Premenstrual syndrome is a concept familiar to many women of reproductive age. What is he? First of all, this is a complex of symptoms that appear in the second phase of the menstrual cycle. In most cases, PMS is accompanied by painful symptoms that disrupt the natural lifestyle and negatively affect the ability to work. During this period, a woman becomes irritable, emotionally unbalanced, she can cry over trifles, and become despondent. As a rule, premenstrual syndrome begins to appear a few days before your period.
Symptoms of PMS in women
Premenstrual syndrome manifests itself differently in every girl. But most often the fair sex complains of bad mood, depression, lethargy and fatigue. In addition, headaches, as well as pain in the lower abdomen, nausea and diarrhea, cannot be ruled out. Also very often, representatives of the weaker half of humanity complain of swelling of the mammary glands and the presence of pain in them. For some, this condition begins a week before the onset of menstruation, and for others, a few days before it.
According to gynecologists, PMS symptoms in women can be reduced or even completely eliminated. The main thing is to monitor your health and follow the recommendations of the gynecologist.
Many people are interested in the answer to the question of what PMS is in girls. The definition of this concept is as follows: premenstrual syndrome.
Pregnancy
We talked a lot about premenstrual symptoms. Often they can be confused with signs of conception. As has already been said, if there is no PMS - the same one that is familiar, then you should listen more carefully to the body.
And vice versa. If a woman did not previously know what ailment was on the eve of her period, and then suddenly she has a whole “bouquet” of symptoms, then there is a high probability of pregnancy. And then a headache may appear, the mood will begin to change unreasonably, irritability and aggression will arise.
Main causes
More than half of the fair sex experience pain and bad mood before the onset of menstruation. At the same time, men living next to them know firsthand what PMS is in girls (an explanation of this concept is given in this article). During the entire menstrual cycle, hormonal changes occur in the female body. In the second half of the cycle, the amount of estrogen in the body increases greatly in relation to progesterone. At the same time, the amount of hormones such as serotonin and dopamine also decreases. It is for this reason that a bad mood and a depressed state arises. In addition, the second phase of the cycle is also characterized by a decrease in the production of natural painkillers - endorphins. That is why during menstruation a woman feels pain that seems simply unbearable to her.
How to get rid of PMS is a question that worries almost all representatives of the fair half of humanity. It will not be possible to completely eliminate this condition, since it depends on the activity of the hormonal system, but you can still improve your well-being, overcome nervousness and reduce the level of pain. The main thing is to know how to do it.
Sex life
Some people neglect doctors’ ban on sexual intercourse during menstruation, and completely in vain:
- Menstruation does not work as a method of preventing pregnancy, since doctors have long proven that pregnancy can occur during menstruation. This is determined by the physiological characteristics of the woman.
- Sex is still the same physical activity that should be avoided.
- The process can cause discomfort (both aesthetic and physical) to both partners.
- During this period, the risk of infection increases, since the inner surface of the uterus during this period is not protected by the mucous membrane, and female secretions that enter the urethra of the male penis can cause an inflammatory process.
- Sex can be painful for a woman.
- Sexual intercourse is accompanied by blood flow to the pelvic organs, which increases bleeding.
- Blood backs up into the fallopian tubes, which increases the risk of developing endometriosis. Its consequences: adhesions, cycle failure, and even infertility.
Visit to the gynecologist
If you are interested in the question of how to get rid of PMS, first you will have to find out the cause of this condition. To do this, it is recommended to consult a gynecologist. Perhaps your production of female sex hormones is disrupted. If necessary, the doctor will also refer you to an endocrinologist to determine whether there are problems with the production of other types of hormones. According to experts, improper functioning of the thyroid gland contributes to increased PMS. How to get rid of it in this case? Take medications that improve the functioning of the thyroid gland.
Nutritional Features
Your condition will largely depend on what you eat. If you don't know how to get rid of PMS, pay attention to your diet. Experts recommend drinking as little tea and coffee drinks as possible a week before your period, and also generally reducing fluid intake. But keep in mind that one and a half liters of purified water per day is a prerequisite. It is not recommended to consume chocolate, salty and spicy foods, milk and fatty meats. Also, you should not abuse foods that contain large amounts of potassium. These include dried apricots, baked potatoes, bananas and raisins.
But foods with a lot of calcium, on the contrary, are welcome. Give preference to greens, cabbage and turnip greens. Gynecologists also advise taking additional vitamin complexes during PMS and menstruation.
Many women suffer from depression and bad mood. Therefore, the question quite naturally arises of how to get rid of nervousness during PMS. This can be done with the help of foods containing large amounts of magnesium. You can find this microelement in cereals, seafood, and nuts.
