Period Pain: Causes and Natural Relief (Episode 331)

Full Transcript: Episode 331

Lisa: Welcome to the Fertility Friday podcast, your source for information about the fertility awareness method and all things fertility. I’m your host, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack. I’m the author of The Fifth Vital Sign and the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Journal. I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting, balancing hormonal health, and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones. I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility and overall health because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process. I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies. I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys. I know, I know, I’m a busy girl, but I manage to fit it all in. This podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles, your fertility, and your overall health, and I’m so excited that you’re here with us today.

Today I’m sharing a brand new episode in my Fertility Awareness Reality series. I’m sharing a call with my client Laura, and we really dive into period pain in a lot of detail. So if you have suffered or are still suffering from period pain, you will definitely want to tune into this episode. And really, part of the reason that I keep talking about period pain on the show — I mean, one is because a pretty significant percentage of all of the women that I work with do suffer from some degree of period pain, be that moderate to severe. But also, even in this day and age, in my case, I’ve been aware that period pain is not normal, though common. Though many women experience it, it’s not something that is ideal or optimal. It’s still apparent to me on a day-to-day basis that the vast majority of women out there have really been indoctrinated to believe that it’s normal and it’s just a part of being a woman, and many of us have had experiences with doctors who either don’t take it seriously or are really just kind of shoving it under the rug with medication or painkillers. Many women have just never had the opportunity to look at it from a different perspective — like, oh wow, pain is a sign of an issue. If we look at the menstrual cycle as a vital sign, and pain as an indication of an underlying issue, it changes everything. It changes the way that we look at it. It changes our expectation of life, because if your expectation of life is that you shouldn’t have to live in pain, then it causes you to continue searching and seeking and learning until you’re able to get to the root of that problem and really resolve it, or at least significantly reduce the severity of it. So with that said, let’s jump into today’s episode with Laura.

So I’m really excited to be here today with Laura. Laura is a member of my most recent Fertility Awareness Mastery Live program that just finished last week. So it’s always fun when I have a chance to do these calls, particularly towards the end of the program, because then it’s almost like it didn’t really finish. Welcome to the show, Laura.

Laura: Thank you so much, Lisa. Excited to be here.

Lisa: I’m really excited to have you. So we were talking in the pre-chat — I usually don’t have a script for these episodes, but I tend to follow the same style. So I’d love to start by giving you the opportunity to share just a little bit about your menstrual cycle history. I always kind of laugh when I ask this question, because there’s nowhere else in life that you would start a conversation with, “Tell us about your menstrual cycle history, and have you used birth control before.” But that’s what we talk about here, so feel free to share as much as you’d like.

Laura: Sure. I got my period around 11 or 12, and I actually found out I had gotten my period when I was at a soccer tournament — found myself in a porta potty and had gotten my period. Then I had to go to a basketball game afterwards, and there was just tissue paper involved. Good memories. And ever since then, I had cramps that had me lying on the bathroom floor and moaning, and always just wanting to get cold, which is why I think the bathroom floor felt really good. A few years later I went on birth control for that pain — I don’t even remember getting the prescription, just having always been on it. And the interesting part of it was that I never had any side effects of birth control, which made me not question it. I never even knew until I heard your podcast that birth control really had these effects that are long-lasting and really harmful for us. I was on birth control and I wasn’t even having sex. When I got engaged, I started talking to my fiancé about what we were going to use for birth control, and he mentioned, “Do you think these pills you take are safe?” And I was like, of course they are, but let me check in with my gynecologist. And he said birth control is safe, and even said that we’re born with a certain amount of eggs, and we want to use birth control because it prevents us from using those eggs — it’s best not to waste them. I even asked him, since I was thinking about starting a family within the next year, if this was still good, and he said yes, go on the birth control and just end it, and then you can get pregnant the next month. So I felt really confident with birth control. I reported back to my fiancé that it was safe, and we ended up using the pill during our first few months of married life. Then, the blessing of quarantine — there’s always a silver lining — was that I had time to listen to a lot of podcasts, and a friend shared Fertility Friday with me, and I ended up hearing for the first time the dangers of birth control and was just appalled and saddened that it was the first time I was hearing about it, almost 15 years after being on the pill continuously. So I ended the pill in May of this year, so about four or five months ago, and I’m learning about fertility awareness with you, and I’m learning so much, especially that periods don’t have to be painful. So really appreciative of your work.

