menstrual cycle

When bad cramps strike, it's hard to put your head in a positive place. Cramps that double us over in pain are caused by uterine contractions and are often exaggerated from emotional stress. Since this special time happens every month, it's hard when this pain gets your spirits down or cramps your style. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to deal with the pain and general malaise of pesky cramps.

Bring the heat: To increase blood flow and ease the pain, apply heat to the area. While some people love drawing a big hot bath, using a heating pad can be a much easier — and faster — solution.
Go for easy exercise: A little gentle activity, like walking, can help alleviate your cramps. If you don't feel like moving too much, try some relaxing yoga poses that open your hips and stretch out your lower back and abs.
Open the medicine cabinet: If your pain is really bad, take some ibuprofen instead of acetaminophen. It's more effective at soothing menstrual cramps. If alternative medicine is more your style, studies have shown that Chinese herbs may help more than conventional pain relievers.

Want to learn how to eat to ease your cramps? Just keep reading.

Got cramps? You're not alone. Many women suffer from severe menstrual pain (known as dysmenorrhea) with sharp, throbbing, burning, or nauseating cramps in their lower abdomen and back. The cramps may come right before you get your period or during and thankfully go away after Aunt Flo leaves you.

These crippling, can't-get-through-your-normal-day kind of cramps are caused by uterine contractions and can be aggravated by emotional stress. They tend to cause headaches and a really heavy flow — twice the fun. Some women take pain meds to deal, but you may want to give these yoga poses a try since getting your body moving (and out of fetal position on the couch) can really help with cramps.

Wide Squat

Hip pain can be part of the whole cramp scene, so stretching them out feels really good. To do Wide Squat, stand with your feet slightly wider than hips-width distance apart. Bend your knees and lower your hips all the way down. Take a peek at your feet and see if you can press your heels out, bringing your feet parallel. Press your elbows against your inner knees and lengthen through your torso. Hold like this, or for a deeper lower back stretch, release your hands to the floor and walk them away from you, lowering your chin to your chest. Hold for five breaths.

Keep reading to learn other yoga poses to relieve cramps.

I'm sure many of you are so in tune with your bodies that you know exactly when Aunt Flo is going to pay you a visit. Some women count days and keep track of their periods on their calendar, some women record the details of their cycles on a fertility awareness chart, and others just know based on their birth control (how many pills they have left in their pack or how long they've been wearing their NuvaRing). Of course PMS and the responses our bodies give us are a great indication (did someone say sore boobs?), but how do you keep track of your cycle? Is it something you monitor religiously, or something you do every once in a while when you remember?

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So I've already gone into detail about how cervical fluid is totally normal and how you have different kinds, but what does it all mean in relation to your fertility?

As a general rule, you are most fertile on the last day of egg white cervical fluid (this is the day before or the day you ovulate). This wetness provides nutrients for the sperm to survive, and also makes it easy for those little guys to swim to your fallopian tubes and find your egg. This doesn't mean you are only fertile for one day though. Remember that an egg can live up to 24 hours, and more than one egg can be released during the time of ovulation. Also, sperm can survive inside a woman for up to five days. So to be safe, it's best to think of a women's fertile phase as lasting for about 9 or 10 days. This is very important info whether you are trying to prevent or plan for a pregnancy.

Dear's Advice: This is just a general overview, so if you're really interested in learning more about this, check out the amazing book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

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I'm sure you've all noticed some wetness down there in your lady business — maybe you thought it was some kind of an infection, but then miraculously, it goes away, right? Well that's your cervical fluid, and it's not an infection at all. It's actually totally normal, and if you take notice of it in the weeks leading up to your period, you'll be able to tell when you're the most fertile. Your cervical fluid will become progressively wetter as you approach ovulation.

To check your cervical fluid, you're going to need to get pretty intimate with your lady parts. In the privacy of your own home, slide your index and middle finger just at the beginning of the vaginal opening. Glance away so you can feel the sensation. Is it creamy? Dry? Sticky? Slippery? The answer will give you great insight into what's happening inside your body.

To check out a chart explaining the difference between each kind of cervical fluid read more

If you've ever lived with other women, and none of you were on hormonal birth control, you may have discovered that your cycles slowly began to mimic each others. This is called menstrual synchrony, but many scientists will say that women who live together, menstruate together is hogwash. I've actually experienced this so there's got to be some truth to it.

In 1971, Martha McClintock studied 135 college women. She wrote down the starting date of their periods at three different times during the year. She discovered that women who lived in close-knit groups had their periods an average of 6 to 4 days apart during certain times of the year. It's said to be caused by pheromones, the release of chemical signals that influence behavior and physiology among people. Other studies conducted after this, however, showed no connection between women living together and their cycles synchronizing.

What do you think about menstrual synchrony? Have you ever lived with a woman (sister, mother, roommate) or group of women and noticed that you had your periods about the same time?

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