Some representatives are faced with the phenomenon of a distending stomach during PMS. In order to get rid of it, you can drink cranberry juice. It is a natural diuretic, rich in vitamins, so it acts very carefully on the woman’s body.
Diagnostic measures
Many laboratory and diagnostic tests will give erroneous results during menstruation.
- It is not recommended to donate blood during this period, since the indicators change during this period and the results will be unreliable.
- It is problematic to take urine and feces for analysis. There is a high risk of blood getting into the analysis when taking biomaterial.
- An ultrasound of the pelvic organs will give a distorted result, because significant changes occur during this period.
- Discharge will not allow you to conduct a full gynecological examination of the mucous membrane and cervix during menstruation.
Breast ultrasound and mammography are highly dependent on the period of the cycle. So, it is recommended to do an ultrasound immediately after menstruation, but mammography, on the contrary, during menstruation. If a test collection is still scheduled for this period or if your period begins suddenly, you should notify your doctor about this.
Organize the right holiday
What helps with PMS? Another remedy is sound and healthy sleep. Insufficient night rest has a negative impact on a woman's condition during the premenstrual period. Get at least seven to eight hours of sleep. Do this in a well-ventilated and cool room. Don't overload yourself with too much work these days. Get plenty of rest. However, you shouldn't spend the whole day in bed either. You can work, walk in the park and do your usual household chores. The main thing is not to burden yourself too much.
Give up bad habits
Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages. If you are trying to figure out how to get rid of PMS pain, forget about bad habits. At first glance, alcohol may seem like a great mood improver, but it will only make your situation worse, so you will feel even worse than before.
It is also recommended to quit smoking. It may sound strange, but cigarette smoke can also aggravate PMS. Instead of drinking or putting another cigarette in your mouth, it’s better to just take a short walk alone. You will notice how your condition has become much better.
Don't stop exercising
Many girls begin to feel sorry for themselves and simply stop doing physical exercise during PMS. However, this is definitely not worth doing. Playing sports is a must. After all, sports exercises not only have a wonderful effect on your figure, but also improve your mood. You can engage in absolutely any sport that you like, be it swimming, dancing, fitness, yoga, or any other of your favorite sports. And if you have absolutely no energy or mood, you can just walk. This will energize your body and lift your spirits.
Use of medications
There are a large number of pills for PMS pain and for the general normalization of health. Quite often, representatives of the fair sex complain of severe pain in the abdominal area a few days before the onset of menstruation. In order to eliminate this pain, you can use painkillers such as Noshpa, Tempalgin, Spazgan, Analgin, and many others. You do not need a prescription from your doctor to purchase them. However, it is still recommended to visit him in order to find out the exact cause of the pain.
If you have depression and bad mood, buy medications that contain magnesium. Magnesium-B6 tablets have an excellent effect on the body. The drug perfectly fights depression, and also fills the body with essential microelements and increases stress resistance.
Sometimes during PMS, a woman's body becomes very swollen. In order to get rid of this condition, you can take diuretic medications. However, doctors do not recommend resorting to drug treatment in this case, but advise giving preference to traditional medicine.
Useful videos about prohibitions during menstruation
A new study from Vanderbilt University finds that women's hormonal cycles may not only make women more dependent on drugs, but also increase the impact of triggers that lead to relapse. The results obtained are especially important given the fact that scientific work demonstrating the relationship between these cycles and drug addiction has almost never been published.
Erin Calipari, assistant professor of pharmacology at the T.H. Center for Drug Addiction Research. Vanderbilt, notes that women are the most vulnerable group of the population, as they have a higher level of drug addiction. However, research related to drug addiction is mainly focused on studying the mechanisms occurring in the male body. Her research found that when hormones associated with fertility are high, women learn faster and become more reward-seeking.
“For women who start taking drugs, the process of addiction may follow a completely different scenario than for men. This is very important to know because this is the first step in developing effective treatments,” Calipari said.
The next step, she says, will be to determine exactly how hormonal changes affect a woman's brain. The final step involves developing drugs that could help overcome these changes. However, treatment centers can already use the information presented in this study to help women deal with relapses.
Scientists from the beginning avoided using female animals in medical research, so they did not have to consider the influence of hormonal cycles. As a result, drug development often focuses on correcting dysfunctions in men, which may explain why women often do not respond to available drugs or treatments, Calipari notes.
Her work was recently published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. It involved an experiment involving male and female rats. As a result, scientists found that females are more dependent on drugs than males.