Lisa: Wow, wow. Thanks for sharing that with us, Laura. Every time I do these episodes — we had nine weeks together in class, we had two in-class sessions, we had one private session — and so when I do these interviews, it’s often when I hear the whole story in a very concise way, because in class we’re talking about certain things, tons of information, but you basically just took us through 15 years of your life. So I didn’t realize all the aspects of your story. The few things I didn’t realize — I think we did talk about you being on the pill for pain-related reasons, but when you mentioned that you didn’t have any side effects, I think that’s an important point, because of course on the show I highlight a lot of women who’ve had side effects, since those are the women reaching out to me and telling me about their side effects, and coming to me when they can’t use the pill because of the side effects. So that’s why they find fertility awareness, and so obviously that’s going to be represented in who is on the show. So I think it’s really important to highlight stories of women who don’t have side effects, or at least don’t have any that they’re aware of. When you said about the bathroom floor, that really struck me, because it was like, cold and soothing, and I just pictured you on the bathroom floor, and I’m just like, oh my gosh, no one needs to live their life this way. But that’s what it is. I don’t know, how do you feel about that now? Like, of course, the podcast — was it “red pilled” you? Is that what people say?

Laura: I think it’s really nerve-wracking that this is a professional and that this information is being disseminated. I’m angry for myself, but also just thinking, this disinformation is still being spread — why is it the case?

Lisa: Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, of course, as you know, I’ve interviewed doctors, and I love interviewing doctors, because I feel like ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, when we get past the “he said, she said” kind of thing, we’re all on the same team. Doctors don’t go to med school because they want to screw up people’s lives — they go to med school because they want to do good for the world. So I feel like ultimately we are on the same side, but we don’t necessarily have the same information. Understanding where doctors are coming from, the modality they’re trained in, how they’re trained to address illness, is very helpful. And it’s also helpful to learn that there are different modalities, so that you can match the modality to your paradigm. If you want to know the underlying cause of the horrific pain that causes you to lay on the floor, you may want to go to your doctor temporarily, for the right-now, get-rid-of-the-pain solution. But then you may also want to look at the other modalities that address the underlying cause, and understand that there’s a difference between those. So it’s not about “doctors are this or that” — it’s more about what can we do to get better. Ultimately, that’s what this is about.

Laura: Agreed.

Lisa: But yeah, so it sounds like the last couple of months have been incredibly revelatory for you.

Laura: I can’t even explain it. I have just opened up this box about learning about my health for the first time, especially women’s health and our reproductive lives and our periods. When I say that I knew nothing before, I really knew nothing before, and I am just so excited by everything that I’m learning.

Lisa: Yeah, well, that’s a lot. Okay, well, let’s get into it. I think also what struck me about your story was how recent it was as well. So I have your chart up here — this is your recent August-September chart. So you came off of birth control in May, and we’re recording this in September, so basically it’s been three months. Let me know what’s the most important thing for you to talk about today. I do feel like it might make sense for us to talk about your cramps, because you were on the bathroom floor and I just keep having this haunting image of you. But let me know what you want us to talk about today.

Laura: Great — looking at this chart, I thought I knew when I ovulated, but I received two peak mucuses after I ovulated, so I wanted to check in with you about that.

Lisa: Okay.

Laura: And I also wanted to ask about the time before pregnancy, before conception — you recommend six months to two years, so just wanted to ask some questions about that as well.

