Is Your Period Pain Normal? What Women in Utah Should Really Know

Let’s just say this out loud: if your period knocks you out every month, that’s not something you should automatically accept as “normal.” If you’re canceling plans in Salt Lake City, skipping workouts in Draper, or missing powder days in Park City because your cramps feel like contractions, we need to have a different conversation.

Yes, mild cramping can be common. Yes, hormonal shifts can make you feel a little off. But debilitating pain, vomiting, migraines, or bleeding so heavy you’re anxious to leave the house? That’s not a rite of passage. That’s information.

As a hormone and inflammation specialist working with women across Utah, from Provo to Ogden to St. George, I see how often suffering gets minimized. You’re told your labs look “fine.” You’re offered birth control. You’re handed ibuprofen. Somewhere along the way, you start believing this is just how your body works.

It isn’t.

What’s Actually Causing the Pain

During the late luteal phase of your cycle, your uterine lining produces compounds called prostaglandins. These hormone-like chemicals signal your uterus to contract so it can shed its lining.

Here’s the key: prostaglandins are inflammatory.

The more prostaglandins you produce, the stronger the contractions; the stronger the contractions, the more pain you feel. Research published in Human Reproduction Update (Dawood, 2006) shows women with dysmenorrhea, or painful periods, have significantly higher prostaglandin levels than women who experience minimal discomfort.

This isn’t your body being dramatic. It’s physiology.

The real question becomes this: why is your inflammatory load high enough to amplify the process?

When Is Period Pain a Red Flag?

Some discomfort that improves with movement, hydration, or magnesium can fall within a normal range.

But if your period does any of the following, it deserves a deeper evaluation:

• Radiating pain into your back or legs

• Nausea or vomiting

• Fainting or feeling lightheaded

• Pain that forces you to miss work or social plans

• Symptoms that are worsening over time

According to The Lancet (Chapron et al., 2019), endometriosis affects about 1 in 10 women of reproductive age; diagnosis can take years. That means many women in Salt Lake City and surrounding areas are walking around undiagnosed, assuming their level of pain is typical.

If you have to structure your month around surviving your period, that’s not “just hormones.” It’s a signal.

The Inflammation + Blood Sugar Connection No One Talks About

Here’s where we zoom out.

Your cycle doesn’t exist in isolation from your lifestyle. Period pain is often amplified by systemic inflammation, and inflammation is influenced by how you eat, sleep, train, and manage stress.

If you’re running on caffeine in downtown SLC, skipping meals between meetings, pushing intense workouts in Lehi, and sleeping five hours a night, your body is in a stress state. Stress drives inflammation. Inflammation drives prostaglandins. Prostaglandins drive cramping.

Blood sugar instability is one of the most overlooked contributors to hormone imbalance. Spikes and crashes increase cortisol; elevated cortisol can disrupt ovulation quality and progesterone production. Low progesterone often means heavier bleeding and more painful cycles.

This is why foundational strategies matter more than trendy hacks:

• Eating balanced meals with adequate protein and fiber

• Not skipping breakfast

• Prioritizing 7 to 8 hours of sleep

• Adjusting training intensity across your cycle

• Supporting key minerals such as magnesium and zinc

None of this is flashy. It’s just effective.

Heavy Bleeding Isn’t Something to Brush Off

Pain gets the spotlight, but bleeding patterns tell a story too.

If you’re soaking through a pad or tampon every 1 to 2 hours, bleeding longer than 7 days, passing large clots, or cycling every 21 days or less, we need to think beyond bad luck.

Heavy or painful cycles can be associated with:

• Estrogen dominance

• Low progesterone

• Thyroid dysfunction

• Fibroids

• Adenomyosis

• PCOS

Birth control can absolutely be a helpful tool for some women. But it works by suppressing ovulation and controlling symptoms; it does not investigate why your hormones were dysregulated in the first place.

If you’re in Utah searching for hormone testing, natural period pain relief, or functional medicine support in Salt Lake City or Park City, know this: there are options beyond masking symptoms.

What a Healthy Period Should Actually Feel Like

A healthy period doesn’t mean zero sensation. It means manageable.

Typically, that looks like predictable 26 to 32 day cycles, bleeding for 3 to 7 days, mild to moderate cramping that doesn’t derail your schedule, and PMS that’s noticeable but not personality-altering.

Your period shouldn’t control your life. It shouldn’t steal your hikes in St. George, your ski days in Park City, or your productivity at work in Provo.

Your body whispers before it screams. Recurring period pain is often an early whisper that inflammation, ovulation quality, or hormone balance needs attention… and the sooner you address it, the easier it is to correct.

When you support root causes, things shift: blood sugar stabilizes, ovulation improves, progesterone rises appropriately, inflammation decreases. Cycles often become significantly more manageable. Not overnight. But steadily. Predictably.

You don’t have to guess your way through this.

If you’re ready to understand what your hormones are actually telling you, and how to respond in a strategic, grounded way, start here:

Download the Hormones, Explained Guide and get clear on what’s happening in your body and what to do next.