Menstruation- What Is Happening

 Have you been told by a practitioner that if this is the way your period shows up every month, that this is normal for you? , have you been told after having a child that the heavier period that you're experiencing is normal after you give birth? None of these things are normal. There is a standard of what your period should look like.

Join us this week. As we take a deeper dive into menstruation, what it should look like, how to care for it, and how this makes such a meaningful impact into your health.

Want to learn more? Check out Body Basics in our online course offerings.

Transcript

0:03

Have you been told by a practitioner that if this is the way your period shows up every month, that this is normal for you? have you been told after having a child that the heavier period that you're experiencing is normal after you give birth? None of these things are normal. There is a standard of what your period should look like. Join us this week. As we take a deeper dive into menstruation, what it should look like, how to care for it, and how this makes such a meaningful impact into your health. Hi, I'm Adrian iri. I am an eastern medicine practitioner who is passionate about women's health and helping women live their best lives. My goal is to put you in the driver's seat of your menstrual health offering period. For a symptom free life. Statements made in this program are for educational purposes only, and not intended as a substitution for medical consultation or advice. We do not claim to diagnose, treat, or cure any diseases. This podcast is inclusive and welcomes all gender identities. The focus of the program is on biological function, and we will use the term women throughout, but it is referencing physiological and social challenges for biology, not identity. Come as you are. I am happy you're here and welcome all performances of identity. I hope you find something helpful in this show. Welcome back to another episode of the Reproductive Rebel Podcast. This week we start our deep dive into each of the phases of our cycle and really look at what is going on in each of these phases. So if you didn't join us last week, last week, we did kind of a 30,000 foot view of what our cycle does, that there are four phases, uh, so that you. Overarching roadmap of where we were going to start doing a deeper dive this week, we are going to take a closer look at menstruation. So if you haven't listened to the previous episode, check out last week's episode. and then join us back here. So for those of us that have already listened to last week's episode, we are going to start at the top of the cycle or menstruation. So menstruation is the start of the follicular half of the cycle. Or in Chinese medicine, the yin phase of the cycle because it's all about substance. This is the phase of shedding substance in preparation for rebuilding again. you are shedding endometrial lining. So one thing I really wanna drive home to everybody is, especially people who use tampons, okay? So if you use tampons, even if they're organic, you're gonna wanna pay attention to this part. So tampons only absorb the flushing mechanism. okay. They only absorb blood. They actually block the exit of the endometrial lining that the blood is supposed to be pushing out. So your period menstruation, your period is a womb cleanse. So because of pregnancy didn't result the body. We need to clear the slate and start again this month because your body is always trying to get you pregnant. Whether that is your goal in life or not, that is what this hormone cycle is designed to do. So when a pregnancy doesn't result, the period arrives. The period, the very first day you have fresh red flow is the start of your new menstrual cycle. So when that blood comes, its job is to push out the unused endometrial lining because part of the process is the uterus has a lining that ripens in preparation for a potential pregnancy. And when one doesn't result, it needs to be flushed away. To start over again in the new month. So that is what your period is. It is a womb cleanse. It is a flushing process that is washing away the unused endometrial lining that because there was no pregnancy isn't getting used. So it's important to remember that the blood is only. The flushing mechanism. So because of that, we do not wanna use plug products. Tampons are a plug product. They are only designed to absorb the flushing mechanism, but the unfortunate part is they block the exit of the matter that is being fleshed out. So for people who have a lot of issues with cramping, I invite you to try having a period without a tampon and see if it changes your experience For a lot of people. Even in the first month when you no longer block the exit of the endometrial lining that is trying to come out, there's a lot less cramping because the body is really brilliant and it goes, oh, this matter still hasn't evacuated, so I'm going to cramp in order to try to push it out. Cuz the body only has two tools, the flushing mechanism and contraction. Or the cramping that you're experiencing to get all of the slate clean or to clear everything past during your bleed. So if things aren't. Properly flushing themselves out. Then what ends up happening is you end up having a backup and a buildup and it creates cramping and you see sludgy brown stuff, and that is not what we are looking for. So one very simple way to restore more ease in your menstrual experience is to stop using. Tampons. Another way is to abstain from penis and vagina penetration during bleeding days because again, it acts like a plug. The energy of your menstrual cycle ebbs and flows. But during menstruation, we're supposed to be embracing the flow. So in order for things to flow smoothly, that energy is all down and out. Nothing is supposed to be going up and in. And I know that there are some women that make the case that. having an orgasm during menstruation eases their menstrual cramps, and there's a lot of truth to that. But you can do that from external stimulation without penetrative sex in order to achieve that. So I would say if you find that you get some relief from your discomfort through orgasm, please do it through an external stimula. Approach rather than a penetrative one because that will, uh, for people who tend to start early, uh, start their periods early, it can trigger bleeding early. For some people who have fragile chi for their spleen chi, sometimes penetrative sex can actually result in some spotting afterwards. But for the period itself, you want to not. Stop that free flow of everything coming down and out because the more appropriately you fully cleanse, the better you are gonna feel, the more efficient the period is, and the quicker