What Can I Take to Make My Period Start

Periods are different things to different people, but we can probably all agree that sometimes, periods are inconvenient, inconsistent, and irritatingly irregular. Not only can an irregular period mess up your whole week — but even a period that arrives on schedule is usually traveling with its buddies, cramps, moodiness, depression and other PMS side effects that you may just not have time to deal with during a particularly hectic week. For all these reasons, I'm sure you've wished you knew how to make your period come a million times. I mean, sure, menstruation is an essential part of a being a woman, and sometimes it can make you feel wonderfully connected to the cycle of your own body and fertility — but other times, it can be frustrating to feel like such a big part of our bodies and our lives is totally out of our control.

But there are actually ways to have greater control over when your period, even if you're not on hormonal birth control. Though our cycles are unique to our bodies, they also react to exterior forces, some of which can induce your period to come early. This is a reaction we can all use from time to time — whether we want to deal with our PMS before we have a big presentation at work, or if we're about to go on vacation, and want to make sure that we don't spend our whole trip in our hotel room, doubled over with cramps.

These methods aren't foolproof, and won't work for everyone every time. And if a method doesn't seem to be working for you, definitely don't take extra medication — it might just not be one that meshes with your personal body chemistry. But if you're in a tight spot, and want to try everything you can to get your period on schedule, give one of these six methods a shot.

1. Take Your Birth Control

If you're on the pill, you can manipulate when you'll get your period and when you won't. According to Dr. Valerie French, if you want to get your period sooner, then just switch to your placebo pills. If you want to skip your period all together, go straight into the hormonal pills instead of taking your placebos the week you're supposed to take them. While this might throw your period for a bit of a loop during the next month, as it will mess with your 28-day schedule, as long as you keep track and are armed with panty liners for possible accidents, you'll be fine. You shouldn't have to have an important event or holiday ruined because you have your period and all the possible side effects that come with having it: cramps, bloating, irritation, and the rest of it.

But it's worth noting that when you do switch around your pills, there can be other side effects. Jumping to placebo earlier than planned could lead to headaches, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, an OB/GYN based in Los Angeles, tells Bustle. This is because pills that contain estrogen keep your hormones at a certain level, so when they're taken away headaches and mood swings can possibly follow. But that's a small price to pay so you don't have your period while backpacking through Indonesia.

2. Try Parsley Tea

As any herbalist will tell you, emmenagogues are a family of herbs that stimulate blood flow in the pelvis and uterus, and can sometimes make your period come sooner. If you have confirmed you are not pregnant, to safely induce your period, you can try some mild emmenagogues like parsley, ginger, yarrow, rosemary and sage. But before you reach for a handful of sage, it's suggested that these herbs be taken in tea form, with the recommended dosage for these herbs being two to four cups a day. As to whether or not there's a big difference in getting the outcome you're hoping for if you drink four cups instead of two, the jury is still out — this is also not an automatic guarantee, so don't be disappointed if it doesn't work right away or if it doesn't work at all.

While these herbs are not toxic to adults, you still want to be wise about using them. Although in theory more may seem like the best idea to get the desired result you want, you need to remember that the real key in life is moderation. There's no sense in making yourself sick just to speed up the arrival of your period. Don't go over the recommended dosage, and consult your doctor before taking them.

3. Have Sex

During sexual intercourse, the stimulation of the vagina causes pelvic blood flow to head in that direction. "After the sexual intercourse, the vagina relaxes, thus triggering the shedding of the uterine lining," notes MD Health. This is most definitely the case if intercourse includes an orgasm as the contractions that come with climaxing can help dilate the cervix, which also contributes to the uterine lining shedding. Same goes for masturbating — it, too, can help bring your period on earlier. (Let's be honest, you definitely don't need another person to have an orgasm.)

But it's not just the act of sex that can bring on your period. The hormones that are produced and released during sex can also contribute to speeding up the arrival of your period. While we often think of oxytocin as being the chemical that's released during sex, it's not alone. Oxytocin combined with adrenaline and dopamine are all released during sex (and masturbation) and can play a part in making one's period coming faster.

There's also the fact that semen softens the cervix, which can result in bringing on early menstruation (obviously, this method should only be used in couples were everyone is tested, monogamous, and using reliable birth control). Sex really is good for everything, isn't it?

4. Reduce Your Stress

Yes, it's easier said than done — but since we already know that massive stress can make your period late by days or even months, then it certainly makes sense that reducing your stress can keep your period on track. In fact, according to MD Health, managing your stress could even make your period surprise you with an early visit. As if you needed another reason to work on taking that stress down a notch, right?

There are many ways in which you can cut down on your stress. For example, cutting down on your workload and especially giving up on working at night will help. Yoga and meditation are also obvious ways to get stress levels in check. Even things like taking hot baths or applying hot compresses to your abdomen can relax your mind and body enough to speed up your period's arrival. L

earning to manage your stress is very important — and not just because it can make your period arrive earlier. "Handling your stress is something that everyone needs to do because there are many mental and physical health risks if you don't," psychiatrist Vinay Saranga M.D, tells Bustle. "Too much stress can lead to burnout and depression, […] relationship problems, high blood pressure and heart disease, and a potential of self-medicating with drugs and alcohol."

5. Exercise

Speaking of stress, another great way to decrease stress and get your period moving faster in your direction is to exercise. The endorphins released during a high-intensity workout can both relieve stress and lower estrogen levels, according to the fitness experts at LiveStrong. Both of these things are ideal when trying to induce your period, although it should be noted that you don't want to lower your estrogen levels too much.

"Serotonin levels in the brain can fall due to a lack of estrogen, leading to depression," Dr. Kimberly Langdon, medical advisor at Medzino, tells Bustle. "Low estrogen levels can also cause vaginal dryness, hot [flashes], and frequent urinary tract infections."

In fact, if you work out too much, you don't just run the risk of lowering your estrogen levels too much, but it could lead to amenorrhea, or the absence of a period. The reason for this is that your body may interpret all that excessive exercising as stress, making your period run late instead. Again, this is where that whole moderation thing comes into play.

6. Drink Tropical Juices

Home remedy advocates suggest both orange juice and papaya juice as delicious and nutritious ways to get your period to come. It's because these particular fruits are known as "heat inducing" fruits, as they can cause one's body temperature to rise. It's this increase in temperature that can aid in the onset of menstruation — something you might have noticed if you've been sick with a fever and it threw off your period's schedule enough that it came earlier than you expected.

There's also the very convenient fact that the vitamin C in orange juice can also help trigger your period's appearance, according to MD Health. The reason for this interesting little tip is that vitamin C can lower progesterone level, while elevating estrogen levels just enough to cause uterine contractions, which can get the uterine lining good and ready to shed itself which, of course, is what your period is. But, once again, this doesn't mean you should chug a vat of orange juice every morning until your period appears. It just means that upping your orange juice intake or starting to drink OJ, if you don't, can help with possibly bringing on your period.

Are any of these 100% guaranteed to make your period coming faster? No. And if you're concerned about your period's lateness, talk to your doctor about getting down to the bottom of the issue.

This post was originally published on April 10, 2015. It was updated on June 4, 2019.

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What Can I Take to Make My Period Start

Source: https://www.sarangapsychiatry.com/blog/can-i-make-my-period-come-6-ways-to-jumpstart-your-menstrual-cycle/

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