Hemorrhoids In Women

hemorrhoids in women


Lets talk about hemorrhoids in women - everyone's favorite topic!
 
Hemorrhoids, especially during pregnancy, are something you want to avoid.

We've spoken a lot about fiber, making sure that you have a healthy pregnancy diet. All of those things are really important because hemorrhoids are really just varicose veins in your anal area.

What causes hemorrhoids is straining on the toilet. Also, the pressure of the pregnancy and the pressure that is put on the veins in your circulatory system down in your pelvic area. 
 
There are some neat things you can do to help prevent getting hemorrhoids. I'm not saying that this is going to completely help you prevent any kind of hemorrhoid, but it really gives you the best chances and not developing really awful hemorrhoids while you're pregnant. 
 
Do what you can to improve your circulation. I've mentioned the cat stretches, which are important when it comes to helping prevent hemorrhoids, because they help the circulation in your entire pelvic region by taking the pressure off of your belly and improving circulation.

Swimming - A Great Strategy for Preventing Hemorrhoids in Women

One of the things that can make a huge difference when it comes to circulation and taking the pressure off your pelvic area while you're pregnant is swimming.

As a matter of fact, swimming is a wonderful great all-around exercise. Unfortunately, the majority of swimming pools have a lot of chlorine, and chlorine is toxic. It's not good to breathe chlorine. If you can filter it out of your shower water, that's a great idea. There are some filters that can prevent that. If you have a bathtub, you even want to filter chlorine out of your city water, and they add a lot less chlorine and chloramine, which is a combination of ammonia and chlorine together.  

You really want to eliminate your exposure to chlorine and chloramine while you're pregnant, which means that as awful as it is, many women feel that chlorine exposure through swimming is actually more detrimental than the actual benefits of swimming while you're pregnant.  

The good news is many areas are starting to have salt water pools, so a lot of places in the United States are starting to see salt water pools being installed in homes. Swimming in the ocean, and particularly in a bay or somewhere where you're not having to deal with big waves, is ideal. I don't recommend surfing or big waves while you're pregnant, but depending on where you live, if you can get into salt water, that's wonderful. If you have fresh water lakes, that's wonderful as well.  

The other downside of a swimming while you're pregnant is that during your first trimester, you are more sensitive to the cold. The cold water can make your breasts very painful and so some women find that the breast pain prevents them from enjoying swimming.  

However, by your second and third trimesters, you're often overheated the majority of the time and so swimming is a wonderful way to solve the problem of being overheated. The thing to know about swimming is it supports all your ligaments and joints. You weigh one-tenth of your body weight in water. When you submerge yourself in water while you're pregnant, all of a sudden it's much easier to move. You will be staggered by how much your body is having to work to hold your belly up. 

Swimming also lengthens the chest muscle, shortening the back muscles, and it's great to actually undo the tension that happens from walking around and your back muscles becoming overly tight while you're pregnant. You may find yourself hunching over while you're pregnant because you know your belly is expanding. Swimming can really help relieve some of that stress as well.

If you can find a pool or water source that doesn't have a lot of chlorine in it, swimming is a wonderful thing that you can do that helps not just with hemorrhoids because it improves circulation, but it can keep you comfortable and keep you moving. You may even want to consider being in water while you deliver. We'll touch on that a little bit later.  

Four Important Tactics to Prevent Hemorrhoids in Women 

  1. Put your feet up on a small stool while you're on the toilet having bowel movements. 
  2. You should also make sure you get enough fiber. If you're having trouble with constipation, add psyllium fiber to your diet. Make sure you have regular movements and that your stool is soft and easy for you to expel. You can try taking warm sitz baths, which can be helpful as well.
  3. If you have painful hemorrhoids or burning pain, Kegel exercises can be helpful. 
  4. Also increase your fluid intake. Those are some other great things that you can try in your third trimester to help to prevent hemorrhoids in women.  
| Pregnancy Questions | Hemorrhoids

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