Is It Safe To Stop Your Period
There are some studies being done on reducing the amount of periods a woman has in a year from once per month to once every four months. This can be beneficial for women who experience debilitating symptoms with their period, like cramps, heavy bleeding, and fatigue, which can arguably improve a womans quality of life.
However, all the outcomes of having less periods are still not completely known. Menstruation serves to shed endometrial cells from the uterine lining each month, and delaying or reducing the frequency of this process on a regular basis may have negative health effects in women.
Therefore, it is best to adhere to a monthly period and to skip it only for special occasions, like a wedding or athletic event.
How To End Your Period
This article was co-authored by Rebecca Levy-Gantt, MPT, DO. Dr. Rebecca Levy-Gantt is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist running a private practice based in Napa, California. Dr. Levy-Gantt specializes in menopause, peri-menopause and hormonal management, including bio-Identical and compounded hormone treatments and alternative treatments. She is also a Nationally Certified Menopause Practitioner and is on the national listing of physicians who specialize in menopausal management. She received a Masters of Physical Therapy from Boston University and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 668,908 times.
If you’re like most people who get periods, you may have thought about trying to stop or delay your period from time to time. Maybe you have a vacation coming up, or your period is just happening at an inconvenient time. You can try a few home treatments to attempt to stop your period. However, using birth control is a more effective way to control your periods. If you’re having excessively heavy or long periods, it’s important to talk to your doctor about the issue, as they may be able to offer relief.
Can Exercise And Dieting Shorten Your Period
Overexercising or limiting food intake may lead to shortening your period duration, but it’s not safe and not medically recommended by the Cleveland Clinic. If escalated, these methods can be extremely dangerous to your overall health and lead to more serious conditions down the road. Therefore, the medical community doesn’t recommend overstimulating yourself with exercise and restrictive eating.
However, Bara notes that a consistent amount of physical activity that doesn’t involve overexerting yourself can help decrease the cramps associated with menstruation. It probably won’t lessen your flow, but not crunching over in pain sounds like an OK consolation prize, right? If period cramps keep you up at night, try different positions for relief.
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Why Its Not Possible To Stop A Period That Has Already Started
It isnt possible to stop a period that has already started because the shedding process in the lining of the uterus has already started due to low levels of estrogen and progesterone. Once these hormones decrease, the internal lining of the uterus sheds and leads to the bleeding that occurs during a period.
Gelatin To Stop Periods
The other way you can stop your period is by drinking gelatin. Gelatin is a natural food ingredient. It comes from animal proteins and can be derived from mammals, especially pigs and some fish. It is made from the collagen found in the skin, fatty tissue, ligaments, and joints of animals.
Gelatin can be used for weight loss, treating osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and brittle bones. It can also be used to improve the quality of hair and to shorten recovery after strenuous exercise.
To stop your period once it starts, you will need to drink a cup or two of gelatin mixed with water. Drinking it before your period can help delay your menstrual flow for some time.
Those opposed to using animal products in their lifestyle or diet should avoid gelatin.
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When Should I See My Doctor
Bleeding between periods is common in fact, it happens to most women at some point during their lives. However, it is not considered normal to bleed frequently in one month, or to bleed between your periods for several months. Bleeding after having sex should always be discussed with your doctor. There are many possible causes for bleeding between periods and a lot of them arent serious, but you should speak to your doctor if you bleed between periods as it can occasionally signal something serious.
Get The Right Nutrients
Certain micronutrients, such as B vitamins, are essential to your overall health. Some can even ease up your periods while alleviating PMS symptoms.
Vitamin B6 is one of the nutrients that can affect your periods. Its found naturally in foods such as eggs, fish, and poultry. Vitamin
One study found that zinc, an essential mineral, was helpful in alleviating painful period cramps . Its thought that zinc has similar effects as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , such as ibuprofen.
