Menstruation is a natural and healthy monthly occurrence. It is also the time in a woman’s life when she enters into a completely different psychological and physiological phase, her reproductive years. How society and women themselves view the monthly menstrual cycle varies depending upon the health of the women involved and how they interact with the other women and men of their culture during menstruation.

Some doctors do not agree that menstruation is healthy for women most notably the doctors of elite athletes and of women who experience painful menstruation. The best approach to achieving optimum menstrual health is to support fertility using natural medicine.

A woman who makes healthy lifestyle choices will optimize her fertility and at the same time improve her overall health. This is not a comment on how women should manage their fertility, more of an observation on how lifestyle choices affect both at the same time.

Optimum health and fertility will occur when women are in harmony with the cycle of nature, specifically the 28 day moon cycle. It is interesting to note the word menstrual comes from the Latin word mens which means month the word month comes from the root word moon. In Greek, the word for moon is mene, and menstruation or menses translates into moon change. Women are most fertile and healthy when they ovulate on the full moon and menstruate on the new moon.

In our modern world, poor nutrition, emotional stress, and high levels of pollution place a strain on women’s bodies. In response, their bodies adjust their ovulation away from the full moon to the new moon, the least active and therefore least fertile night of the month. This creates a problem by shifting menstruation to the full moon, a time that many medical experts believe people bleed more readily. Menstruation on a full moon leads to increased menstrual blood loss, cramping, debility, and emotional distress.

So, how are women to manage their monthly cycles to avoid the discomfort and even debility of painful menses? The general approach is to support optimal fertility. This involves a healthy diet, stress management, calendar awareness, and the use of appropriate nutritional supplements, herbal extracts, and homeopathic preparations.

Nutritional support includes olive and flax seed oil, vitamin B 6, and the minerals magnesium and zinc. Key supportive herbs are Aletris farinosa and Vitex agnus-castus. Homeopathic remedies of use to women in their child bearing years include Pulsatilla, Sepia, and Lachesis.

Today, women are experiencing different health determinants than their grandmothers, more menstrual periods in their lifetime, fewer pregnancies, and a longer overall life cycle. Regardless of these changes fertile women with well defined monthly cycles that follow the 28 day moon cycle are usually healthy women. Healthy lifestyle choices that support fertility will also support a woman’s overall health.