Lisa: All right, well, let’s look at the chart. So I remember when we had our last session, we had a thermometer incident — really high temps that were uncharacteristic. When I see that on a chart, before I jump to all of the things that could cause your temperature to be too high, I typically go for the thermometer first, and that made a difference, but it was kind of mid-cycle, so I feel like your next cycle will be more telling. Based on what I’m seeing here, we identified that your peak day was day 15. After your peak day you still had a little bit of lotiony mucus, but it was significantly different from what we were seeing in the fertile window. Then I’m seeing that on day 20 you noted mucus that was yellow and creamy. Did it have a lubricative sensation? And was it white? Could you pick it up, and did it stretch an inch?

Laura: Yes.

Lisa: Okay. And I have to ask this question — I noticed that you had sex on day 24 and day 25, so is it possible that what you saw could have been semen from the day before? One of the things we talked about in the group is that after you have sex, you want to get rid of the semen, and if you don’t, the following day you can sometimes see what looks like possibly mucus, possibly semen, and it makes it kind of hard to tell. Do you think that could have played a factor in what we’re seeing on day 25?

Laura: I think you mentioned that you can’t pick up and stretch the semen the same way.

Lisa: Right — the ejaculatory fluid doesn’t have exactly the same quality, but it can stretch a little, just not as much, because it’s not cervical fluid. When was your observation?

Laura: It was at 11pm the next night.

Lisa: Okay, that’s probably a little too long later. I just had to ask, to rule it out. So what I would say is it’s not that uncommon to see — for the listeners who can’t see your chart, let me count how many days post-ovulatory. Based on our peak day, we’re 10 days post-ovulatory, so it’s not that uncommon to see this kind of random mucus one time. When that’s happening, typically my thought is that it could be a sign that progesterone is a bit low, or dropping a little sooner in the cycle, and that could be the reason that little bit of mucus is getting through. In your case, it’s literally just this one random time, so it’s not a consistent pattern. I’m typically not concerned about the creamy, non-peak type mucus post-ovulatory. So essentially what we’re seeing is a typical chart — you had your period, went into your fertile window, and it does look like you ovulated because the mucus really did shift, but there are a few days in the post-ovulatory phase where we do see some mucus. What I would say is I’m still, based on your chart, quite confident that you did ovulate, and this isn’t uncommon — especially towards the end of the cycle, it can be a sign of progesterone dropping and allowing that little bit of mucus to come through.

Laura: Okay. Is there anything I need to take a next step with, with progesterone?

Lisa: I mean, certainly it can be helpful — I’m sure you’re doing a lot of the general progesterone-supporting things already, so the foundation is good sleep and all of those types of things. And you could certainly consider doing some magnesium, particularly post-ov, because that’s known to support progesterone production.

Laura: On this cycle, I started taking magnesium and zinc on day 20 of my cycle.

Lisa: Okay, and so in general, moving forward, you can take magnesium throughout — I always say to focus on it in the post-ov, but you can take it throughout, do Epsom salt baths, and that kind of thing as well. So I’m certainly guessing that the magnesium and zinc starting day 20 was also related to the pain you’ve been experiencing. Was that part of your period pain plan?

Laura: It was. I had gotten that idea from you, so I was giving it a first go. But you did mention that you need to give everything a month before you judge it — so does that mean I should do it before my next period for a week as well, before I say it works or doesn’t work?

Lisa: Well, when it comes to your period pain, typically when you start to address it, you would expect to see some relief — it doesn’t mean it’s going to go from a 10 to a zero in one cycle. As you implement these strategies for two weeks, your entire post-ovulatory phase, you would expect to see some relief. But in terms of your mucus pattern, that’s something where I would encourage you to give it at least one full cycle, since you started at mid-cycle, before you expect an improvement.

Laura: Okay, that’s great. Do you have a moment to talk a little bit about that spectrum of getting better from period pain? We can’t expect that one month it’s terrible and then one month it’s wonderful, so what does that look like in terms of seeing improvements?

