How COVID Pandemic Stress affecting your Menstrual Cycle / Periods
Triangle of COVID, anxiety and menstrual cycle
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33955327/
Can the stress of getting the virus impact your cycle?
Stress directly linked to women’s menstrual patterns. You will notice symptoms like an uneven cycle, pain during periods, mood swings, unnecessary fatigue, etc.
Stress is a well-known cause of period irregularities. It interferes with the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. This is a hormonal system through which the brain guides the ovaries.
Stress causes hormonal imbalance and PCOS. If you are on the borderline of PCOS. Then chances are that this pandemic will push you to the other side.
So if women complain about a change in menstrual pattern then it’s not very surprising.
See they are surviving in an environment where the workload is doubled and tripled because of pandemic and so does the stress level.
They have the responsibility of home, office, children. And at the same time, they don’t have access to helping hands.
All these things contribute to stress altogether. That is why women’s overall wellbeing including menstrual patterns are massively affected.
How to know if COVID-19 infection or pandemic stress is influencing your cycle?
As per the data we have according to that women do complain about irregular periods whether they have covid or not. This is especially during this pandemic.
It’s because they are restrained to a stressful environment where the workload is doubled. They have the responsibility of home, office, children.
And at the same time, they don’t have access to helping hands.
According to a Psychologist and psychiatrist, the stress is double during this pandemic that is massively affecting women’s menstrual patterns.
This is stress which is interfering with your menstruation like delayed periods, missed periods, painful periods, irregular periods
But you don’t need to be worried about 1 or 2 delayed periods. Talk to your gynecologist about this. They will check out and rule out the cause. Whether is it’s because of anemia, thyroid, or pregnancy, etc.
How to cope up with stress during pandemics?
Positive outlook — No doubt the situation is tough. But we all need to pull ourselves together and fight back. It is absolutely normal to get mentally affected because of the pandemic.
At the same time, it is important to maintain mental sanity. Keep your mental health of utmost importance as is associated with one’s overall wellbeing. Have a positive outlook towards life.
Meditation — Try to practice meditation on regular basis. Take some time for yourself especially in the morning and do meditation. This would calm your mind down. Also, rejuvenate your body and soul. Lung yoga-like anuloum vilom, pranayam, kapabhati, bhastrika would help a lot.
Nutrition — Take good care of your nutrition. Avoid eating processed, junk, or unhealthy food. Lack of nutrition can make you anemic. This will affect your bleeding patterns during periods. Take an iron and calcium-rich diet.
Exercise — Because of a sedentary lifestyle, our body movements are restricted. Hence it is needed to balance it with exercises. Exercises like cardiac exercises, swats, stationary jogging, skipping, etc.
E-consultation — The Internet has made us easy and convenient. Many of us are fortunate to make the best use of it for our health. You can easily get in touch with your doctor through online platforms.
Please note that never ignore uneven menstrual patterns. If you are experiencing heavy bleeding, spotting, clotting, fatigue, delayed periods, missed periods then consult a doctor and start the prescribed treatment without delay.
This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon.
‘This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter’
Many women will benefit with the solutions to stress you have given here, especially the ones on meditation and exercise. By reading this we can be on the look out for stress related symptoms and can act accordingly.