Periods…

As girls, we are constantly told by nearly everyone, our parents, our friends AND SOCIETY that periods are something that we should hide away and not talked about because the society we are in says that we should be ashamed of what our wonderful body do.

Periods also known as the ‘menstrual cycle’ scientifically, is when the uterus sheds its thick lining of blood out through the vagina after the eggs haven’t been fertilised. A period usually lasts for around 7 days and at the start it should be heavy and sometimes it may be brown, but as it moves towards the end, the flow gets lighter and the blood may also be brown then. Girls will start their periods between the ages 8-18, so it’s completely normal if you start before or after your friend groups.

You may get PMS which stands for Pre-Menstrual Syndrome which you might experience with a few symptoms before and during the period such as: mood swings, vomiting, acne outbreak, tender breasts, abdominal pain, cravings, tiredness, and the list goes on…

The foods that can help reduce the symptoms of PMS would:

• Reduced salt – helps with tender breasts, bloating, or swollen hands.
• Eat fruits and vegetables (leafy greens) – reduces fatigue.
• DRINK WATER!!!!! this is self explanatory, I mean, IT’S WATER!!!
• Eat complex carbs such as sweet potatoes, unprocessed oats, potatoes, lentils, squash, and pumpkins – stabilises mood and surpasses cravings.
• Eat wholegrain – stabilises your mood and make your mood better.
• Limit caffeine – it makes your sleeping pattern better.
• EAT IRON-RICH FOODS – you lose a lot of iron during your period so you need to replace the lost iron.

Some exercises to ease PMS would be:

• Brisk walking
• Running
• Yoga

Now during your period, hormones will cause your emotions to be heightened and you’d feel really irritable, this is totally normal, I mean whenever Sairah and I syncing in our periods, we often murder each other ooooopsyyyy…. Furthermore, you will also get a lot of other symptoms such as cramps (they will kill you!!), you could have bowel issues such as diarrhoea and constipation, and most of the symptoms of PMS.

Some tips that helps with menstrual cramps are:

• Take pain killers such as paracetamol, but I like to use Neurofen because it works well for me.
• Use a hot water bottle.
• Eat papaya, brown rice, nuts, leafy greens, chicken, fish, avocados, peanut butter, prunes, chickpeas, dark chocolate, and bananas.
• Do some yoga, and never heavy exercise.

I experience extreme periods and so does Sairah, whenever we get our periods we could vomit and the cramps will be extra bad to the point we actually can’t move or breathe. This might scare you guys and we should have gotten used to it be the extremity of this never gets easier. We have researched on how it may make it easier for us and we’ve found that apparently birth control will make things easier for us. According to my research the pill will make our periods lighter and more regular, the hormones in the pill will reduce the cramps and the symptoms of PMS. Furthermore, it can help you skip a period. However, you have to take the pill every day and not forget it.

Periods are natural and you should never be ashamed of having it. You can talk about it loudly because who cares, it’s your body. We need to normalise periods because it’s what makes us so amazing, because our body can create new life!!

Oh one more thing, there are a few ways that you can use for periods:

• Menstrual Cups – it’s a reusable plastic cup that you put into your vagina that collects the blood.
• Tampons – it’s a stick of cotton with a string attached to the end where you stick up your vagina to absorb the blood flow, you need to change one every 4 hours because you might risk getting TSS which stands for Toxic Shock Syndrome (I will explain later).
• Pads – it’s like a nappy that you stick onto the inside of your underwear, some of them has wings and some doesn’t. If there are wings you flip them onto the back of your underwear and it will secure the pad so it won’t move anywhere and reduces the risk of leaking.

Leaking is totally normal, but when you wash off blood, you NEED to use COLD water and soap because using hot water will make it stain.

TSS is a rare life-threatening condition that’s caused by bacterias in the body releasing extremely harmful toxins and it gets worse extremely quickly if not treated as soon as possible.

Symptoms include:

• High temperature
• Flu-like symptoms
• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Sunburn like rash
• Lips, tongue, and the whites of the eyes turning red
• Dizziness, fainting
• Difficulty breathing
• Confusion

If you have all or most of these symptoms, please go see a doctor. It affects everyone not just females who use tampons, there’s just a higher risk.

I hope this post has helped 🙂

Lots of love,

-Vivian