Effective Home Remedies for Menstrual Cramps


menstrual cramps remedies

Secondary Dysmenorrhea/period pains/menstrual cramps use any term, these cramps associate themselves with powerful pain in lower abdomen, and can happen during or before your menstrual period. It starts with a dull pain, followed by severe and then, extreme unbearable pain. Cramps start when ovaries release an egg to travel to the fallopian tube for ovulation. The cramps usually identify themselves with uterine fibroids, endometriosis, or pelvic inflammatory disease.

Does every menstruating woman get menstrual cramps? No it is known that only about 50 to 55 percent menstruating women suffer from menstrual cramps, and out of this percentage, 15 to 20 percent complain the cramps to be severe, irritating, and unbearable.

Emotional stress, being below 20 years, early puberty (as early as 11 years!), menorrhagia, and not yet given birth to children are some other causes that normally lead to menstrual cramps.

What are the home remedies for menstrual cramps?

  • The first in the list is obviously “exercising”. It has been seen that women who are into regular exercises does not face so much menstrual cramps than the ones for whom exercising is a first-time affair. Exercising 4 times a week can help you tremendously to overcome the cramps. During any exercise regime, more blood is pumped by the body, and as such, prostaglandins and endorphins are released that help in reducing the painful cramps.
  • Considered having natural anti-inflammatory properties, intake of chamomile in tea form would help tremendously in combating the cramps as it helps in reducing the production of prostaglandins.
  • Try having an orgasm. Seriously… it is no joke. Orgasm relieves the body of many pains, one of them being the pain from menstrual cramps, where endorphins get released. This, in turn, would induce sleep in you, and when you sleep, you would not be able to feel the pain.
  • The otherwise contracted uterine muscles could be relaxed and relieved of pain by applying heat on your lower abdomen with the help of heat pads or heating patches. If you do not have both, simply fill a plastic bottle with hot water, and place it directly on the lower abdomen or indirectly over a towel—depends on how hot the water is.
  • You can opt for traditional Chinese medicine and therapy—acupuncture. It is known to have excellent effects on these painful menstrual cramps.
  • You must start taking vitamin D (in the form of fish, sausages, salami, ham, mushrooms, eggs, soy products like tofu and soy milk, oysters, fortified cereals, etc.) to avoid these cramps from taking place. Even when you have the cramps, taking food with vitamin D would help in relieving the pain.
  • You can drink a glass or two of cold (not chilled) milk to get relief from cramps.

Whatever be the home remedies, menstruating girls or women need to take good care of both their psychological (stress, tension, anger, and the likes) and physical (no good diet, eating too much of unhealthy food, addiction, and the likes) factors if they do not want to end up with painful and intolerable menstrual cramps.