Even though your menstrual cramps may be normal, it doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to relieve the pain. Here are a few things you can do besides eating chocolate. Do you need relief from your period cramps right away? Lying down with a heating pad is one of the best ways to relieve menstrual cramps.

In fact, keeping heat applied to the area of your belly where the pain is the worst can be just as effective as using a pain killer like ibuprofen. But since you can't stay connected to a heating pad all day, try taking a warm bath, using a hot water bottle, or applying a heat patch instead. The key is to keep the heat as continuous as possible. Many of the same over-the-counter pain relievers you use for headaches can also help relieve menstrual cramping pain.

You should start taking a pain reliever when you begin feeling symptoms of period cramps and continue taking the medicine for two or three days, or until your symptoms are gone. Need a reason to work out during your period?

The endorphins produced while exercising or having sex can help relieve your menstrual cramps. Any type of exercise, whether it be aerobic or simply stretching has been found to lessen the pain of your cramping. When you have period cramps you just can't seem to relieve with the methods mentioned above, your doctor may prescribe birth control, which provides your body with hormones that may reduce your menstrual cramping. Talk to your doctor about your birth control options.

They even claim it can help with period pain. One thing is for certain though is that they can be pretty dangerous.

One case study in Canada found that a woman had severely burnt herself after using vagina steaming to help her manage her painful prolapsed vagina.

It could also burn the delicate skin around the vagina the vulva. Many endometriosis experts believe that continual use of a hot water bottle may even worsen symptoms. We understand that endometriosis flare-ups are caused by muscular contractions as the body tries to excrete the endometrium.

When heat is applied to the affected area, the fascia begins to loosen, as previously mentioned and then as it cools it hardens.

According to one study , this can lead to worse endometriosis pain because it reduces the flexibility of the fascia and forms a rigid layer of tissue. Because heat hardens the fascia, you then need higher temperatures to help the fascia and surrounding muscles relax which then hardens the fascia even more. There are many risks associated with using hot water bottles and heat of any kind for pain relief. Scars, burns as well as permanent muscular damage only scratch the surface of the harm that heat therapy does to women who suffer from severe period pain.

Not only is it an impractical, and often ineffective form of treatment, but it can even worsen symptoms that women already find debilitating. We should be able to use products without the fear of hurting ourselves, particularly during menstrual cycles.

We believe more natural, kinder alternatives are out there and we want to be here to help support those women on their pain relief journey. Time for the shameless plug - this is why we created our groundbreaking Monthly Patches , not heat, not cooling, just an all-natural tingling effect which goes further than a hot water bottle without any of the downsides!

Give it a go for yourself! She loves talking about period positivity and body positivity and, let's face it, loves a good debate. Shop All translation missing: en. Store Finder. How does heat therapy affect period pain? What is the rebound phenomenon? What happens if you use a hot water bottle for period pain? What about yoni steaming? Is vagina steaming safe?

Can I use heat for my chronic pain? Why shouldn't I use my hot water bottle for period pain? These results appear promising but should be interpreted cautiously because they are based on relatively few trials with an unclear risk of selection bias.

We included only RCTs to remove potential bias and did not have any language restrictions. Although our literature searches included English and Korean databases, and also included searching by hand for relevant articles, we cannot be absolutely certain that all relevant RCTs were found. The meta-analysis included small numbers of studies with relatively small sample sizes. This contributed to imprecision in estimates. There were variations in the duration, type of heat therapy e.

A recently published review, which examined the same topic as this article 11 , included a non-RCT that was excluded from our review. Additionally, it failed to include several important studies 16 , 17 , 19 that were included and analyzed in our review. NSAIDs appear to be an effective treatment for dysmenorrhea, although women using them need to be aware of the substantial risk for AEs Hormone contraceptives are available only for patients who do not plan to become pregnant 9.

Our systematic review showed the clear benefit of heat therapy for menstrual pain in women with primary dysmenorrhea. Whether this translates into long-term clinical benefits has yet to be demonstrated. One argument for using heat therapy for the management of dysmenorrhea may be that it causes fewer AEs than conventional drugs.

