Taking shrooms is a disorienting experience, and its not well researched into what happens when ladies go shrooming during menstruation. Here’s a little personal experience.
Does it matter if ladies go shrooming during menstruation?
The first thing to say here, is that there is really no research on this. Sure, its expected that psilocybin has some kind of effect on estrogen, and that estrogen can affect psilocybin trips (or vice versa); but there is little else to define what happens when shrooming during menstruation. And of course, like the rest of life, there is no one answer.
We ladies are a complicated group. We have constant hormone changes throughout the month, which can cause our moods to go up and down, particularly as we get closer to menstruation. And this is without adding in any drug. Women vary, sure, with some experiencing far more of this than others; but the reality of womankind, is that we live within quite a dynamic hormonal structure.
Now, think about it. Does a drug experience change depending on how we feel and our internal dynamics? Kind of seems like it would. We are told how important set and setting are for a trip, and that’s the part that’s outside of us. Any high we undertake in life, is likely to be affected by our own bio-physiology; and for a woman, menstruation is a particularly intense time for the body.
Just to get to menstruation, a woman’s hormones must substantially drop. These drops cause low hormone levels, which are associated with all kinds of symptoms; like soreness, headaches, and flu like symptoms, mood swings, anxiety, and sometimes extreme mood drops. So, it’s not like the rest of the month, and its not that out there to expect some drugs might affect a woman differently at this time.
Before getting into a personal experience, I do want to point out a suspected connected between psilocybin and estrogen. In terms of women’s menstrual cycles, psilocybin might be able to even out irregular menstruation, help with PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), and polycystic ovary syndrome. These are not statements, as the subject must be further researched; but the idea these concepts have come up in some research, does indicate that psilocybin is affecting hormones somehow.
Me and magic mushrooms
Much like many young people in college, I did a fair number of drugs in my university days; although nothing too intense. For the most part, it was weed and alcohol, although other drugs got mixed in here and there over the years, and mushrooms were one. My clearest memory is sitting on some grassy field somewhere close to campus with a couple friends, and watching the sun come up. I didn’t do them all the time, but I never remember a bad time.
Things can change, though. And somewhere along the way, I became the kind of person who is more prone to bad trips. This was established for me with a bad acid trip, and a few MDMA experiences which were generally okay, but with a lot of stress and anxiety. It matters little what set and setting, or how relaxed I start out. I’m just one of those people that repeatedly doesn’t respond well.
The thing is, mushrooms are now associated with so many great things, right? Well, as a writer and interested user, I started taking microdose amounts, and that was fine for the most part. So I decided after many years, to try a full trip again. No heroic doses, no big ones even. I didn’t go over the equivalent of 1.5-2 grams in dried weight, although I took capsules, rather than actual mushrooms.
When I made the plans to take them with a friend, I had not considered my period. But the day before I was meant to do it, I got it…two days early. I decided, for science if nothing else, that I would go through with the trip, anyway. I did some requisite searches, realized there wasn’t much out there in terms of information, and went for it.
Shrooming during menstruation
As a person who is prone to bad trips, but was only planning a small dose, I had no idea what to expect. Would it calm down my not-so-bad, but still existent cramps? Would it throw me into some crazy uncontrolled mood? Would it help, or would it hurt, or would it do nothing at all?
At first I found it to help a bit. For the first hour or so after it kicked in, I felt fewer issues. But then it changed. The cramps started heavily. And with them, my anxiety rose. Beyond the cramping, I began experiencing powerful hot flashes as well. Now, I cannot say with any certainty if this was a function of my natural cycle, or if the shrooming had an affect on my period. I get these symptoms anyway, and I can’t predict when during menstruation they’ll hit, so there’s no clear answer. But they did continue intensely through the trip.
I didn’t take more at that point, it didn’t seem like a good idea. The cramps also seemed to dampen the psychedelic effects of the mushrooms. I don’t know if this has to do with prostaglandins which are released during cramping, and which are a main reason for feeling sick when menstruating, but it could have been. Prostaglandins are inflammatory, and when cramping, you can expect to feel the worst. For this reason, and the timing, I certainly don’t rule out that my natural cycle, simply overrode the good effects of the mushrooms.
What I can say, is that they didn’t exactly help. It’s not like I went from having cramps to not having them; or from a bad mood to something more level. Whether the mushrooms actually increased cramping or anxiety, I certainly can’t say. But it seemed quite possible to me at the time. It’s also quite possible that someone who ordinarily does better with mushrooms, might have a better time during menstruation.
Afterwards
The problem with trying to decipher this, is that menstruation is such a strange and, well, messed up time. Some women get by without feeling much, or without a lot of changing mood issues; but for some, it’s a real problem. It’s several days per month when things really aren’t working well. When things can be downright bad. And anything that might provide relief or an answer, is useful.
In the case of a regular bad trip, the drug wears out of the system, and the negative symptoms end. This is pretty standard. It might be uncomfortable for a little while, but afterwards things settle back into a norm. It’s highly infrequent, and barely noted, that a person has an issue after the drug wears out of their system.
For me, it was actually hard to tell when it wore off. Since I did not take the kind of amount that leads to intense visuals, it wasn’t about waiting for hallucinations to stop. For the most part it was an intense body high, only, with some mild brightening of colors. Because of the discomfort from the cramping, it was actually quite difficult to know when the trip was over.
And since I was in the middle of my period, it was hard to know if the psilocybin at all intensified the standard menstruation issues, or if the menstruation issues were simply strong enough to counteract the drug. I knew by the end of the night it was over, but there was certainly less of a line this time around.
While I found it to be an interesting experience; from here on out, any shrooming experimentation for me will likely be kept away from menstruation. Regardless of my experience, we should see expansion on this general topic in the next few years to come. Perhaps mushrooms really do increase cramping for some; and perhaps for others, they can actually help ease symptoms.
Conclusion
Sometimes its hard to know what you’ll get. In the case of me shrooming during menstruation, it wasn’t the most fun experience I’ve ever had; but it was certainly a learning one.
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