Can you remember being told that period pain and menstrual cramps are ‘normal’?
It may have been your mum, doctor or a friend that has never had a cramp in her life.
Despite what many women are told period pain and menstrual cramps often indicate a hormonal imbalance.
You may have been told that the only solution for stopping menstrual cramps is to go on ‘The Pill’ or take pain -relief medication. These solutions can give you some relief, but don’t fix your hormone imbalance.
You Have Options
Andrea Hepner, leading Naturopath in hormone balancing, uses Saliva Hormone Testing to pick up mild, moderate and severe menstrual symptoms.
Period pain is usually caused by an imbalance between your estrogen and progesterone, although in some women testosterone can play a part as well.
Natural remedies for pms may assist in stopping menstrual cramps and the associated symptoms. They may also work at a deeper level, addressing the cause of your hormone imbalance, alleviating your pain, fixing the cause of your imbalance.
Sound like a good option?
Estrogen
Even though estrogen is usually talked about as one hormone, there are actually 3 types of estrogen. It can be one or more of these estrogens that can be out of balance.
Estrogen that is too high can be due to
- weight gain
- pesticides and herbicides in food
- toxins in our environment (especially plastics from food & drink wraps)
- constipation
Do some of these things affect you?
Estrogen can be low because of
- underweight
- going through the change of life (hot flushes, vaginal dryness etc)
Maybe this sounds more like you?
Progesterone
Progesterone is the ‘balancing hormone’ to estrogens.
It is often low because of
- increased stress levels
Are you stressed?
Testosterone
No need to freak out, us girls have small amounts of testosterone, just like guys have small amounts of estrogen.
Testosterone can be too high because
- you are very driven in your work and don’t have a lot of ‘time out’
- an event or medication has upset your hormones
- your blood sugar levels are up and down (your energy levels are up and down during the day and you might use coffee or coke to give you a pick-me-up)
Do you work too much and find it hard to ‘switch off’?
Testosterone can be too low because of
- long term increased stress levels
- diet low in zinc (pumpkin seeds, oyster’s, red meat)
- weight gain, especially around your tummy
When is the last time you ate pumpkin seeds?
Sound like there may be things happening in your life which could be contributing to your period pain?
Well done on reading this far. You are obviously serious about stopping your period pain and getting to the cause. Make sure you fill in the “10 Steps to Relieving your Period Pain” to help with your period right now. If you are serious about getting to the bottom of this, why not give us a call to find out more 1300 21 44 25.
A Word Of Caution
If you are experiencing acute once-off abdominal pain, it may not be period pain and you should see your Qualified Health Care Practitioner Immediately.