“There is epidemiological evidence that suggests women are more vulnerable, but it is unclear what factors influence this. However, with studies like this, we are beginning to isolate environmental and physiological causes,” Calipari added.
An experiment conducted on mice showed that fatty acid propionate helps protect against the effects of high blood pressure, including atherosclerosis and cardiac tissue remodeling. Gut bacteria produce a substance that calms immune cells that raise blood pressure from natural dietary fiber.
“You are what you eat,” says one proverb. However, much of our well-being also depends on what the bacterial guests in our digestive tract consume. The fact is that intestinal flora helps the human body utilize food and produce useful microelements, including vitamins.
Beneficial gut microbes are able to produce metabolites from dietary fiber, including a fatty acid called propionate. This substance protects against the harmful effects of high blood pressure. A Berlin research team from the Center for Experimental and Clinical Research (ECRC) has shown why this happens. Their study was published in the journal Circulation.
Researchers gave propionate to mice with high blood pressure. The animals then showed less cardiac damage or abnormal enlargement of the organ, making them less susceptible to cardiac arrhythmias. Damage to blood vessels, known as atherosclerosis, was also reduced. “Propionate helps combat a number of cardiovascular dysfunctions caused by high blood pressure. This could be a promising treatment option, especially for patients who have too little of this fatty acid,” says research team leader Professor Dominik N. Müller.
How to get rid of PMS with folk remedies
Traditional methods of treatment help to significantly improve a woman’s condition with PMS. Let's look at the most effective recipes that can be implemented at home:
- Brew tea from dandelion roots. This drink will prevent the development of edema and will also have an excellent analgesic effect;
- Prepare mint and lavender tea. This drink perfectly calms the nervous system and restores emotional balance. Take three cups of this delicious tea daily;
- you can prepare a women's drink that will consist of plants such as chamomile, calendula, rose, nettle and mantle. All of the above plants need to be poured with boiled water and left for several hours. After which the drink is drunk three cups daily;
- If you suffer from severe pain in the lower back and abdomen, prepare a drink by mixing equal parts of yarrow and jasmine. It is recommended to take it three times a day;
- Rosehip decoction will help get rid of puffiness, as well as saturate the body with essential vitamins and microelements. This drink has a very powerful diuretic effect. Therefore, before using it, it is still recommended to consult a doctor.
Folk remedies for PMS are good because they do their job perfectly, and at the same time cause minimal harm to health.
Diets
In order not to provoke increased bleeding, you should not eat foods that increase uterine contractions and dilate blood vessels. These include:
- grenades;
- grapefruit;
- parsley;
- tomatoes;
- coffee;
- cocoa;
- red meat;
- spicy, pickled and salty dishes.
Considering these restrictions on the method of preparation, you should switch to the consumption of complex carbohydrates, proteins rich in magnesium, calcium, iron, folic acid, fermented milk (ryazhenka, kefir, yoghurt), cereals, lean fish and meat, and nuts.
Nutrition should be balanced.
It is possible to consume vitamins, including those of natural origin in the form of fruit drinks (you can make decoctions, such as rose hips).
During menstruation, you should not fast, as this provokes a cycle failure and threatens hungry fainting, weakness, dizziness, anemia, and nausea. It is important to drink enough liquid so that the body does not succumb to dehydration.
Benefits of massage
Acupressure has an excellent pain-relieving effect. There is a point on the inside of the knee bend that you should press on for two minutes every day. Repeat this procedure on both legs, and the effect will be immediately noticeable.
If you have severe pain in your lower back and lower abdomen, take two tennis balls and put them in a sock. Place them on the bed and lie on top of them so that they are on either side of your spine. Roll the balls with your muscles in this position for several minutes.
conclusions
Enduring pain and bad mood during PMS is not an option. There are many ways to alleviate your condition. With proper nutrition, exercise, a skillful combination of rest and work, as well as the use of medications and traditional methods, you can feel great at absolutely any time. The main thing is to take care of your health every day. By following simple recommendations, you can not only improve your mood, reduce pain levels and overcome swelling, but also generally improve the quality of your life. Take care of yourself and be healthy.
Singing
If you don’t know what you shouldn’t do during your period and why, you can seriously harm your health.
Many women, especially those who sing professionally, notice that during their period it is more difficult to sing with the same quality as on normal days.
A study was even conducted, however, the difference could not be detected by ear. It was recorded during a comparative study of voice characteristics before and after menstruation. During this period, the voice becomes lower, the range in the upper register decreases. Physiological changes are characterized by swelling of the larynx and vocal cords.
You can sing during this period, but you need to spare your voice, sing in a comfortable range, and not conduct any experiments, as the risk of ligament injuries and voice loss increases.