How to Optimize your Hormone Cycle

So, yeah, this is for the ladies: Part 3 of a series on the female hormone cycle. 

Step 1. Notice changes in your cycle. Here are some suggestions:

1. Use your calendar. I’ve been charting my periods on my home calendar for years. I also chart ovulation, since that is a good indicator of when exactly my period will come (12-14 days later, for almost everyone). Also I feel like ovulation is kind of a special occasion, because it tells me I’m capable of creating life.

http://www.wikihow.com/Know-When-You-Are-Ovulating

2. Chart your cycles. Heard that one before, eh? Might be ‘cause it’s a good idea. But you don’t have to use it just to for fertility, as is commonly seen in the media. You can make a home-made calendar just for charting your moods, dreams, cravings, and other changes through your hormone cycle. Or, you can use an electronic calendar on gmail, phone/tablet, or computer.

3. Create a word processor document for each phase of the cycle: “Menstrual”, “follicular”, “ovulation” and “luteal/pre-menstrual” If you don't like the way these sound, you can use other names. I’ve heard the menstrual phase called “moontime”, “bleeding”, or you could try something more playful: “Aunt Flo’s visit- remember to make brownies!”. Use the word documents to keep track of changes in your mood, dreams, food cravings, or whatever you want in each phase. You can look back on these when you need inspiration, or use it to keep track of emotional and physical symptoms/changes.  

Step 2: Optimize your life based on what you notice. 

Once you start noticing how you’re feeling, what foods and activities you crave, during each phase, the next logical step is to optimize your life so you can do those things. As we know, life runs smoothly when we do the things our body/energy systems naturally ask of us. (The asking, of course, can be anything from a whisper to a furious kick!)

Physically, Dr. Christiane Northrup's Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom  (1998) has some marvelous tips for using diet and exercise to regulate hormones and alleviate cycle discomfort. (I highly recommend dropping the $18 for this book; it has been a resource to me for 12 years, and it clearly explains the mind-body connection for women.) Once you begin to learn what foods and herbs help alleviate cramps, PMS, or other imbalances for you, you can easily do an “elimination diet” type experiment. For example, in the book, Dr. Northrup recommends eliminating red meat and egg yolks for cramps, and supplementing with calcium-rich foods. For fatigue during menstruation, you can see if supplementing with iron-rich foods might help, or if your system just needs rest.

Emotionally, there are as many ways for the hormone system to interact with your neurobiology as there are fertile women in the world. This is why it is crucial for you to familiarize yourself with the language of your unique hormone cycle. When you begin to ask your body what it needs, instead of telling it what it should do for you, you will unlock your body's energy. You may find hidden talents that you never knew you had. Your relationships will almost certainly improve.

You may find this process brings up strong emotions of fear, anger, or sadness that you didn't know were there. As women, our relationship with our bodies may be tainted with cultural beliefs about weakness, "dirtiness", or shame. Lara Owen's (1993) book Her Blood is Gold: Awakening to the Wisdom of Menstruation is a powerful resource for looking at those beliefs, exploring healthier alternatives, and honoring your body's own wisdom. If you find this a difficult process, it is certainly OK to seek professional counseling, support groups, or simply reach out to female friends. The good news is that more and more of us are healing and our wisdom and support is popping up everywhere. Now is the time for women to heal; now is the time for us to blossom. 

I’ll be posting ideas for optimizing each phase of the cycle. As for now, reader, I’ll leave you to your wild and precious imagination.  :)

Energies of the Female Hormone Cycle

This is part 2 of a series of posts designed to help you, ladies, make the most of your cycle. We don’t hear much about this. Usually it’s in the context of fertility planning, or managing the “symptoms” of menstruation with various products. We use painkillers, caffeine, and clever self-trickery to pretend that we are always the same. But we’re not. We have an ever-changing palette of hormonal “colors”, which is a good thing, if we know how to use them.

A few posts back I mentioned Alisa Vitti’s (2011) video, “Loving your lady parts as a path to success, power, and global change.” This isn’t the only resource for understanding your hormone cycle. I also highly recommend Dr. Christiane Northrup’s book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (1998), which I rely on below for information on the hormonal aspects, as well as the concept of a creative cycle being expressed through ovulation, premenstrual processing, and menstrual renewal. Finding this true for me, I simply extended the metaphor to include the 4 seasons. Below, you'll find the energies and hormones present in each phase, with tips on how to maximize them. However, it’s your body’s wisdom that will be your best guide.

(Medical literature typically identifies the follicular phase (high-estrogen) as Week I. However, since menstruation correlates with winter/rebirth, I find it appropriate to begin with menstruation, so I'm taking the liberty to present it this way.This will be a change from earlier posts.)

I: Menstruation

Hormones: None. The left and right brain communicate well during this time.

Energy: Feminine.

