How I Used Essential Oils to Change my Cycle…and My Life

(CAVEAT: I am NOT a doctor; I cannot diagnose or cure anything. I can only speak to my experiences with essential oils, which also do not cure or heal anything.)

So now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how I used essential oils to change my menstrual cycle and my life. But first, a little background – I’ve struggled with hormonal issues since I was a teenager. I would have a period every other month, which was accompanied by severely awful cramps that would leave me bed-ridden, curled up in a ball and often in tears from the pain. After three years of this, my mom finally put me on birth control.  For the next 15 years or so, I had “normal” cycles and thought all was well…I still had cramps, the occasional break-out, and awful PMS – think crying spells, mood swings, bloating, and tender breasts. But I had a period like clockwork every month.  So everything was great.  Right?!

Until I started having issues from being on the birth control. I then started doing my own research and learning more about birth control and its effects on our bodies. I stopped my birth control cold turkey. I realized that birth control did not actually *fix* any of my issues; all it did was mask them.

So I went off birth control and holy goodness…my symptoms came back with a vengeance! My cycle was once again off kilter, my PMS symptoms were through the roof, my mood swings were unbearable, and my skin…well, suffice to say I was often embarrassed to go anywhere because my skin was so broken out and red and raw.

Of course, the doctors’ answers were to go back on birth control or to put me on antibiotics, or worse yet, to put me on Accutane. And that was definitely on my NO list!! After doing research, I knew I didn’t want that stuff in my system. So I vowed that I would give myself a year to figure it all out…and if that didn’t work, then I would try Accutane. It would literally be my last resort.

So I tried everything I found on the Internet. I spent so much money on the different OTC medications and sure-to-work infomercial products…and guess what? None of it worked!! In fact, most of it dried my skin out and caused even more break-outs! In the midst of it all, I worked on changing my diet, because what you eat does in fact affect your hormones and in turn, your acne/skin. At one point, I felt like if I removed anything else from my diet that I would be eating dirt!!!

It wasn’t until I did a sugar detox that I realized sugar was my biggest problem! Talk about a HUGE difference in my skin! It was also right around this time my mom introduced me to essential oils. Before I go any further, let me explain what an essential oil is. Essential oils are plant extracts that help your body do what it’s supposed do naturally…work at its most efficient! They don’t have any side effects (unless you’re allergic to that particular plant) and they don’t harm your body or your system!! Plus they smell heavenly!

I was skeptical when I first started using the oils. I thought it would be something else I wasted a ton of money on. Boy, was I so wrong!! I won’t tell you all the things I use my oils for (because believe me, it is a LONG list!!), but I do want to focus on how I used the oils to balance my hormones and help alleviate my PMS symptoms.

Let me just say that I have a completely normal cycle – it’s pretty much like clockwork every month…and no, I am not taking any medication! No birth control, nothing! My PMS symptoms are almost zilch! My actual period is 3-5 days with the first day being the heaviest with mild to moderate cramping, and then pretty light until the last day. I no longer have tender breasts, no more bloating, and my mood swings are non-existent!! This coming from someone who was called Satan during that time!!

The only thing I can attribute to this HUGE change in my cycle and my life are the essential oils (along with a healthy diet and exercise)! Seriously though…how crazy is that?? As part of my daily routine, I use an oil called Clary Sage, which is known for its ability to ease monthly menstrual cycles and help balance hormones. I will 100% say that it did exactly that for me. Plus it smells amazing!! I also take a supplement called Phytoestrogen Lifetime complex, which contains plant-based phytoestrogens, flax seed extract, and pomegranate extract.

I truly believe both of these have helped me tremendously. I haven’t stopped taking them to see if I notice a difference, but I know that with them, I feel sane all month long, I am not an emotional hot mess with the ups and downs associated with PMS, my cycle is pretty regular, and without an app tracker in my iPhone, I don’t even know when it’s coming because I don’t have the symptoms!!! It is crazy! And I love it!

The one thing I do notice is that when I eat more sugar in my diet, I tend to have more issues. So yes, for me, diet has a huge effect on my hormones and my cycle. But I feel so much better using the oils than I *ever* did being on (or off) birth control. And my old boyfriends probably wouldn’t call me Satan now either (well, maybe not for this)!

I didn’t think I’d ever be one to have a “normal” cycle and not be on birth control. If this sounds like you, please reach out (wellnesswisdom.whitney@gmail.com) because I know what you’re going through. I hated what medication was doing to my system and my body, and with essential oils, I know that I am getting absolutely nothing bad for me. All I’m getting is month after month of sanity and normal cycles and a natural perfume every day! Now doesn’t that sound amazing?!

