London: The average woman will have almost 450 periods in her lifetime. And while that figure is enough to scare anyone it pays to know whether having an irregular, painful, or PMS-ridden period is telling you something more about your health. Most women have between 11 and 13 menstrual periods each year. You may be different: You may have more or fewer.
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Missed or irregular periods must be looked at in terms of what is normal for you. From the frequency of your periods to heaviness and color, tracking your cycle can help you understand the changes in your body and pinpoint if your cycle is normal or not. FEMAIL spoke to The Pelvic Expert’s Heba Shaheed to interpret these signs.
Irregular Periods Causes and Treatment
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Missed Periods Causes Reason and Treatment
PCOS and Hormonal Imbalance in Women Causes and Treatment
What if your cycle is irregular?
If your periods occur less than every 21 days or more than once every 35 days, there could be a number of different explanations. Extreme weight loss, over-exercising, and high levels of stress can cause women to skip periods or stop them altogether.
Irregular periods are a sign of hormonal imbalances and one of the most common reasons for irregular cycles is a condition called PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome. PCOS affects about 20 percent of women with classic signs such as anovulation, raised testosterone, excess hair growth, and the appearance of ‘cysts’ on the ovaries.
Irregular or absent periods are not normal and can be bothersome for women who are trying to fall pregnant. These issues can be addressed with lifestyle and dietary modifications, herbs and supplements, and in some cases hormone interventions.
What if your periods are painful?
Up to 90 percent of women will experience a painful period at some point in their life. Painful periods could point to elevated prostaglandins and inflammation, a hormonal imbalance, gut problems, or pelvic problems such as tight pelvic floor muscles. However, for at least 10% of women, consistently painful periods are a sign of endometriosis.
Women with endometriosis have abnormal cells growing in their pelvis that bleed in the same way as the uterine lining. These abnormal cells can exist on their fallopian tubes, ovaries, bowels, and other places, and because they don’t leave the body during the period, they build up causing inflammation, scarring, adhesions, pain, and infertility.
Painful periods are not normal and can be addressed with lifestyle and dietary modifications, women’s health physiotherapy, and in cases of endometriosis, surgical intervention is necessary.
What if you always have PMS?
In the week before the period, many women experience premenstrual syndrome or PMS. PMS is a combination of a wide variety of physical and emotional symptoms, which include mood swings, depression, anxiety, irritability, bloating, sugar cravings, acne, headaches, swollen breasts, among others.
PMS can occur due to sudden hormone shifts in the second half of the cycle. Stress, lack of physical activity, psychological state, and poor dietary habits are linked to PMS. PMS can be debilitating for a number of women, and some women have a premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PMDD, which is when these symptoms exist all through the whole cycle.
Many women will find a correlation between decreased levels of physical activity and increased PMS, poorer nutritional intake and increased period pain, and higher levels of stress correlating to skipped or absent periods.
By eating a more plant-based whole foods diet, practicing mindfulness or meditation regularly, and engaging in moderate amounts of exercise, women can keep their cycles healthy and regular