Life cycle: Birth/Infancy, Winter.

Ideal activities: Rest, dreaming, prayer and meditation, nurturing activities (baths, cuddling), right-brain activities (brainstorming, improvisation).

II: Follicular Phase. Beginning on the 4^th-8^thday after your period starts, and lasting ~7 days, this is when your hormones rev up again. You may feel more energetic and more interested in socializing, work, and sex.

Reproductive hormones: Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteal hormone (LH), estrogen.

Energy: masculine, forward-moving, 3^rd chakra.

Life cycle: Adolescence (formation of identity and trying new things), spring (building and preparing for reproduction/creativity).

Ideal activities: Reminiscing about the past, bonding with partners and close friends, gathering information, planning.

III: Ovulatory Phase. The week in which you ovulate, this is a time of high energy and communication power. According to Alisa Vitti, “you are like a magnet” - can you relate?? 

Hormones: Having peaked just before the egg is released, your estrogen, FSH and LH start to decline. Progesterone starts to rise in their place.
Energy: Feminine, connecting, heart chakra.

Life cycle: Adult, Summer: Seeing multiple perspectives, having an instinct to produce, create, and nurture.

Ideal activities: Having difficult conversations, asking for things, being social, work that requires connecting the dots, creative projects.  

IV: Luteal Phase.

Hormones: Progesterone peaks about 7 days before menstruation, then begins to decline.

Energy: Masculine/feminine balance; 5^th and 6^th chakra.

Life cycle: Elderly, Winter: Possessing wisdom earned through experience; “composting” the past in order to aid the next cycle's growth. 

Ideal activities: Touching up/finishing projects; Presenting work/creative projects to others; Giving and receiving feedback; Processing areas for improvement in work or personal life; Expressing needs that have not been met, or gratitude if they have. 

See my next post for how to optimize your life based on your unique cycle.

Hormone Cycles: girls' guide to happy and powerful living

So this is a blog about the mind-body connection, about living well in a truly embodied way. If you're a woman, your hormone cycles can be a powerful gateway toward harmony between body and mind. Why? because the 4 phases - menstruation, follicular phase, ovulation, and the luteal phase - all have a distinct effect on how your brain works. And those effects can work for you or against you, depending on how well you know yourself and how willing you are to heed your body's wisdom.

As a woman, I've been waiting for science to clue into women's cyclical wisdom for years. In 2002, I was a junior in college, and had gotten my hands on Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, a big book by Dr. Christiane Northrup about women's health. Northrup (1998) explained how diet, lifestyle, and beliefs can affect female conditions like PMS, all the way on up to ovarian cancer. A PMS sufferer at the time, I grasped onto the idea that living more in harmony with my hormonal cycles could alleviate my moodiness. And you know what? It worked, like a charm. Since then I have been providing myself time to reflect, meditate, be creative, or whatever-I-feel-like (within reason) during the week before and the week of my period, and have come to experience these times as a resource, rather than a burden to me.

I am completely dumbfounded by the fact that the menstrual cycle (more accurately, and henceforth known as, the "hormone cycle"), continues to be an area of mystery, awkwardness, and taboo. That is, I find it dumb - dim-witted, nonsensical, and illogical - that this part of women's lives should be considered off-limits today. Which is why you never hear this:

"Hi yes Sally, I won't be coming in today, I'm not feeling well."
"Oh, that's too bad. What's wrong?"
"Got cramps, and feeling emotionally sensitive and in need of quiet. You know how it is, Sally!"
"Haha, yes of course dear. We'll see you in 3-4 days."

There's the 2nd-wave feminist approach that menstruation is merely a physical process, so women should gladly use pills and products to keep themselves in the game 24/7. But with science now showing variations in brain morphology and chemistry during the cycle, it's hard to deny that for many women, the menstrual cycle is a bio-psychological-spiritual phenomenon that truly affects their lives.

So it was with delight, but not much surprise, that I finally saw Alisa Vitti's (2011) Ted Talk, "Loving Your Lady Parts as a Path to Success, power & global change", in which she laid out the neurobiology the 4 phases of the hormone cycle. They are:
1) Follicular: with increased access to creative energy, a good time for starting projects;
2) Ovulatory: with hot communication skills;
3) Luteal: with an eye for detail; and
4) Menstrual: with increased connection between left and right brain, the best time for reflection.

I've been feelin' and writing about this for years. I will say that my own mental/emotional cycle doesn't exactly follow Vitti's model; for example, my follicular phase can feel more preparatory than all-out creative. All women have their unique version of this cycle. Vitti's point, with which I agree wholeheartedly, is that following the "blueprint" of your individual cycle can be a path to health, happiness and success. By listening to your body's regularly timed messages, women can discover a treasure trove of creative wisdom, power, and energy. Click next for tips on using the energy of each phase!