Herbs for Heavy Periods
How we can use herbs for heavy periods
Menorrhagia is the scientific term for excessive bleeding during a period and is usually defined as needing to change sanitary products at least every 3 hours or bleeding that lasts more than 7 days. This can increase the risk of iron deficiency anaemia. However, we can use herbal medicine to help manage heavy periods.
Why might we experience excessive bleeding?
Let's take a look first at why we might experience heavy periods. Oestrogen promotes the building of the endometrial lining. Therefore, high oestrogen can cause a thicker lining which causes heavier bleeding during your period as you shed this endometrial lining.
Excess oestrogen can be caused by:
Poor liver detoxification
Exposure to synthetic oestrogen like substances found in plastics, pesticide, some metals.
Thyroid conditions
Obesity
Another cause could be low iron. Heavy bleeding depletes iron levels. However, iron deficiency can also cause heavy bleeding because iron is needed by the uterus to prevent excess bleeding. Thereby, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of low iron caused by heavy bleeding and heavy bleeding caused by low iron.
A few studies have shown that Vitamin, A, K, and C may also be helpful at preventing heavy bleeding.
5 Herbs for Excess Bleeding
There are lots of herbs that can be used for heavy periods. We may first want to look at use herbs that manage the underlying causes such as high oestrogen. However, there are also herbs that can be used to control excess bleeding such as:
Lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)
Yarrow(Achillea millefolium)
Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)
Tienchi ginseng (Panax notoginseng)
Birthwort (Trillium erectum)
These have been used traditionally for uterine bleeding. My favourite is Lady's mantle and I've written a blog specifically about Lady's mantle and her many uses here:
