|
|
Your menstrual cycle and factors like cycle length, regularity, and flow can be important indicators of overall health. Meanwhile, diet, exercise, and lifestyle can have a significant impact on cycle health — and this includes alcohol and how much you drink. If you’ve ever wondered if drinking on your period could make you bleed more or whether alcohol could delay your period, you can find the answers to those questions and get a better understanding of how alcohol use affects your menstrual cycle below.
How Alcohol Affects Hormonal Balance
When you think of hormones, you probably think of things like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but in reality, you have more than 50 hormones that control everything from your menstrual cycle and metabolism to your sleep cycle and mood. Alcohol can affect many of these systems because it disrupts the delicate hormonal balance that keeps you feeling mentally and physically well.
Alcohol can specifically impact cortisol, which is often called the stress hormone. Cortisol raises blood sugar and suppresses nonessential functions when you are under stress. Its job is to ensure that you have the energy you need to fight or flee the threat. Over the long term, drinking alcohol can raise your cortisol levels, which can have a knock-on effect with your other hormones, such as insulin, estrogen and progesterone, and your menstrual cycle.
Because alcohol contains a lot of sugar, it can also raise your blood sugar levels and triglycerides, which can impact your overall metabolic function. This, in turn, can cause weight gain and other issues that can impact your hormones.
Bottom line: All of your hormones work together like a highly choreographed ballet or classic symphony. When alcohol disrupts even one part, it can have a cascade effect, impacting nearly every aspect of your mental and physical health, including your period.
The Impact of Drinking on Menstrual Symptoms
Before we discuss how drinking can impact your menstrual cycle and symptoms, it’s important to have a general overview of how the menstrual cycle works. There are four main phases:
- Menstrual: The bleeding phase, which generally lasts 3-7 days
- Follicular: From after your period until ovulation occurs
- Ovulation: The 1-2 days when your body releases an egg
- Luteal: From ovulation to the first day of bleeding
The luteal phase is when most menstrual symptoms occur, such as cramps, bloating, headaches, irritability, breast tenderness, mood swings, and food cravings.
The way alcohol impacts your hormones and interacts with other body systems, such as causing dehydration or a depressive mood, can also worsen menstrual symptoms. For example, drinking on your period or the week before may worsen cramps and make mood swings more intense.
Can drinking on your period make you bleed more? Yes! Alcohol consumption increases estrogen levels, and high estrogen can result in heavier periods and increased clotting.
Can alcohol delay your period? It’s possible. Heavy or long-term drinking can delay ovulation. Without ovulation, you won’t usually have a period because your body doesn’t get the hormone messages to start releasing the uterine lining.
Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on Reproductive Health
Because your hormones are in charge of so many of your body’s processes, long-term and/or heavy drinking can have a negative effect on your overall reproductive health, including:
- Increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth
- Decreased ovarian reserve, which can make it more difficult to get pregnant
- Increased risk of endometriosis
Drinking can also impair your judgment, leading you to engage in risky sexual behaviors that could put you at higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Other long-term effects of alcohol on women’s health include an increased risk of osteoporosis, breast cancer, and heart disease.
Steps to Manage Alcohol Use for Better Menstrual Health
Managing your alcohol use can improve your health, from the quality of your sleep to having a shorter, more manageable period. Try these steps when you’re ready to make a change.
Track Your Drinking Habits
Keeping a record of your alcohol use throughout your cycle can help you identify patterns that could connect your alcohol consumption to your period symptoms, such as PMS, irregular cycles, headaches, cramps, and difficulty sleeping. For example, you may notice that in months when you were drinking more the week before your period, the cramps were more intense or the bleeding was heavier.
Seeing how much you’re drinking written out each day can also help you get a more realistic idea of your usual alcohol consumption and whether it’s a problem. Some period tracking apps have a checkbox for whether you drank any alcohol that day. If you already keep a planner or journal, noting any drinking at the bottom of each day is an easy way to start to better understand your habits.
Consider Reducing Your Alcohol Use
If you notice a clear pattern between how much you’re drinking and issues with your period, it can help to cut back or only drink alcohol at certain points in your cycle. For example, you may notice that having a few drinks in the middle of your cycle around ovulation doesn’t have the same negative effect as drinking on your period or during the week before.
The USDA recommends that men limit themselves to a maximum of two drinks per day and women one drink per day, but the World Health Organization notes that there is no “safe” amount of alcohol that doesn’t have some negative effect on your health. If you still want to enjoy a drink here or there, consider trying drinks with less sugar or a lower alcohol by volume (ABV) content to help decrease the amount of inflammation and negative symptoms.
As you experiment, look for patterns in how alcohol use is affecting your mood, energy levels, and other symptoms, such as digestive issues. This can give you important clues into how alcohol may be affecting your hormones and other systems in the body. You may find that your body, mind, and menstrual cycle feel best when you’re not drinking at all.
Support Your Body
If you decide to have a few drinks, you may be able to mitigate the effect on your hormones and cycle by taking some extra steps to support your body. For example, eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, can help support your liver and balance your hormones, and they have the added effect of helping your body detox high estrogen, which can cause heavy periods, clotting, breast tenderness, and mood swings.
It’s also important to consume plenty of water when you’re drinking to counter alcohol’s dehydrating effects. Adding electrolytes to your water can ensure you’re getting the right blend of minerals to help your body better absorb and use that water as well. Getting plenty of protein can help with blood sugar regulation and help you feel steadier mentally and emotionally before and during your period.
Reach Out for Help
If you want to decrease or stop drinking but it feels impossible or you’ve been unsuccessful before, you may need some extra help. Talking to a trusted family member, friend, or even a counselor about your drinking habits and desire to quit can be the first step toward recovery, a healthier period, and a better quality of life.
