The menstrual cycle occurs monthly and is the process of a woman’s body continually readying itself for pregnancy. In the weeks prior to menstruation, often called a period, the uterus creates a lining to prepare to nourish a potentially fertilized egg.1 Should this not occur, hormone levels change, and blood and the lining leave the woman’s body over the course of a few days.1 This fluctuation in hormones prior to the onset of menstruation may be largely responsible for why some women experience period bloating. According to Michelle Smith at the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, bloating is often part of a woman’s normal menstruation cycle and can be an indicator that a period is on the way.2