When my period recently came back after the birth of baby Elias, it carried with it a new phenomena for me… pain! I have never in my life had PMS or cramps, but boy does my menstruation carry a wallop now.
At first I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. It felt like I was having constant labor contractions. Intense ones! It took a little while before I finally realized that it was PMS.
So I tried something that I’d heard was a natural remedy for menstrual cramps- Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. Fortunately, I had some leftover from my pregnancy, which is something else it’s fantastic for.
By the time I’d finished my first cup of hot tea, the pain was completely gone. Relief! And it didn’t come back, either. I was surprised by how well it actually worked! It was so nice to have a natural, good-for-you remedy to relieve the pain instead of motrin or something.
Since we have raspberry growing here, I plan on drying my own organic leaves for tea.
Dried Raspberry Leaves Tea Recipe
- Pour a cup of boiling water over about 2 tsp of dried, crumbled leaves.
- Allow to steep for 10 minutes.
- Strain, and sweeten as desired.
Do you suffer from painful menstrual cramps? Have you ever tried raspberry leaf tea? Do you know of another good remedy for PMS?
A city girl learning to homestead on an acre of land in the country. Wife and homeschooling mother of four. Enjoying life, and everything that has to do with self sufficient living.
For heavy painful periods, 2 strong cups of plantain tea, will stop the bleeding! 2-3 teaspoons of dried plantain leaf or a handful of fresh, clean, tore up leaves in a cup of boiling water. Steep 15-20 minutes, strain, add honey if needed. It’s a very weak tea though, you may not need anything in it.
I’ve never heard of using plantain for periods. Thanks, Tina!!
I drank it as a pregnancy tea, but haven’t had it since then. I should by some because every now and then I do get painful cramps, but thankfully not every month.
I’m going to have to TRY this! I have cramps that make me want to kill things!
I can testify! My June period lasted an ENTIRE MONTH. Went to the doctor in a freak out to find out why and an ultrasound showed that the lining of my uterus is twice the average thickness of most women which is why I took a month to shed it.
This month when I felt my period approaching, I immediately began drinking red raspberry leaf tea and my period, although heavy has heck, finished in five days which is my normal time.
My recipe: Brew a half and half mix of your favorite tea (I used black but green would work) and dried red raspberry leaves adding your sweetener of choice to the brewing water, to taste.
This still made for a bitter brew, even with sweetener added. I happen to like Arnold Palmers so I mixed my tea half and half with lemonade and drank 16 ounces of the mix a day.
Yes, I’ve had horrific cramps since I was 12yo.
Only after having children and then switching to cloth pads/diva cup and having better nutrition/nourishment has it tapered off to only a few hours of very mild pain which is quite doable.
Versus the 3-5 days of constant knife-stabbing pain, occasionally blacking out, fairly potent nausea [yeah, I once came to after blacking out on the bathroom floor and vomiting on myself *after* taking a shower – was on the bus to school 20 minutes later so I wouldn’t get grounded for a school tardy] that I’d gotten used to while juggling school and all my part time jobs.
I was just wondering what it is good for in pregnancy. I am 18 weeks pregnant with my 3rd baby and very interested in a more natural approach to this pregnancy.
I nominated you, Kendra, for a Beautiful Blogger award. Thank you for your no-nonsense information.
Thank you so much for this. I don’t know why it has never dawned on me to try herbs. I just deal with it because I don’t like taking OTC meds as much as possible. I’m going to have to try this. And thanks for the link to the Bulk Herb store. I found that to be an excellent one stop resource for me.
I take tincture of Dong Quai. It’s a chinese herb. It works great and for me it works better than the raspberry leafs tea. While at a time I needed to take tylenol 4 times a day for 3 days, I haven’t had to take any since I started the Dong Quai (with raspberry leafs I still had to have some tylenol, even if not as much). And I swear pain is actually lessening every period.
Vitex! It is a life saver. Naturally balances hormones. If my teenage daughter starts having an attitude, someone in the family always asks her if she has taken her Vitex.
I have never tried out raspberry leaves, but am curious now to try it out as a pregnancy tea! Thanks for your post!
That’s would be great for my daughter. Thanks for the tip. I will check it out first since I have found out that some herbal remedies actually interfere with birth control. Chasteberry is one.