Skip to content
Improve fertility naturallyImprove fertility naturally
Improve fertility naturally
Fertility coaching – Improve egg quality naturally
  • Moms over 35
    • Moms over 35
    • Late childbearing today
    • Hints from the Stone Age?
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Age and getting pregnant
    • Weight and getting pregnant
    • How to improve egg quality at 40+
    • Male infertility
  • Nutrition
    • Nutrition
    • Grains and fertility
    • Mediterranean diet
    • Paleo: An interesting alternative?
    • Alcohol and making babies – too many false alarms?
  • Egg Reserve
    • Egg Reserve
    • What are antral follicles and what antral follicle count will tell you
    • Is egg freezing good for you?
    • Emotional aspects: Infertility hurts
  • Supplements
    • Supplements
    • Folic acid and fertility
    • Vitamin D and egg health
    • DHEA and egg health
    • CoQ10 and egg health
    • Omega-3,-6 and egg health
  • Products that work
  • About me
    • About me – CV
      • About me – personal
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Coaching – Skype
    • Fertility Consultations via Skype
    • My clients about me
  • Moms over 35
    • Moms over 35
    • Late childbearing today
    • Hints from the Stone Age?
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Age and getting pregnant
    • Weight and getting pregnant
    • How to improve egg quality at 40+
    • Male infertility
  • Nutrition
    • Nutrition
    • Grains and fertility
    • Mediterranean diet
    • Paleo: An interesting alternative?
    • Alcohol and making babies – too many false alarms?
  • Egg Reserve
    • Egg Reserve
    • What are antral follicles and what antral follicle count will tell you
    • Is egg freezing good for you?
    • Emotional aspects: Infertility hurts
  • Supplements
    • Supplements
    • Folic acid and fertility
    • Vitamin D and egg health
    • DHEA and egg health
    • CoQ10 and egg health
    • Omega-3,-6 and egg health
  • Products that work
  • About me
    • About me – CV
      • About me – personal
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Coaching – Skype
    • Fertility Consultations via Skype
    • My clients about me

Menstrual pain sucks. Luckily, there are things that help. Here’s one.


 

menstrual pain what helps(In cooperation with PharmaNord)

In this article from a few weeks ago I wrote about how women all over the world hate having periods and we’ve discussed the reasons why women bleed every month.

Today, I would like us to look at one insightful study I recently found on the topic of menstrual discomfort, and also mention a few things that are scientifically proven to help.

Menstrual pain is caused by hormones called prostaglandins. The most prominent prostaglandin is called arachidonic acid. Arachidonic acid belongs to a group of Omega-6 fatty acids, which are not necessarily mean substances in their nature, but this particular Omega-6 prostaglandin makes small blood vessels twitch and enables menstrual flow to start, which is often painful.

What adds to the discomfort is the fact that the intake of Omega-6 fatty acids has nowadays tremendously increased in general, as compared to any other time in human history.

In most western societies, the ratio between Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids is something like 6:1 (or much worse, depending on your lifestyle and diet). As a comparison, most scientists agree that the relationship between Omega-6 to Omega-3 is ideally 1:1 and should not go beyond 3:1.

The fact is, we eat too much processed and unhealthy food.

There are two possible ways to counteract this:

1) To either eliminate all the bad sources of all fatty acids and Omega-6 taken with every meal, which is a very difficult thing to do, or

2) To add some extra Omega-3 to the diet, to cover up for its general deficiency.

Or to simply combine both approaches.

To anyone following research in women’s health, this is not really new (here you can read what the University of Maryland Schomeool of Medicine has to say about it). However, it is always refreshing to find a well-designed study which proves that nutritional supplements such as Omega-3 help relieve the effects associated with too much Omega-6 and prostaglandins, such as menstrual pain.

 

How fish oil and B12 help ease menstrual pain


 

In a double-blind  placebo-controlled randomized study of 78 healthy Danish women who suffered from menstrual discomfort and pain, the combination of Omega-3 and vitamin B12 was given in a form of Bio-Marine supplement (produced by PharmaNord, you can order it here). After several months, it turned out that supplements could relieve menstrual pain to a significant extent.

Also the frequency and severity of other symptoms (nausea, headache, and general irritability – I personally suffer most from the last one) was much lower. Treatment with Omega-3 and vitamin B12 in combination worked best; however, also fish oil alone had positive effects in terms of soothing menstrual discomfort. What impresses me most is that the effects of the nutritional supplements were not “washed away” too quickly and remained three to four months after the study was over.

 

Omega-3 and menstrual pain: which supplement to take?


 

omega 3 get pregnant
Capsules of Bio-Marine Plus, a new, further developed form of the Bio-Marine original supplement, contain Omega-3 fatty acids (190mg EPA, 110mg DHA), all extracted out of highest-quality fish oils. The fish oil contained in Bio-Marine Plus comes from mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring caught off the Peruvian coast.

What makes this supplement special and different from other Omega-3 supplements is:

1) Bio-Marine being tested to work in a clinical setting and bring real, measurable health benefits and

2) a unique combination with vitamin B12 and folic acid.

The recommended daily intake is 3-5 capsules a day. And I would add, if you are 35 and trying to get pregnant, stay on this dose throughout the year, because it will also help maximize your egg quality in addition to helping menstrual blood flow easier (depending on where you live, most of you will be able to find Bio-Marine here).

