How do I ride during my menstrual cycling?

A tough question, that only seems to be asked by women with very tough skin or no shame. It is something that all women go through, and daily riders can’t take the few days off to deal with their monthly “friend.”

Here are some of the best suggestions I can give :

• Increase exercise the days before your cycle starts.  Exercise seems to relax those muscles and make the cycle go faster (for me.)
• Plug it, and have a pair of shorts for those extra strong days.
• Keep a couple extra tampons in a ziplock, air-tight, bag in our saddle bag.
• Plan longer rides around stopping points were you can change out your tampon.
• Avoid binging on trashy food and make yourself feel good with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Suggestions that I have received from friends or on forums :

• Add calcium to your diet – Machka

“Three separate investigations have demonstrated that the dysphoria, anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms of PMS all respond favorably to either increased dietary calcium intake or daily calcium supplementation (10, 11). Increased calcium intake proved to benefit significantly all four major categories of PMS symptoms (negative affective symptoms, water retention symptoms, food cravings, and pain symptoms). A small randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial of 33 women and a larger, multicenter trial involving 497 women both demonstrated a reduction in symptoms by calcium supplementation (9, 10). Furthermore, when compared with asymptomatic women, women with PMS were shown to have exaggerated fluctuations of the calcium-regulating hormones across the menstrual cycle with evidence of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism (12, 13).” – Endojournals.org

• Intercourse reduces cramps
• Lots of exercise