How to be a Woman Who Doesn't Get Cramps
Everything that I share with you here, is not my wisdom. These are the things passed onto me by a compilation of woman and teachers, in Mexico, and Thailand and from all over the world. The most of it, has been taught to me by my teacher Homprang, who teaches at Baan Hom Samunphrai in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
It’s a dying wisdom, how to care for the womb. I hear women talk about their crippling cramps, about missed periods, about taking pain killers so they can still work out. Periods are not taught to us properly. There’s so much we don’t know.
And then there are the old wise tales; the grandmother’s myths that we now disregard, because “if a woman can be a CEO of a company, surely she can do a headstand on her period.” Don’t go upside down. Don’t cook. Don’t garden. Don’t participate in religious ceremony. Don’t lift anything heavy. Don’t wash your hair. These are just to list a few. And today, the feminist, power-to-the-woman-movement teaches that these are all ridiculous rules, meant to supress us. Woman are powerful, and woman can do anything while on their period.
But what if we can’t? What if ignoring this wisdom is disconnecting us from our natural rhythms?
Let’s Talk About the Hormonal Cycle
Men go through a complete hormonal cycle every 24 hours. Their energy spikes in the morning and then slowly decreases as the day goes by. A woman’s hormonal cycle lasts 28-35 days. When we ovulate, our hormone levels increase. During this time our energy levels are through the roof. This is the time to socialize. This is when we find the deep seated creative energy to paint a whole house in a day or navigate a new idea.
However, the female body is weakest while menstruating. This is the belief across many medical systems, including TCM, Thai Medical Theory and Ayurveda. As opposed to ovulation, where hormone levels spike and our energy is way up, menstruation is when everything drops, quite literally. If you start to pay attention to this, you may notice, during this time, a need for more sleep, an increase in appetite and perhaps an underlying feeling of sickness, or cold. Listen to these signals from your body. Give yourself rest. Give yourself food and keep yourself warm. This pretty much sums up how to care for your womb while menstruating. But I’ll go into it, in more depth.
1. The Body’s Natural Detox
Thai medical theory describes menstruation as a lack of essence. The female body is detoxing. And that’s why we get to say hello to the acne and the strange emotions we thought we could keep suppressing. The extremity of our PMS symptoms, from our mood swings to our break outs and even how bad our cramps get, are a clear indicator of how we did for the last month. If we haven’t been taking care of ourselves, these symptoms worsen, because there is more to detox. You may notice as well, that the symptoms are worse when a period is late, because the toxins have been building up. And this is why too, missing periods is a problem. There are many reasons that a woman will begin missing periods, and although western medicine holds that it’s not an issue, I say it’s one of the first signs that something needs your attention. When your body is healthy, it will be in rhythm, and so, your hormones will be in rhythm and your period will be in rhythm. You need this important time to release and restart.
Aiding the body during this time is essential. Staying hydrated is a must, and as I said before, sleeping and eating. This isn’t the time to stay up all night drinking. Keep your routine strong and be sure to feed your body foods high in healthy fats, as well as iron.
Excessive bleeding can be a sign of low iron. Eggs are a good food for this, and for vegans: cashews, leafy greens, and beans.
It’s important to maintain eating regular meals (no fasting), but it’s also important to keep your meals light. Your body is already working hard and giving it a lot to digest just gives it more work.
1. Resting the Body, Protecting the Womb
As well as getting enough sleep, allow yourself to relax. Life doesn’t necessarily support taking 3 days off work for this, I know, but do what you can. Don’t go to the gym. Don’t go for a run. Don’t go upside down, and I was serious before, don’t lift heavy things. I mentioned, the body is weakest while menstruating, so there is a higher risk of injury with all of these activities. That aside, understand that the muscles holding your uterus in place soften during you period. These muscles are highly elastic to begin with, but especially while on your period, to allow everything to flow properly. Lifting something heavy during this time, can actually move your uterus out of place.
Yes, that is correct, the uterus can move out of place, and actually this is very common. The most extreme case of this is a prolapsed uterus, where the uterus tilts back and moves into the vagina. And if you keep power squatting and cross-fit-ing while on your period this is not unlikely for you in your 60s. You can have a prolapsed uterus, not as severe, and at a young age too, either causing extremely painful cramps or no period at all. The uterus can also be lifted up too far or tilted to one side or another. A misaligned uterus stops the body from releasing the uterine wall properly during menstruation. The remaining tissue dries and hardens inside the uterus and come the next period the body works extra hard to release everything. This causes painful cramps, but can also be the reason for back pain, digestive issues, bladder problems, and even depression.
If you suspect your uterus is already misaligned, I recommend seeing someone trained in abdominal massage. Either Mayan abdominal massage or someone in Thailand trained in the art of womblifting.
1. Avoiding the Cold
Keeping your body warm is of the utmost importance. Drinking or eating cold foods and exposing yourself to cold, causes those already loosened, weakened muscles to contract, which can stop your body from menstruating. This again, causes the remaining tissue to dry up within the uterus.
A hot cup of ginger tea, warm soup, or a warm aromatic dish can be very soothing. Also, curling up under a warm blanket, with a hot water bottle. Keep your abdomen covered, and avoid tight clothing around that area. Things to avoid are anything cold. No ice cream or cold water. Avoid raw foods. And avoid ‘cooling’ foods, such as peppermint, cucumber, and coconut.
Now here’s an out there one: avoid washing your hair. Some woman I have spoken with disagree with this one, but I follow it closely. Anytime I have gone and washed my hair during a menstrual cycle my period stops, at least for a couple of days. Getting the head wet, cools down the body’s core temperature. This again, contracts the uterus. So no hair washing, no steam rooms and no hot tubs. Hot showers, keeping your hair dry, are fine. Cold showers are not.
It’s not about being weak as a woman. It’s about understanding how we function. We have our time of strength and exertion, and then we have time to quiet retreat and reflection. Keeping the integrity of our bodies allows us to use our energetic time to its full potential, and then make the most of the time we need to reset. Be kind, and take care of your womb.