One particularly women- and fertility-friendly thing about Bio-Marine Plus is the inclusion of folic acid. The folic acid is in the form of folate monoglutamate which can be readily absorbed from the gut.

(Even if you’re not taking Bio-Marine, I hope that you’re thinking of taking at least 400-800µg folate daily, because of all the supplements that are important for a proper development of a fetus, this one may be the most important, especially during the three first weeks of pregnancy as the neural tube is formed).

The World Health Organization recommends women of childbearing age to take folic supplements every day in order to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in their babies. Countries like theUnited States and Canada fortify flour with folic acid, providing at least some folic acid to their female population in a passive way. In Germany where I live, you have to take the initiative and found out yourself what you need and how much of it.

Omega-3: how long, how much?


 

fish oil getting pregnant

This picture was taken during my visit to PharmaNord production site.

Woman in the Danish study consumed supplements for a period of three months or at least three menstrual periods. Their supplements contained either:

1) fish oil alone,

2) fish oil with vitamin B12, or

3) the placebo.

Then they were asked to report their menstrual symptoms in self-administered questionnaires before, during, and for three months after the intervention.

To this, women were asked about different physical symptoms they had suffered: pelvic pain, headache, dizziness, diarrhea, and others. Finally, women had to qualify the degree of pain as well as to qualify and quantify their use of painkillers (if they used any).

Woman from the study were also asked about their smoking and eating habits. The data were analyzed in a highly professional way, which integrated questionnaire answers with blood sample results.

One more nice thing about the study is that the fish oil was extremely well controlled and the fatty acid composition double determined by gas chromatography. To slow peroxidation, some vitamin E was added in each capsule.

Why am I telling you this? 

Because these are very high standards of testing, typical of drugs and (unfortunately) NOT typical of testing nutritional supplements.

Take as many studies you like and you will realize that very few supplement producers bother with really serious quality controls. I’m just reading about a study in which over 50 different CoQ10-supplements were tested and you would be as surprised as I was about what was found in the capsules (please stay around as there will be an article about it in a few weeks).

To conclude: If you’re suffering from any menstrual discomfort, before taking pain medications on a regular basis, give nature a chance, and try the right dose of Omega-3 (best in combination with B12).

If you take any other natural and holistic approach, let me know what worked best for you.

See you next week!

Darja

 

Category: Fertility WOMAN, NutritionBy Darja WagnerOctober 2, 2016
Tags: conceive fasteregg healthimprove egg quality naturallysupplements
Share this post

Author: Darja Wagner

https://paleo-mama.com

Darja Wagner, a PhD cell biologist combines her knowledge of cells, hormones and vitamins to help women with infertility issues. She is the author of the blog "All About Egg Health: How to Get Pregnant After 35". Darja helps women to apply latest advances in reproductive biology to maximize egg quality for higher chances of conception, in either a natural way or by means of assisted reproductive technology.

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Which supplements support male fertility? It depends on different things and here is how you can decideNextNext post:Don’t you hate periods? Why do women menstruate so often?

Related Posts

darja wagner fertility
ESHRE, Milan: what just happened – 5 things to know
July 24, 2022
supplements for fertility, hormones for getting pregnant
Five supplements which will improve your egg health fast-track
June 20, 2021
increase amh naturally
Is it possible to increase low AMH levels?
June 1, 2021
painkillers and ovulation
A number of pain-killers can stop ovulation and lower fertility?
May 25, 2021
surrogacy germany
Surrogacy: One real-life experience
May 1, 2021
aspirin heparin after IVF
Aspirin and heparin to help implantation: Yes or No?
April 2, 2021

Read my book and you might not need fertility treatment!


improve egg quality naturally

Individual fertility advice and supplements according to your hormone profile BOOK HERE

Coaching paused due to lockdown madness!

 

Darja Wagner is a cell biologist PhD living in Berlin, Germany. She is a mother of two sons continue reading here

AWARD WINNER Blogs That Really Share Helpful Advice

Ladies, I’m doing a lot to help YOU, so please help me run this blog by linking to its articles (in a forum, blog, etc.). Or simply tell a friend about it, EVERY SINGLE RECOMMENDATION COUNTS! Thank you!

 

 

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
  • getting pregnant, legs up after intercourse, boost fertility Legs up after intercourse: will it increase the chance of conceiving?
  • lower prolactin naturally, prolactin Slightly elevated prolactin? Three natural ways to lower it
  • increase amh naturally Is it possible to increase low AMH levels?
  • CoQ10 for fertility, CoQ10 enzymes Which CoQ10 is best for fertility: Ubiquinol or Ubiquinone?
  • DHEA egg quality, dhea and fertility DHEA and egg quality

“I LOVE your site! I am a PhD biologist myself and really appreciate your scientific approach…”

“I just wanted to thank you again, you are making a big difference to this community of woman 35 and over and families searching for answers… “

” I’m happy to say that I am five weeks pregnant! I feel great except for the usually early pregnancy symptoms. THANK YOU for your help!…”

Continue reading here…

Texts in German German
Would you like a FREE REVIEW COPY of my #1 Amazon e-book? All you need to do is to read it and then give a short review, whether you liked the book or not? Please email me at darja.wagner@googlemail.com. Thank you!