- What Does it Mean to Have a Real Heavy Period?
- Possible Root Causes of Heavy Periods
- 5 Practical Root Cause Solutions to Reduce Flow in Heavy Periods
- Natural Remedies for Heavy Periods When You Can’t Find the Root Cause
- Video Interview with Nicole Jardim, “The Period Girl”
- Natural Remedies for Heavy Periods Video Time Stamp
- What All This Means (The Heavy Period Summary for Skimmers)
- More Real Heavy Period Resources from Nicole
Have real heavy periods? You’re not alone – continuous, sticky, yellow cervical mucus, and irregular cycles all make Natural Family Planning (NFP) difficult. However, there are root heavy period causes to your PMS woes that can be solved gently and naturally – from estrogen dominance to heavy metal toxicity. Learn the natural remedies for heavy periods too!
Ever had period jealousy?
If you have a super heavy menstrual flow and long periods like me, I bet you’ve experienced it. It can be hard to find solutions (especially natural solutions) for real heavy periods, but finding the root cause is possible!
Somewhere around here, most writers would say that this isn’t a post for men, but I think dudes with women in their lives (especially married ones) should know how menstrual cycles work, and understand female hormones, period pain and what “normal” is so they can support their wives through each cycle and make sure they’re getting help on root causes if they’re irregular. So guys – keep reading!
It looks a little like this:
Friend: “Oh I started using one of those too, love it! I haven’t had the overflow problem though – how many times do you have to empty it?”
Me: “Like 7 or 8 on the first few days of the cycle.”
Friend, stops in her tracks to look at me, eyes wider than a size 2 Diva Cup. “Um, WHAT???? Is that normal?”
Me: “Doubt it – the insert in the package says most women’s average flow is like 1 or 2 ounces, which is 4 cups full, max. So I get more than triple flow in just one day, ugh!! I just hope it’s more manageable by day 5, because we’re going swimming as a family this weekend.”
Friend, nearly in shock now, I’m considering calling an ambulance for her as she staggers backward: “Day 5? What’s day 5???”
Me: “You know, the fifth day of period flow? Like before it starts to dry up for a few more days?”
Friend: “Um…I’m all done with spotting and everything after like 3 or 4 days…”
Me, hoping the ambulance will come give me some oxygen now: “A 3 or 4 day cycle? What’s THAT????”
That’s period jealousy, my dear readers, when you realize that no, a full week of bleeding is NOT every woman’s experience, nor are double tampon/pad days and changing sheets at night even with a menstrual cup and overnight maxi-pad.
When you have a friend with a 3-day cycle who can just put in a menstrual cup and forget it, you’re supremely jealous.
It’s kind of amazing to me that with as much natural health information as I read, it took me a good 24+ years of fertility to understand that my super heavy menstrual cycles WERE. NOT. NORMAL.
Yes, “were” is the proper word there, because I’ve finally worked on root causes of my real heavy periods and discovered some supplements that help reduce the flow. My cycles are finally more regular to boot thanks to natural remedies for heavy periods!
We’ll start today with defining and exploring answers to:
- What IS a real heavy period?
- What are some root cause possibilities?
- What practical solutions exist to solve root causes of heavy periods?
I have a great interview with Nicole Jardim, “The Period Girl,” to share with you, and finally, if you can’t find or are in the midst of fixing root causes but want some relief, we’ll talk about some supplements that may make a big difference as well.
What Does it Mean to Have a Real Heavy Period?
Of course there is a wide range of “normal” when it comes to how much blood and how many days a woman’s period should last, but there are some definite “this is too much” markers that show you’re completely out of range.
Some symptoms of a real heavy period include:
- bleeding that lasts longer than 7 days
- you have to change your pad/tampon/period underwear more than every 2 hours for the first 3 days
- you’re emptying a full (30 mL) menstrual cup more than twice a day
- you need a pad and a tampon together
- you need to get up in the middle of the night
- clots that are longer than 1 inch
- exhaustion or anemia in conjunction with your period
A “normal” period occurs every 25-35 days and lasts for 3-7 days. The average blood loss is about 35-50 mL. That’s about 6-10 fully soaked pads or tampons.
I know women who have periods so long that there are more days of bleeding in a month than not bleeding, so it’s WORTH seeking out root cause and not just masking those symptoms! Typically the side effects of whatever is prescribed to stop that real heavy flow are not going to be worth it, either in the short term or long run or both.
