. When the womb, or uterus, doesn't cleanse properly or fully each month, our womb can build up old residue that affects our overall health as women.
Symptoms to watch out for…
• Dark or brown blood at the beginning/end of your period
• Dark or thick blood
• Heavy periods
• Cramps or painful periods
• Clots
• Hormonal imbalances
• Bleeding more than 4 days
• Cycles shorten than 27 days
• Irregular cycles
• PMS
Each month the endometrial or uterine lining builds up in preparation for a fertilized egg to implant. If this does not happen, our uterus will shed this lining and start again. Our uterine arteries open and send blood into the uterus to flush out the unfertilized egg and lining. Our periods are not just tissue or blood accumulated in the uterus waiting to release. It's a flushing process.
The dark or brown blood at the beginning or end of your period is old residue from previous cycles. The dark thick blood and clots are signs of stagnation. The uterus will cramp in an effort to cleanse old residue or make up for stagnant circulation. The uterine arteries will flush more blood in an effort to clear old residue, the same goes for when things are stagnant. In turn, this makes your period long, heavy, and painful, which ultimately depletes you of nutrients, hydration, and energy - both emotionally and physically.
What to do…
#1 Rest and stay nourished.
Creating the blood needed to flush out the uterus, requires us to rest, stay hydrated, and stay nourished. Anything cold will stagnate blood flow. Keep warm, eat warm foods that are easy to digest, and steadily drink hot herbal tea to ease the process.
#2 Self- Care
Get abdominal massage and bodywork for the hips, glutes, and low back (search for Maya Abdominal Massage, Chi Nei Tsang, or request abdominal work from any licensed Massage Therapist). Learn about Vaginal Steaming or Yoni Steaming. Get plenty of exercise in that first half of your cycle. This will all support healthy circulation in the pelvis, and therefore supports a healthy, pain-free cycle. Rest while you are bleeding, but plan ahead and weave these rituals of self-care into your life.
All of the signs and symptoms listed above to watch out for signify imbalance. The beauty of practices like abdominal massage or vaginal steaming are that you don’t need to know the specifics of what hormonal balances may be at play. Abdominal massage will support any imbalance regardless of whether you know.
When it comes to vaginal steaming, these different symptoms will guide you as to what blend will serve you best. Again, even though the different herbs will support a recalibration you don’t need to know the specifics to address it.
If after you have tried abdominal massage and steaming and your period is still showing signs of imbalance than you may want to seek a practitioners who can offer blood work and provide you more support, or seek an acupuncturist who can offer a combination of treatments and chinese medicine.
Pelvic floor therapy can also be supportive depending on your situation.
#3 Period products.
To keep everything flowing at its best, it's important to be mindful of what products you are using for your period. Ultimately a tampon or sea sponge is a plug and will negatively affect the ability of the uterus to fully cleanse. We want to be able to flow freely not blocking the cervix (where the blood exits from the uterus) in any way. Period cups work great for some women, though for some women they cause cramping. Period underwear and pads are a great option as they uninhibit your body’s capacity to cleanse.
#4 Plan ahead.
If we overextend ourselves while we are bleeding, our energy gets consumed elsewhere, and it compromises the efficiency of the cleanse. We may not be able to stay home from work or have child care, but don't add anything extra to your schedule and rest. Lay off exercise, lay off social events, do the bare minimum, and hibernate. You may even want to stock up on groceries, meal plans, or get take-out.
Planning ahead requires you to track your cycle. It requires you to get to know your body. Use an app on your phone, weave it into your calendar, or watch your period in relevance to the moon. It's common for women to sync with the full or new moon and this is where the term "moon cycle" comes from. It may take some time to sync into this rhythm but it will eventually become second nature, and your family and friends will adapt.
#5 Honor the sacredness.
You will begin to cherish this time. It's important to have time dedicated to ourselves. It's important to be in tune with our bodies and have boundaries around our needs. It's important to have rituals. Many traditions honor this time as our moon time. They honor it as being a sacred or ceremonial time. We are more tender emotionally, we are more open energetically and intuitively. It's a potent time to drop within. The potency becomes lost if we are running around, and instead, feel irritable and run thin.
When we don't honor and respect this cycle it creates the standard stereotype that our periods are an awful burden. That they are painful, exhausting, and make us feel like a bitch. Our wombs are wise, and they talk loud when we are not listening.
Even though it may be uncomfortable to claim your boundaries around this time, know you're reclaiming something that is powerful. You're reclaiming something that roots in all traditions around the world. Claim this for all women, for your mothers, your grandmothers, and all the young girls making up the generations to come.
Recap
• Keep warm.
• Stay Hydrated.
• Nourishment- eat healthily, eat often.
• Eat warm, easily digestible foods.
• Avoid cold - internal and external.
• Drink hot herbal tea.
• Rest! Conserve your energy.
• Track your cycle and plan ahead.
• Meal prep, shop ahead of time or get take-out.
• Clear schedule - do the bare minimum.
• Alone time.
• Get bodywork for the abdomen, glutes, hips, and exercise (a physical activity that is FUN and brings you JOY) for healthy pelvic circulation (not while bleeding).
• Use period panties, bleach-free organic or cloth pads, or a period cup if it doesn't cause cramping.
• Honor the sacredness.
• Make a ritual.
With love,
Abby