it will come to a close. your bleeding days should only last four to six days, so Chinese medicine says four to six days. I have found in my experience that most people when they are in balance will level out to a four to five day bleed. If there is any bleeding on day six, it's super light and it usually comes to a close long before the end of the. If people are bleeding longer than six days or shorter than four, your body is already throwing up some flags and saying, Hey, I need a little more love and support. Can you help me out? So, keep that in mind. Four to six days, it should be fresh red blood only. Some of these things that I'm going to be sharing in terms of what the period should look like are going to be mind blowing for some of you, and that's okay because a lot of times when you go into your doctor's office and they go, what has your period been like? And you tell them, you know, and you run them through, this is what it normally looks like, this is what color it is, whatever. Oh, well if, and I've even been told this, okay, so I'm not making things up, I've been told this by a doctor that if this is your usual experience, this is what's normal for you. I have been told this. I have had clients come into my practice and tell me that they have been told this by a practitioner. Okay? This is why this podcast is called The Reproductive Rebel Podcast. I wanna blow apart these assumptions and this narrative in our culture that if this is what usually shows up for you, this is. No, this is not normal. Most of the symptoms that people experience during menstruation, cramping, all the mood swing stuff, the extreme levels of fatigue, none of that is normal. It is not normal. Do not accept it as normal. Okay? What you want your period to look like and. Again, some of you are gonna think that it sounds like I'm describing a unicorn, and that's okay. It is possible to achieve this. I am living proof and clients who have come through my practice are also living proof that this is possible. So four to six stay bleed. it should be a nice soft bell curve in terms of how the flow appears. So you're gonna start light to medium. It's going to crescendo up to heavy at least day two, maybe even into day three. It's going to day crescendo down into probably a medium, medium light zone by day four with it. To a close on day four or day five. Okay, so if you are starting your bleed right out of the gate with a heavy whooshing flood sensation, then there is an issue. If you are finding you are, have multiple days where you are bleeding so heavy. I did a duet on TikTok with a girl who is sharing her story about the fact that she puts a towel down on the couch and she puts a Chuck's pad down on the couch and then she puts a pad on and a tampon and something else, a period panty, something else that was absorbent. And then she sits down and hopes she doesn't have an accident. And I shared that video because it broke my heart that this girl every single month is like terrified to sit on her couch because the bleeding level is so heavy. I've had clients that have come into my practice who they get paranoid. Going to work during their period because they are worried they're gonna be at a business lunch and they're gonna stand up and the second they stand up, there's gonna be a flood and they're concerned they're gonna have an accident before they get to the bathroom. I used to be that person. I used to sit at my cubicle and go, uh oh. I can feel it moving and I gently would stand up and as soon as I stood up, it didn't matter whether I stood up with gusto or I stood up gently. By the time I was in standing position, I could feel the floodgates open and that heavy downward whooshing sensation like somebody turned on a faucet so hard it was broken in the on position. And it would send me running across. And I mean, I worked in a big corporate floor, so I had to run, literally run across the room and get to the bathroom, and sometimes I'd have an accident before I got there, and sometimes I didn't. So it is a really big issue that a lot of people have, and we don't want that. We just don't want that. You should have a nice bell curve. No whooshing. There should be control over this flow if there is no control over the flow. It is indicating and foreshadowing that there is a problem. It is supposed to start red from the beginning. Nice, clean red from the beginning. No brown, no pink spotting leading into it. Some people have periods that have this really slow ramping up process that's telling you something about what's going on in the body after the period comes to a close. Sometimes people will have pink or red or brown trickling. That will happen over the course of several days. Before I started doing this work, I thought I had a 10 day period and I was a fairly like reproductive health educated person going into this. Nobody had ever talked me through what my bleeding pattern was supposed to look like, however, because like I said earlier, I had gone into that doctor's office and my ob gyn had said, oh, well, it's normal for your period to be a little heavier after you've had a baby. And if this is the way that it's showing up for you every month, that is normal for you. So I had always taken that as the truth and it turns out that it wasn't. So I actually only had five days of bleeding and I didn't know that the very consistent brown that I had, that was flow like for five days after the red stopped and it had turned to Brown, that that was actually not my period. Has anyone's mind blown. I know mine blew when I found that out. So if you have brown after that brown sludgy stuff, that is not something you wanna see. Your flow should be consistent all the way through if you bleed and then it stops for a little bit. and then it starts back up again. That indicates that there's a disharmony in the body. You shouldn't have any cramping. You shouldn't have anything that is prolonged outside of that bleeding window. There should be no clots. There should be no cramps. It should just. Gracefully and gently start none of the fire breathing dragon and crying at Hallmark commercial type emotions. That rollercoaster part, we'll talk more about that when we get to the LAL phase, but none of that should be going into it, and none of that should be going on during it. So, It gently arrives my, I always laugh when I have clients and not in a bad way, but I always laugh when I have clients sit down and go, my period, it just arrived this month. I didn't even know it was coming because I didn't have any of my usual stuff beforehand, and I'm like, This is what it's supposed to be like. That's what your, if your body is properly supported, that is what the experience is supposed to be like. And for