My Menstrual Journey
I know, this picture doesn’t exactly scream “let’s talk about my period”, but in an odd way it is a part of my story. Christmas marked the second month in a row where I actually had a cycle come on time so I will freaking cheers to that!
When I first started my account, I continuously joked that “I’d never be a person who talks to their camera or discusses their period.” Well friends, here we are! Rightfully so, I never really had much to discuss regarding my cycle, so why would I bore you with the information that all of us ladies already go through. It wasn’t until this past year where I began struggling with it, and then openly discussing it on my page, that I noticed how many members of my community were going through a similar journey. So, if I can help at least one person by writing this, I’ll bear any and all details about my personal menstrual story to the depths of the internet. I’m still a bit nervous sharing this, however, in a weird superstitious fear of jinxing myself because this is still something I am absolutely going through. This is not a “I’ve figured it out, let me help you do so also” post, but more, “here is what I’ve found to work and lets fucking hope it continues to do so” kind of post.
Although this is extremely obvious from consuming any and all of my content, I am by no means a doctor or expert in this field. Hell, I feel like I know nothing about hormones or female’s cycles, so please don’t come knocking on my door (or in my DM inbox) with specific health questions. All I can do is share my story and what I have found helpful along with recommendations from the incredible women in the FF community. Also! I am not encouraging you in any way to change your forms of birth control. For real. I don’t want people reading this, going off theirs, getting pregnant, and come knocking on my door for child support. We are all adults here and should be making personal and informed decisions with the help of professionals (not me!).
Now, where shall we begin…
I guess this story starts way back in high school when I first got my period the summer after freshman year in high school at the age of 14 (yes, I was the last one among all of my friends). I experienced really awful cramping and was pretty immediately put on birth control in the form of the pill. I was on the pill for 9 years and never really thought twice about it. I got my period monthly and the cramps weren’t too awful, it was all pretty seamless honestly. Post college I noticed that my local pharmacy had switched my pill to the generic form and, around the same time, I started experiencing some emotional spells of irritability, anger, sadness, and random crying fits. Now looking back and realizing what I know now regarding my health journey and overall levels of anxiety and stress, I do not think this was necessarily the pill’s “fault”, but it led me to the next part of this journey, my IUD.
Frankly, I was sick and tired of remembering (or lack thereof) to take a pill every day and I took these emotional rollercoasters as an opportunity to explore the other options out there. After meeting with my gynecologist, we decided that the Mirena IUD would be my next form of birth control. I had the Mirena IUD for 4 years and never once got my period with it. Saying this now seems a bit odd and potentially something I should’ve paid more attention to at the time, but I remember my gynecologist saying it was “normal” and to not be concerned.
Around the age of 26, in the pit of my health struggles, I started to consider the idea that maybe my IUD was playing a role in all of my digestive issues. Unfortunately, I still cannot tell you whether that was the case, but it was what led me to my next step: the IUD removal. Not wanting to go back on birth control, but also not wanting get pregnant, I decided to hold off a bit. However, once I really thought about the fact that there was an object permanently inside my body, I wanted it out immediately. Coinciding with this emotion, I had a real fear that my body wouldn’t “bounce back” immediately. I had been seeing and hearing endless amounts of stories from women who were struggling to get their period back after being on birth control for so long. Again, it is unclear if there is science behind this and most gynecologists will say this is correlation not causation, but it was still a serious fear I had. With my health history, I knew better than to expect my body to function normally.
After our wedding I decided that it was time to remove my IUD. We were in a place where we most definitely were not trying to get pregnant, but, if it happened, it would be okay. I got my IUD removed in November of 2018 (see, I really wasted no time after the wedding) and waited patiently to get my first real period with no real remembrance of what that even meant. My gynecologist told me that I should expect a period within three months and, if not, to come back for some more work. Again, I had low expectations for myself and my cycle. This time period (November) was also when I found out about my mercury poisoning and was assessing my next steps for treatment. As this post describes in more detail, I underwent chelation therapy (through pill format) for four months from January to April of 2019. This was a long and draining process and, unfortunately, depleted my body of a lot of vitamins and supplements. Because of that, it was no surprise that to me that my period never so graciously returned post IUD removal. Knowing that my body was under a lot of stress with the chelation therapy, I decided to put my cycle on the backburner for a bit.
A few months later and desperate for an actual flow, I finally got my first real period in August (2019), nine months after the IUD removal. You should’ve seen me, I wanted to throw a freaking party (and some at my beach house that weekend would say I did). Of course, being the naive person, I am, I thought things were back to normal and I had a cycle again. The next month came, and then the next one, and another, and, of course, no more period. During this time was when I really started to focus on getting my period back (the methods I used are outlined below). I finally scheduled a follow-up with my gynecologist realizing that the date was exactly one-year post IUD removal (I know, I really put this off). I left the office, as I’m sure many have, being told I have amenorrhea (lack of period) and feeling incredibly doubtful, down on myself, and scared for the future (fuck, I still am). Fortunately, we tested my blood work and scheduled an ultrasound to check for PCOS the next day and I was ecstatic to hear that everything came back normal. As luck and timing would have it, I ended up getting my period that very next day. Full blown, four-day, period.
Of course, this story is still, and always will be, ongoing, but I am happy to announce that as I write this I have successfully had three straight months of on-time periods. Praise be!! This is something that I’m sure I’ll continue to have to focus on, as I’m sure many of you all will as well, but I hope this story in some way helps your journey.
Practices I Used to Help my Cycle Return
Working with Dr. Beth Forgosh of Well Within for nutrition response testing. If you are more interested in what that practice entails, stay tuned! She is an upcoming podcast guest on my show, Freckled Foodie & Friends.
Acupuncture at WTHN – something I did every or every other week
Cutting back on cardio and partaking in slower and more mindful exercises such as pilates, yoga, and walking
Gaining the weight that my body needed – sure, this may not be what everyone hopes to hear, but my body is finally at its functioning weight where it is actually working, and I could not be happier about it
Attempting to destress – this is a never-ending journey for me, but I worked on overall lowering my anxiety through meditation, cutting back on the amount of caffeine I was consuming, journaling, and limiting time on social media. These tools will all vary per person, but overall trying to limit your stressors will help. More on my journey with anxiety can be found here and tips on how I handle it here.
I also want to take the time to note a practice that comes recommended and that I tried for about three weeks but then gave up on: seed cycling. While I’ve heard tremendous success stories from this practice, I honestly was too lazy to move forward with it. Because I was traveling so much, the idea of making sure I always had these seeds on hand to consume properly became an added stress and, in my opinion, was therefore doing more harm than good. If you’ve had success with this, I would love to hear!
Of course, now that I have my period back I’m realizing what awful symptoms come with it, such as cramps that make me feel like I am being stabbed by knives, but as someone who wished and begged for her cycle to return for a year I have vowed to never complain about its presence (shitty symptoms included). Thanks to all of your help, I’ve put together a list of recommendations for severe menstrual cramps.
Menstrual Cramp Recommendations
Digestives
Ginger shots
Cramp bark
Evening primrose oil
Magnesium glycinate
Weed & edibles
Turmeric (supplements or teas)
Ginger (supplements, teas, or chews
Lots of water
Healthy cycle tea
Raspberry leaf tea
Clary sage oil
Leefy prana turmeric and ginger
Advil
Midol
Practices
Abdominal massage with CBD cream or essential oils
Clary sage oil
Heating pad
Acupuncture
Stretching for back & hips
Exercise (cardio or yoga)
Warm baths