Help! I Can’t Cope With These Heavy Periods Any Longer!

You’re utterly sick and tired of struggling to cope with your heavy periods. And so at some point, it’s highly likely that you’ll pay your doctor a visit in a search for answers. When you get there you’re likely to find a highly unsympathetic doctor who will just tell you that bleeding vast quantities is nothing at all to worry about ‘at your age’ and tell you that you’ll feel better in time.

But if you’re the one bleeding heavily for around eight to ten days per cycle, using super-sized tampons and a heavy duty sanitary towel and still managing to flood your clothes with crimson blood on a regular basis, I wouldn’t blame you at all for feeling highly dissatisfied with this answer.

Let’s not forget that you know your body better than anyone else, you know that this isn’t normal, and you want to be taken seriously for a change.

Because although heavy periods are very common during the peri-menopause, that doesn’t mean they’re not highly embarrassing, debilitating or even dangerous to our health.

How can we feel like vibrant and energetic women in the prime of our lives when we are bleeding so horribly??

When all of this causes you so much stress, worry and upheaval, it’s clear that you need to take steps to do something about it.

That’s exactly what I’m here to do. Let me show you how you can stop those heavy periods during the peri-menopause and get your life back on track!

What causes heavy periods at the menopause?

When it’s time for your body to begin the transition, your hormones will begin to fluctuate which results in a wide range of peri-menopausal symptoms. This means that changes in your monthly cycle are almost part of the course and can include symptoms such as skipped periods, light menstruation, a heavy flow with clotting, and everything in between.

This is mainly caused by an excess in one of the primary sex hormones, oestrogen. If you’ve been part of our incredibly supportive community for a while now, you’ll know that this hormone is partly responsible for the peri-menopausal symptoms you are experiencing (along with progesterone).

During your fertile years, your oestrogen levels have been highest in the earlier part of your cycle, until the point when ovulation happens. The follicle that took care of your egg collapses and then releases the other primary sex hormone, progesterone. This helps thicken the lining of your womb to prepare your body for a possible pregnancy.

But as you approach the menopause, your cycles can go slightly haywire. Your hormone levels shift, you are far less likely to ovulate at all, and so the release of progesterone just doesn’t happen. As a result, your oestrogen levels remain unchecked, causing the lining of your womb to overgrow and later break down in a disorderly way. This results in those heavy and horrible periods we all know and love.
 

Stress can cause heavy periods

However, this isn’t where the story ends. Because your experience of the menopause is just as dependent on how you feel as what is going on with your hormones. If you’ve ever suffered from a particularly harsh episode of PMT, you’ll know very well just how close the relationship between our hormones and our emotions can be.

But it might surprise you to know that this relationship works the other way too- feeling bad can actually negatively influence your hormones too. Let me explain this in more detail:

When you are feeling low, battling self-esteem issues or under any kind of stress, your body responds by switching on the stress-response. This releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline into your system which have a disruptive effect on your overall hormone balance and can trigger all of those horrible symptoms of the menopause.

Therefore, in your journey back to better health and happiness, you absolutely must not neglect your stress levels but heal your body and your mind too.
 

How to reduce your menstrual flow naturally

Many doctors recommend unnecessary surgical procedures or prescription medication to cope with heavy menstrual flow, but this really doesn’t have to be the case. With just a handful of lifestyle tweaks, you can empower yourself to feel amazing again and stop doing battle with your symptoms. They include the following:

Face those issues

As you have seen, anxiety and chronic stress, relationship troubles, psychological burdens, childhood trauma, low self-esteem and a wide range of other mental factors can really affect how you’re feeling during this important time of your life. This means if you really want to see an improvement in the way you are feeling, you absolutely must not neglect this important part of who you are. It’s ok to be struggling, it’s ok to be in pain. But it’s what we do with it that counts. Are you willing to let it control your life, or do you want to find freedom?

Facing your issues might be as simple as taking more time to do the things you really love, considering your thoughts and feelings, taking up meditation or yoga, or reaching out and asking me to help you with my expert support and loving guidance.

Eat a hormone-friendly diet

The old saying of ‘we are what we eat’ is only partly true- in fact we are also what we digest. So make it your mission to practice radical self-love and to nourish yourself with exactly the kind of digestion-friendly foods that your body needs and working to improve your overall gut health. Steps such as reducing your consumption of processed foods, eating more nutrient-dense ‘real’ foods, upping your intake of fresh produce and enjoying more of the skin-and-hormone friendly healthy fats such as avocados, nuts and seeds will all make a massive difference.

It’s also vital that you watch how much sugar you are consuming- sugar is enemy number one when it comes to your hormones, triggering a sharp spike in your blood sugar which will send you off on a crazy hormonal rollercoaster ride.

Support your liver

Your liver plays an essential role in the balance of your hormones by metabolising waste oestrogen and removing it safely from your body. This means that if your liver is in bad shape, full of toxins and unhealthy fats, you’re much more likely to struggle with your symptoms of the menopause. Support your liver and you will overcome your oestrogen dominance and really start to get your life back. If you’ve enrolled on my best-selling ‘Natural Solutions To An Easy Menopause’ programme, you’ll enjoy full support and information on how to do this naturally and effectively.

Visit your doctor

If you’re still really worried about how much you’re bleeding every month, it might be a good idea to pay your doctor a visit. You’ll be able to rule out any other health problems, ask plenty of questions, and also get your iron and ferritin levels checked out whilst you’re there. Remember, you don’t have to agree to any treatment that you don’t want to.

Heavy periods can feel absolutely awful, utterly embarrassing and debilitating too, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t have to keep suffering in silence and just hoping that you’ll be better when you get your next period. Take control, take action and empower yourself to heal on the inside and the out.

Words © Pamela Windle 2016.