Mine weren’t that bad, but still on day one and two, it’s nearly debilitating and I should be homebound (but sometimes cannot be). The horrid attitude often associated with PMS shows up in me more often on those early days, just because I’m constantly leaking and #lifeinterrupted makes me crazy cranky!
Possible Root Causes of Heavy Periods
I find it fascinating (and typical) that the primary site on a search for “regular period flow” only lists actual diseases (and pregnancy/breastfeeding of course) as possible reasons for irregular periods.
And the recommendation? Birth control. Anyone surprised?
Cover the symptoms, call it “normal.”
That’s not acceptable to me! There are real root causes that aren’t necessarily diagnose-able “female” diseases, and if we do enough detective work to uncover them, we can solve our heavy periods and irregular cycles (more on that in another post) once and for all!
When your body does something out of the norm, it’s not crying for birth control to cover it up. It’s crying out to tell you something is WRONG that needs to be fixed.
The most common discovery when a woman has heavy periods and irregular cycles is estrogen dominance, basically an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone, the two hormones that rise and fall to create the female cycle.
Estrogen dominance means there’s too much estrogen in the body, and there are other root causes the we need to dig deeper about to solve that one.
Also, the opposite often happens as a result of all that estrogen, low progesterone. The symptoms of low progesterone of course include irregular cycles but you’ll notice other issues too.
Some of the other symptoms of an estrogen/progesterone imbalance include:
- clots
- breast tenderness
- menstrual migraines
- period pain
Root causes of all that estrogen floating around can range from exposure to too many environmental estrogens from personal products (looking at you, sunscreen!), conventionally farmed meats, plastics and more.
We are even exposed to estrogenic compounds through our drinking water because of the personal products, plastics and hormones OTHER people are taking which get into the system through the sewage and aren’t able to be filtered out (think of all the women on birth control and hormone replacement therapy urinating estrogen out every day!).
You also might have diagnoses such as:
- endometriosis
- fibroids
- adenomyosis
- thyroid imbalance
- adrenal fatigue
And if you can’t excrete all the estrogen your body makes naturally plus all that you’ve been exposed to? There’s another root cause of estrogen dominance even if you can clean up your environment.
A liver not functioning at its best and constipation are two other root causes to look closely at. I’ve been constipated all my life, which could totally be the root cause of my own estrogen dominance.
Although there are natural remedies for constipation that can help, one must keep the detective hat on and dig even deeper for the root cause of constipation as well! This may range from mineral deficiencies to liver function to heavy metal toxicity to gut dysbiosis to thyroid imbalance and more!
Worth working with an expert? Yup! Test, don’t guess!
For me, I had mitochondrial dysfunction, thyroid imbalance AND lead toxicity. I’m a work in progress on all of them, but getting the bowels moving regularly is of utmost importance to eliminate so many toxins messing up my body! Supporting adrenals is also an important step on most women’s path to healing.
5 Practical Root Cause Solutions to Reduce Flow in Heavy Periods
Before we get to natural remedies for heavy periods, here’s what to try first to fix the root causes:
1. Support the Liver
Any methods to open up your drainage pathways are going to be helpful to reduce estrogen dominance. Give your body its best ammunition to get rid of what’s hurting you!
Dr. Lori Rose shared great liver support and drainage ideas with us in a Women’s Wellness series, including: cruciferous vegetables, dandelion root tea, onions, garlic and beets are some liver supporting foods.
2. Get Your Bowels Moving
Once the liver is filtering everything well, you still need a way for the toxins to get OUT of your body! This includes excess estrogen, even that which is naturally occurring in your cycle – because a normal cycle is an ebb and flow of estrogen and progesterone, your body needs to excrete estrogen as part of a normal process.
The only ways out are urine, poop, sweat and menstrual bleeding. Since we DON’T want more of that last one, we need more of the others!
- Stay hydrated. Making sure you are urinating regularly is an easy start.
- Avoid constipation. You MUST be having a bowel movement once a day at minimum, and according to Dr. Marisol, Queen of Thrones and poop expert, your BM should be as long as your own wrist-to-elbow measurement and take no more than 60 seconds.
