What Does a Healthy Menstrual Cycle Look Like? A Guide for Women

Most of us were never taught what a healthy period truly looks like, instead we were told that cramps are inevitable and heavy bleeding runs in families, and if we complained we were offered tablets or the pill as though the menstrual cycle were an inconvenience to be subdued rather than a vital sign to be observed. I believed this myself for years until my own struggles forced me to pay closer attention.

When I was sixteen, my periods were so heavy and painful that I had to wear both a super plus tampon and a pad simultaneously, and still, I would bleed through within the hour. I remember sitting in school, trying to concentrate on lessons, on exams, on the awkward negotiations of adolescence, all while bracing against the near inevitability of leaking onto my clothes. My doctors prescribed mefenamic acid and tranexamic acid which dulled the symptoms but made me uneasy because I worried about what those drugs might mean for my long term health, and eventually they put me on the pill, which did improve my mood and even altered my body in ways that I liked, but again I was uneasy because I did not want to silence my cycle completely.

That was the first time I began to understand that my period was not simply a private burden but a signal, a message about what was happening in my body, and that a cycle that is out of balance is every bit as significant as an irregular pulse or a persistent fever. Your period is not simply monthly bleeding, it is one of the most consistent mirrors of your inner health, and to ignore it or suppress it without cause is to overlook a powerful diagnostic tool that our bodies have always carried.

The Four Phases of a Healthy Cycle

In broad terms a healthy cycle follows four movements, much like the changing of the seasons, each with its own character but inseparable from the whole year. Each stage reveals something essential about the state of our bodies.

Menstruation/Winter (Day 1–5) is the shedding of the uterine lining and should last between three and seven days with fresh red blood rather than dark stagnation, the flow should be steady but not overwhelming, somewhere around 30 to 80ml in total (if you felt like measuring), and cramping should be present but not incapacitating.

The Follicular Phase/Spring (Day 6–14) begins once bleeding ceases and energy gradually returns, you may notice your mood lightening and your outlook becoming more outward facing. Cervical mucus should shift from scant and sticky to creamier and then progressively clearer as your body prepares for ovulation.

Ovulation/Summer (around Day 14 in a typical 28-day cycle) is marked by the presence of slippery, egg-white like mucus, often accompanied by a very subtle shift in basal body temperature, some women feel a small pain on one side, called mittelschmerz. This fertile window is a sign of a body working in concert with its hormonal signals.

The Luteal Phase/Autumn (Day 15–28) should bring a steadier more reflective energy, the influence of progesterone ideally provides good sleep, emotional equilibrium, and balanced appetite, PMS may exist but in a healthy cycle it should be minor and not disruptive.

When to Pay Attention

There are of course warning signs, and it is important not to dismiss them as quirks of your body. If your cycle is shorter than 24 days or longer than 35, if you bleed so heavily you soak through protection every hour, if cramps leave you doubled over or unable to function, if your blood is dominated by clots or is consistently dark and stagnant, if your moods are so volatile that they derail relationships or your ability to work? Then your body is signalling imbalance and that deserves attention rather than dismissal.

Herbal and Traditional Supports

Here is where the wisdom of plants comes in because herbs have been used for millennia to support women’s cycles. While modern science is beginning to catch up with herbal mechanisms of action, traditional knowledge remains invaluable.

I often think of Angelica sinensis, known as dong quai, which herbalist Matthew Wood describes as breaking up blood stagnation that causes painful dysmenorrhea or prolonged bleeding, and which contemporary studies also support for improving circulation and regulating cycles. Then there is Viburnum opulus, cramp bark, a friend for women whose cramps radiate into the thighs or sacrum, easing uterine spasm before, during and after menstruation.

On a more intimate and ritualistic level, I personally love preparing a tea of Lamium, either purpureum or album, with chamomile, because the act of making and drinking something hot forces me to pause, to rehydrate when I don’t feel like drinking anything, and it feels as though the tea flows through me, drawing tension from body and spirit alike, releasing it through urine in a way that always makes me laugh at its earthiness.

Other stalwarts include raspberry leaf, a tonic for uterine tone and balanced flow, and ginger, which not only warms and stimulates circulation but acts as an anti-inflammatory, softening the bite of cramps.

Why Listening Matters More Than Suppressing

There is nothing inherently wrong with using pharmaceuticals, whether the pill or painkillers, if that is what you need in a particular season of life. I myself have relied on them. But what I urge is that you do not fall into the trap of thinking that silencing your period forever is the solution. Your cycle is a monthly barometer of your health, one of the most faithful markers you have of how your hormones, nutrition, stress and environment are interacting. To cut it off without cause is to lose a vital stream of information about yourself.

Closing Reflection

If your period feels unbearable, if it rules your life, please know you are not alone. I have been the girl bleeding through her jeans while waitressing, I have felt the despair of being told by doctors that my pain was just bad luck, and I have felt the relief of discovering plants and practices that brought balance.

Your menstrual cycle is not an enemy. It is a rhythm, a mirror, a guide. It deserves to be honoured, not suppressed or ignored. If it is out of balance, there are ways to listen to it, to work with it, to support it into harmony again, and when it is healthy it can become one of your greatest teachers about your own vitality.

If you are ready to explore herbal strategies for your own cycle health you can begin by observing your own rhythms and, if you wish for deeper guidance, I would be honoured to support you.