What Causes Bloating Before a Menstrual Cycle?

• Many women know exactly when they are about to start their menstrual period because they experience myriad symptoms, including bloating. Their favorite pair of jeans no longer fits; they can’t get the zipper zipped. Bloating is typical in women prior to the onset of their menstrual period. When a woman is bloated prior to her menstrual period, she will experience a sensation of tightness and fullness in her abdomen. It is uncomfortable and can be downright painful at times. Some women may experience bloating for a few days every month just like clockwork. Women may find that bloating is made worse when they eat.
  
  

High Hormonal Levels

• The Mayo Clinic explains that water retention, which results in bloating, occurs because of hormonal fluctuations that occur prior to the onset of the menstrual period. High levels of estrogen cause a woman’s intestinal tract to slow down. This results in constipation and makes a woman to fill up with stool and gas, which causes her abdomen to become distended or bloated. Women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) frequently complain of bloating.
  
  

Estrogen Dominance

• If your estrogen levels are too high, or even if they are normal or deficient but there is not enough progesterone in your body to counteract the estrogen, this is called estrogen dominance, and it can result in bloating. The relationship between estrogen and progesterone must stay balanced to avoid premenstrual symptoms (PMS) including bloating.
  
  

The Wrong Foods

• Right before your period, drink more water and eat a high-fiber diet, suggests the Mayo Clinic. This will help you digest and eliminate food easier and quicker, which should cut down on the gas accumulation that distends your belly. Avoid processed foods and sweets and remember to exercise because exercising helps you sweat off excess fluid.
  
  

Over-Correction

• When a woman’s estrogen levels decline, which happens later in life but while she is still menstruating, her body tries to find new sources of estrogen, other than the ovaries, which are not longer working optimally. Fat cells are estrogen sources, according to Bodylogicmd.com. Your body will transform calories into fat to increase estrogen production. This is called estrogen over-correction. Bloating can occur as a result. In addition, when progesterone levels decrease, which happens during peri-menopause, this makes a woman retain water and bloat.