Is Your Period Normal? Signs Every Woman Must Know | Hazel Wallace | Be Well Moments

0:00Welcome to Live Well Be Well, a show to help high performers improve their health and well-being.

0:10I don't know if you know her, the neuroscientist Dr. Sarah McKay on the show. She was amazing. And it was really blew my mind because I always come on and go, well, I feel like I know a lot about PMS now because so many people have come on and spoken about it. And something that she said was, yes, there is so much about the biology and the hormonal side that do affect PMS. But there's also so many other things like the cultural messages that we're given. And she said in a really interesting stat that in France, 12 % of women compared to 90 % of women in Iran are affected by PMS. So she's like, wait, is this biological?

0:44Is it environmental? Is it cultural? Like there must be other things. So it makes so much sense when you say, well, if your partner kind of shares the problem and can see you and can support you and can use positive language and not dismiss you and validate you, then it would seem to make more of a supportive environment to be able to cope with PMS. Yeah 100%. So it's interesting I try and think about how we've all grown up around like what are those messages and like how were we treated at school I mean I remember getting my period at school and I decided that I was sick and wanted to go home.

1:16I remember first getting it and going in and pretending that I was really ill to go home because I was so embarrassed. Yeah I mean if no one's prepared you or maybe you've had like one lesson on it and it was very brief and you know you're an 11 year old girl who just started her period for the first time it can be pretty terrifying if you don't have the information that you need so I'm really not surprised that that was your experience and I think you know my my experience wasn't too dissimilar I have an older sister so my mum just kind of hushed me into a room with her and she told me what to do and that was that was really the only conversation that we had but I think because I had older sisters I'd seen them have you know hot water bottles I seen them moan about having painful periods so I I just assumed this is what's coming painful periods sometimes taking time off school not exercising during that time or not doing PE I was a really sporty girl so I found that like really like I wasn't really sure how to navigate that should I not exercise should I exercise my mom didn't really tell me otherwise and so I would love that the girls coming up behind us or even my own daughter if I ever have one that their experience is completely different and they feel so well equipped about what to do around their cycles not just the bleeding phase and when it comes it's not like complete panic and it's not something that's like shrouded in shame or or embarrassment or you can't speak up if you are the girl who's vomiting because your pain is so severe or you're soaking through your uniform because a lot of girls don't do not speak up about that because they're so embarrassed that was me and I think it was really interesting because I know that you try to not talk down about the pill you have a very balanced view about it but the solution for me at that time was we'll just go on the pill because it's so much easier and then it was great because it stopped my periods and then I started modeling so for me I I was like, well, this is brilliant.

3:18I haven't got to think about it. And then 10 years later, I had this moment where I was like, wait, I don't, I have no idea how my cycle is. And I had to, I've had to reframe my own narrative with my menstrual cycle because now I feel very empowered by it and I feel very lucky and very grateful to have it. And one of my friends has something really interesting. She said, you know, I kind of feel sorry for men because we have this amazing moment in a month where we can just allow ourselves to let everything just go and we can cry and we can kind of reset ourselves yeah and she was like and I feel quite sorry for my partner that doesn't he doesn't really get that he doesn't really get that card in the months and I was like that's such a positive way of looking at it yeah to look at it and it takes me back to a question which I get a lot and I'm sure you get overwhelmed with but a lot of people will say well what does a normal period look like what is a normal period and how do I know if I'm not?

4:13Because some people say, well, I come on every 21 days. And someone else might say, well, I come on every 34 days. So like, how do we define what a normal period is and how can we then be aware of when maybe not falling into the remits of what that could look like? Yeah. There's no like real such definition of a healthy menstrual cycle, but there are what I like to call green flags or what fall into that like healthy signs that your cycle's working as it should. And so in terms of how often it's coming, we want something to fall between 21 to 35 days, which is quite a big variation. But textbooks will say like a 28-day cycle is what most women have.

