Reasons for wanting your period to come sooner can range from medical to social/personal. There are a lot of remedies, tricks, and myths around this topic, so one should be careful before deciding on the method to try out.
However, if you’re already sitting and wondering how to make your period start, keep reading to get your answer!
How To Induce Your Period? — Tips, Tricks & Useful Info
Having a regular period is a sign of a healthy reproductive system, so when it seems to be late, a lot of women start feeling anxious. From a medical point of view, there are many reasons why your period comes late, so if this is something you experience frequently, it’s better to seek medical opinion than keep trying to induce it yourself.
Hormonal contraceptives, aka birth control, are the only scientifically proven way to regulate your cycle. It provides a long-term solution to the problem and helps you retain a good hormonal balance in the long run.
However, finding the right one can be a long trial and error process of assessment and consultations with your gynecologist. Also, birth control pills are infamous for their side effects.
Acne, appetite changes, migraines and nausea, insomnia, and increased blood pressure are just some things on the list. To avoid this, more women consider natural ways of inducing before reaching for birth control.
Inducing your period naturally
If you don’t want to expose your body to hormonal birth control, there are natural ways to induce a period. In this article, we’ll go over some of the most popular yet effective ones.
1. Regular sex/orgasms
While it may seem counterproductive, having sex and orgasms regularly can actually induce your period and regulate your menstrual cycle. This is because a combination of hormones and physical processes that play out during intercourse are very likely to speed up your period.
Contractions that happen during orgasms can speed up the process of uterine lining shedding. Furthermore, a dilated cervix allows for an easier blood flow as it creates a kind of suction effect. On top of this, our bodies release pleasure hormones and reduce stress, which is known to be one of the most frequent reasons for a late period.
2. Soaking in a warm bath
If you’re wondering how to make your period start easily, you can try making yourself a warm bath. The heat from the water increases blood flow, and it’s enough to gently accelerate the processes in your organism. Adding essential oils to your liking can be an additional help in releasing stress during the bath.
If you don’t feel like getting a bath or don’t have time for it, you can use warm compresses. An electric blanket or a bottle with hot water can have the same effect when placed on your lower abdomen.
3. Up the vitamin C intake
Although this matter still needs to be researched in detail, many people use vitamin C as a way of inducing a period. Increased vitamin C is thought to elevate estrogen, which causes uterine contractions that onset the period.
You can do this by including fruits and vegetables rich in this vitamin in your diet (e.g., lemons, oranges, brussel sprouts, and peppers). Then, if you want faster and more certain results, you can take supplements. First, however, be careful and make sure to stay within the recommended levels of intake.
4. Stock up on pineapple
Another popular recommendation is to eat some fresh pineapple. There’s no scientific evidence it can help induce your period; pineapple is a great source of bromelain, reducing inflammation, so it could induce periods that are late because of inflammation-related issues.
If you choose this way, make sure you’re not sensitive to bromelain or have food intolerance. Ingesting too much pineapple can hurt your stomach and cause cramps that have nothing to do with your period.
Stress and Your Period — How It’s All Related
Stress-related changes in the menstrual cycle are becoming increasingly common. If you’re exposed to major stressors for a longer time and you start noticing changes that persist, it’s important to make an appointment with your gynecologist.
When you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol. Higher cortisol levels, especially for a longer period of time, can completely suppress your hormonal cycle, temporarily shutting down your period and ovulation.
If you’re searching for ways to induce period, but you’ve been exposed to stress recently, it’s best to try and analyze what you can change in your environment. Even physical stress (sudden vigorous exercising) can be a reason your cycle is irregular.
If you’re not in a situation to influence the stressor at the moment, try introducing different mechanisms to cope with the stress. For example, finding a hobby, starting to practice yoga, or getting a relaxing massage once in a while can actually get your cycle back on track.
Risks and Side Effects of Triggering Your Period
Meddling with the natural course of your cycle can cause numerous problems. For example, inducing your period can change the flow volume or the days you bleed. Your natural cycle is an important indicator of your general health, and any change can have unexpected side effects.
Trying to induce through natural remedies typically doesn’t cause any serious side effects unless you suffer from allergies, intolerances, or vitamin sensitivity. On the other hand, hormonal medicine carries several side effects and related health risks.
Hormonal medicine can have milder side effects such as bloating, fatigue, and nausea, especially in the process of finding the type of meds that work the best for you. However, rare cases can trigger more serious conditions such as blood clotting, heart attack, and stroke.
No matter how much you feel, there are ways to make your period come faster that won’t have any consequence on your health, stay cautious and track your symptoms.
In the best-case scenario, you could end up with short-term pineapple-induced cramps — worst-case scenario — altering your cycle or terminating an early pregnancy.
Medical professionals advise reaching out to your gynecologist if your cycle becomes irregular rather than trying to induce bleeding every month. An irregular period signals there’s an underlying cause that could be damaging your health in more ways than you know.
Should you be inducing your period?
As with all other decisions concerning your body, it’s entirely up to you. You’re the one who knows your body the best, so if you feel inducing is the right step forward, do the necessary research and decide what suits you and your lifestyle the most.
No matter which option you choose, it’s important not to expect miracles. Unless you decide to go for birth control, no one can guarantee that any of the natural remedies will have the desired effect. Our bodies are different, so results may or may not have the desired effect.
Wrapping Up
We hope you’ve found some helpful information on how to induce your period through various methods we looked into today. However, if nothing works, make sure to visit your doctor and get a professional opinion.
FAQ
Does having sex make your period come early?
Having sex can make your period come early. Muscle contractions, especially the ones triggered by orgasming, can speed up the shedding of the uterus lining and facilitate the flow.
Does vitamin C induce your period?
There is no scientific research to prove that vitamin C induces periods. However, vitamin C does influence the production of estrogen, which plays a major role in regulating the cycle.
How to get periods immediately if delayed?
You can’t get your period immediately in case it’s delayed, and it’s not something you should be trying to do no matter what you read online. If you’re worried about a delayed period, seek a medical opinion as soon as possible.