In my early teens I would get terrible period pains and a fellow musician told me her story. We were both classical musicians and as such we had been getting Alexander Technique integrated into our learning.
However, she had gone to a private teacher and done a lot of one to one work with them. Over a period of 4 months, she grew an inch and her periods re-started again! I soon came to love Alexander Technique as a way of keeping my spinal health in check and had many years of playing my cello pain free thanks to what I learnt.
Now, working with women with period pain, one of the biggest issues I have is when women have a uterus that is in a funny position, such as too far forward or backwards. This can cause issues as the womb has to do a lot of extra work to empty each month causing cramps. Sometimes, adhesions can even form stopping her from being able to move to empty so instead she has to contract really hard to empty each month.
What You May See if This is You
Other issues that you can see if your uterus is in a different position to “normal” is any of the following symptoms just before and during the first few days of your bleed:
• Back pain or migraines
• Pain or numbness down one or both legs
• Dark, thick, sludgy blood particularly at the beginning or end of your bleed.
• Dragging sensation or increased need to urinate
• Constipation, diarrhoea or pencil thin stools
What You Can Do About It
A lot of the things you can do such as Womb Massage (womb and abdominal massage), Reflexology, appropriate exercise can make a huge difference, but the one thing that I see in so many women who are affected by this is that they have to sit for long periods of time all day long.
Unfortunately, knowing how to sit properly seems to be a lost art but learning to sit properly can help stop this issue at the root of the issue and save you lots of money in back pain medication for all the general aches and pains as well as improve your pelvic and abdominal health (digestive and back issues anyone?).
In this episode of Womb Tube, I interviewed Alexander Technique teacher Adrian Farrell, who is not only and expert with his own clinic but who also writes blogs on Alexander Technique for the Huffington Post on ways we can sit properly to improve our womb position and it is surprisingly simple. In fact, I have been doing it myself!
So, if this is something that has affected you, watch the video, if you are interested in Alexander Technique, then contact Adrian, check out his website and blogs and if you want a Womb Massage in person in my Surrey clinic (UK) contact me and if you want to learn self massage online, you can book a one to one session with me.