- No antiperspirants! Sorry ladies, but deodorant to cover the stink is fine, while antiperspirants stop you from sweating, which you need to increase to support drainage pathways. There are even ways to increase elimination and drainage via your armpits.
- Keep moving. Exercise should help decrease constipation and make you sweat more.
- For general drainage support, I would also recommend time in a sauna. I’ve been visiting local saunas but I’m hoping to get my own!
There are LOTS of other ways to support elimination and improve constipation symptoms and you may need to work with a functional medicine practitioner to help dig alllllll the way to your own root cause, but just knowing that constipation can impact menstrual flow, to me, is empowering because it gives direction.
If you do suffer from constipation at any level, that may need root cause resolution itself. For me, SIBO was one of my (many) root causes that I had to address with the AIP diet and supplementation, before we even discovered my lead toxicity that I’m still working on. And then again, the latest research shows that a breath test may not be an accurate predictor of SIBO, which is what I did, of course.
Luckily, Lucy Mailing, the author of this article, was my coach, and what we did sounds like the very safe empiric herbal treatment in her bulleted summary at the end. (I love that her articles always have that by the way – I think I’ll do the same for skimmers!) 😉
3. Heal your Gut
It’s no surprise that a healthy gut is the foundation of a healthy life, but perhaps you didn’t consider before that the gut might be related to your cycle!
So much in our modern world harms our guts, and it’s worth taking a look at gut healing protocols and tips to figure out what you can do to support your gut health and heal any leaky gut issues you might have.
Free resource: Grab this amazing gut health guide related to SKIN issues from Lucy at Next Gen Medicine!
4. Supplement Vital Nutrients
As you’ll see in the video interview below, certain nutrients impact a woman’s cycle (and many of us are deficient in the same ones.
Some nutrients to be aware of are iron, magnesium, calcium, zinc and selenium. These are all vital to our menstrual and reproductive health. Even dark chocolate may help magnesium levels 😉 although most likely a supplement or magnesium lotion will be best.
Nicole recommends Seeking Health for vitamins. I checked them out and they actually have really competitive prices, and I see the magnesium only needs one capsule instead of 4 for what I’ve been taking! I’m ordering some now!
5. Cut Sugar and Alcohol
As you’ll see in the interview below, sugar and alcohol are two of the worst causes of all that we’ve been talking about!
They hurt liver function, damage your gut, and mess with your hormones (including but not limited to insulin). Nicole Jardim calls them “the two biggest culprits in our modern day life.”
Cutting out alcohol doesn’t really need a game plan, although if you prefer to drink some wine but seek a lower alcohol and sugar content, Dry Farm Wines are the way to go. They’re keto-approved, always 12% alcohol and lower, no added chemicals and lab-tested to have no glyphosate and more. Plus it’s expensive, so you’ll drink less. 😉
Ditching sugar is harder for a lot of people. Education is first – why is white sugar so bad for you?
Then you may need to wean yourself off sweet things slowly OR try a reset like a Whole30 (see my Whole30 meal plans for help) or a sugar-free challenge to curb your cravings and change your tastebuds.
I guarantee it’s possible to change those tastebuds as I’ve seen both myself and my husband reduce our sweet tooth cravings. Him more than me – he used to drink multiple soda pops every day and now isn’t even interested in candy or processed desserts. Except for ice cream. That one gets both of us!
Hormonal Acne?
Bonus! If you can stem the flow of your heavy periods by root cause solutions, you might also kick your hormonal acne that you thought was part of the bargain of being a woman.
Here’s more on naturally getting rid of acne from the functional coach who helped me dig into my root causes (more on my whooooole story later).
Wish You Knew All the Answers to Keep Your Family Healthy?
How about a crash course?
I’d love to send you a 7-day “Quick Start Guide” email mini-course to give you Health Agency! When something goes wrong in your family, YOU can be the agent of healing and not allllllways have to call a doctor for every little thing.
Imagine this email series as a virtual chat over the backyard fence with your own neighbor, a wise older mom who’s raising 4 kids with intention, trying to avoid unnecessary medication and being kind to the earth.
Looking forward to connecting to help you learn EXACTLY what you need to know to stock your natural remedies “medicine cabinet,” deal with normal childhood ailments, and even the dreaded, “What’s that on my skin?” issue! 🙂
Natural Remedies for Heavy Periods When You Can’t Find the Root Cause
I know, I know…even though finding and eliminating root causes must be our goal, sometimes it’s not that easy. Or it takes forever to figure out – or to work through and heal.
