Painful Periods are Normal…Right?
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Have you ever seen the videos of men who go through a period or labor pain simulator? As women we often laugh at men’s reaction to the simulation as they now know the torture many females have to go through on a monthly basis. Although it is absolutely hilarious watching these videos, for many women it can serve as a reminder that having a period means a week or more of curling up in a ball crying, scarfing down loads of chocolate and yelling at their family for breathing. So would you believe me when I tell you that it’s actually NOT normal to be in pain or be grumpy during a woman’s period? The key to remember here that just because something is common does not mean that it is normal. Pain in any form is the body’s way of telling you something is wrong and out of balance. I would like to clarify some things I’ve figured out in the last couple of years of going natural and with what has helped my own cycle.
1. Magnesium. When you crave chocolate, that’s actually your body craving magnesium, which is a muscle relaxer. When you apply a magnesium cream like Good Night Lotion directly to where you feel the cramps it helps the muscles to not tense up as much and helps to reduce cramping. Magnesium is also a natural stool softener, so this lotion can also relieve menstrual related constipation.
A picture of my current jar of Good Night Lotion-Sensitive
This is an absolute must have in your natural medicine cabinet, and not just for period cramps!
2. Rebalancing the hormones. Doctors tell us that the only way to not hate being a woman is to take birth control (see below for one such story), and many women I’ve talked to have parroted that exact statement. Would you believe me when I say that hormonal birth control isn’t needed? Actually, birth control in my experience can make it worse. Besides the mental health issues that can stem from the birth control wrecking the natural hormone cycle and gut health, it can also cause an imbalance of hormones and for many women, infertility. I’m speaking from experience here for these (not the infertility thankfully, but definitely the mental health related that I discuss in another post), it sucks. If you’re interested in a nonhormonal form of birth control, have a regular or somewhat regular cycle and don’t feel particularly keen on using some sort of barrier all of the time, considering purchasing the Taking Charge of Your Fertility book. If your cycles are not regular, I believe you will need to rebalance your hormones before using the information in the book as a form of birth control or if you are trying to conceive, though it may still be a good reference.
I know if I don’t take anything for my period I get a horrendous migraine on day two of my period that makes me puke my guts out. Thankfully I found some organic tinctures that help with that. These tinctures have helped me to rebalance my hormones so I’m not a bear biting my family’s heads off… when I remember to take them regularly (darn distracted mom brain)! Seriously though, there is a MAJOR difference between when I remember to take the hormone balancing tinctures and when I forget. My husband will throw sea salted dark chocolate at me and my mom will tell me to go take my medicine if I’m particularly moody and I don’t catch myself first.
Natural Balance is made with licorice root, dandelion root, shatavari root, catnip, Ashwagandha, cane alcohol and filtered water and is good for general hormone balancing. Sometimes I take this and it’s the ONLY thing that gets rid of some rather annoying hormone related headaches/migraines that I get sometimes around when I’m ovulating.
This tincture takes a little bit to get used to and may have to be put into juice or something to cover up the taste. It can also make your cycle late if you don’t start taking it at the beginning of your period. That being said, this was definitely something I needed after being on birth control for several years!
Postpartum Balance is made with turmeric, black pepper, dandelion root, catnip, and alfalfa. While the ingredients in Postpartum Balance are not directly related to hormones, it does provide a pregnant or postpartum mama anti-inflammatory and calming properties while also providing a healthy detox of excess hormones by supporting the liver and replenishes some essential nutrients that babies take out of mom. I found out that it even will work a couple years after a baby is born! That’s what happened with me, I took the postpartum balance around when my oldest was two years old to help rid my body of the excess hormones from being pregnant with him as well as the hormonal birth control that I took before and after he was born thinking I needed it.
Postpartum Balance. This tincture has made an absolute night and day difference between my first and second time postpartum. When my oldest was born, I had some awful postpartum depression and postpartum rage. I feared I would have the same thing after my second was born, but have hardly had anything thanks to this simple simple tincture. It even worked for me when I first found it, when my oldest was two years old!
Lunamore is made with schisandra berry, alfalfa leaf, cinnamon, licorice root, goat’s rue, raspberry leaf, vegetable glycerin, and filtered water. This tincture is made specifically with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) in mind. While I don’t have PCOS, it did provide me metabolism and blood sugar support as well as some more balancing of my hormones. In fact, I think that tincture in particular is the reason that I got my libido back and wound up pregnant with baby number two!
If you have any symptoms of PCOS, this is the hormone balancing tincture for you!
Ease the Ache, made with nettle leaf, red raspberry leaf, cramp bark, and motherwort in either alcohol or glycerin and filtered water. This one helps to minimize the cramping, bloating, mood swings and horrendous migraines that come with my periods when I take them a couple days before my cycle starts. Seriously, I’ve had a few periods where I forgot I was even on it except when I went to the bathroom because I never cramped ONCE and was overall a more pleasant person to be around.
