We know that drinking too much is always going to affect your overall health, but could alcohol be making your period health symptoms worse? Here we explain the various ways that alcohol can impact your hormones and bodily functions and its connection to your menstrual health.
Alcohol and Period Pain
Some people find that drinking alcohol can cause their periods to be more painful and one of the main theories behind this is dehydration. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it can cause dehydration.
Many health experts recommend increasing your water intake during your period as your abdominal cramps will be less severe if you’re well-hydrated – and drinking alcohol excessively will make it harder for your body to be hydrated. Water also thins the blood, making it easier to pass, so if you are dehydrated you might find that your blood is thicker and your period is more painful.
Alcohol and PMS
It’s well known that alcohol is a depressive, which means it can impact the natural level of happiness chemicals like serotonin and dopamine in your brain. It’s why many people report feeling anxious and down during a hangover!
As you come to the end of your luteal phase and towards the start of your period, your fluctuating hormones (a peak than a trough of progesterone and lower levels of estrogen) can also cause serotonin and dopamine to drop. If you drink to excess just before your period arrives, this double whammy of low happiness hormones could trigger emotional PMS symptoms like anxiety, increased sensitivity, and low mood. It’s important to remember that OMS is not inevitable and there are many things you can do to make this transitional phase of your menstrual cycle run smoother – but drinking lots of alcohol certainly is not one of them!
You can learn more about healthy ays to deal with PMS here.
Alcohol and Endometriosis
Whilst research into the link between alcohol and endometriosis is still limited, many people living with the condition will note that their symptoms are often exacerbated after a night of heavy drinking. In one endometriosis forum, a user wrote “In the morning, we don’t wake up with a hangover — we wake up with back and pelvic pain!” One potential reason for this is that alcohol can change how the body metabolises estrogen. This can cause blood estrogen levels to rise which could make symptoms connected to endometrial tissue more painful.
It’s also important to remember that endometriosis is a full-body inflammatory condition – and excessive alcohol consumption can trigger further inflammation in the body. If you are trying to nourish your body when navigating endometriosis a lot of the advice will be to eat anti-inflammatory foods. If this is something you’re trying, drinking bottle after bottle of wine could counteract the effects! You can learn more about nutrition for endometriosis here.
Alcohol and PCOS
There are a few different ways that alcohol can (potentially) affect people with PCOS and a lot of that depends on what type of PCOS you have and how you are treating it. Firstly, alcohol can mess with your blood sugar levels – especially important if you have insulin-resistant PCOS.
Some alcohols – including beer or mixed drinks – have the potential to raise your insulin levels quickly, which will then be followed by a crash. People with PCOS can be especially sensitive to this type of blood sugar roller coaster and it can make symptoms worse. This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to cut out alcohol altogether, but try to drink alongside food and avoid sugary drinks (red wine, vodka soda and fresh lime and gin and slimline tonic are good options!).
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is quite common in women with PCOS and if you have fatty liver already, drinking alcohol can make it worse. Whilst NAFLD isn’t caused by drinking alcohol (high insulin and triglycerides are the culprits here) regular intake of alcohol can make it worse as drugs and alcohol pass through the liver, increasing its demand.
As a final note on alcohol and PCOS – some doctors will recommend being mindful of alcohol consumption when taking metformin. Although the official NHS guidelines state that it’s safe to drink whilst taking the medication, there are a couple of rare but serious side effects of Metformin (namely lactic acidosis) that can be exacerbated by drinking.
Key Takeaways
Heavy drinking is never going to be good for your overall health – and by extension your menstrual health in particular. However occasional, moderate drinking is unlikely to make period health conditions unmanageable.
That said – everyone is unique, and how our bodies react to alcohol can be very different. If you are experiencing painful, irregular periods, debilitating PMS or are living with conditions like endometriosis and PCOS, it’s worth seeing how your symptoms are after a night on the town. If you realise that alcohol is making any of your period health symptoms worse, it’s worth taking a step back and seeing whether you feel better in yourself when you keep alcohol intake to a minimum. This might not mean giving up alcohol altogether, but it could be helpful to mix up your boozy drinks with some that are alcohol-free. We love these mocktail recipes from Holland and Barrett – why not give them a try?