so many of us, that is not the experience. So your period really should not be that symptomatic. It should gently arrive, do its thing, getting, you know, a little heavier in the middle, coming down on the other side and finishing clean, and then it's, And then you enter your dry days, which will take you up until you enter your fertile window. That's the way that it should go. It is the start of your month. It is very important to mark that. All right, I mentioned it in the last episode. I am driving this home again because it is so, so important. The first day you have fresh red flow, that is the first day of your new menstrual cycle. Okay. The period falls at the end of the sentence in punctuation. The period does not fall at the end of your month. It actually marks the beginning. So the first day of fresh red blood that commits to an actual flow is where you start counting your cycle. This is critically important. What day it ends does not matter when you are counting as much unless it is going unusually long. So if you are on day eight and it's still red and it's still flowing pretty consistently, this is something that needs to be addressed. Okay? But the first day really sets the tone for everything. because day three of your cycle, your FSH level rises so naturally your energy, you're gonna feel tired. Day one, day two, that is normal. You're gonna lose most of your blood in that day two early day three range, depending on what time of day your period starts. Generally day two for some day three, but again, it's a timing of day kind of. that is where the heaviest flow of your entire month should fall, and then it just starts to peter off after that. So if you aren't counting your cycle correctly, if you know that you need to have labs with your allopathic practitioner, you aren't testing in the right place. Because a lot of times they'll test you on day three of your cycle because they're looking at your FSH levels and other things, and that is a key testing zone to see what is going on in terms of the hormonal lay of the land inside of your body. So knowing when you need to be. With your lab slip to have that done is really important. Okay? And it all comes back to knowing when you are counting. So when your F s H level begins to rise, you have started the preparation process for ovulation. Ovulation is right around the midpoint of your cycle, and that is the big moment, and we'll dive into that a little deeper as we go along. But as F s H rises, it begins the preparation process for. Your follicle. It helps with the development of your uterine lining. So knowing where we're counting our cycle folks is critically important for your success. So the moral of the story is menstruation is actually a very powerful moment during our. I would put it at the same level as ovulation actually, because you have this incredible opportunity to care for your body. to hit a reset button for the month. So let's say the previous month, you know, you ate like garbage. Okay. Holidays, we tend to eat like garbage. We stay up late. We, you know, and a lot of times it's in pursuit of positive things like we have family in visiting that we haven't seen in a while, and those types of things. So it doesn't have to be like the sinister thing, right? But it takes us out of our normal bio rhythm. So knowing that you had something that happened during your month, it could very likely mean that it's thrown things off for you a little bit. Women's bodies are super sensitive to changes. Stress is a big thing that will rock your system. You can see period change. If you get a promotion, so it doesn't have to be a bad thing, a promotion at work, maybe one that you've been working really hard for, getting that promotion and the learning curve that goes along with it, that can be super stressful on the system. Positive stress, but still stress and that can change your cycle. Travel can change your cycle, a death in the family honeymoon. Weddings, you know, all those kinds of things. They change our bio rhythm and that can change the way that the cycle presents. So, you know, if you have anything like that that happens, menstruation is such a powerful opportunity to kind of level set everything for the month. So, you know, How we care for ourselves during menstruation is so important in terms of setting the tone for how strong our immune system is gonna be the rest of the month, how much energy we're going to have, whether we have symptoms that look kind of PMSy and not feeling quite so great going into ovulation or even spotting. There's so many things that menstruation is this beautiful clearing of the slate to. Over for the next month, and if we know how to watch for it and we know how to care for ourselves during it, that is incredibly powerful. So I have a minicourse called the Period Care Mini Course. It's really short and sweet to the point, but it talks really specifically about how you care for yourself during this phase of your month because those four to five days. Change everything in terms of how strong you feel, how much energy you have, your immune system, health, all of those things, and then how the next period shows up. So, How we care for ourselves during our period and knowing what it's supposed to look like are so fundamentally important in women's health. I cannot drive that home enough, so if you want to have fewer symptoms during the month, Learning what you need in each phase of your cycle now makes a huge impact on your experience with your period tomorrow and improving your health in the future. All you have to do is keep following these upcoming episodes and we're gonna take a deeper dive into each of the remaining phases of your cycle. So stay with us. Next week we're going to be talking about the follicular phase, but if you are passionate about this and you wanna connect with others who are looking to transform their period problems, Join us in the Reproductive Rebel Podcast listeners group on Facebook. Join the conversation and the link is in the show notes. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Reproductive Rebel Reproductive. Rebel is recorded by certified per steam hydrotherapist, herbalist, sound healer, and Chinese nutritional therapist, Adrian IRI of Moon Essence, llc. If you are interested in setting up an appointment with Adrian for one-on-one support, ordering from our store or checking out our course offering. Visit our website@moonessence.life. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get insider information on upcoming events and offerings. Join the conversation like us and follow Moon Essence me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Your voices make this program possible. Thank you all for your continued support.