How to Care For Your Body While On Your Period

Since diving deeper into learning about women’s health and nutrition, I’ve begun to notice that a lot of women have either experienced hypothalamic amenorrhea (lack of menstruation for several months) or really painful/irregular cycles and most often they are prescribed birth control to fix both. Before I go on, let me be clear: I am not anti-birth control and this information is not meant to substitute recommendations from your healthcare provider. I am a registered dietitian, not a nurse practitioner or medical doctor. This post is about how to take care of yourself from a food, body image and stress management perspective. And even so, I will not be able to account for the nuance/complexity of your life experience.

My experience (TW: disordered eating, overexercising, skip this if you’re not interested)

I’m only sharing my experience because I’ve found so many women can relate to it. This is not meant to represent what will happen to you if you do what I do — just to share that I can relate and that it is possible to manage (possibly in a different way than you have been). You may know that I used to struggle with disordered eating (perhaps it was an eating disorder — I’m not sure because it was so long ago and I never received treatment). My disordered relationship with food mostly entailed restricting my intake and overexercising. Not only that, but I used to be so rigid with everything in life — my time, my to-do list, etc. I was constantly stressed and I never realized how all of that intensity could impact my cycle. So, yes, I did have an irregular period for a very long time. In high school, I went about 6 months without menstruating in addition to just never knowing when I would get my period. I don’t really remember ever having a “regular” cycle, though I also wasn’t very concerned by that so I can’t say it was never regular. At age 19, I went on birth control because I thought that’s just what you do when you have an irregular cycle. On it, I got a period regularly, still had severe cramps from time to time but figured that was how it went. Case closed for several years. 

Then in 2016 I first learned about intuitive eating, the non-diet approach and health at every size. I started reading Robyn’s blog and found her posts about hormonal health, menstruation and intuitive eating really helpful. At that point I had begun healing my own relationship with food (long story) and started to get curious about why I was still on birth control and if my body would menstruate regularly if I came off it. I decided I wanted to try — that getting a “regular period” would further solidify that I was taking care of my body well and at my set point weight. (Please note: if you are not getting a regular period but feel you are taking care of yourself, working with your healthcare provider is most important.) I’ll spare you the details but it took several months for my cycle to become regular once I stopped taking birth control. My GYN was curious as to why this mattered to me so much but she was and has been really helpful and always made me feel like I was validated in my decision, which I know is not always the case. 

Flash forward to today and I still have a regular period, though it’s not without its complications from time to time. Now that I’m not concerned with manipulating my body size, I’m able to get curious about how my body changes and feels during that time of the month and care for it in a responsive, flexible way. It is nowhere near perfect, but it is much better than it used to be, and that feels like progress.

Here’s a few things to consider as you care for your body on your period:

This is not a list of recommendations for how to get your period back. For that, I recommend working with a dietitian and doctor so the recommendations can be specific to you. These are things I think every woman should consider as their time of the month approaches.

Allostatic load – I’m a fan of not recreating the wheel, so I’m linking to Robyn’s blog about allostatic load. TL;DR: It’s important to consider how much is on your plate and understand that we have a threshold. Without recovering from stress, we will hit or surpass that threshold. It’s also okay to change your load from season to season.

Food intake – Lack of adequate food intake does a LOT of things to our bodies. It makes us feel fatigued, lethargic, apathetic, and gives us headaches, to name a few. As a dietitian, this is always where I start with clients who have an irregular period.

Here’s a few strategies that I’d recommend as you care for your body during your period:

• Expect body changes & adjust expectations

As you get more curious about your body in general, start noticing that it really does change throughout the month. For example, certain parts of my body are INCREDIBLY sore the week before my period starts. I retain more water for a few days. I start to feel “icky” for a couple days. It’s not gross. It’s life. For a long time, I pathologized these instances and tried to “fix” them. Now I understand and am kind of amazed that my body (and hormones!) changes throughout the month. It’s really important to acknowledge that your body might not look or feel like it usually does — that’s ok! It can be helpful to transition from a “What, why is this happening?!” to “Okay, this is happening. Remember it happened last month too. I am okay.”

• Don’t make it harder than it needs to be

We don’t have to be a hero when we’re on our period. I used to try to, but life is already hard and I don’t need to make it harder. I bought a $20 heating pad and I use it every time. I don’t take advil regularly but for 1-3 days a month, I do. And it helps. 

• Eat

Depending on your relationship with food, this might feel really hard. Our appetite changes on a daily basis, and even more when we’re on our period. It can feel really difficult when you’re feeling extra hungry and your body isn’t feeling amazing because you’re on your period, but it’s still important to take good care of yourself and that includes eating. While it’s helpful to accept your body regardless of how it looks, it can feel much harder during this time of the month when our hormones are changing, our body might look different than usual and we’re just not feeling great. I see you. You still need to eat.

• Rest

This might sound self-explanatory but so often we want to perform at the same level as the rest of the month. It’s okay to walk instead of run, sleep instead of read or spend a little more time on the couch for a couple days. Our bodies are incredible — they have the ability to bring new life into the world! Let yourself rest; your body needs it.

• Pay attention to stress

I feel like everyone is rolling their eyes at this one, but stress impacts our health so much. As you get curious about how to care for your body on your period, take note of what’s going on during the months where your cramps are more intense or your period starts a few days later than usual. It might be stress-related. While I do have a pretty regular cycle at this point, maybe once or twice a year my period will come 10 days later than usual and be twice as painful…..and guess what else happened that month? I was super. stressed. out. It sounds silly, but I can vividly recall months where I was burnt out/stressed out and the result was me kneeled over in pain and nothing would soothe it until it passed. Maybe stress management won’t completely cure your irregular period, but I really think it will help in some way.

Please know that this is nowhere near close to all-encompassing and I completely understand that your experience with your cycle could be totally different than mine. You deserve to work with a provider who will listen, acknowledge and empathize with your experience. If your provider suggests birth control for your irregular period, ask why. Ask if there are other options. (And if you decide to take birth control, that’s nothing to be ashamed about!) But at the end of the day: Your provider works for you, not the other way around.