4:58But actually a lot of the research shows that not many women do have a 28-day cycle. So it's okay if you're falling either side of that. now another thing that I often find isn't common knowledge is how to track the days of your cycle so day one is the first day of your bleeding and the last day of your cycle so say that is 28 will be the last day before your next bleed so that's your full cycle length then in terms of the bleeding phase which is typically the first five to seven days bleeding for three to five days is considered normal. If you're bleeding up to seven days and it's quite heavy, that's a bit of a red flag.

5:37So we'd want to speak to your doctor about that. But heaviness and pain is very subjective. So we can measure how much fluid or blood is too much to lose. But I don't know about you, but not many people are measuring that. So what I think is a better definition is it's too much for you to manage. So if you're soaking through it every night, if you're having to wear two products all the time if every hour you're like clock watching and you need to like get in and change and similar with pain if you're clock watching because you want to stay on top of painkillers every four hours because otherwise the pain's too severe or you're someone who vomits because of the pain or what I hear a lot of the girls with endometriosis tell me is lying on the floor because it's really cold and that's the only way to get relief when they're you know experiencing painful periods or really heavy periods during the night so they would be red flags and then not bleeding between your period sometimes it's okay to spot and so sometimes after sex you might spot sometimes after extreme exercise you might spot but if it's happening all the time or you're finding it's happening frequently across your cycle that's also a red flag so those would be the main things and the other thing that I'd add in which we've already kind of talked about is any severe mood symptoms in that late luteal phase so the week or so before your period anything that's causing disruption in your everyday life whether that's work your relationships your activity the things that you love that's a red flag for me and so the one thing you mentioned there which I think every woman will relate to and if you don't, I'm incredibly jealous.

7:24Painful periods. So you said something earlier, you know, and very similar. I had an older sister and a mum that would always have hot water bottles around that time and warm baths and, you know, gentle yoga moves. But I always remember being like, oh gosh, and I would be terrified of my period coming because the pain. Is there anything we can do just thinking actively around having painful periods? Like obviously there's going to to be symptoms of maybe why like endometriosis that you just mentioned and other key drivers but general period pain like what advice can you give to people who are listening who suffer yeah it's really it's it's really tricky if you fall into that category and most women will experience some pain it's unrealistic to have no cramping at all because our body is essentially cramping in order to shed the womb lining so we have to expect a little bit of discomfort but severe pain that's interfering with your day-to-day is is not normal if you fall into that I get some cramping but I'm able to carry on with my day-to-day it's not interfering with like my physical activity or my relationships then there are a few things that you can do as much as it feels like an old wives tale hot water bottles heat patches that you can get the pharmacy or any heat tool is actually can be effective and we have some research to back that up so if you do have a hot water bottle that's fun or you can get those heat pads as well have a warm bath they're good methods um certain yoga poses can be helpful i've got some in the book hang on let me find i've honestly read this batch back and i remember seeing this and thinking this is something that i'm definitely going to be doing here we go i'll show it for anyone watching on youtube we're gonna show there's different exercises here there we go how many if we got eight and i've just pulled a few from those yeah that feels like it would cramp my stomach maybe it would but this is a sequence that i've taken from a research study so yeah and they seem to be the same movements that show up in most of the research studies but again no one no two women are the same so if you find that uncomfortable i wouldn't recommend it there's a lot of people who say you know yogis who will say i've been told not to do inversions during my period there's actually no evidence to say that you can't um i think maybe hypothetically some people are worried it might cause something called retrograde menstruation which is a theory related to endometriosis but we've got nothing to say that if it's not causing you any discomfort you can absolutely do it it's not harmful it's more of a ancient recommendation not to do that and so if that's part of your practice and you don't do it for that reason then don't do it but if you've always been doing those inversions during your period and it's fine then continue to do so but for people who don't practice yoga all forms of movement can be beneficial during exercise during your period because exercise is anti-inflammatory and it can produce antioxidants so it's really beneficial for us.

10:40I know a lot of people don't feel like doing much during that time but it doesn't have to be severe. It could be a yoga class, it could be going for a long walk, it could be a lightweight session, it could be a Pilates session, whatever works or feels good for you but generally trying to move as opposed to complete rest tends to be more beneficial. Thanks so much for listening. To hear the full episode, there's a link in the description.