I wanna talk womens health + period pain + skincare + birth control. I’m going to preface this post by saying that I am not a doctor, nor am I offering medical advice. (If you need recs for an OB-GYN in the Columbia area, I would be happy to refer you to the best.) This is my personal experience + research. I have 3 beliefs as it pertains to our menstrual cycles: • Our menstrual cycles as women is a GIFT, and we need to start treating it as such. • We aren’t taught nearly enough about our bodies and why we should be living in harmony with our 4 cycles (not the other way around) • Nutrition and emotional stress has a lot more to do with our menstrual cycles than we speak about. I personally took birth control for 10 years. I had horrible cramps and they severely affected my quality of life. At the time, birth control truly saved me. But at this time, I have chosen to (permanently) stop taking it. Taking the pill is truly a personal decision, and I understand that it is a non-negotiable for many women. I have a lot of clients that take the pill to help acne, or for cramps like I did. And my personal experience is to try your best to figure out the root cause. I’ve found that if you take it for acne, once you get off the pill, the acne may return. Same for cramps. There is usually an imbalance somewhere in the body, that is causing these imbalances. This is where working with your doc would come in. I am happy to say I don’t deal with debilitating cramps anymore. I work with a fabulous acupuncturist who practices Traditional Chinese Medicine, and did weekly treatments for me, and who provided me with the herbal tea on the right in the photo. I also took the @peace.love.hormones supplement Soothe daily to help. It was a game-changer. However, changing my diet was also crucial. Dairy is highly inflammatory. It was a trigger for me. Did you know, according to TCM, you should avoid cold foods during your period? What do most women crave? Ice cream! So I now function in harmony with my body and what it needs and we get along really well now 🤝 (continued in comments)