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Menstruation already comes with a long list of inconveniences and discomforts, but it can also be accompanied by lower back pain.
Even though lots of women suffer from lower back pain during their periods, there are ways to help combat this type of lower back pain.
Why Do You Get Lower Back Pain During Your Period?
Lower back pain during menstruation is often caused by muscle contractions and hormonal imbalances.
As hormones change, prostaglandins, which are a type of hormone that promotes uterine shedding, can affect your lower back muscles.
As those muscles contract, they can cause lower back pain or radiate pain into your abdomen or vice versa.
However, you might also get random inflammation during your menstruation cycle.
This can also cause lower back pain, as inflamed muscles or other tissue can cause pressure on the surrounding muscles or your spine.
Either way, in most cases this type of lower back pain isn’t something to be worried about long-term even if it’s inconvenient and quite uncomfortable.
Dysmenorrhea is a condition caused by painful period cramps. These can also cause discomfort and pain to radiate throughout your lower back and abdomen. Your uterus contracts more often than normal if you have this condition.
Endometriosis is another potential menstruation complication that can cause lower back pain. Specifically, the condition arises when uterine tissue is developed outside the uterus, especially on the fallopian tubes or ovaries. This can cause severe pain in your abdominal cavity and toward the lower back region. This condition is particularly serious and needs to be treated by a doctor as soon as possible.
You should always speak to a doctor if your lower back pain is very distracting or uncomfortable. They should be able to tell you why your back pain is particularly intense and what you should do to alleviate it.
Lower Back Pain Reduction Tips
The anti-inflammatory medication you can get over-the-counter may help if you have a moderate amount of lower back pain, especially if it’s just from regular inflammation.
Exercise Regularly
There are several studies that show that women who exercise regularly experience less painful menstrual cramps and lower back pain as a result. Whether this is because of hormonal differences or because lower back muscles are stretched and flexed more regularly with these women is unknown. Either way, there’s no downside to being healthier by exercising!
Eat Healthily
You should maintain a healthy diet and take regular nutritional supplements.
To ease menstruation discomforts it is recommended to take supplements with Vitamin B and Magnesium. Also, Iron is taken regularly by women suffering from inflammation during their period.
Drink Plenty of Water
Drinking lots of water is always healthy and recommended.
Many people experience muscle cramps of some nature or another if they don’t drink enough water throughout the day.
Women who are menstruating need to be especially careful about remaining hydrated as they lose more bodily fluids than normal. Remaining hydrated will also help you feel more comfortable in general.
Apply Heat and/or Cold
Another great tip to reduce lower back pain during your period is to take a warm bath or apply a heating patch to your lower back area.
Hot water or heating patches can cause your muscles to relax, which can alleviate any stiffness you might be feeling and help cramps dissipate.
You can also alternate between hot or cold patches if your pain is particularly intense and if you have cold patches on hand.
Hormonal Birth Control
Finally, some women may benefit from taking hormonal birth control pills.
As you probably know many women already take hormonal birth control because their periods are especially painful.
These pills may contain progesterone and/or estrogen, and they normally reduce how painful a period can be. It also reduces the likelihood of several menstruation-related side effects or conditions like the above mentioned back pain causes.
However, you should always talk to your doctor before beginning hormonal birth control, and it’s required to get a prescription in most places. Your doctor will be able to tell you if hormonal birth control is worth the possible side effects and whether it’ll have an actual effect on your lower back pain during your period.
If hormonal birth control does work for you, chances are your periods will be lighter in general and you won’t have this bad lower back pain at the same time. However, if you take hormonal birth control in your lower back pain does not subside accordingly with your other side effects, speak to your doctor again to determine if your lower back pain is being caused by another issue entirely.
Conclusion
All in all, menstruation can cause lower back pain for all sorts of reasons.
Narrowing down why you’re experiencing lower back pain is the trick, but once you do, there are lots of ways in which you can alleviate that discomfort. Hopefully, the above tips are helpful and can assist you in getting through your period.