In the meantime, if you (or your family) need more instant relief from the person you become when you’re bleeding through tampons and pads like the burglars who left the water on in Home Alone visited your uterus, there ARE some natural remedies for heavy periods that you can use to curb the symptoms of heavy flow.
Vitamin K for Blood Clotting
Vitamin K clots blood, so it can be helpful the day before and on heavy days of a period.
This is the brand I take with my Vitamin D anyway, so I’ll take an extra when I remember. This was recommended by my OB-GYN. You can use the coupon code Katie15 for 15% off at Just Thrive.
Chlorophyll
My OB-GYN recommended I take chlorophyll drops during period flow, which I thought at first were to attempt to reduce the flow, and it might because it’s also high in Vitamin K naturally. But after a bit of research I realized that chlorophyll, like adding extra iron (red meat) to your diet in the early part of your cycle, is also intended to reduce the negative impact of that much blood loss by stimulating the production of red blood cells.
It’s not a difficult supplement to obtain, and I used peppermint-flavored drops in my water because it IS a difficult supplement to take (unless you love water that tastes like you licked a lawnmower). You can price check those here, here or here. You can also get chlorella in a powder or capsules from Perfect Supplements (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!)
This source discusses wheatgrass, which is high in chlorophyll and supports drainage for a 1-2 punch on heavy menstruation. However, when your body hasn’t adjusted to that much nutrition at once, you may at first get heavier periods for a couple reasons, so use with caution!
Shepherd’s Purse
A friend who is a fertility expert recommended a supplement for me which I immediately ordered.
I knew Slow Flow included Shepherd’s Purse, highly recommended for reducing heavy flow, plus Vitamin K, BUT I just noticed that it also has 5,000 IU of Vitamin A (as retinyl palmitate), which is more on my radar now that Mary is doing a Vitamin A diet. I’m not thrilled about that one, so I’m now on the hunt for another product with helpful ingredients and no synthetic Vitamin A.
This one is something I’d try, but again a reminder: Treating the symptoms of a heavy period/irregular cycles, even with natural remedies, herbs and supplements, should not be the final goal. Seek out that root cause, get your bowels and gut healthy, and watch your cycles follow suit!
Note that while Shepherd’s Purse is IN the remedy above, you can also isolate Shepherd’s Purse if you want to try one thing at a time by trying a tincture like this one or this one.
Vitex/Chasteberry
Another powerful remedy for irregular periods, including heavy flow, is chasteberry, aka Vitex. It’s something that can do more harm than good, so it’s to be used with caution and under the care of a medical professional, but it’s also found to help increase low progesterone.
More info:
- How Chasteberry Supports Women’s Health (& Considerations)
- 3 Reasons to take Chasteberry
- Chasteberry for PMS (this article is PACKED with great info on cycles and hormones in general!)
- Side Effects and Precautions
Berberine
As I worked with my health coach on my SIBO, thyroid imbalance and mineral deficiencies, something amazing started happening. My cycles became regular and my terrible, heavy periods lightened up! I thought, “It’s a miracle, I’m healed!!”
Then I finished a round of supplements that was a botanical anti-pathogenic protocol, and YIKES – breakthrough bleeding, long cycle, terrible period!
Lucy and I figured out (well, Lucy did!) that the compound berberine, a small ingredient in just one of the supplements I was taking, was probably what had helped.
This is the brand I take, 3 per day with meals at first, now I take just one per day whenever (with my regular supplements) and I’m mostly staying regular and have MUCH lighter periods. Whenever I get lazy on supplements and skip them entirely more than once per week, I do start to see issues like breakthrough bleeding, longer cycles, shorter luteal phases and heavier, longer periods.
The good news is I know it’s working. The bad news is I know my root causes aren’t resolved yet!
I’m a work in progress, but I sure hope that these solutions can be a great help to some of you (and your families, because I think a heavy flow makes me crankier than PMS!!).
Speaking of PMS, if that’s a burden for you, Dr. Lori Rose’s guest post/series on KS is a must-read, starting with her diet solutions to stop PMS…
Sovereign Tea (Pine Tea) Essential Oil
This oil is a later addition to my arsenal. Jodi Cohen of Vibrant Blue Oils gave me a sample in October of 2021 – it’s intended to help with some of the blood clotting and menstrual symptoms people had been reporting from both the popular virus of the time and its mainstream antidote (ahem).
