Every Woman’s Guide to Menstrual Health: Help and Educate

Menstrual Health: Every woman who has attained puberty has to undergo menstruation, a process by which her unfertilized egg is excreted from the body. This process is quite painful, physically and emotionally.

Having to endure this tremendous and unavoidable bodily pain women also go through mood swings, craving and uneasiness. Despite medications and external assistance women still find it challenging to beat period. Using pain killers can have side-effect but without them the pain is almost unbearable.

Every individual has unique physical, emotional or mental needs and is very difficult to come up with a single solution. However, here are some simple yet effective ways to help a woman overcome periods.

How you can help yourself

1. Maintain Activity: During that time of the month, we barely feel like moving because of the pain. But ironically moving our body eases the pain. A light yoga, a pleasant walk or some stretching is advisable. With gentle activity, we give our muscles a chance to loosen up and to relieve the pain. Physical activity also releases the toxins from our body faster through sweating.

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2. Eat clean and healthy: Menstruation is a time when our cravings for food is at peak. We would want to eat sweets and savories which can make us feel better for the moment but not for a long term. Sweet and savory can be quick to cause cramps and sluggishness.

Junk food can be eaten in moderation while on periods but binging is not advisable. Instead treat ourselves with fresh and foods that are fiber rich and light. Sorbet, fresh juice, jellies and fruit salad to take care of sweet cravings and vegetable, rice and soups for savory cravings are some advisable foods that are appropriate.

Drinking enough water is crucial. It removes toxins and helps our digestive system. It cools our body down and reduces cramps. Water consumption also helps dry skin, hair fall and headache.

3. Enough rest and relaxation: Owing to menstruation our body demands more rest than usual. Reduce physical exhaustion, take it easy. Try to give yourselves breaks and carry having heat bags, extra napkins and hot water for relaxation.

Giving ourselves good sleep, hot baths, relaxing massage and enough food will help us fight body aches and handle mood swings.

How you can help your menstruating loved ones?

1. Be Supportive: Your spouse, daughter, sister or a close friend requires a lot of attention and assurance during menstruation. The chemical imbalance in the body leads to heat boils, acnes, hair fall, skin dryness, paleness and bloating. At this time, women can be very self-conscious and can feel low about their appearance. Appropriate support and appreciative gestures will make them feel much better and boost their confidence.

Apart from physical insecurities, they go through extreme mood swings, be sad or angry or even both at the same time. Reassuring actions and gestures can help them feel good about themselves. This betterment will assist them to survive their period.

2. Treat them well and respectfully: Treating women right applies for everyone. Every woman will feel fatigue and just because of that, it does not mean they are weak. Hence commenting on their abilities or making them feel inferior is to be avoided. Women prefer to scale down on their daily work, to avoid unnecessary fatigue and not because they cannot.

Ill-treating them, telling them they cannot do something or trying to put them down will trigger their emotions and will deeply offend them. We must know how to give them rest without making them feel inferior.

Sharing some of their responsibilities, using nice and encouraging phrases and acknowledging the work they do while not menstruating are the key.

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3. Care for them and let them know they matter: Doing something nice for them during periods is always appreciated. If you are a close one making them a meal that they have been craving for, a massage session, a warm bath or getting some gifts will make them feel loved and important.  It will release any sort of tension or insecurity, keeping their happy hormones high.

Taking care of their needs, not just materialistically but also emotionally and physically is necessary. Spending some valuable time with them, supporting them through their mood swings without losing our cool would be the nicest thing to do for someone on their period.

A women’s mood swings might be the most difficult thing to handle. But let’s remember they are going through so much pain and they are having a hard time being themselves. So let us show them some care and love.

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What must be avoided?

Heavy workouts, excessive amount of junk food, bottling up of emotions, straining our body, neglecting hygiene, intake of postponing medications and eating food with high estrogenic content must be avoided.

What to choose?

Scrolling through social media we find a wide rage of sanitary items. Considering it is a matter of intimate hygiene it is always unclear to know what to choose.

 During ancient times we used loose sand, ash, dried leaf or softened tree barks to prevent blood on cloths. After many awareness campaigns we understood it was unhygienic and hence used cloths or a more elite version called reusable napkins. But still, it is not healthy if not disposable.

With advancements and technologies, we were introduced with disposable sanitary napkins, tampons and menstruation cups. However, doctors’ advice the usage of napkins over the two. Though not being environmentally sustainable, napkins prevent the clotting of blood better than the menstruation cups which has the exact opposite nature.

Tampons are both less effective and environmentally not sustainable. But what to choose depends on our usage and comfort.

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The final note

Menstruating is considered a very sensitive topic which is refused to be spoken of. However, we need to understand it is a very crucial and inevitable process. Women go through an unexplainable amount of pain and they don’t deserve to be treated badly.

Taking care of them is our responsibility and we women must be compassionate and practical. Together, we can create a world where menstrual health is prioritized, respected, and celebrated as a natural part of life.

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