We Deserve Better
I dreaded the day I would “officially become a woman”. It turned out to be my 13th birthday. Walking around the showground stable, the smells of fresh wood shavings, crisp fall air and clean leather filled the air. I felt a piercing in my lower stomach and the beginnings of a heat flash. I quickly ran to the closest port-a-potty and realized the day had come (NOOO!! I screamed internally). I was “officially a lady”… In my tan breeches and fifteen minutes until I competed, my entrance into womanhood had begun at a horse show with my dad on my birthday.
If your body is anything like mine, maybe on that first day of your first cycle or years later, you may have experienced the joy but also the cross of womanhood. According to some recent surveys in the United States, 1 in 3 women have to stop their daily activities due to menstrual symptoms, 75% of women experience symptoms of PMS ranging from physical discomforts to, perhaps, psychological distress. And if you are anything like me and have gone to a doctor and described your symptoms, the doctor could only provide you with two medications: birth-c0ntrol and/or antidepressants. Unfortunately, many doctors are not trained in getting to the root of what these symptoms are trying to point to. I am sorry if your experiences, your pain, your suffering has not been heard, validated, or seen. You deserve to be heard, to have doctors help you find the root of your pain. You are worth the time and the effort.
I want to begin by saying if doctors have prescribed the pill or any form of birth control for the pain or discomfort you experience from your period, that is not morally wrong, but you deserve so much more. Often this happens because doctors are not trained in providing holistic restorative care, but frequently experience the big pharmaceutical push. I write this not to condemn or shame you or anyone you know who does use a form of birth control for your period side effects, but out of love for you, my dear sisters. We women are amazing and our bodies are amazing. I hear and know your pain and your experiences and I too have been on this journey, fighting for true help that will allow my body to thrive.
Ladies, we deserve a medical approach that applies real solutions to our real problems and this begins with education. Learning to understand our bodies and our fertility cycles allows us to better understand what our symptoms mean. If I were to take the pill for all my pain and discomfort and were then to get married and want to begin my family, I would never have known that for the past 10 years my body had been trying to tell me that I am not producing enough progesterone to carry a pregnancy. How heartbreaking it is to consider the risk of miscarriage that can be prevented!
In meeting with a holistic women’s healthcare doctor, I learned of NaPRO Technology, which uses the Creighton Model FertilityCare System (CrMS). NaPRO is used to treat many health issues, such as infertility, menstrual cramps, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), ovarian cysts, irregular or abnormal bleeding, polycystic ovarian disease/syndrome (PCOS), hormonal abnormalities, and repetitive miscarriages. It is a method of working with our bodies to understand what our symptoms are telling us about the root issue! It takes some work to learn, but it is truly so beautiful to learn about the amazing complexity of our bodies!
Here are some resources to begin finding doctors in your area to guide you into finding out what those abdominal pain and cramping, back aches, headaches, bloating, weight gain, breast tenderness, or sleeping and digestive interruptions are trying to tell you.
- Here is a good place to begin: Finding a CrMS/NaPRO Medical Consultant.
- More information on NaPRO and the Creighton Model in detail.
- St. Paul VI Institute: the research behind the NaPRO method.
You are in my prayers and you are not alone in navigating this journey. I know that it is not easy to fight for the help that we deserve, but it is worth it. You are worth it.
Sources:
Schoep ME, Nieboer TE, van der Zanden M, et al. The impact of menstrual symptoms on everyday life: a survey among 42,879 women. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2019;220:569.e1-7.