I was using it while traveling, applying a bit in that little dip at the base of the neck where the collarbones meet, and then adding a few drops to my water while in the airport.
This happened to be right about mid-cycle, ovulation time, although I’m not sure if that mattered much.
What I do know is that my next menstruation was the lightest OF MY LIFE. I’m sold!
Sovereign Tea is expertly blended using research on clotting, and I’m not the only KSer who has seen it make a difference in irregular menstrual cycles.
The Right Menstrual Cup for Heavy Periods
It also helped me to switch brands of menstrual cups (I still bleed a LOT more than the average woman but it’s much more manageable now), and this post was instrumental in figuring out what to buy (the Super Jennie).
If you’ve never tried a menstrual cup, first of all, you’re missing out! Check that blog for allllll the info you could possibly want. 😉
This Cream Helped My Periods Hit 28 Days Regularly
One of the very last solutions I started using is a progesterone cream from Dr. Anna Cabeca. It’s a topical low-level progesterone, and as a cycling woman, the directions say to use on cycle days 12-28.
Because I know progesterone spikes after ovulation and I track my cycles, I generally start mine right after ovulation and continue through menstruation. Sometimes that’s day 12, sometimes it’s day 15. It’s fairly easy to remember to put on at night as part of my bedtime routine, and I’m always careful to wash my hands well afterward because we don’t want progesterone being encountered by my kids or my husband.
The bottle lasts a really long time since you don’t even use it every day, and it’s one of those things I never want to run out of. Worth a try if you have any irregularities or inconsistencies in your cycle.
Should Iron be a Supplement Because of Blood Loss from Heavy Periods?
No, probably not.
I can’t go into all the specifics in this post (and I’m not qualified to) but Lucy is, and she wrote all about the dangers of iron supplements and iron fortified foods, along with some natural food-based ways to increase your iron.
Someone losing a lot of blood like I do/did in the first few days should definitely focus on iron consumption, just not supplementation, to avoid anemia and other problems with low iron. My functional blood tests DID show low iron, so I take a few Vitamin C capsules per day.
When I’m smart, I take them WITH high iron foods like red meat. This liposomal version was recommended for maximum absorption.
Vitamin C may also directly help improve heavy periods, double bonus!
Video Interview with Nicole Jardim, “The Period Girl”
If you can’t see the video above, check out Heavy Period Solutions on YouTube directly.
No time to watch the whole video? Here are the notes!
Natural Remedies for Heavy Periods Video Time Stamp
- 0:29: Today I’m talking to Nicole Jardim, “The Period Girl.” We’re talking about what is considered a heavy period, what the root causes might be and what we can do about it.
- 1:04: We go over what a heavy period looks like. A heavy period can be really unmanageable as you try to go about your daily life. Some symptoms of a heavy period include: bleeding that lasts longer than 7 days, you have to change your pad/tampon/period underwear more than every 2 hours for the first 3 days, you’re emptying a full (30 mL) menstrual cup more than twice a day, you need a pad and a tampon together, you need to get up in the middle of the night, clots that are longer than 1 inch, and exhaustion or anemia in conjunction with your period.
- 2:34: A normal period occurs every 25-35 days and lasts for 3-7 days. The average blood loss is about 35-50 mL. That’s about 6-10 fully soaked pads or tampons.
- 4:09: In the teenage years and during perimenopause heavy bleeding is more common.
- 5:15: Estrogen dominance stimulates the growth of the uterine lining which causes heavy periods.
- 5:46: Thyroid function impacts estrogen and progesterone levels. If you have thyroid imbalance you can have heavier periods. A full thyroid panel includes TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies. This will give you a clearer picture of your thyroid health than the standard thyroid panel most doctors will order.
- 6:20: Some of the other symptoms of an estrogen/progesterone imbalance include: clots, endometriosis, fibroids, adenomyosis, breast tenderness, menstrual migraines, or period pain.
- 7:10: There are conditions like blood clotting disorders, hemophilia, and Von Willebrand’s disease that can be linked to heavy periods including flooding. Nicole recommends that you get tested if you think you may have a more serious condition leading to your heavy periods.
