Hormonal Hormones

It is scary to think that Endometriosis can take up to 10 years to diagnose. That women think it is 'normal' to suffer severe menstrual cramps so much, that they take days off work or school and simply cannot function when "Aunt Flo" visits.

Period pain is common, but should not be normal.

Pain so severe that you cannot function is a dysfunction and should be looked into.

Lets look at a typical women's hormone cycle...

Typically it should be 28 days- your period for up to 7 days, then ovulation 7 days later. This 14 day cycle is the follicular phase, then you move into your luteal phase for 14 days. In saying this, a cycle of up to 36 days can be a typical cycle. During this cycle you have different hormones playing the part for various uses. In your follicular phase you have oestrogen rising which can cause breast pain and tenderness and thickens your endometrial lining after your period, and increases energy levels. In your luteal phase progesterone rises in order to help facilitate pregnancy (PRO-GEST) and prevents oestrogen levels from rising any more. Progesterone is also calming and relaxing helping you to lower anxiety and stress levels.

Unfortunately varying chemicals and disruptors can cause major issues with the delicate dance that is your hormones. Plastics that contain BPA contain xenoestrogens which can disrupt your bodies delicate balance of hormones, as does GMO food, herbicides and pesticides and photo-estrogens like hops in beer and soy.

Now don't get me wrong, organic non-GMO soy products are magical for those peri-menopausal women who need all the oestrogen they can get, but for the younger generations, chances are they are oestrogen dominant due to the many artificial forms of oestrogen in our environment, and even more so if they are experiencing heavy bleeds, PMS or PMDD, taking days off work or school due to period or breast pain, have fibroids or are suffering from all of the above.

So when we think about what and why we feel so poorly with our period we need to think about our menstrual cycle. Track it using an app or your diary. Mark down symptoms and pain scores so you can go to your health practitioner with a few cycles worth of information and think about how well your liver is working to get rid of excess hormones. They all have to go somewhere right?!

Then think about our environment, what we eat, what we touch, what we inhale. These are all ways we absorb what is in our environment, and very well could be a trigger to unbalancing the delicate dance that is our hormonal hormones.

P.S. I have a great seed cycling PDF for hormonal health you can download if you sign up to my mailing list

x Hanna