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Period pain can put a cramp in your schedule each month, but it doesn’t have to sideline you. There are many ways to manage the pain and period symptoms that can happen at the start of each menstrual cycle.

Learn what causes these symptoms, how to manage period pain, and when to see your doctor.

What Are Common Symptoms of Periods?

More than half of women experience pain and uncomfortable symptoms, also known as dysmenorrhea, at the start of their menstrual cycle. Often, this is mild and only lasts for the first one or two days of a period. But some women have more severe pain or discomfort that lasts several days or a week.

Period symptoms can include:

• Cramps in your lower abdomen.
• Diarrhea.
• Dizziness.
• Headaches or migraines.
• Nausea or vomiting.
• Pain that radiates to your lower back or thighs.

Period pain can start with the first menstrual period, known as menarche. Girls typically begin menstruating between ages 11 and 14.

What Causes Period Symptoms?

High levels of natural chemicals called prostaglandins cause period pain and other menstrual symptoms. Prostaglandins come from the lining of your uterus, which thickens each month in preparation for pregnancy. If you’re not pregnant, these chemicals cause muscle and blood vessel contractions to help shed the uterine lining during your period.

Prostaglandin levels are highest at the beginning of your menstrual cycle — when your period starts. After a few days, prostaglandin levels drop as your uterine lining sheds, causing period symptoms to disappear.

How to Manage Period Pain at Home

Although period pain is uncomfortable, you can often treat it with natural or over-the-counter (OTC) remedies. Many home remedies work best if you start them when you first get your period or a few days before.

To better understand your menstrual cycle, you can track it with an app, on a calendar, or in a notebook. Record the day your period starts, your symptoms, when it ends, and how many days until your next period begins.

Tracking not only helps you prepare but also allows you to record your period symptoms to see what remedies work best. These home remedies are often helpful in relieving mild menstrual symptoms:

• Acupressure — Like acupuncture without needles, acupressure may relieve pain by improving the body’s energy flow. A practitioner can show you how to use your fingers to stimulate pressure points in certain parts of your body.
• Anti-inflammatory diet — Fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats from nuts, seeds, avocados, and oily fish can help reduce inflammation and prostaglandin levels. It’s wise to always include these in your diet, especially in the days leading up to your period.
• Avoiding pro-inflammatory foods — Sugary foods and beverages, fast foods, salty snacks, frozen meals, caffeine, and alcohol can worsen inflammation and period symptoms. Avoiding these pro-inflammatory foods a few days or the week before your period may help minimize period pain.
• Exercise — You may not want to do a hard workout if you’re having cramps. But moderate exercise or stretching can reduce symptoms by increasing blood flow and releasing endorphins, which are your body’s natural pain relievers.
• Heat — A heating pad, hot water bottle, or heating patches on your lower abdomen can help relax uterine muscles and improve blood flow, reducing the severity of cramps.
• Hydrate — Drinking more water, especially in the days leading up to your period, may help reduce bloating and cramps. Aim for at least 64 ounces or 8 cups of water a day.
• Meditation or yoga — Women with more stress, anxiety, or depression can have more severe menstrual symptoms. Meditating or practicing yoga can help balance your mood, which, in turn, may relieve period symptoms.
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) pain relievers — Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers like ibuprofen relieve period pain by targeting and reducing prostaglandins. You can take these for one or two days when your period pain starts.
• Sleep — Coping with pain or discomfort is easier when you’re well-rested. Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep each night. If your schedule allows, nap if you’re not feeling well while on your period.
• Tea — A cup of hot tea can help you relax and may help reduce cramps. Try green tea or herbal teas like ginger, mint, fennel, or chamomile.

Birth Control Options to Manage Period Pain

If home remedies don’t effectively reduce period pain, your doctor might recommend trying hormonal birth control. Most young women can start hormonal birth control anytime after their first period. Whether it’s to prevent an unplanned pregnancy or relieve severe period pain, it’s important to discuss birth control options with your doctor.

Hormonal birth control contains estrogen and progestin or progestin only. It reduces period pain by preventing the uterine lining from becoming too thick and reducing prostaglandins.

Hormonal birth control includes:

• Birth control patch — Sends hormones through your skin. You must apply a new patch each week.
• Birth control pills — You take one pill orally each day.
• Birth control shot — Your health care provider can give you a birth control injection every three months.
• Intrauterine device (IUD) — A small, T-shaped piece of plastic or metal that a health care provider places in your uterus. It lasts up to seven years.
• Vaginal ring — A flexible ring you insert into your vagina once a month.

What are the side effects of birth control?

Hormonal birth control may cause side effects, so discuss the pros and cons with your doctor. Side effects can include:

• Blood clots (those who are over 35 and smoke are at higher risk).
• Breast soreness.
• Cramping.
• Headaches.
• Irregular bleeding.
• Mood changes.
• Nausea.

When to See Your Doctor

Usually, period pain is easy to manage with home remedies, over-the-counter pain medication, or hormonal birth control. The pain or discomfort often goes away within a day or two.

Although some period pain is normal, severe pain is not. If your period pain is severe or keeps you out of school, work, or social activities, you should tell your gynecologist.

Sometimes, health conditions can cause painful periods. These include:

• Endometriosis — Tissue similar to your uterine tissue grows outside the uterus where it doesn’t belong.
• Fibroids — Noncancerous growths in the uterus.
• Pelvic inflammatory disease — An infection in your uterus or other reproductive organs.

Women with these conditions sometimes have irregular periods, too. Your doctor can do a pelvic exam or further testing to check for and treat these conditions.