- 7:42: The first step is to figure out what your root cause may be. Talk to your doctor to see what tests can be done to see if you have a condition such as endometriosis.
- 8:46: Liver health is vital to hormone balance. One of the roles of the liver is to eliminate excess estrogen. If it’s overtaxed through environmental toxins, food, medications, or alcohol it will have a harder time doing its job. Cruciferous vegetables, dandelion root tea, onions, garlic and beets are some liver supporting foods.
- 10:03: Once estrogen is cleaned out by the liver, it goes into the gut to be removed from the body. If you’re constipated, it could be reabsorbed through your gut. You should be having a bowel movement at least once a day to get the estrogen out. There’s an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase which causes estrogen to be reabsorbed. If you have high levels then you may have an issue with estrogen dominance. Supplemental calcium deglucerate can help keep the beta-glucuronidase in check.
- 11:49: Some nutrients to be aware of are: iron, magnesium, calcium, zinc and selenium. These are all vital to our menstrual and reproductive health.
- 13:04: Nicole recommends Seeking Health for vitamins. Holy cow, they actually have really competitive prices, and I see the magnesium only needs one capsule instead of 4 for what I’ve been taking! I’m ordering some now!
- 13:57: If you’re working on your gut health and liver function to improve your periods, you’ll likely see improvement in other areas of your life as well. Everything is connected!
What All This Means (The Heavy Period Summary for Skimmers)
Get the skim notes on the whole post here!
- Heavy periods include ANY of the following: last more than 7 days, more than 2 menstrual cups per day, tampons and pads together are needed, soaking through those in 2 hours or less.
- Estrogen dominance is a huge root cause of heavy periods, which often has its own root cause.
- To reduce estrogen dominance, bolstering drainage pathways, healing constipation, and supporting the liver are key.
- Healing your gut, supplementing vital nutrients and cutting sugar and alcohol should also help.
- If you can’t find root cause (yet), there are supplemental options to reduce heavy flow like Vitamin K, chlorophyll, chasteberry, Shepherd’s Purse and Berberine.
And if you find yourself feeling “period jealousy” because a friend’s flow seems more manageable than yours…I’m hoping you can make the shift using these recommendations so that you can feel “period gratitude” when yours begins to improve!
More Real Heavy Period Resources from Nicole
- Period Quiz
- Fix Your Period Programs
- Blog Post on Natural Period Pain Solutions
- What is a Healthy Menstrual Cycle?
May I just add a great book suggestion here to all the great things you wrote:
The Hormone Cure by Dr. Sara Gottfried. For women from teens to menopause. You can answer a questionnaire at the beginning of the book … then you can jump to the chapter which best describes your results and how to deal with it naturally. (and there’s all the scientific data in the book for those who love the medical science, too!)
I gleaned a lot from it when I was still in that stage of life.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I drink Wellabs Liquid Milk Thistle extract intermittently, several times a year. The effect is very good, the liver has become smaller in size (earlier, inflammation and enlargement were found on ultrasound images). The pain has stopped and now I go to the toilet like clockwork! I recommend!
Thanks for sharing that tip Emma!
I have PCOS, I always try my best to eat healthy and stay healthy. My periods are so weird and always irregular. My aunt(a nurse) introduce me to chlorophyll and I’ve been taking it since diagnosed with PCOS in 2020.
Chlorophyll helps me a lot.
That’s good to hear Julia! Thanks for sharing your experience to encourage others!
About a year ago my periods started getting much heavier. Not as heavy as you describe here, but concerning for me! I found a few women on Instagram who were talking about hormones and metabolism and pro metabolic eating. I started following a couple of their suggestions, namely eating a raw carrot or raw carrot salad every single day, and taking desiccated liver daily. My periods have vastly improved! Much lighter, less PMS symptoms (my breasts were incredibly swollen and sore for over a week before my cycle before) and a couple days shorter than before! I highly recommend the raw carrot salad as it helps flush out excess estrogen. One of the women I follow has a book called How To Heal Your Metabolism. It is excellent.
That’s so interesting, thanks for sharing Stacey!
For anyone needing a quick fix, the product you mentioned trying, Menstrual Reg, does work well. I have been trying to get to the root causes of my estrogen dominance for years, so have been using this product monthly for a long time. It is not immediately effective, but starts working after about a day to slow the flow.
