What is an unhealthy womb? How do you make it healthy again?
The wellness of the physical womb can be measured against its ability to play its physiological function in the body as efficiently and effectively as it was meant to. So, ask yourself about the following in order to try and understand the health status of your reproductive centre:
1. Menstrual Health
2. Vaginal Health
3. Sexual Health
Is everything working well on the above fronts in your life? Is any accompanied by or met with discomfort? Etc.
An unhealthy womb is one that is in a dis-eased state, I would define it as an Angry womb (borrowed from Queen Afua’s Overcoming an Angry Vagina), a womb that figuratively has seen it all, a womb that is tired, a womb that is neglected, a womb that is not nurtured and nourished. Just a womb that has developed an attitude and some days you would swear it has a mind of its own (maybe it does). But for purposes of this article, I will be focusing mainly on the uterus health, please check out my other articles, where I go into detail on vaginal, menstrual and sexual health.
PS: Its worth mentioning that in this article our focus is the physical womb and not the energy womb – which can have its own dis-eased states too. But more on that later.
So, anything (dis-eased state) that makes it hard or impossible for the body’s reproductive functions to function in cohesion and with ease is definitive of a womb’s un-healthiness. If you experience one or all the following states, please look at your situation with a magnifying glass (this differs for many people, other people will go to western healers or eastern healers or Afrikan healers or even heal themselves but irregardless PLEASE CONSULT SOMEONE) :
1. Genital Prolapse (Prolapsed Uterus)
A condition in which weakened pelvic muscles fail to hold the uterus and other pelvic organs in place, it is often due to a prolapsed impacted colon or complications from labour and/or childbirth.
Signs and symptoms:
Weakened vaginal and bladder muscles, frequent urination, low back pain, abdominal pain.
May result in infertility, blocked tubes and miscarriage
How to deal:
Lifestyle changes and pelvic floor physical therapy/ exercises. If you are looking for non-invasive pelvic organ prolapse treatment options, one of the first things you should consider is your lifestyle and how it may be causing and/or worsening your symptoms. Your gut health plays a significant role in this situation, so increasing your fibre intake, minimising carb intake and using laxatives/enemas (if you are not regular) are a few things to consider. You should also avoid exercises that make pelvic organ prolapse worse, including:
- running,
- jumping,
- skipping,
- avoid lifting heavy objects,
- avoid strength training exercise machines,
- wide leg exercises
- machine squats, and
- leg presses.
There are certain exercises you can do at home to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and relieve symptoms. Your doctor can also make recommendations for you based on the type and severity of your prolapse, another option is to seek the help of a pelvic floor physiotherapist who can create a series of exercises for you, and ensure you are doing them correctly. If you’re interested in trying pelvic floor exercises at home, try these work outs:
- Kegel Exercises
- The bridge
- Some yoga poses
2. Fibroids
A mass of rapidly dividing cells that invade surrounding tissue. These cells rob neighbouring normal cells of their nutrients
Signs and symptoms:
Pain and cramping, unusual bleeding or discharge, clotting, severe menstrual cramps.
Can lead to miscarriages.
How to deal:
1. Include more sources of fibre in your diet – fibre is known to help your body to get rid of any extra oestrogens which we mentioned earlier (as a major factor in the development of Prolapses and Fibroids) Please refer to the previous section on how to deal with a prolapsed uterus for further clarity ;
2. Stay away from any processed food, alcohol, caffeine, and saturated fats a much as you can.
3. Castor oil packs: applying a warm castor oil pack onto your abdominal area should help reduce the pain and cramping
4. Lavender oil: Massage your abdomen using lavender oil that has been known to relieve the symptoms caused by fibroids.
5. Warm bath/ cloth: Staying in a warm bath or applying warm cloth on your abdominal area is yet another way to make sure that those annoying cramps and pain go away
6. Iron supplements- Because of the heavy bleeding during or between your menstrual period your body is losing more iron than it should. This can very easily cause anaemia to occur. Which is why it is important to take a quality iron supplement to make sure that your body is getting all the iron that it needs
7. Herbal remedies – There are quite a few herbal remedies that can be used to soothe your symptoms. Try Goldenseal root, Dandelion root and leaf, Ginger root, and Black raspberry root which are only a few of the well-known herbal remedies for Fibroids;
3. Endometriosis
The endometrium is made up of cells that create the lining of the uterus. These cells can break away and grow inside the uterine cavity, implanting themselves within the pelvis, ovaries, appendix, bowels, and/or bladder.
Signs and symptoms:
Menstrual cramps (chronic pain), pelvic scarring, and adhesions within the womb.
May be associated with infertility.
How to deal:
1. Change your diet – if endometriosis is an autoimmune condition, then food may well be one of the biggest keys to helping halt it in its tracks and avoid inflammatory foods. Do your best to stick to an anti-inflammatory whole foods diet. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about figuring out which foods help or hurt your body and it might take some experimenting to get it just right. Keep low carb intake, avoid gluten and dairy, avoid sugar and sugar substitutes, get plenty of omega 3’s
2. Reduce stress
3. Better Menstrual Hygiene Products (avoid tampons)
4. Get Moving
5. Avoid excess Oestrogen
So now that we have seen how to identify an unhealthy womb space, and because I have also shared methods of how to reverse or heal the above states it will be much easier to walk towards a healthy womb. The secret to a healthy womb is to have healthy habits, good menstrual health, good vaginal health and good sexual health
Comments