You won’t be able to determine what your typical premenstrual experience like unless you regularly keep tabs on your symptoms. Ditch the pen and paper. Use a period tracking app (like Clue) to record your data for at least three cycles. Then, reflect and analyze. Once you familiarize yourself with your symptoms, you can tailor coping mechanisms. If your PMS is mild to moderate, consider common relief strategies we’ll discuss below. If they’re moderate to severe, it may be time to have a conversation with your healthcare provider.
2. Consider premenstrual magnification of an existing health or mental health condition.
Brands that capitalize off of premenstrual syndrome spend a lot of money on sophisticated advertising. As a result, many women rush to their local pharmacies for over-the-counter drugs to remedy symptoms that might not even be related to PMS. Existing conditions can be amplified in the premenstrual phase, so make sure you’re not masking an underlying issue. Physical and mental health conditions that often get misdiagnosed as PMS include anxiety, depression, thyroid issues, allergies, migraines, seizure disorders and perimenopause.
3. Eat a well-balanced diet.
It’s true: “You are what you eat.” Make sure you’re nourishing your body and eating plenty of vegetables. However, this doesn’t mean you should completely deprive yourself from savory items or go on a strict diet regimen. In many cases, giving into your cravings (like chocolate, salty foods, etc) will suppress hunger, prevent future binges and even improve your mood.
4. Beat bloat.
Feeling bloated is a common symptom in the days leading up to and during menstruation. Although fluctuating levels of estrogen and progesterone are thought to to play a role, the exact science is still unknown. Tracking bloating throughout your cycle will help you determine if water retention is part of your PMS pattern. If it is, help beat the discomfort of bloating and feeling sluggish with exercise, decreasing your salt intake or drinking bloat-fighting fennel tea.
5. Inhale, exhale.
The combination of stress and premenstrual syndrome is not a good one. If mild to moderate anxiety is part of your PMS pattern, calm your nerves with yoga, breathing exercises, meditation and rest.
6. Hang out with friends.
Before and during your period may be good times to take it easy if your symptoms are particularly inconvenient, but this doesn’t mean you should curl up into a ball and lock yourself inside all day. Get out! Social interaction has innumerous benefits for your mental health and general well-being.
7. Sweat it out.
Exercise is a crucial part of a balanced life, so get the juices flowing for your overall health. It may dramatically improve your mood and outlook the days before your period.
8. Try out magnesium supplements.
Magnesium deficiency can set off a slew of complications for women, like dysmenorrhea, infertility, hypoglycemia, indigestion - the list goes on. Taking a magnesium supplement (or simply eating more leafy greens, nuts and seeds) has been suggested to help relieve PMS-related symptoms, like headaches, bloating, dizziness, fluid retention and sugar cravings.
9. Don’t blame every bad mood on hormones.
We are not robots. A natural part of being human is to go through varying emotions. Before associating mood swings with PMS, consider other important predictors of daily mood like overall health and well-being. Considering PMS is used to discredit women in business and government, it’s important to examine what it really is and how we talk about it. We’re only perpetuating harmful stereotypes by labeling PMS as a “witch syndrome.”
Thought I was done? NNNNOPE. I finished my true pacifist run, so of course I had to do one more round of Undertale random encounters: Amalgams Edition!
Good grief the entire true lab scared the crap out of me…
Here’s a small compilation post of all the Undertale boss paintings I’ve done!
Also, as promised – here is the HIGH-RES album. All of the images are 1920 x 1080 pngs, available for free use as icons, wallpapers, your own personal prints, youtube thumbnails – whatever you want. I would appreciate credit if you repost it/use it anywhere else online!
