An app that can help alleviate period pain? We’re listening…

Name one thing worse than period pain.

Never mind, don't even try, because you can't. It's uncomfortable, it's painful, it leaves you simultaneously wanting to curl up in a ball and cry and get a hysterectomy ASAP. Basically, not the greatest time of the month for all involved. Thankfully though, there are a lot of things you can do to help alleviate some of the pain that comes with menstruation. Some people take painkillers, others do a lot of exercise, and some of us just lie in bed and eat our feelings away. As it turns out though, there may actually be another decent way to reduce period pain and involves the use of an app. Ideal. Luna is an acupressure app that encourages women suffering from period pain to apply pressure to specific points on their bodies. Rather than using needles like acupuncture does, acupressure uses pressure to diffuse pain from certain points on the body. And a recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology shows that over half of those who tried the app out experienced a reduction in pain over a period of time. Three months into the study, 37 percent of participants in the acupressure group reported a 50 percent reduction in pain intensity. After another three months, this number had rose to 58 percent. 221 people took part in the study, with half being assigned acupressure self-therapy and half not. 25 percent of those participating stated that they hadn't noticed any difference after using the app, but one of the researchers, Dr. Daniel Pach, has said that they were surprised by the positive outcome. He said: "We were surprised to see that, after six months, two thirds of participants continued to use self-acupressure. "So far, research into the clinical effectiveness of apps has been limited, and only a few have been tested using randomised controlled trials." Luna has recently been updated and optimised for use on Apple devices. You can download it here.