Lisa: Yeah, that’s a really good question. There’s a lot of different factors we have to think about. There’s two aspects of it that I think are important. One is looking at the general lifestyle factors — you want to think about what the sources of inflammation potentially are, and see what you can do to reduce the inflammation in your life. Then you also want to incorporate some specific anti-inflammatories. This is essentially the initial management stage. In your case, since it sounds quite severe, you also want to consider seeking support from, say, a Mercier therapist, doing abdominal massage, having an assessment if it’s still quite severe and not resolving. So the first step is to look at some of the most common causes or sources of inflammation. In the way you eat, I think you’ve eliminated a lot of those things generally, but some of the offenders would include regular conventional meat that has hormones, and dairy. I’m not anti-dairy, but you want to look at regular conventional dairy — A1 dairy, the dairy that has the A1 protein. Is dairy a thing for you?

Laura: I eat Greek yogurt and cheese. Recently I’ve been trying to replace that yogurt with kefir, so trying to work on reducing my dairy and wanting to try a period of time without it.

Lisa: Well, it can be helpful to actually do a cycle with no dairy, so that it can help you figure out if the dairy is contributing to the pain. It can also be helpful to consider the quality of the dairy — if you have access to A2 milk or dairy products, that’s becoming more of a thing. Guernsey or Jersey cows make milk that has a different protein. So a lot of the inflammation and issues women have with dairy isn’t the concept of milk overall, but literally this A1 protein. Some women find that if they switch to goat or sheep dairy, they have fewer symptoms. So you could try that as an option too.

Laura: I get my milk from a farm that comes from Guernsey cows, so it’s A2. This isn’t scientific, but I know it makes a difference for me.

Lisa: So just to give you some options — I know a lot of people, when they get into this concept, think it’s “get rid of all the dairy forever,” and that’s not necessarily the case. The reason I start with dairy is because for a lot of women, if they cut dairy, their pain significantly reduces, because dairy can be highly problematic.

Laura: Lisa, I have always, in the last two years or so, cut out dairy during the week of my period, and I feel significantly better — not in terms of pain, but just general uncomfortableness. So I wonder if that will really be helpful.

Lisa: Yeah, I would certainly encourage you to try it for sure. And then, like I said, you might find some great alternatives — everyone doesn’t love goat cheese, but people who love it really love it. My suggestion would be to consider doing a full cycle without dairy, and then adding it back in, or switching the regular cheese with goat cheese.

Laura: I haven’t tried it yet, Lisa, because I don’t feel that I eat that much dairy, but I can imagine that inflammation is still present whenever I do eat it.

Lisa: Yeah, I guess it would depend — if you’re only eating it once a month, it probably isn’t as significant, but it really depends. And also, when you cut something out, sometimes it’s only then that you realize how much you were consuming. So in addition to those main sources of inflammation, we talked about oils — the oils you cook with. I certainly wouldn’t recommend margarine or canola oil, or those kinds of industrial seed oils.

Laura: Since I read your book, I have started using better oils for cooking, and I wanted to check in with you today — the kettle corn that I buy at the store is made with sunflower oil. So my question to you is, is it not just cooking with these things, but the products we buy that also shouldn’t be made with these things?

Lisa: Well, when you become more aware of this, most things that come from the store, or restaurants, are using all kinds of oils — so it’s not always about 100% eliminating everything, never eating out, never having kettle corn. It doesn’t always have to be that way. Certainly if you’re making a point of trying an experiment, you could consider that. For me, it’s about first becoming aware, and then it’s more about reducing. Other sources, in addition to the oils, include sugar — processed sugar and high-glycemic carbohydrates can certainly contribute to inflammation, and can make the pain worse. So with the most basic period pain approach, it’s first about identifying and reducing or eliminating those inflammatory triggers. Because women who have period pain, when you look at it from a scientific perspective — do a blood draw — we have significantly higher levels of inflammation in our bodies, significantly higher markers of inflammation. One of the studies I looked at, and quoted in the book, found that women who have moderate to severe period pain had four times the level of prostaglandins compared to women who didn’t have pain. Prostaglandins are a group of lipids necessary to cause uterine contractions, which allows us to remove the blood — it’s part of the normal process of menstruation, and all women have these prostaglandins, but the women who have the pain have higher levels. So you end up with this exaggerated response, which obviously you can feel, because it feels horrible — excessive uterine contractions and things like that. Obviously that’s not the only explanation and factor, but at least it’s something we can work on. So hopefully that little chit-chat gave you some ideas of what to play with. Then, as we talked about in class, you’ve already added zinc and magnesium, so certainly when you’re charting it’s really helpful to incorporate those things in the post-ovulatory phase, during the week before your period comes. In addition, there’s fish oil, turmeric, and ginger — turmeric is a really powerful anti-inflammatory, so if you can find a way to incorporate that on a daily basis, that’s a good option as well. So now you have strategies, and now we wait. This is not magic — I remember when I was in my 20s and I suffered from ridiculous period pain. The information I share is evidence-based, and I’ve had experience with clients, so I know it works for the majority of them. So what you can expect, I would say, is to give the process at least two to three cycles, with the caveat that you would expect to see some improvement.

