Believing in a pain-free period.

During my period, I used to have horrible cramps that would put me out of commission for about two full days.

I would experience constant and continuous pain in my uterus and back, have intense diarrhea, and was sensitive to light and smells.

I would be bedridden with my heating pad, a joint, Netflix, and a hamburger. This was my coping strategy.

Sound familiar to anyone?

No over-the counter pain med would curb the pain, and in fact, would increase my bleeding and make me feel worse. I was forced to enter my moonlodge to wait out the release and regain the energy to continue on.

I dreaded this pain every month, but also craved it. My body, my source of life, physically stopped me in my tracks to slow down and just release. Release all that crap I had been carrying. Be tender, be sad, be pissed, be high, be hungry...

That was my job for two full days. Although painful, this time was an indulgent gift I was given. Sorry world, I'm sick, got to hang in my moon lodge.

Painful period cramps should not be accepted as "normal".

The painful severity of my period has a name, it's called dysmenorrhea.

I first heard this term when I applied for my medical marijuana card in Colorado in the early days of legalization. I was told it was so easy to get your card, you could literally make up anything that could be wrong with you. I had been using cannabis for years to help with my cramps, so I figured why not try that one. When I went to the rent-a-doc, he told me I could say I have dysmenorrhea as my medical reason! I didn't even know what that was, but I was pumped to be able to buy pot legally, I didn't even look up what that meant.

Many years of painful cycles later, I finally learned about what this meant in midwifery school. Dysmenorrhea is not a normal condition.

I repeat, painful periods should not be the norm.

Some cramping and discomfort is totally normal, but put-you-out cramps are absolutely not. There is a way you can reduce or even eliminate your cramps, severe or not. 

What causes the cramping and pain?

The cramping of your uterus is almost always caused by inflammatory chemicals called prostaglandins.

The prostaglandins are produced when your body is living in a sea of inflammatory triggers. Unfortunately, the world we live in is a sea of inflammatory triggers. But, some of these triggers can affect our hormonal balance more than others.

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) is the big one! These are environmental toxins that enter our bloodstream and act just like our estrogen, but way more intense. EDCs create higher levels of circulating estrogen that make up the lining of your uterus. (The blood and tissue lost on your period is your uterine lining shedding each moon cycle.)

The higher levels of estrogen make your uterine lining thicker. A thicker lining means a lot more pain and cramping for your uterus is expel it.These days avoiding all environmental toxins is pretty much impossible. But there are ways we can reduce the EDC's that enter into our bodies by making specific nutritional and lifestyle changes.If you lower your exposure to EDC's, chances are your period pain will decrease, or even disappear…

Here's the first step I took to eliminate my menstrual cramps:

I switched to a primarily plant-based, Mediterranean diet.

A Mediterranean style way of eating has been shown to be the most effective of all types of diets for preventing and reversing excess inflammation. This way of eating includes eating a TON of veggies (about 80% of your plate should be vegetables), olive oil, nuts, legumes, and just small amounts of meat, fish and poultry in the daily diet.

Eliminating already previously known inflammatory foods is crucial to see any results in reducing menstrual pain. I already knew that that my body was sensitive to dairy, so I knocked it out of my diet. I also eliminated eating all land-based animals. In my case, change didn't happen even after one moon cycle. It took about 2-3 months of eating this way plus a few other steps I had to take to reduce my inflammation to feel any different.

But then, I felt the difference in a BIG way. The cramps were gone. This is simply how long it took my body to naturally rid the EDC's in my body. Pretty crazy right?

The next step I took to reduce my menstrual cramps was something I never thought I would be able to handle.

For me, this was a HUGE sacrifice. I love coffee. Brewing my daily cup (or cups) each day was my most consistent ritual. Anyone who knows me can attest that my attitude before I had my coffee in the morning was a force to be avoided.

Also, when I attend births as birth worker, I couldn't possibly conceptualize how to survive without coffee when I needed to be up all night.

Why in the world was I willing to go cold-turkey?

Caffeine is a stimulant. It can help with mental clarity and alertness, but it also depletes the micronutrients essential to maintain hormonal balance, disrupts ovulation by increasing your cortisol levels that stress your adrenals, and coffee's acidity causes long lasting, gut health problems.

So, after discovering this bad news, I decided to try to give it up and see how I felt. The first two weeks off coffee was hellish! I had horrible withdrawal symptoms. I felt super tired all the time and had awful headaches. However, I learned from these symptoms. Coffee can't be good for me when I was so dependent on it to feel "normal".

After the first two weeks of caffeine withdrawal, I felt my true "normal" for the first time since I started drinking coffee. (I was drinking a cup of joe everyday since I was 15).

This new "normal" made me feel more awake and alert than ever before. Each night I slept deeper and longer. I felt my anxiety overall lessen. I was more energized at long births. And when my period rolled around, I actually felt a difference.

I have been caffeine free for over a year now. Occasionally, I have experimented with drinking a cup of coffee and like clockwork, I feel cramps during my next period.

This is a tough change, I get it, but if you are really struggling with balancing your hormones I highly recommend giving it a try!

These lifestyle changes eliminated my painful periods, but not without effort or patience. It took me 3 months to be symptom free and then a lot of discipline to maintain symptom free. It is hard, but so so worth it. 

**All artist credit goes to Pierre Schmidt @dromsjel