Hormone Series: Menstruation

Why does having a regular period matter?

Well you might think that unless you’re looking to fall pregnant it doesn’t.

However a lot happens in that monthly cycle that influences our health.

For example, did you know that period health affects the health of our hair and even our bone density?

There are 3 things however that I believe to be the most important issues that I’ll be focusing on in this article:

Mental Health
Fertility
Metabolism & Body Weight

By regulating our periods and therefore our hormones, we can improve our mood as well as other aspects of our health.

It’s a two way system.

By improving our general health, we improve our hormone balance and our periods become more regular.

The reason all of these things hinge around our monthly cycle is the fluctuation, timing and levels of reproductive hormones released throughout the month.

Issue #1 Women’s Mental Health

The facts…

In Australia 1 in 6 women will experience depression and
1 in 3 will experience anxiety in their lifetime.

I actually disagree wth these statistics and believe the real numbers to be much higher. Statistics rely on people seeking diagnosis and help and we all know that not everybody will do that.

And then when it comes to having babies:

1 in 10 women suffer with a depressive illness in the antenatal period
1 in 7 experience depression in the postnatal period and
1 in 5 experience anxiety in both antenatal and postnatal periods

And the most scary statistic?

The number one cause of maternal mortality in the 12 months after giving birth is suicide. 2

My point here? This stuff matters.

Issue #2 Fertility

Whether you are thinking about having your first child yet or not, for most women that day will arrive and only then will they actually find out if they are capable of falling pregnant.

Unfortunately for many women, coming off hormonal birth control can affect ovulation cycles for anywhere from 3 months to 2 years!

And whether you’ve been in that situation before or you’ve known someone who has, once the decision is made to have a baby, the wait for that positive test can be excruciating.

It is no wonder that the number of women seeking fertility treatments in Australia is sky-rocketing.

In fact 1 in 25 babies are now born via IVF – more than ever before in this country. 3

And as if struggling to conceive and then going through the expensive and at times traumatic treatment of IVF isn’t hard enough, less than 18% of IVF cycles started actually results in a live birth.

So if you can’t completely rule out having children in the future, it pays to consider your period health now – and even years before deciding to have children.

Weight & metabolism

This is an important one for the 72% of Australian women who report that they would like to lose some weight. 4

As all of our hormonal systems are connected in this interplay of chemical reactions working in balance, it makes sense that when reproductive hormones are disrupted, so are the hormones involved in stress, metabolism and fat storage.

So let’s take a look at how these hormones work.

The ovaries are hormone producing organs

After menstruation, oestrogen levels steadily rise until we ovulate when they rapidly fall. (This is a prime time for migraines by the way – a symptom of lack of progesterone.)

Once we ovulate, the old follicle that used to house our egg turns into a ‘corpus luteum’ and acts as a temporary gland producing progesterone until it degenerates, and we get our next period.

What if I don’t get periods?

Your menstrual cycle is a bit like a report card for your health, says Lara Briden, naturopath and author of the highly recommended book “Period Repair Manual”.

Every stage of your cycle and every symptom you experience related to your cycle can be tracked to a particular issue with your hormone production and balance.

Too much hormone and there are consequences, too little hormone and there are consequences.

If you’ve previously been on or are currently on hormonal contraception then this natural cycle gets majorly interrupted.

Most hormonal contraception works by blocking ovulation to prevent pregnancy.

Because we need to ovulate to develop that temporary hormonal gland (the corpus luteum) and produce progesterone… if you’re on hormonal birth control you simply aren’t making progesterone.

And to answer your next question, progestins contained in hormonal birth control are actually synthetic versions of progesterone and do not function the same way in our bodies.

So why is progesterone important?

First things first, progesterone is a calming hormone.

So if you’ve ever suspected that the pill is messing around with your mood and your mind, then you were probably right.

Apart from calming the nervous system and reducing stress responses, progesterone has many other benefits including:

reducing inflammation
building muscle
promoting sleep and
protecting against heart disease

Interestingly, if you’ve been on hormonal contraception for years, it’s likely that you haven’t ovulated in years, and therefore you haven’t made any progesterone or had a true period at all, regardless of whether you experience breakthrough bleeding.

Low progesterone can lead to PMS, headaches and migraines, breast tenderness, fluid retention, food cravings and acne – all of the things we’ve come to accept as part and parcel of being female and having hormones.

And we all know that PMS and cravings can lead to bad food choices, binging on sugar and feeling pretty awful afterward – just one of the reasons healthy periods protects against weight gain.

The thing is our hormones are designed to work in balance, rising and falling to trigger specific events in perfect sequential harmony and it is NOT normal to experience any of the above symptoms every month.

A serious reason to pay attention to your hormones

Lastly, if you are one of the 12-21% of reproductive age women who suffer from PCOS you may already realise the seriousness of hormonal imbalance on your health and wellness. 5

Unfortunately this disease is largely viewed as a diagnosis that needs to be medicated, rather than a syndrome or collection of symptoms that can be managed or resolved naturally.

Without going into too much detail, the most significant driver of PCOS (up to 70% of cases) is insulin resistance.

And if you haven’t read my previous hormone article all about insulin, you can find it here.

Once again, we’re back to addressing sugar and processed carbohydrate intake as a major factor in causing many of the modern diseases we see rife in the Western world today.

So whether you’re wanting to lose weight, fall pregnant, improve your mental health or just get rid of pesky PMS, the health of your monthly cycle is crucial.

And good nutrition and stress management can go a long way to resolving some of these issues.

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I hope that’s been helpful in some way, and if you’d love some more community and support, come and join my facebook group: Optimal Health & Self Care For Busy Women

Listen to the podcast: www.thegreenbodyplan.com/podcast

And grab my free Burnout to Balance Guide: https://go.thegreenbodyplan.com/free-burnout-guide

Kelly Moriarty is an online women’s health & nutrition coach and founder of The Green Body Plan.

After 5 years as a veterinarian Kelly was completely burnt out, battling frequent colds, chronic back pain, anxiety and eventually depression.

She re-evaluated her perceptions of success, trained as a yoga teacher, personal trainer and nutritionist and opened a gym with her husband Andy.

She now helps women make the same changes that she did to manage stress and anxiety naturally so that they can live the full and rewarding lives they deserve.

References:

Hormone Series: Menstruation

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