So when you do these things for one full cycle — magnesium, something you can take every day, specifically focusing on the week before your period and doubling down on your supplementation — the vast majority of my clients will see improvement. Out of ten, zero being no pain at all and ten being really horrible, where you might be vomiting, typically where is your pain?

Laura: Personally, I think it is an eight. I’ve heard other women on your podcast tell more horrific tales than I have experienced, so that’s why I wouldn’t put it any higher — that’s basically a ten. But I did not have any period pain on day two of my cycle this time, so I wondered if that was a small improvement, or if that was just a one-off. I think I’m seeing improvement, but I didn’t want to jump on it without asking.

Lisa: Well, I think that given that you still had a day of terrible pain, it’s too soon to tell — but it’s encouraging. We’ll just know more in the next cycle. When you take this approach and apply it for one full cycle, I have not had a client who went from eight to zero in one cycle. I’ve had clients go from eight to zero, but it’s not one cycle. I’m not a magician — it’s not magic, but it is evidence-based, and we’re addressing the root of it, which is the inflammation. I have had clients go from eight to five, or eight to four, and I’ve never met a woman who is unhappy with that. It shows you that it’s possible, and it empowers you, because it means this is not 100% out of your control. So that’s really empowering, especially because the majority of women I’ve worked with have had period pain for years, and kind of gave up the idea that anything could help a long time ago. It’s not always a straight line from ten to zero, and sometimes it’s not that simple, because the pain can be related to a lot of things, and a lot of women do have endometriosis or other issues contributing to the pain. So if you try these strategies and after two to three cycles you’re not getting the relief you’re looking for, and it’s not really going on a downward trajectory, I’d certainly encourage you to reach out so we can keep working on this. But at some point, there’s nothing wrong with seeking additional support — go to your doctor, have an exam, get checked for endo if you want, though that often requires a procedure to confirm it. I’ve talked a lot on the podcast about abdominal therapy modalities — if there are lesions, issues with alignment, and those types of things, I would encourage you to consider that route, because when you address the uterus physically, going in and removing adhesions and scar tissue, improving alignment and circulation, that’s a specific approach that our western medical system doesn’t really consider. So the good news is there are a lot of things you can do — the things you can do on your own, and now you also have these additional tools before you’d get to the point of a procedure to verify endometriotic lesions.

Laura: Sounds good. I just listened to the Lara Briden 180 podcast for the second time — I’m like, is it dysmenorrhea, or is it endometriosis? It needs more time, but I’m definitely worried about the fertility effects of endometriosis, but trying not to get too worried too soon.

Lisa: Again, this is a challenging area, because it can feel like there are no options if it was endo — but many women experience a great deal of improvement in terms of their pain and even their fertility with a combination of what we’ve talked about: dietary and lifestyle changes to reduce the inflammation and the pain, and abdominal therapy modalities to improve circulation, alignment, and reduce adhesions. With this episode I’ll link further listening, because this is the point where you can really empower yourself — it’s about all the options. This is a great situation for the boardroom analogy, where you can benefit from your medical doctor and their expertise, a functional doctor and their expertise in reducing inflammation through dietary approaches, the work that I do, and abdominal therapy modalities or Mercier therapy — the combination of these things. To be honest with you, Laura, I don’t think many women could go through all of those approaches systematically and have no improvement. Maybe in a year or so we’ll have to have you back on the show to see how you did.

