Periods 101
At birth, the average uterus contains about two million eggs. Of those two
million, only about 500 will be released after puberty. Five hundred eggs makes
for a lot of periods, which generally aren’t viewed as enjoyable. However,
there are many ways to make periods less painful.
If your cramps are killer, most easy treatments such as taking a painkiller,
exercising, and applying heat to your stomach may not work. Sometimes, the
foods you eat can worsen your cramps. If you overindulge on chocolate or coffee
(both of which contain caffeine, which worsen cramps), salty foods, dairy,
alcohol, or red meat, you’ll feel it. Some things that can help lessen the pain
from cramps are to eat a lot of green vegetables (which have calcium that
lessens period pains without the dairy), pineapples, bananas, tea, and salmon.
Every period is different, though, so choose what works best for you and stick
with it.
If you don’t know what to wear to collect your period blood, or you just got
your period and don’t know which one is best for you, here’s a crash course.
There are many ways to collect your period blood, but I will only focus on
four: cups, pads, tampons, and sponges..
Pads and tampons are relatively well known, but not everybody knows about cups,
so that’s what I’ll start with. Menstrual cups, such as the well-known Diva
Cup, are tiny cups with small poles at the bottom that are inserted into the
vagina and can collect blood for twelve hours. They run at about $40, and have
gotten rave reviews, but can cause leakage if they slip too far up. Cups are
also reusable, and can be boiled for sanitary purposes. Apparently, as I’ve
never tried them, they lose they color after about a year, which doesn’t affect
the actual usage, but makes some women replace theirs annually.
Pads and tampons, on the other hand, are a one-time thing. Menstrual pads are
shaped like the bottom part of a diaper and stick to your underwear. Some pads
come with flaps or wings on the sides that help keep the pad in place. Pads
vary in size according to flow, which can make them uncomfortable for people
with heavy pads. There are many things to worry about with pads, such as them
sliding when you sit down and getting blood everywhere, them leaving a noticeable
indent in your pants if you are wearing thin pants, and the ripping noise they
occasionally make the first time you stand up or sit down after putting one on.
To sum it all up, tampons look like cotton popsicles that you put in your vagina,
kind of like a diva cup, except tampons are not reusable and they have a string
at the bottom, not a pole, which you use to remove them. Tampons come in tiny
plastic containers called applicators that push the tampon into your vagina
after you put the tip of the inserter against your vagina, where the tampon
needs to go, which is near the bottom of the vagina. Once you insert the
tampon, you throw the wrapper and the plastic away and replace it after about
four hours, depending on your cycle.
Tampons, just like pads and cups, are not for everyone. There is a minute
chance that you could develop Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) from wearing your
tampon. Toxic Shock Syndrome’s main cause is a strain of the staph bacteria,
bacteria that is already present in the bodies of most people with vaginas,
growing at a fast rate. If you wear your tampon for more than 24 hours, that
blood becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. TSS is a potentially deadly
disease, and you should get to the hospital immediately after you learn that
you have it. Some symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, red eyes, a fever of at
least 102°F (38.8°C), dizziness, drops in blood pressure, and lightheadedness.
TSS may cause liver and kidney failure.
Menstrual sponges, though not quite popular yet, are said to work better than
expected, and can last up to 6 months with proper care. They're considered an
alternative to tampons as they create less waste, but can hold pollution and
sand when you get them. Some menstrual sponges come with cleaning solutions.
One solution that can be used is equal parts water and hydrogen peroxide. They
are not vegan friendly, however, as they are living creatures being harvested.
They are also not the best option for people with heavy flow because they need
to be removed and washed every 3 hours or so. They are also hard to remove and
can rip while inside the vagina, so be wary of that, too. Some women will tie
unwaxed floss to their sponges to help with removal. Menstrual sponges are an
eco-friendly alternative to pads, tampons, and cups, but they are not the only
option. There are other options such as cloth pads and reusable tampons.
Information about them can be found here
and here,
respectively.
Mood swings are another common occurrence during periods, which is caused by
the flux of your body’s estrogen levels. Some ways to help lessen mood swings
are: eating smaller meals more frequently throughout the day rather than three
meals, to take calcium supplements, avoiding things like coffee, alcohol, and
sweets (which also play a factor in period cramps), and utilizing stress management
techniques, such as meditation or yoga.
500
eggs released into the uterus after puberty is a lot of periods and a lot of
cramps. Thankfully, there are ways to lessen the pain and mood swings
accompanied by bleeding.
Sources:
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