In the 10 days or so before your period, your body is geared up in the hopes that the egg you sent down the old fallopian tube met some sperm there and landed in a plush uterus ready to grow a baby. When your uterine lining isn’t invaded by a fertilized egg, the hormones sustaining the environment aren’t needed anymore and the hormone levels plummet. When this happens, your body goes from high alert to nothing hormonally and that shift causes other changes too and all of those changes are exhausting. Until your hormone levels increase again, you are really tired. Listen to your body and rest for those couple of days when you are pooped, you’ll feel better overall.
Fatigue associated with your period is quite common, unfortunately. I think it’s just your body’s way of telling you to get a little more rest and slow down a bit. I actually appreciate this. As women we tend to go, go, go and do, do, do and a reminder once a month to slow down isn’t such a bad thing. I understand that the timing may not always be good, but if you know when your period is coming, try to make your schedule a little lighter for the first few days so you can get the rest you need. Rest is just as important to good health as diet and exercise.
I find that I’m usually tired when I start my period too. I’m not exactly sure why we feel like that. I usually make the joke that I’m tired because I’ve been PMS’ing the past couple of days, and it’s really tiring being irritable or having to bite your tongue all of the time. Right? I mean, I could be totally wrong here, but maybe it’s because when you’re on your period your body is doing a lot and is therefore easily exhaustible. Don’t take my word for it though. I’m sure Dr. Molly can provide a more accurate answer to exactly why we want to become total blobs when it’s that time of the month.
