Female Period Issues: 9 Things You Should Avoid During Your Period

Female Period Issues: 9 Things You Should Avoid During Your Period

As a woman, there are certain things you should avoid during your period, especially if you experience severe pain or discomfort during this time.

Every healthy woman yet to get to menopause gets a period each month. Your period or menstruation is that time of the month where the unfertilized egg as well as your uterine lining get expelled from your uterus.

For a lot of women, periods come with great discomfort ranging from mild cramps to severe stomach pains that could leave you slightly incapacitated for a few days.

However, no matter the severity of symptoms or a lack of one, one thing that’s certain is that every woman always finds a way to manage hers.

If you are a woman that experiences such severe discomfort, you can greatly reduce the amount of pain you go through by making some mild to moderate adjustments in your lifestyle.

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Female Period Issues and Advice

Here are nine of such lifestyle activities or things you should avoid during your period:

1) Never Skip Meals

This is one period advice health practitioners the world over strongly recommend.

Eating three square meals is necessary for getting your daily caloric needs. It is also should also be taken a bit more seriously during your period as you lose quite a lot of blood during this time making your energy levels plummet. Skipping meals at this time, especially breakfast worsens an already sensitive situation and you may find yourself more weakened and lacking in essential nutrients.

It’s important you eat a healthy meal during this time and also drink lots of water so your energy levels stay high.

If you find you are unable to eat large meals at a time, you might want to break your meals into smaller portions and eat around the clock. You could also snack on fruits and veggies, that way, your nutrients and energy levels are kept high and your body also doesn’t get starved of some much-needed nutrients.

2) Don’t Have Unprotected Sex

While having sex during your period is healthy, even recommended as it relieves menstrual cramps, having unprotected sex could be dangerous as it leaves you exposed to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).

As a woman, your cervix is more open during your period, and since the penis is home to several hundreds of bacteria, this leaves you open to one or more infections.

The female period is a time to exercise a little more care.

While some people might argue peeing right after the act eliminates these microbes, experts warn to avoid unprotected sex during your period altogether as even a little risk is enough to see you getting infected.

3) Limit Physical Activities as Much as Possible

As earlier pointed out, you already are low on energy while on your period, so you shouldn’t engage in any strenuous exercises as this will further deplete your energy reserve.

If you must, ensure you are replenishing your energy by eating energy-boosting foods and drinks so you don’t run out of. You should ensure you eat regularly, even if it’s smaller meals to keep your energy levels high.

Besides depleting your energy, another reason to go easy on physical activities is the fact that you are also more likely to come down with a back or waist pain at this time when you overexert yourself.

While research has shown some mild to moderate exercise does offer some benefits this time, going overboard will have an adverse effect.

4) Try to Get Enough Rest

Your system sees a hormone spike while on your period. It is therefore, important you get enough rest to give it ample time to normalize.

You should endeavor to get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep and any rest you might be able to get.

Getting just a few hours of sleep increases the stress hormone cortisol, causing a hormone imbalance which heightens the severity of your symptoms.

5) Avoid Soda Water

Although medically unproven, it is thought taking soda water while on your period disrupts your period flow and causes some period blood to remain in your uterine walls.

What to Take Instead

The following, however, are recommended items to take instead:

• Take lots of water as this will also prevent you from feeling bloated. The recommended amount is 7-8 glasses, more if you can keep it down.
• Take warm water or any hot liquid as often as you can to prevent clotted blood, as this will get the menstrual blood flowing freely.
• Increase your calcium and iron intake to replace the ones you’re losing. You might want to hold off taking iron supplements, however, until a day or so after your period as a few women report having an increase in their menstrual flow when taken during the period.
• Besides water, other liquids you can never go wrong taking include green smoothies made from leafy green vegetables to replenish the nutrients and vitamins your body needs at this time, ginger tea as ginger is antiinflammatory and will help calm your cramps, and fruits with a high water content like watermelon.
• You can also increase your Vitamins A, C, and E intake to boost your absorption of iron.
• Take lots of magnesium and food rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
• Take probiotic supplements as these are healthy bacteria needed by the body.

6) Waxing

Waxing on any other day is painful, but doing it on your period is doubled the pain and that’s because your pain receptors are a lot more heightened and your skin more sensitive at this time.

7) Wearing a Pad for More Than Four Hours

Wearing a pad or tampon for long might not worsen the pain or discomfort you feel during your period, but it can bring some other unwanted results like causing an unpleasant odor and causing a bacteria buildup which can lead to an infection.

The recommended duration for wearing is pad is six hours, shorter if you have a heavier flow to prevent bacteria buildup.

8) Avoid Certain Foods

These foods are not bad in themselves, but seeing as you need to focus on replenishing nutrients at this point, they just aren’t what you need.

Some foods you should limit include

Salt as this promotes water retention, making you bloated and uncomfortable.

• Caffeine which does the same harm salt does.

Alcohol for it’s ability to dehydrate and cause other health discomforts like digestive issues and nausea.

Red meat which could worsen your cramps.

Sugar which causes a spike in your sugar levels and an accompanying crash, leading to fluctuations in your moods.

9) Douching

Douching is bad anytime, but more so during your period. While using the fragrance from the couch light make you feel and smell wonderful, the act itself is unhealthy. This is because it disrupts the natural flora of bacteria that exist in your vaginal region to keep you protection.

Since your cervix is more open during your period the chances of picking an infection when you douche increases.

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