Study participants reported relief from cramps when they took 30 mg doses of zinc up to three times per day. You can also make sure to get enough zinc-rich foods in your diet, such as meat, legumes, and dairy.
Magnesium is another mineral that can potentially help alleviate long, painful periods because of its anti-cramping effects. One study found that a combination of magnesium and vitamin B6 was helpful in alleviating symptoms of PMS.
Talk to your doctor before taking any supplements to treat your periods. In the meantime, make sure you get enough magnesium in your diet via nuts, seeds, greens, and fish.
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Is It Natural To Stop Your Menstrual Period
Theres not actually a biological reason to have a period.
Having a period is natural and can be an indicator of overall health. But stopping it shouldnt be seen as an unnatural thing to do.
Plus, if youre already taking hormonal birth control, its worth remembering that the period youre having is just withdrawal bleeding.
So, in effect, youre already stopping your menstrual period.
2014 research review found that it was safe to stop periods with birth control.
No study has found adverse effects of using an extended or continuous birth control schedule. In fact, some doctors say you can suppress your period for a long time if you want to.
However, there havent been any long-term studies on this. And Planned Parenthood adds that combination pills can come with a slightly increased risk of things like strokes, blood clots, and liver tumors.
Of course, it may also be more difficult to detect pregnancy if youre not having a period.
Changes To The Cervix
Bleeding between your periods may be caused by changes in the cells of your cervix. This may be due to inflammation, hormonal changes, a Human Papilloma Virus infection or cervical cancer. If you have bleeding between your periods, your doctor will be able to examine your cervix using a speculum and can take a sample of cells for a cervical screening test.
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A Few Scientifically Proven Ways To Speed Up Your Period:
Believe it or not, there are a few studies out there that have found that stopping your period early or even delaying it for a few days is totally possible. However, not all of these methods are suitable for everyone. Speak with your doctor or OB-GYN if you have any concerns about the length of your period or if its suddenly become crazy heavy.
Caveats aside, here are a few scientifically proven ways to shorten your period:
Sweat it out
Your period is no longer an excuse to skip the gym. Turns out, physical exercise may not only make your period less painful, but also has the potential to decrease its duration by about a quarter of a day, according to a study published in medical journal Epidemiology.1 Cardiovascular exercise, in particular, has been shown to reduce pain associated with menstrual cramps and may help uterine blood exit the body a little faster.2
Exercise also reduces excess water content in your body, which helps with bloating, that oh-so-fun reason you hate wearing jeans during your period. And full-body workouts improve circulation and blood flow over time, especially if you keep your exercise routine regular . In general, several studies have shown that exercise reduces PMS symptoms and makes your period a little less uncomfortable, no matter what routine you choose.3
Hormonal birth control FTW
NSAIDs But proceed with caution
Drink Plenty Of Water
Drinking a lot of water and other healthy fluids will help shorten your period as well as reduce discomforts, such as bloating and cramps. Water intake helps the fluids run faster through your body.
Also, drinking sufficient water improves the bodys metabolism and keeps you hydrated.
To help you figure out how much water you should be drinking, simply divide your current body weight by two. Thats how many ounces of water you should drink a day. For example, if you weigh 140 pounds, you should try to drink 70 ounces of water on a daily basis.
Drinking green tea, fresh fruit and vegetable juices, and coconut water are also good options to increase your fluid intake.
Stay away from caffeine, alcohol and carbonated drinks, which can be dehydrating and can cause menstrual problems.
Additional Tips
Resources:
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Eating And Drinking Differently
How Is Bleeding Between Periods Treated
If you have not yet discussed your vaginal bleeding with your doctor, its important you make an appointment to do so, as vaginal bleeding cannot be treated without knowing the cause.
If your doctor has diagnosed the cause of your bleeding, you can treat the bleeding by following their advice, such as by taking a course of antibiotics if you have an infection, or by changing to a different form of contraception if the bleeding is caused by the contraception you have been taking. If the bleeding is light and isnt bothering you, and a serious cause of the bleeding has been ruled out, it may not be necessary to do anything at all.