When I was in my early 40’s I went through a time where my periods just would not quit–at all. Evening primrose oil solved that, though they were still very heavy. A couple of years ago, I started on essential oils, and now things are a lot better. Thank the Lord!
Oh yowza, Marie, just when you’re thinking you’re getting to the end of dealing with periods, they go nuts on you! I’m so glad you found something to get them under control! What EOs help? Thanks! Katie
Did you come across this study in your research? Women had such an improvement in their menstrual pain after changing their diets that they didn’t want to go back. Also talks about how food affects our estrogen levels. My periods have been much better since eating this way! https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/nutrition-information/using-foods-against-menstrual-pain
Hi Alicia,
That’s so interesting (high fiber, low fat) because I often hear HIGH fat diets prescribed for fertility in particular. For myself I know I have far fewer cramping problems (none) compared to when I was in college and a young wife on the Standard American Diet. ??? So many different answers! But I’m glad you found something that works for you for sure! 🙂 Katie
Endometrial cancer – and the hysterectomy got rid of the migraines, too!
I didn’t have this issue arise until recently as a part of my perimenopause symptoms. Vitamin C has been really helpful–it helps with progesterone production. I had been taking it and magnesium to help with joint pains that seemed to coincide with my cycle, and for some reason I quite taking the Vitamin C for a while and that’s when the heavy bleeding started. Adding the extra Vitamin C back into my routine did the trick.
Great to hear an individual case study, Cathy – and soooo glad you found something that worked!! -Katie
This is all fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
Something I am curious about: people talk about being anemic during the bleeding phase of their cycle “because of all that blood loss.” But, if I’m understanding biology correctly, that blood wasn’t part of our regular circulatory system, right? I thought Ii was in the uterus, preparing for a possible pregnancy. So it doesn’t seem like it should affect overall blood levels and iron levels.
It’s so important to understand your own personal body functions and what affects you best or worst. Thank you!
Diana,
Definitely not a doc or biologist here but I’ve seen so many recommendations for extra iron etc during menstruation…if it’s wrong, it’s a crazy solid urban legend! My thought: Even though it’s not in circulation, the body had to MAKE it using some raw material, somehow, and it has to make it every month. If you can detox through period blood, it’s certainly part of the system. So…??? But you shouldn’t be anemic if you lose a “regular” amount since it’s not very much!! -Katie
That’s a really good point about the detoxing. I had thought about it not actually being the bleeding that drains you, but the replenishing. So maybe that is the answer. I myself actually had a borderline anemic blood test one month while I was in the bleeding phase, and it was fine when I had the re-test. So I’m thinking there’s more to it than urban legend! But curious me just always wants to know more and exactly how 😉 (I know you understand!)
Also, liquid chlorophyll helped me tremendously in pregnancy when your blood volume expands faster than your red blood cell count. It’s not true anemia but it mimics the symptoms, and the chlorophyll supposedly helps build it faster. I actually learned to like the lawnmower taste too 🙂
LOL that’s awesome about the chlorophyll! Curious minds are the best! 🙂 katie
So, I have had a few periods that have lasted weeks. 🙁 Yes, weeks. And sure enough, my hemoglobin count got to 6, which apparently is bad, because we should be at 15 or so. I had to get a transfusion. Doctors say this happens to women a lot. I learned the hard way. So periods CAN affect your blood levels. I JUST started taking chlorophyll to help with all of the benefits it carries. I’m hoping for the best.
Are there at home tests you can do to find the root cause? Great article thank you for sharing all of this!
Hi Hannah,
This is a great question – yes and no, because part of the problem may be interpreting the tests. But you CAN order tests like cortisol (for adrenal health) and more via https://www.zrtlab.com/ or https://directlabs.com/default.aspx if you sort of know what you’re looking for! -Katie
Boy, I wish I’d had access to this information back in the day! I fought with drs about using birth control to control my periods and how it was affecting me, and actually had one tell me my migraines were NOT related to my period/hormones! Hmm…haven’t had a single one since menopause…I wasn’t a crunchy mama back then, but between knowing my body and going to nursing school, I knew there was more to it. Kudos for putting it all together Katie!
Thank you! I wish you had the info too – the Internet certainly helps us all be “in the know” so much more! 🙂 Katie