The pandemic has affected us all in myriad ways. Duh. Must I count them? We're all now streaming aficionados, adding a new streaming subscription service when we've completed the last one (is there even anything on Netflix anymore?) We've gone through Zoom happy hours, to Zoom happy hour burnout and back again. Mental health has obviously taken its toll, but what about our periods? Have they gotten out of this unscathed or should we add that to the pile of things covid has made worse?

Initially, I thought I was more ~in tune~ with my body because the cramps I'd have the night before it started were like clockwork. Intense and specific, I just thought maybe I was finally coming into my own as a woman, finally understanding my body. Maybe I'd move to a communal farm and call myself an empath. However, in reading some articles this week, it could be that the stress of the pandemic is actually the cause. That was a real shot to my plans, but probably more likely. 

Scientists and researchers have known about "a connection between stress and menstrual changes even before the pandemic." Stress can cause periods to start early, start late, not come at all, be heavier, be lighter. Basically change everything about a period. On top of the stress of the pandemic affecting your period, the restrictions of the pandemic have hindered many traditional ways of mitigating period side effects. Are you one of those people who like to exercise when they're on their period? Well, now you have to do that without a gym. The pandemic has affected our diet (okay, at least MY diet), which again we know can affect periods. The pandemic has been a concentrated nexus almost specifically designed to make everything about periods worse. 

This post is not really about offering solutions to the problem. (If you want that, check out some of our other blog posts!) No, this is to say if you feel your period getting worse, you're not imagining it. Your body is getting you through this stressful time in any way it knows how, and right now that might mean that you aren't regular, or you aren't bleeding as much, or you're bleeding even more, or you're cramping the most you ever have. (And if that's you, consider steaming with the Calm Cookie blend!)