Menstrual Period Health Guidance Board

[Core conclusions first] There is no "standard answer" for menstrual health. All taboos are based on your own physical feelings. As long as you avoid the three clear medical red lines of "menstrual bathing/vaginal lavage, menstrual non-emergency surgery, strenuous weight-bearing/high abdominal pressure exercise", you don't need to impose other people's standards for other diet, work and rest, and daily activities. Comfort is the first criterion.

Do you often come across the "10 foods you should never touch during menstruation" while watching short videos, and click on it to see that iced, spicy, mango, watermelon and even coffee are all on the list? In fact, there have always been differences between the views of Chinese and Western medicine on this matter: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cold and spicy foods can aggravate qi and blood stasis and easily cause dysmenorrhea and abnormal menstrual flow. ； Modern Western medicine believes that as long as your stomach can tolerate it and you don’t feel any discomfort after eating it, there is no need to eat it. I met a girl who was a sophomore in high school at the gynecology clinic before. In order to comply with the rule of "avoid cold food during menstruation", she did not even dare to eat strawberries at room temperature. She suffered from constipation for 5 days. When she came, the pain in her lower abdomen was more uncomfortable than dysmenorrhea, which was not worth the gain. Of course, if you already feel the pain of breaking into a cold sweat when you eat ice cream, don’t try to go against your body. Just take a few sips of warm porridge and ginger tea if they feel comfortable. There are not so many right and wrong rules that you must abide by.

Is it true that every time you want to wash your hair during your period, your mother will tell you, "I'll have a headache if I wash it in the future"? In fact, this is not entirely true. As long as you use warm water at 37-40 degrees Celsius and blow dry your hair with hot air immediately after washing your hair, there is no problem in taking a shower. After all, menstruation is prone to the smell of sweat and blood stains, but keeping it clean can reduce the risk of gynecological inflammation. But if you have menstrual headaches, or if you happen to have a heavy amount that day and feel exhausted, you can wait for 1-2 days before washing. There is no need to bear the discomfort for the sake of "hygiene". Oh, by the way, the bathing and vaginal douching mentioned earlier are really red lines. When the cervix is ​​open, bacteria can easily move up. Pelvic inflammatory disease is no joke. If you feel uncomfortable with the vulva, just rinse the surface of the vulva with warm water, don't dig inside.

A girl who loves fitness asked me if she could do iron lifts during menstruation. Actually, it depends on the situation. If you only have mild backache and no obvious dysmenorrhea, taking a walk and doing a few sets of yoga cat stretches can promote blood circulation in the pelvic cavity and relieve the feeling of bloating. But if the pain is so severe that you can’t even stand still, then just lie down and don’t believe the nonsense that “exercise during menstruation doubles the amount of fat burned”. In addition, strenuous exercises that increase abdominal pressure, such as abdominal crunches, weight-bearing squats, and sprinting, should be avoided regardless of whether it hurts or not. They can easily increase menstrual flow. In severe cases, they may lead to reflux of menstrual blood and induce endometriosis. This is clearly to be avoided.

There is also the most troublesome menstrual cramps for everyone. Don’t bear it anymore and dare not take painkillers. As long as you don’t have any contraindications such as gastric ulcers or asthma, you can take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen 1-2 days a month. They are not addictive at all and will not harm your body. The analgesic effect is much more effective than drinking ten glasses of hot water. But if your dysmenorrhea becomes more and more severe, or cannot be suppressed by taking painkillers, and is accompanied by extremely heavy menstrual flow and large blood clots, you must go to the hospital for a B-ultrasound in time to rule out problems such as endometriosis and adenomyosis. Do not treat it as "ordinary dysmenorrhea".

Oh, by the way, there are also emotional issues that many people ignore. Many people start to feel inexplicably irritable before their period. They don't like everyone they look at, or they feel like crying over the smallest things. It's really not your "hypocrisy", it's caused by the fluctuation of estrogen and progesterone in your body. You don't have to hold back and force yourself to be "emotionally stable". When you want to curse, find a place where no one is around to complain, buy whatever dessert you want, and do whatever makes you feel comfortable. It's more effective than any forced emotional management.

After all, everyone's physique is very different, and what others say about "must do" and "can't do" are not as real as your own body's feedback. Don't let yourself suffer just to follow those gratuitous rules.