The menstrual cycle is a vital sign that is going to provide valuable information about women’s health: Menstrual pain, clots or long bleedings are red flags to call your attention! Learning how to keep track of your cycle will help you and your medical provider to understand your needs.
Menstrual Pain is NOT NORMAL!
Menstruation should be painless, without clots and a bleeding around 25-80 ml. If you feel pain, you find bleed cloths or the quantity of bleeding is not average it’s very important to visit your doctor to find out what might be affecting your menstrual cycle.
The medical term for painful menstruation is dysmenorrhea. When the pain is severe and cant be managed with medication there might be an underlying condition such as endometriosis or adenomyosis causing the symptoms.
Pelvic floor treatment can help you with menstrual pain
With physiotherapy sessions we can help you to deal with painful menstruation but its mandatory to perform a gynaecological check up to be sure about your health status. Remember that an annual gynecological visit is a must since you start having your first menstruation, don’t need to wait to have any symptom.
Your doctor will ask you details about your menstruation as the quantity of bleeding and the number of days of your full cycle. You can use an app for this but personally I prefer to use my agenda as I’m in love of crafting and this helps me to track my mood aswell.
You can download the menstrual tracker here and the instructions about how to use it.
Learning about your cycle will help you to take care of yourself
Your cycle starts the first day of the bleeding, the first day of the menstruation. Sometimes your cycle can be synchronous with the moon’s cycle, depending of the length of your own.
To explain about the different phases I will use a cycle of 28 days to compare it with the moon stages and make it easier to remember, but yours can be from 21 to 45 days for teenagers and 21-35 for adults.
Some researchers consider a mature regular menstrual cycle can last up to 12 years to be stablished, and 10 years before the menopause your menstrual cycle can start to change and become longer or shorter.
With the menstrual calendar you can track:
- Your mood and feelings.
- Your under-the-tongue temperature first thing in the morning after you wake but before you get out of bed.
- Menstrual pain not manageable with non-prescribed medication
- The vaginal discharge.
Remember that your follicles will take 100 days to mature and produce an egg, so you can be experiencing changes related with what happened around you 3 months ago:
Menstruation (new moon)
The first day of heavy bleeding is considered the first day of the cycle, the spotting before the bleeding are from the previous cycle. During the menstruation you might feel like living at a slower pace. Remember that bleeding less than 25ml or more than 80ml is a reason to check with your doctor what’s going on( a regular tampon is 5ml) You should not have clots bigger than 2cm. You should have 2-7 days of moderate-painless bleeding. If your menstruation is different is important to mention to your doctor.
Follicular phase (Waxing moon)
During this phase the uterus start creating lining and stimulating the follicles of the ovaries as the moon has re-emerged with new energy,. This happen thank to the rise of the estrogen hormone. This is the hormone of happiness, libido, and good mood. That’s why this is a time of new ideas and imagination. This is the perfect moment to focus your workouts in strength gain.
Ovulatory phase (Full moon)
After the exposure to the progesterone one of the follicles releases an egg. Your fertile days are the five days before ovulation (because that’s how long sperm survive), and one day after ovulation (because that’s how long the egg survives). The average day of the ovulation is the 15th day of the cycle but this will depend of how long your follicular phase was. During this phase the vaginal discharge is sticky to increase the fertility.
Luteal Phase (Waning moon)
After ovulation, progesterone increases your waking temperature by about 0.5°F (0.3°C), and maintains it at that higher. This phase last from 10 to 16 days and it can be affected by everything affecting the follicles during the previous 100 days as stress or undereating. Progesterone counterbalance the estrogens and reduce inflammation, builds up muscle, promotes sleep and makes easier to cope with stress. This is the perfect moment to focus your workouts in fats loss and cardio. We can feel high emotions during this period due to the progesterone, but usually the lack of it is what make us feel irritated right before the menstruation.
If the egg is not fertilized, the luteal phase will end with the beginning of the menstruation and the start of new cycle.
Remember these red flags to visit your gynaecologist:
Menstruation should be painless.
AGAIN: Unmanageable Menstrual pain is important!
Bleeding should not last more than 7 days.
If your clots are bigger than 2 cm keep track of it.
The full menstrual bleeding should be around 25-80 ml. One regular tampon is 5ml. Bleeding over or under this quantity is a reason to visit your doctor.
The full cycle can last from 21 to 45 days for teenagers and 21 to 35 days for adults.
Physiotherapist specialized in pelvic floor rehabilitation
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