With love and wellness,

Whitney

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5 Things to Do to Make PMS Less Painful

Womanhood comes with many rites of passage and periods are of course one of our favorites! If you ask any woman today if she remembers the first time she started menstruating, she can probably recall the moment in detail. It was a turning point in her life, where she went from being a girl to a woman in an instant, and stepped into a world full of tampons, pads, and panty liners not to mention yo-yo hormones.

All women are affected differently by their periods. Some women experience little to no symptoms, some become a little irritable, and others double up in pain and can suffer from bad headaches, depression, and anxiety. Most of these symptoms occur during the “pre-menstrual” stage, about a week or two before bleeding commences; once the bleeding starts, the majority of them go away.

PMS, known as “pre-menstrual syndrome,” is the term that describes these symptoms that women face leading up to their periods. However contrary to popular belief, not all females suffer from PMS, as only about 4 in 10 women are affected by it.

Whether or not PMS makes you “see red,” periods can still be a stressful time, so we here at Maxim Hygiene wanted to compile together a list of our top five favorite things to do the week before your period to help with the other word that starts with a “p” and is often related to periods – pain! Our goal is to keep you green queens feeling fierce 365 days of the year, and we think that even if you do just one of the things off the list, you will feel a lot better! Let’s kick PMS’s butt!

1. Let yourself indulge in your food cravings, within moderation

The week before your period you probably find yourself craving weird things, or you want to eat all of the junk food your tummy can possibly handle. You feel bloated already, so you reason with yourself, “What’s an extra pizza or bag of potato chips going to change?” During PMS your serotonin levels are lower, which is the chemical in your brain that makes you feel good. When these levels are lower, you often crave fatty and sugary foods because they can help you feel better, even just temporarily.

We don’t believe that you should go and pig out or eat everything you are craving, as sugary and fatty foods can make your blood levels decline and provoke mood swings and irritability, but you only live once and we think that if you’re going to indulge in junk food, you might as well do it when your body is really begging for it!

Image courtesy of behance.net. A 21-year old college student created imaginary packaging for ice cream, specially designed for women suffering from PMS. We wish it was real!

2. Bake

Keeping along the same lines as giving into your food cravings, we believe that baking is a great way to release stress and give you a nice sweet reward for all of your hard efforts. It helps your mind focus on something other than the pain you are in or the irritability/anxiousness you might be experiencing. It is always important to try to get yourself up and do an activity that will get your blood pumping. Consider baking with some girlfriends to make the experience that much more fun, however just don’t forget to bring those leftovers into school or work so that the PMS monster won’t tempt you into eating the whole batch of those cookies!

3. Eat carrots

“A carrot a day keeps the doctor away” may not be the expression we grew up learning, but it is a mantra that we believe all you Green Queens might want to consider adopting. When women are experiencing PMS, their estrogen levels are increased, which causes an imbalance of hormones and all those bad symptoms. Eating one raw carrot a day helps relieve PMS, as there is a special fiber in carrots that binds to estrogen. When the carrot passes through your digestive tract, the extra estrogen goes with it, and is eliminated when you go to the bathroom. Think of the carrot like a sponge that absorbs the estrogen you don’t need. Blogger “Weed Em & Reap” wrote an article about the benefits of eating a raw carrot everyday, which is definitely worth taking a look at.

We know that eating a carrot isn’t necessarily the most “fun” thing to do, but it helps lots of women lower their PMS symptoms, so we felt it was important to include in the list. To make the carrot eating more enjoyable, consider making carrot juice, and add any other ingredients or spices, like cumin to the mix.

Image courtesy of weedemandreap.com.

4. Yoga for PMS

Yoga is a great way to calm your mind, and the week before your period exercise is of the utmost importance. We know that working out is most likely the last thing you want to do, as you might suffer from cramps or just feel a bit more lethargic than usual, which is why Yoga is a great option. It still forces your body to exert some effort, but many of the poses are gentle and are meant to be restorative, which helps relieve any tension you are feeling. It is also a wonderful way to reconnect with yourself and be in tune with your needs and wants, as your brain can tend to become a bit more easily confused and unable to process things in a logical manner during PMS.

5. Take a bath

A bath is the perfect way to unwind and escape from your stressful everyday life, and helps you relax, something you really need right before your period. Consider adding Epsom bath salts to your bath instead of bubbles, as these salts contain magnesium, which is a nutrient that your body tends to lack in and crave during PMS. Fun fact: Dark chocolate contains magnesium, which is why you often crave it the week before your period!

Let us know if you have the opportunity to try out any of our tips and tricks to calm your PMS and how they worked for you. If you have any suggestions or things that you do before your period that isn’t on our list, feel free to share them with us, we always love hearing from you.

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