'My cramps were so bad I had to stay in bed'
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Monday May 10 2010
The Banker
GLOBE-trotting investment banker Jane O'Brien* always had problems with her period.
Throughout adolescence she experienced "horrific period pain" with such severe cramps that she took painkillers for five days before her period was even due to start.
In fact, she says, before her Leaving Cert she was put on the pill so the horrendous pain would not affect her exam performance.
"Over the next 15 years I was on and off the pill intermittently. I stopped taking it completely a few years ago and for the first time in about 15 years the cramps came back."
Once she came off the pill and started to experience normal menstruation, the 30-something, who describes herself as "a busy woman in a stressful, male-dominated job", found that around her period she felt very sluggish.
"I had three weeks of the month when I was this highly efficient woman working 12 hours a day and then when I got my period the cramps were sometimes so bad that I would have to spend the day in bed."
Three months ago, driven to distraction by pre-menstrual tension, mood swings and heavy, painful cramping, Jane attended a workshop by Alexandra Pope.
"Alexandra explained about the four cycles of the month: the four seasons. It made perfect sense to me, because I couldn't understand that one week I'd be so very productive and the next only doing about 60pc of what I was capable of, and I'd beat myself up about it.
"I learned that if I slowed my pace in the days prior to and around my period the moodiness and cramping would reduce; it was as if my body acted that way when I was ignoring it.
"I found that just a 10pc reduction in activity would get me a huge benefit."
Although she couldn't 'power down' in terms of her demanding job, Jane learned that if she reduced her social life, cut out the gym and let her fiancé to do the grocery shopping, the cramping reduced and she started to feel better.
"I've been charting my period since I went to Alexandra's workshop and I've found that my cycle conforms to her four seasons."
This hard-headed merchant banker has learned to work with the flow of her menstrual cycle and, when possible, will re-arrange her schedule to match her menstrual 'season'.
"I now shuffle my social calendar, re-arrange meetings if possible, all based on the cycle.
"For instance, I have a very big meeting next Monday which is great, because it's landing in the summer stage of my cycle.
"I know that my thinking will be really clear and that I will be on top form. Certainly if that big meeting had been planned for last week when I was pre-menstrual, I would have been less confident.
"Now that I have an awareness of how it works, I do try not to schedule big meetings around my period. It's very subtle, but once you wake up to it it's very obvious.
"I've found that the intensity of the cramps has been gradually reducing since I started to chart my cycle. Now I don't usually have to go to bed at all -- I just have to power down a bit."
*Not her real name
Irish Independent
