Nicole Jardim - Fix Your Period: Six Weeks to Banish Bloating, Conquer Cramps, Manage Moodiness, and Ignite Lasting Hormone Balance

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For Marguerite, Chantal, Albertine, my grandmothers, and great-grandmothers

Contents

Have you ever been told its not polite to talk about your period? Or that you can talk about it, but only in your doctors office? And heaven forbid you share your personal experience in your social circle, let alone on social media. Societys insidious message that the menstrual cycle is taboo for everyday conversation has left many women struggling, confused, and worried about whether what theyre experiencing is normal.

Enter a new generation of women, who have started a movement of period positivity, normalizing the conversation about womens health and reclaiming their periods with pride. Despite messaging that tells women they should feel ashamed and embarrassed about their monthly bleed, theyve forged ahead. And indeed, their frankness in the face of stigma, shame, and social media censorship led Newsweek to proclaim 2015 the Year of the Period.

This was quite a change from what wed been seeing in the media, which painted a different picture of womens experiences with their cycles. Indeed, ads for menstrual care products have traditionally reinforced this damaging anti-period rhetoric, portraying that time of the month as a shameful malady to be concealed and its symptoms as something to medicate away. Contrast this with the programming were treated to in between the ads: one minute, youre watching a movie in which someone is being disemboweled, blood spraying everywhere; the next minute, the network cuts to a commercial where blood is considered taboo and a natural biological process is portrayed with images of blue liquid being poured onto pads to demonstrate their absorbency. (For the record, Ive never seen any evidence that bright blue fluid is normal discharge from the female body, let alone the human body.)

Not anymore. Today, women throughout the world are redefining the social norms surrounding the menstrual cycle and demanding more open dialogue about what is inarguably one of the most important biological processes in the female body. Rather than feeling ashamed of their periods or their bodies, women are embracing this biological difference as a strength.

This new generation of women is picking up the torch that generations of women before them fought so hard to keep lit, even in the darkest days of medicine. After decades of doctors diagnosing us as hysterical and even telling us our periods didnt matter, this new generation of women has held up the torch to show us another way. Nicole Jardim, one of the many women lighting that path, says, A womans body isnt broken, and symptoms arent its way of betraying you.

Despite what youve been told, problematic periods, mood swings, acne, premenstrual syndrome, and low libido are not just a part of being female. While these experiences might be common, they are certainly not normal. They are your bodys way of communicating with you, and given that youre reading this book, I suspect youre ready to listen.

In the pages that follow, youll learn what those symptoms mean, what your body is trying to convey to you, and how to collect the data that will help you get the answers you need from your next doctors visit. Let me be clear: this book is not asking you to go it alone, ditch your medications, abandon lab testing, or reject the advances of modern medicine. Instead, it is an invitation to get intimately acquainted with the body you live in, take ownership of your health, and understand how to work with your hormones. It is also designed to help you educate yourself so that you have more productive conversations with your health care provider and create an integrative approach to your cycle that serves your unique needs.

Like many people who find their calling in holistic health, Nicoles journey began with a desire to address her own health issues, which ranged from period problems to an autoimmune scare. In her early twenties, she took her issues to doctors, who suspected rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic conditions. Having been told there was no nutrition or lifestyle intervention that could help and that the best they could offer her was watch and wait, she decided to take her healing into her own hands.

Within months, her symptoms began to disappear and her curiosity grew as she began working with her hormones, honoring how her body responded to different practices, and piecing together her period puzzle from her research. Upon healing herself, she made it her mission to help other women do the same. Nicole has spent years studying under the best womens health practitioners and mentoring with the top evidence-based functional medicine clinicians, and countless hours learning and expanding her knowledge. Its been an unconventional path, yet one that has served thousands of women around the globe.

Nicole embraces what science has shown in recent years to be true: that bioindividuality is key to the healing journey. No two womens bodies are the same, and traditional medicines one-size-fits-all approach has left many women feeling dissatisfied and struggling to make sense of why certain treatments dont help or why they are told their labs are normal when they feel anything but.

At the foundation of Nicoles message is the belief that we all experience our periods differently and that no one knows whats best for our bodies more than we do. Her mission is to give women the tools to become their own health advocates so they are no longer excluded from the discussion about their own bodies. She is truly a torchbearer for womens hormonal health, and by reading this book, you can now enjoy the light of that flame. Carry it with you and pass it along; youre now part of the menstrual movement!

In a world that gave public recognition to the period only in 2015, we have a long way to go. You can pay for parking with an app. You can use a credit card at a vending machine. Yet if you want to buy a tampon in a public bathroom, Girl, you best have a quarter. Yes, we are far from done in our work to end period shame and ensure that everyone who bleeds cyclically has access to the necessary information and products so they can menstruate with dignity. That work begins with knowing your body, understanding your cycle, and taking ownership of your health. With this book, Nicole will help you do just that.

I encourage you to speak your truth unapologetically. Your story has value. Sharing our stories helps us heal. And youll never know who will be healed by hearing your story.

The way forward is together, and Im so honored to be on this journey with you!

Dr. Jolene Brighten, author of Beyond the Pill and Healing Your Body Naturally After Childbirth

The Curse. Monthly Menace. Shark Week. On the Rag. Not very endearing euphemisms, are they? But I see why periods have gotten a bad rap. Bloating, pain, acne, moodiness, messinessperiods can and do suck. Most of us sacrifice a week or more out of every month to dealing with or anticipating our periods. And often theyre not just an inconvenience, but a colossal disruption. Maybe you miss work, school, appointments, or dates because youre doubled over in pain and cant do much more than mainline Midol and clutch a hot-water bottle to your abdomen. You find yourself snapping at coworkers, partners, and friends; jeopardizing relationships because of mood swings. You discover a constellation of acne on your face when you thought youd left all that behind in high school. Your sex drive is AWOL, and as far as feeling sexy is concerned, you may as well keep the period panties on permanent rotation and leave the lacy lingerie buried in the drawer. Youre tired during the day and try to energize yourself with copious amounts of caffeine and sugaroh, the cravings!and then youre plagued with insomnia. Or maybe you have a period that is so irregular or totally MIA, and you cant predict when it will appear again.