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How To Stop Your Periods Cramps
Period cramps are one of the annoying symptoms that accompany your menstrual cycle. These cramps can be painful, annoying, and causes a lot of discomfort. For most people, this can be the reason for them to want to stop their period permanently.
Period or menstrual cramps can be felt as a painful sensation that affects a majority of menstruating women before and during their menstruation cycle.
The pain is medically known as dysmenorrhea. It ranges from dull and annoying to severe and extreme. For most women, the pain will occur in the lower abdomen and lower back. It will start a day or two before your period and last for about four days top.
Medically, when the pain is only related to menstruation, then it is described as primary dysmenorrhea. On the other hand, when the pain is due to other conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis, or pelvic inflammatory disease, the cramps are described as secondary dysmenorrhea.
The question now is, how do you stop your period cramps? Different options are available to help relieve and stop these painful cramps. For starters, there are some over the counter medication that can help treat most causes of menstrual cramps. If you are not sure what the best medication to use, have your health café provider prescribe one for you.
You could also use anti-prostaglandins to reduce cramping in uterus. This option will also help lighten the flow of menstrual blood and help relieve discomfort.
Drink A Cup Or Two Of Herbal Tea To Lighten Your Flow
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Its Also Possible To Manipulate Your Period With The Birth Control Ring And Patch
The ring is a donut-shaped piece of flexible plastic you insert into your vagina, the Mayo Clinic says. It essentially works the same way as the combined birth control pill: It has estrogen and progestin to suppress ovulation, thicken your cervical mucus, and thin your uterine lining. The patch also contains estrogen and progestin, and you wear it on your butt, upper outer arm, stomach, or back, per the Mayo Clinic.
Like the combined birth control pill, both of these methods involve using the respective devices for 21 active days and taking seven off days, so youd simply take your ring out or your patch off when you want to get your period, then start back up again with a fresh ring or patch after seven days. Again, its important to talk to your doctor about this before trying it so that you can make sure youre fully protected against unwanted pregnancy and you arent putting yourself at risk of any side effects.
When it comes to long-acting reversible contraceptives like the IUD or the implant, you cant really use them to reschedule your period, though they may make your period lighter or shorter over time.
How To Stop Your Period For A Night
There are medications available that will allow you to delay and stop your period. Our Online Doctor service offers Norethisterone which can delay your period by up to 17 days, but you can chose how long you would like to stop your period for. This treatment is available on the NHS, and however you will need a prescription from your GP to get Norethisterone tablets.
With Online Doctor you can start your online consultation straight away and pick up your tablets from your local LloydsPharmacy. However, for your safety your doctor or our pharmacists may want to measure your height, weight and take your blood pressure to check your suitability for the tablets.
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Apply Heat To Soothe Period Pain
Monitoring Your Period Length And Flow
As many of us know, even the slightest change in diet, stress, or health can throw your period off track. If you go to the doctor because you have such a change, one of the first questions any healthcare professional will ask is how your period length or flow have changed.
The benefit of using a menstrual cup is that you can keep track of exactly how much you are bleeding you know how often you have to change your cup and you can even measure your menstrual flow with the conveniently marked milliliters on the Ruby Cup. This is not possible with the cotton and rayon in pads and tampons because they absorb all the blood.
Another benefit of using a period cup over a disposable menstrual product is the ability to see your blood and look for blood clots. Blood is designed to form clots anytime it stops flowing, so you may notice more clots in your menstrual cup when you empty it than you are used to seeing on your pad or tampon.
Clots by themselves do not mean something is wrong with you in fact, they show that your body is working well to keep you from losing too much blood. If you pass multiple clots larger than the size of a quarter for several hours in a row, you might want to make an appointment with your healthcare provider just to check in and make sure your flow is not too heavy.
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