Do you ever have one of those months where the week that your period comes is incredibly inconvenient? Well, it feels like every month for me. But this month was particularly inconvenient for because I was visiting the guy that I’m dating and obviously I needed to not be on my period for that. In an attempt to make my period happen faster so that I would be blood-free when I visited, I tried all the “make your period go faster” tricks that Google produced. My period usually lasts the full seven days, so that meant I needed to knock off two days so that I wouldn’t be bleeding when I went home. The methods that I tried included: exercising, using heat pads and taking hot baths, masturbating, taking Advil or Ibuprofen, and using pads instead of tampons. I rated each method under the description of how it went based on accessibility, time consumption, ease, and obviously how well it worked. Here’s how my week went!
1. Exercising
Exercising isn’t something that I do for fun or regularly, so attempting to do it while I was on my period was especially challenging. But I did it – I ran on a treadmill for 30 minutes for the first day of my sugar pill week. This method of speeding up your period is something I heard from my friends as well as this article that I found. According to the article, exercising helps because it will “lighten your flow.” My first day is usually my worst because I just have cramps but no bleeding, which is never fun. I thought if I did the exercising on the first day then I’d start bleeding faster, and it wouldn’t be as heavy. It worked! Maybe it was a placebo effect, but I ran my heart out and then started bleeding about an hour later. Coincidence? You decide.
Rating: 9/10
2. Heat
We all know that taking a warm bath/shower or applying a heating pad to where you’re cramping helps with the pain of being on your period, but apparently, it can also help it end faster. According to this Wikihow article, applying heat “encourages the ‘fluids’ to leave your body.” Additionally, the heat will help expand the blood vessels and hopefully the blood will flow faster. I tried this on my second day when my flow was particularly heavy and while my cramps felt a lot less like death, I didn’t notice that my period was going by faster. This method might work better if you’re on one of your last days and are really trying to be done with the bleeding.
Rating: 7/10
3. Masturbating
Technically all of the articles that I read said that sex was the method, but it’s all about the contractions that happen when you orgasm, so masturbating obviously works too (and is more reliable in the orgasm area). In this Metro article, director of gynecology at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Dee Fenner explains that this method is likely to work because “menstrual blood is squeezed out during orgasm.” Day three of my period arrived, and while it still came faster than other months, I needed it to end faster too. I was willing to try anything that might work. If you’re comfortable having sex or masturbating while on your period, I can confirm that after masturbating, my flow was heavier for a little while. So it works!
Rating: 10/10
4. Taking blood thinners
Obviously, when you’re on your period, taking medicine such as Ibuprofen and Advil help with the pain from cramps, but did you know that it can help speed along your period too? According to an article on New Health Advisor, blood thinners have the potential to reduce your flow by 50%. But as always, do not take more than three to four pills in a 24 hour period. I waited to try this method until my fourth day because I wanted to see if it did anything to my flow and it did. An hour after taking two pills I noticed a significantly lighter flow. My cramps also decreased, so that was a pleasant bonus. I was now two days out from going home, so this method working made me very happy. If you’re trying to avoid taking medication during your period, this method may not be for you.
Rating: 9/10
5. Not using a tampon
When I thought about this method, after reading about it in the Metro article that was previously mentioned, it made sense. If I let the blood free flow into a pad instead of being stopped by a tampon then it should go by faster. The downside of this method was wearing the pad. As an active tampon enthusiast, I had to relearn how to get used to feeling the pad in my underwear. I did this method for the (hopefully) last two days before I was going home so that I could see if I was actually done or close to done with bleeding. For the day before I went home, I must say that there was little to eventually no blood for my fifth day. This could also be because of the other methods that I resorted to in the previous days, but this one still seemed to work!
Rating: 8.5/10
There you have it. The not-so-crazy things that I did to see if I could shorten my period. Remember if you’re going to try anything to shorten your period make sure that you are doing it safely and after doing your research on the method. If you’re wondering if I stopped bleeding in time for me to go home and see the guy I’m dating, the answer is yes!