Menstruation is an important topic that most people would benefit from talking about yet many don’t. This blog series about menstruation will give you a baseline understanding of what a period should look like, what is common versus normal, debunk myths, offer ways to know your period better and teach you how to support yourself best.
Let’s start with some basics. Shall we?
Who menstruates:
People with a uterus and pituitary and ovaries can have a period. Women, men, non-binary people, genderqueer, cisgender women and transgender men, amongst others can menstruate.
A few things you need to know about menstruation:
- Most people can have symptom free periods even if it’s not common.
- PMS symptoms are correctable.
- While Allopathic/Western Medicine may be limited in the solutions, holistic health and Chinese Medicine offers a vast array of viable approaches to help with difficulties related to menstruation. Using one or integrating both, depending on the case.
- You can change your relationship with your cycle.
- It’s possible to have periods that don’t negatively affect your life at all.
What does a healthy menstrual cycle look like?
Many people I speak with have no idea what a healthy period is. This might surprise you: Healthy menstrual cycle = no PMS symptoms and no menstrual pain. How many people can say they breeze through their period? Not many!
This doesn’t mean something is wrong with you if you experience difficulty around menstruation. It does mean your body is sending signals that something needs attention, which is where having a personal team of trusted practitioners to support you comes in.
A healthy menstrual cycle is predictable and has no precursor symptoms aside from bleeding. Arriving between every 26-32 days and being fairly consistent, maybe moving 1-2 days between that range, is what “normal” could be defined as. A flow that is neither too heavy or light, with 2-4 days of the heaviest flow then tapering off.
What shouldn’t happen in a healthy menstrual cycle (although are very common) are bloating, changes in cravings, headaches, breast tenderness.
If you’re dealing with any of these symptoms, don’t be alarmed. Reach out for support to create more ease around your menstruation and the rest of your life, too. What drew me to reproductive health as a specialty is seeing first hand how well Chinese medicine treats menstrual issues. As a person that menstruates, I have been essentially told that living ½ my life in pain or not feeling well is perfectly normal. It may be COMMON, but it is not NORMAL. We are not designed to be in pain or feel unwell.
Island Acupuncture offers a free consultation to support you in naturally treating PMS symptoms and other period related issues. Join the hundreds of menstruating patients who said goodbye to feeling awful due to their cycle. Click on the “schedule” button right on this page!