Never again will I go without having this life changing tincture on my tincture shelf. It makes periods soooo much more bearable. On top of that, it helps to ease cramping postpartum as well!
Other tinctures that can help with hormone balancing include Fertili-Boost Herbal Extract to help prepare the body for pregnancy if you are trying to conceive and Nourish Her Naturally, which is an herbal multivitamin. Don’t worry, it’s safe and encouraged to take while pregnant too as the red raspberry leaf is minimal and can help make labor easier.
Nourish Her Naturally is a great multipurpose tincture for women and girls of all ages. You can use it to gently rebalance hormones, tone the uterus after pregnancy, and provide valuable nutrients as an all natural multivitamin!
Progessence Plus Serum is a great little addition to your hormone balancing regimen as well and is best used on days 14-28 of your cycle if you have a normal 28 day cycle or during your luteal phase. The body naturally peaks in progesterone as this time, but if you’re low this yam based serum contains natural progesterone to put your body back on track and unlike it’s artificial counterpart used in birth control, it will not cause the same unwanted side effects in my experience.
Progessence Serum really helped to balance out my hormones! I just applied it neat on my stomach thighs or feet, rotating spots daily, the two weeks between when I ovulated and when my menstrual cycle begin!
2.5 Real Review Here is an actual story of one’s woman’s experience with some of these tinctures. She mentioned in a Facebook group that her doctor said the only way to help with her awful periods was hormonal birth control and she was asking questions about what to do. I felt for her and told her about the Women’s Health Bundle, which contains a 1 oz bottle each of Natural Balance, Lunamore, and Ease the Ache. She contacted me after her order came in because her period had started and she was absolutely miserable and didn’t know how to take the tinctures. I told her to take them as needed and five days later she messaged me to thank me for recommending that bundle and to tell me that her period had been cut in half from her usual seven-nine days to just four days with much easier symptoms to deal with! She did let me know that she felt nauseous while using these tinctures, but we figured it was from the dramatic shift in hormones that her body was not used to. If this kind of response happens with you, I would recommend lessening the dosage a little bit until your body gets used to these tinctures. Also, Natural Balance can take some getting used to flavor wise. If you have difficulty taking any of the tinctures, you can add them into something like a smoothie, chocolate milk, or juice to cover up the taste.
3. Switching to more natural menstrual products helps to ease cramps as well. Disposable tampons and pads are often soaked in toxic chemicals (ever see the warning for toxic shock syndrome?) that gets absorbed into a woman’s body. If you have to use disposable products, make sure to use organic pads and tampons. An alternative solution to these are menstrual cups (which is actually less gross than they sound) and cloth pads (if you’ve ever used or seen fluffy cloth diapers for babies it’s basically like that, but in a pad form and not as thick). Both of those can be washed and reused. The benefits of a cup or reusable pads items are, well, you never have to run to the store to get them when you run out and with proper care you pay for them one time and don’t have to buy them again for several years. If you’re looking to save money, this is a BIG help! They can also get the hormones more better aligned to facilitate fertility because they don’t have toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors. You can find some other examples of these items here or pictured below.
4. Lavender Essential Oil for Cramps. Essential oils have been used as remedies for thousands of years (Fun fact, lavender essential oil it was part of the embalming process in ancient Egypt and could still be smelled faintly when they opened King Tut’s tomb and various essential oils were given to Mary when Jesus was born if you’re religious). If you read what Dr. Axe has to say about lavender essential oil (I believe I wrote a paraphrased version of his article as well), he actually links to some studies that found that lavender essential oil, when applied topically to the abdomen, can help ease the pain of menstrual cramps. I tried it, and it actually works! You apply a few drops neat (that is to say, undiluted) to the pudge we woman have (which I found out is actually our womb!) and rub it in just like the Good Night Lotion. Now, there is a Good Night Lotion that has lavender essential oil in it, but I found it to be too diluted to help as well as it should, so I do them separately with the unscented (sensitive) formula or the lavender essential oil neat, depending on what I’m closest too. WORD OF CAUTION. While this is one essential oil that doesn’t need to be diluted when applied topically, many (like cirtrus, mint or spicy oils) do, which you can do by adding a dilution oil like the one found here. Essential oils are not water soluble, so don’t try to dilute it with water! Some other useful essential oil based products to use for female hormone balance can be found on my premade bundles page here, which includes items such as Clary Sage Essential Oil and Dragon Time Essential Oil Blend along with other items.
4.5. What No One Tells You About Hormones Guide. Okay, so this one isn’t just one specific item that can help you rebalance your hormones. It is, however, a great resource to learn more about this very important part of your body that is rather lacking in today’s educational system and point you to some solutions that can help. The Essential Oils Hormone Solution book can also be another great resource for learning how to rebalance your hormones naturally. Of course, we can’t for the Taking Charge of Your Fertility book.
If you, a friend, or family member is having trouble with hormones, menstrual cycle or fertility and you think this might help, please feel free to share this post with her!
Originally posted on my Tumblr on April 4, 2022, updated June 2023.