Laura: Yeah, I did find someone who does Mercier therapy close by, and I was wondering what you thought — should I try acupuncture or Mercier therapy first, or is it just a matter of choice?

Lisa: I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here. I think you would benefit from either. I’ll share my perspective, understanding others may disagree — I would be more inclined to seek the Mercier therapy first. The reasoning is that if there’s something happening with an alignment issue, circulation, adhesions, or possible endo, given the degree of your pain and how long you’ve had it, and specifically related to fertility as well, Mercier can address those issues at a physical level, similar to breaking up a knot in your shoulder with a massage therapist — and that can lead to lasting change. With acupuncture, it’s extremely effective in reducing pain and is also incredibly useful for fertility. I’ve spoken to clients where, when they stopped going to acupuncture appointments, the pain didn’t always return, but sometimes it did. That’s the reasoning behind my rationale, but both are highly effective in reducing pain and improving fertility.

Laura: That helps so much, thank you. You have interviewed lots of smart people who are very passionate about what they do.

Lisa: Well, yes, absolutely — and as a woman who suffered from period pain too, I feel like that’s probably the choice I would make also, because of the promising results in cases where there are fertility challenges, with both Mercier and other abdominal therapy modalities.

Laura: I’m excited to try it.

Lisa: Well, I know this episode is going to be really helpful. The vast majority of women have never heard a conversation like this before. Laura, I’ve got a couple of questions for you as we draw to a close. For the woman who is on birth control and has no side effects, or does, and is really terrified about getting pregnant before she’s ready, and is considering fertility awareness but on the fence — what, if anything, would you want her to know?

Laura: I feel very passionately about this now, after everything I’ve learned from you, that it’s really time to learn about your body and to invest the time that fertility awareness takes. I did have one friend who mentioned fertility awareness and the three signs we check for, and it just seemed like a little much for me at the time. But once I started learning more about it and investing the time, it’s something that everyone can do, and it is so worthwhile. So I really recommend getting off the fence and learning about fertility awareness.

Lisa: It’s such an interesting perspective shift, especially for women who’ve never had a reason to question it. Another second-to-last question, then I actually remembered something — for someone who’s thinking about jumping into the live class and going ahead, what, if anything, would you want her to know about that?

Laura: I think for me it was really helpful — you can read as much as I have, and I’ve read a bunch of books the past few months, especially yours, but being able to ask questions from you personally has just been incredibly helpful. I think I would always be wondering, “Am I doing this right? Is this normal?” So I think that was the greatest gift as part of the live class.

Lisa: Oh, thanks, Laura. What I remembered was, at the beginning you asked a question about when you should plan to get pregnant. So certainly in the book I give my honest answer — it’s kind of like how we talked about temperature in the class. There’s the perfect world, and then there’s what really happens. In the perfect world, ideally, post-pill, I would say a minimum of 18 months to two years. The reason I say that is because some women come off the pill, particularly women who were on it because of cycle irregularities, and don’t know when their periods will return — it’s like buying insurance. In your case, your periods came back right away, and that was great, even though you have some challenges you’re working out now. But there are other women for whom it takes longer — some women take several months to get their first ovulation and period back, and that’s horrifying if your OB told you everything was great and you waited until the month before you wanted to start trying, and then you don’t ovulate for six months. So that’s part of the rationale. It also takes an average of nine to twelve cycles before everything normalizes — mucus patterns, cycle length, and the post-ovulatory phase, which ideally is 12 to 14 days. The first several cycles post-pill tend to be shorter, sometimes eight, nine, or ten days, and it can take several months to get a healthy, robust luteal phase. So there’s two ways of looking at it — of course you’d want a period of six to twelve months so you can really replenish nutrients. But on the other hand, your body will conceive when it’s ready, and if you do get pregnant and carry that pregnancy to term, your body was ready and it was supposed to happen. I walk a fine line — I think it’s good to be prepared and have this knowledge, but you don’t want to be beating yourself up if you get pregnant and didn’t wait, because if you sustained that pregnancy, your body was ready, and you can still do a lot during pregnancy to support your baby and yourself.