However, there was no evidence that there is a difference among them with regard to AEs. If heat therapy were effective and safe for the management of dysmenorrhea in both the short- and long-term, it could become a first-line non-pharmacologic treatment to decrease menstrual pain in women with primary dysmenorrhea, particularly those with contraindications for NSAIDs. This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that heat therapy was associated with a decrease in menstrual pain in women with primary dysmenorrhea.

These results are consistent with the recommendation of local heat as a complementary treatment for dysmenorrhea 9. We need to compare the effects of various heating modalities with those of other general interventions in terms of short- and long-term outcomes as well as cost-effectiveness. A well-designed multicenter trial to address this issue and provide robust evidence of benefit is warranted to clarify the role of heat therapy in this population.

Each search term was composed of a disease term e. No language restrictions were imposed. The search strategies are presented in online Supplement 1. Similar search strategies were applied to the other databases. Observational, cohort, case—control, and case series studies were excluded as were qualitative, uncontrolled trials, and laboratory studies.

Patients of any age with primary dysmenorrhea were included in the systematic review. Dysmenorrhea secondary to other pathologies, such as uterine myoma, endometriosis, or infection, was excluded in this review. Randomized studies of superficial or deep heat therapy, either as the sole treatment or as an adjunct to other treatments applied in both groups intervention and control groups in the same manner, were included.

We included any type of control intervention, including no treatment, placebo, and conventional medication. RCTs that compared different heat treatments were excluded. The primary outcomes were reduction of menstrual pain only during the intervention or as a result of the intervention measured using a visual analogue scale VAS or numeric rating scale NRS.

The secondary outcomes were scores on validated pain questionnaires, QoL, and AEs. Two authors JJ and SHL performed the data extraction and quality assessment using a predefined data extraction form. The form included information pertaining to the first author, study design, language of publication, country where the trial was conducted, clinical setting, diagnostic criteria, number of participants allocated to each group, drop-out number, treatment duration, outcome, outcome results, and AEs associated with heat therapy.

When studies reported outcomes at more than one time point, a similar measurement point in other studies was used for the analysis, such as at the end of treatment or the first menstrual cycle after treatment. Any disagreement among the authors was resolved by discussion among all authors. When the data were insufficient or ambiguous, JJ contacted the corresponding author by electronic mail or telephone to request additional information or clarification.

The risk of bias was assessed using the risk-of-bias assessment tool from the Cochrane Handbook ver. Disagreements were resolved by discussion among the authors. Statistical analyses were performed with the program Review Manager ver.

Data were pooled and expressed as the mean difference MD or standardized mean difference SMD for continuous outcomes using random-effects models, because high levels of heterogeneity had been anticipated.

When substantial heterogeneity was detected, we explored the sources of heterogeneity by performing a subgroup analysis according to the type of intervention or control group. If some factors e. We assessed publication bias by using a funnel plot if 10 or more studies were included. We made our best efforts to analyze data on an intention-to-treat basis, and attempts were made to obtain missing data from the original investigators.

When these attempts were unsuccessful, we did not substitute data for missing data but analyzed only the available data. Supplementary information accompanies this paper at National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Sci Rep. Published online Nov 2. Junyoung Jo 1, 2 and Sun Haeng Lee 3. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

Sun Haeng Lee, Email: moc. Corresponding author. Received Apr 5; Accepted Oct This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Supplementary information. Abstract Primary dysmenorrhea, which is menstrual pain without pelvic pathology, is the most common gynecologic condition in women. Introduction Primary dysmenorrhea refers to painful menstrual cramps in the lower abdominal region during menstruation in the absence of any discernible macroscopic pelvic pathology 1.

Results Description of included trials After removing duplicates, studies were screened and 15 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Table 1 Baseline characteristics of included studies. Pain relief score on 6-point scale B. Reduction in pain intensity during days 1—2 on NRS A. Pain relief score during day 1 on 6-point scale B.

Abdominal muscle tightness and cramping during day 1 on NRS A. Maximum VAS score B. Participants taking pain medications A. Sensual pain score on point scale B. Emotional pain score on point scale C. Current pain score on point VAS D.

Total pain score on 6-point VAS A. Mid-treatment pain intensity on cm VAS T3. End of treatment pain intensity on cm VAS T2. Table 2 Details of the heat therapies used in the RCTs. First author Year Method Treatment region Treatment duration Akin Wearing a kidney bean-shaped ultra-thin medical device that supplied heat at a constant temperature of