What is normal for a period and what isn't.

A period is a natural process every women goes through each month to get ready for a “possible baby”.

How crazy is it when you first find out the real reason as to why you are shedding blood every month from the age of 12?

I’m not sure about you, but I didn’t know much about a period or what to expect when I was that age.

So let’s talk periods …..

From roughly the age of 12 is when the menarche will occur. This is the first period and this can differentiate between every woman as to when their period starts, depending on what constitutes  from their parents, their childhood lifestyle, what they eat and if they exercise.

Some women will find they get it earlier or later than this age. This is fine for modern day society now but it was expected to be at the age of 12 to be considered normal.

From the first day onwards many women across the world will experience period symptoms such as: Abdomen pain, Back pain, Heavy blood flow, Bloating, Nausea, Clots, Vomiting and Distension from this day onwards whenever they start a period. It could be to a minor degree of these sensations or it could be to being on the floor is a foetal position.

And let me tell you this….

It is NOT NORMAL to have any of these!

This may blow your mind and might even make you feel agitated finding out that getting pain during your period is not normal. But truely it isn’t. From the very first time you get a period, it takes five years for your cycle to get in to a rhythm. – That’s five years!

In these five years there will be lots of changes. As your body goes through puberty, it is trying to get an understanding of how to run your hormones at every stage of your cycle. So no wonder you may feel moody, agitated, feel uncomfortable with your body and feel the uneasiness of a having a period. But not only that, you are studying, fitting in with social groups, dealing with family environments and much more.

So your body is just processing and this takes time.

When you are going through all of this at such a young age, we depend on family, friends and what society has given us to support us at that age, and a lot of younger women will go to a doctor for help if symptoms are really excessive. This will usually lead towards going on the pill to help with all these changes.

Or they think it’s going to help…….this is wrong. It will only mask the symptoms.

The pill not only covers up the symptoms but it can also reduce women’s sense of self and intuition.

Why does this pill do this?

The pill makes your body think it’s pregnant, this is so it can stop from making hormones to get your body ready for conception. It is masking and preventing hormones to be released, therefore represses emotions, feelings and intuition that coincide with those hormones (this is for another day to talk about, as we are here to talk about what is normal and not). This is just one thing that can delay the process of a normal period.

Not trying to say that doctors are not doing the right thing for you but they are doing what they are trained in. And that is Medicine.

But I’m here to tell you there is an underlying cause to your period sufferings that you are getting. Not just for young women but every women in every stage of life.

And here is just a small list of what they could be:

– Raised cortisol levels from stressful environments.

– Hormonal imbalances

– Medications

– Illnesses

– High levels of exercise – If not supplemented correctly with the right diet.

– Inadequate Diets – high processed foods, sugars, fad diets etc.

– Trauma – Physical or emotional.

– Vitamin or mineral deficiencies

– Environment – Who you put yourself around. Family & Friends.

– Lifestyle – Is it crazy busy or do you sit on the couch everyday.

There is so many factors that come in to play when looking at the reasons of your period symptoms. So instead of continuing life thinking it’s normal to have to go through these symptoms (as mentioned above) each month, here is what a normal period should look like.

No pain (maybe a tiny little bit of heaviness – very minor).

No clots in blood.

The colour of blood is a bright Red (a little darker on the first day) and tapers off towards the end.

Quality of the blood is slightly heavier on the first day and then should ease off on the second to third day.

No nausea, bloating or vomiting.

A little tiredness is normal (as blood is leaving the body so generally less oxygen and fluids are in the body)

Period length should be anywhere from 3-5 days. The cycle should be every 28-30 days. Some women are regularly irregular their whole life and this is normal.

Here is what I suggest you do now:

1. Write a timeline of your history. This will allow you to track what you have been doing in the past years that is leading you to here today. Some examples are: where you have travelled too, new jobs you have acquired, lifestyle changes, new relationships or relationships that have ended, When you had kids, When you had an accident, got an injury or had a surgery. Anything you can think of that has affected you in some way. Good and bad please!

2. Find out as much information as you can about hormones, from as many different people as you can (will post another blog soon on this soon) and how they interact in your body and what could cause harm to them if undernourished or depleted.

3. Seek Help. Get some help to get a better and healthier period. No women wants to be in a foetal position on the floor or even just in a little pain each month. So get some help, get someone you can trust and who can also be a detective when trying to find the cause of your period symptoms. Try to avoid someone that is only going to mask the symptoms, that is not going to solve your problem, and can affect at a later day when wanting to fall pregnant.

I hope to all those who suffer severely during a period have a better understanding of what can effect the cycle and what you can do about it now.