Laura: Lisa, that was really well said, and I appreciated that. May I ask a quick follow-up question? The period pain — is that my body saying, “Hey, I’m in distress, not time for a pregnancy,” or is it okay to get pregnant while I’m still having the pain?

Lisa: That’s such a good question. I don’t know that I have the answer, but I feel like period pain means your body is inflamed and there’s something going on. I wouldn’t say that necessarily, by itself, should be a reason not to try — but it could be a sign. For some women, extreme pain is a sign of endo, which means they could have challenges getting pregnant. For other women, they have raging endo and no pain at all — the pain is related to where the endo is and what’s going on. There are women whose only sign of endo is the fact that they can’t get pregnant. So there’s no 100% yes or 100% no answer. And women with period pain do get pregnant and have lovely babies. So there’s always hope.

This has been really great, Laura. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I always tell my clients that this is a very private conversation happening in a very public way, because thousands of people listen to the podcast. Not everybody is comfortable sharing, but whenever I’m speaking to clients, these are often their favorite episodes, because it’s really showing what it actually looks like when you’re trying to incorporate fertility awareness, and the actual struggles and challenges of trying to get your cycles back to healthy. So I so appreciate all of the clients who’ve shared their stories for this series.

Laura: This series has really helped me, and I wanted to thank the other women who have spoken before me, and I hope this will help someone as well.

Lisa: Oh, definitely. Well, thanks so much, Laura.

Laura: Thanks, Lisa.

Lisa: Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with a friend. That episode was powerful, and when I said that, I was actually picturing Laura on the bathroom floor. I really was, and it really struck me, because I’ve certainly been on the floor many times myself, particularly in my early 20s, because my period pain had left me in such ridiculous dire straits. I share this story often, but I’ll keep sharing it — when I went into labor with my eldest son, I was in labor all day and didn’t know it, because it was my first baby and I didn’t know what labor was supposed to feel like. Those early contractions, in retrospect, were manageable, and I honestly thought it was Braxton Hicks because it wasn’t that painful. It was only twelve hours later, when the contractions were coming ten minutes apart, that I really understood I was in labor, because it was so consistent. My point in sharing this is: why should women be expected to experience such severe pain as a normal part of existence, pain that in some cases rivals early labor? It’s completely nonsensical when you take a moment and think about it out of context — imagine if your dad, brother, or cousin had to experience that level of pain, laying on the floor for comfort because the floor felt cold. This isn’t something we should be normalizing, but of course, it has been. So if you know of anyone in your life who could benefit from this episode, please share it. I’ll link some of the previous period pain episodes as well, because though it’s common, it’s not normal, it’s not optimal, and it’s possible to overcome it. When I look back at my 21-year-old self, on the floor and really dependent on Advil — I’m anti-pain, so do what you need to do — but now that I have the tools and information to really support myself and reduce inflammation, it’s possible. My periods now are typically between a zero and a 0.5, sometimes going up to a one out of ten. And of course, it’s not a cure — if I wanted to experience the eight or nine pain again, I could go right back to all the sugar and low-quality commercial dairy I consumed in my 20s. So just to put that into context, for me it’s always a continuous conversation with my body when you start looking at the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. This becomes a management issue for many women who’ve struggled with period pain for years, but the takeaway is that it’s possible to significantly reduce or eliminate your pain, and the first step is educating yourself about the sources of the pain and the ways you can go about reducing or eliminating it. There’s an entire chapter on period pain in The Fifth Vital Sign, with the scientific studies all cited there, including the first chapter available for free. So I’m going to stop rambling and let you enjoy the rest of your day. Until next time, be well and happy charting.