What To Do If You Have Bloating, Spotting, or Pain During Ovulation

Ovulation can come with a lot of fabulous side effects like a boosted sex drive, abundant energy, heightened senses, and an overall feeling of optimism and well-being. However, for some women, the ovulatory phase can also bring unwanted and uncomfortable symptoms like bloating, cramping or pain in one side, spotting, breast tenderness and uneven moods. The good news is you can treat the symptoms of ovulation naturally!

Identify the Ovulation Phase Based on Symptoms

If you have symptoms during ovulation, then chances are excellent that you also experience symptoms during your premenstrual week as well as difficulty with menstruation. This is because the root causes of symptomatic ovulation will also create problems throughout your cycle - like PMS symptoms or a crampy period. If you get these symptoms around ovulation or if they start then, only to stay with you until your period arrives, then you are experiencing a hormonal imbalance. And, just as I believe all women deserve the perfect period, I believe all women should feel wonderful when they’re ovulating and get to bask in all of the benefits this time of your cycle can and wants to give.  

Looking at your cycle as a whole and shifting your eating patterns and lifestyle choices to live more in harmony with your hormonal Flo during every cycle stage is vitally important. Each phase is connected to the others and there’s really no such thing as spot-treating an individual phase. However, there are effective, natural treatments that specifically target the sorts of issues that can arise in the ovulatory phase.

If you are worried that you might not be ovulating or you’re having trouble tracking your cycle, go straight to my simple guide for knowing where you’re at.

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How to treat your ovulation symptoms naturally

The source of your symptoms can be found in estrogen dominance - your body has too much estrogen swimming around your blood stream and you are not processing the excess efficiently. This leaves you with too high levels of this one hormone, which causes an imbalance in your progesterone production, leaving you with low progesterone levels. Solving your ovulation symptoms, therefore, is all about supporting your body in generating, processing, and eliminating estrogen. Read the following list of ovulation symptoms and see what you can do to address them:‍

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Bloating During Ovulation

The Flo-facts - Magnesium deficiency causes your body to retain water and salt, leading to that bloated feeling. Another culprit might be stress, as heightened cortisol has the same impact.  

‍The Flo-fix - I recommend you dose yourself with a daily supply of good dark chocolate (you’ll want 70% dark and organic). A 100 gram serving has half of your day’s need of magnesium. Drink coconut water to help with the water retention. Then, whizz up my “Anti-Bloat-ini” juice that combines 1 beet, 4 celery stalks, ½ a cucumber, 2 stalks of kale, ½ bunch cilantro, and 1 lemon. It’s full of natural diuretics, tissue salts, and liver detoxifiers.

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‍Spotting During Ovulation

The Flo-facts - Spotting is always something you should pay serious attention to. A little blood in your cervical fluid around the day of ovulation is not anything to be too concerned about (it’s actually the result of the egg breaking free). However, if the spotting continues, it could indicate a cervical polyp. You want to have any non-menstrual week bleeding assessed by your gynecologist immediately.  

‍The Flo-fix - Roll back your exposure to synthetic estrogens in cosmetics and beauty products, which can lead to excess estrogen levels in your body. Nourishing your liver will support the balance between your estrogen and progesterone levels - you can do this with a weekly “Liver Lover” smoothie of ½ cup mango, ½ a green apple, 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, 1/2 cup coconut water and 1 cup of cilantro.

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‍Pain/Cramping During Ovulation

The FLO - facts:  Pain during ovulation has an actual name - it’s called Mittelschmerz - German for ‘pain in the middle’.  Cramps are caused by an improper balance of prostaglandins and excess estrogen. Often times, it can be indicative of other conditions. For example, if the pain is severe you may be dealing with endometriosis or ovarian cysts, either on their own or due to PCOS.

‍The FLO- fix As with period cramps, reducing the amount of caffeine, alcohol, and dairy you take in throughout your cycle is going to make a significant and positive difference to ovulation pain. But getting more omega 3 fatty acids in your diet is key to ridding yourself of the mid-cycle pain.

Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!