Sometimes women say to me that their period is so light it's FABulous and I'm like hmmmmm....no. I know that most of us hate having our period, but that's why I'm here. To help you fall in love with your monthly cycle and the beauty of it.
However, I do want to explain what a normal period should be looking like.
Your cycle should be 3-6 days and has a pattern that is like a crescendo or decrescendo (so it starts light and gets heavy or visa versa). (1)
You can expect that about 90% of all your blood during your period will be let go of within the first 3 days of your period (2) and the second day of your bleeding will be the heaviest day. (3)
Your period should be a variant of red. Bright red, deep red wine or something like beet juice is normal and expected. A normal amount of blood that is lost is about 25-80ml from the first to the last day of your period.
Brown blood is leftover old blood that didn't' come out of your uterus on your last cycle. This can be a sign that your flow is sluggish or there is a lack of circulation to your uterus, so make sure that next cycle you include more warming foods like ginger, turmeric, soups, curries and stews to help boost blood flow and circulation.
If you get spotting between period, this is often due to a lack of progesterone. Progesterone is what "holds in" your period, so if you don't have enough, it can't hold it in for a long enough time and you will start to spot. Start taking 1000mg daily of vitex.
If you period is RAGINGLY heavy and looks like someone had dumped a pile of clumpy strawberry jam in your undies (hello blood clots), this can be a sign of estrogen dominance or an iron deficiency (heavy periods can cause an iron deficiency, but an iron deficiency can also cause heavy periods) so making sure that you are consuming chicken liver for iron and lots of brassica vegetables to flush out estrogen is a great first place to start.
If your period is very light (pale pink, or blood that is thin and watery), this can be a sign of not having enough estrogen and thus poor blood quality, which isn't great for your health either. A lack of estrogen can also show up as low
libido, loss of bone density, dull looking skin amongst other things. Try including maca (4) and 1000mg of
Vitex daily (5) as well as trying out Dong Quai, red raspberry leaf (6) and nettles. Also, ensure that you are eating LOTS of healthy fats as they are the building blocks for your estrogen and progesterone to be made.
Got more period questions?! I'd love to work with you! So many women have now come to me to get an understanding of their cycle, what they can do to support it and improve it, and walk away feeling empowered and excited on their new journey to self-discovery. I would love to be able to do the same for you. Please don't hesitate to book in for a
strategy session, or if you've got hesitations about
working with me, book in for a 20-minute free chat and I can hopefully clear those up for you.
1. https://www.popline.org/node/295425
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00016347109157279
3. https://www.popline.org/node/295425
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18784609
5. https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/science/article/pii/S221080331730074X
6. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(00)71348-1/abstract