Your period relies heavily on your hormonal production in order to be regular each month. We have to produce our hormones in different amounts every day to create the 4 phase menstrual cycle. Due to this, your period can give you important clues about your overall health when you track your period and any related symptoms.
Progesterone is the hormone released in the second half of your menstrual cycle after ovulation. It is produced by the corpus luteum, the sac that remains once you ovulate & turns into a hormone-secreting gland during the luteal phase. It’s important to dig into your root causes of low (or no progesterone). Supplements may help to support a nutrition, lifestyle, & movement foundation. It is also important to focus on food sources of these nutrients!
PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, is a hormone-related condition that can affect your cycle and infertility. If untreated, PCOS can eventually develop and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. It is diagnosed by having two out of the following three symptoms listed below. As a syndrome, there is a collection of symptoms that are patient dependent. Due to this, PCOS can present very differently from person to person. It is important to understand your root causes driving your condition and receive proper treatment for each cause.
If you have a missing period for any amount of time, that is a signal your body is trying to send you that something is imbalanced. Your hormones are driving the bus that leads you to your menstruation every month. If your hormones are too low or too high, the bus will take a turn in the opposite away from menstruation. Hormone levels can be greatly impacted by your lifestyle and nutrition, so it is important to figure out what the root causes are for your missing period.
Stress is a physiological response that results from a stressor. Normally we associate stress with a hard job, difficult family problems, busy schedules, or hard exams, but we can also become stressed due to imbalances in the body not necessarily caused by those external factors. Nutrient imbalances, blood sugar increases, and low hormone levels can all lead to stress. It is important to understand that stress is not always just a product of a stressful lifestyle and that sometimes the stress you feel is an indicator something is imbalance internally. When these imbalances occur our cortisol production is increased from the adrenal glands, which sets off a cascade of negative effects in our body.
This increase in cortisol will trigger your fight or flight response in the sympathetic nervous system which will cause a rise in blood sugar, blood pressure, and breathing rates. During stressful situations, digestion and reproduction take a backseat because they are not a priority for survival. When you are stressed for long periods, this can trigger adrenal fatigue because your adrenal glands are producing too much cortisol which uses a lot of energy. Digestive issues and hormone imbalances can be a cause and a result of stress.
Birth control comes in many forms and has a variety of different hormone ratios. Its purpose is to artificially administer different hormone levels on each day of the month to mimic a normal menstrual cycle. Usually, without birth control, the brain communicates with the ovaries to produce the correct amount of hormones per day to create a menstrual cycle. Through use of birth control, this brain-ovary connection is separated, and the ovaries do not produce hormones for the duration of the time birth control is administered. This is because the body is receiving artificial forms of hormones through birth control. During this time, the egg is never released from the ovary and ovulation never occurs.
Many women who choose to partake in going off birth control can often go through a difficult transition phase because now your body has to relearn how to secrete the proper hormones on its own. Resuming normal hormone balance can become a difficult task for the body at first. When going off birth control, there is potential for symptoms to reappear that originated before birth control use or even new symptoms can arise too (I know, it’s not fair!). The good news is that there are many ways to support this transition from stopping birth control by utilizing nutrition and lifestyle changes to aid your hormone regulation.
Many women who choose to partake in going off birth control can often go through a difficult transition phase because now their body has to relearn how to secrete the proper hormones on its own.
Hair loss from birth control is a common symptom for those who have made the decision to transition off of hormonal birth control. This can occur after stopping birth control due to something called androgen rebound. This is when your androgen levels can raise and even become elevated after being suppressed by the pill. Your androgens are your testosterone, DHEA, DHT. Increasing androgens cause hair loss because DHT is an opponent of hair follicles and the more it is produced the more it will create hair loss and decrease the size of the hair follicle.
There are many reasons for painful periods. While period cramps are definitely common, that doesn’t mean that they are normal. Any sort of pain is a sign from your body to investigate that something is not working properly or something is out of balance. Though many women love to curl up on the couch with a certain comfort snack to help cope with the pain, many of these beloved snacks actually may contain foods that make cramps worse, and your overall period experience worse. While you can definitely enjoy these foods, it’s important to understand which foods may make your cramps worse so you can make connections between the foods you eat and the symptoms you experience.
Stress is a physiological response that happens in the body in response to a stressor. Normally we associate stress with a hard job, difficult family problems, busy schedules, or hard exams, but we can become stressed due to imbalances in the body not necessarily caused by those external factors. Nutrient imbalances, blood sugar increases, and low hormone levels can all lead to stress. It is important to understand that stress is not always just a product of a stressful lifestyle and that sometimes the stress you feel is an indicator something is imbalance internally. When these imbalances occur our cortisol production is increased from the adrenal glands, which sets off a cascade of negative effects in our body. Luckily there are nutrients for stress that can ease the cortisol imbalances.
Stress is a physiological response to all of these things listed. Our bodies gear up to protect us to literally run or fight it. Cortisol, our stress hormone, is released and blood sugar, blood pressure, and breathing rate rise to have oxygen and energy. Digestion and reproduction take a back seat because it is not deemed important at this moment until the threat is handled. Chronic stress can lead to imbalances in the body over time.
When we wake up in the morning, we get a burst of cortisol to allow us to be motivated to start the day and to get out of bed, and as the day goes on the cortisol will decrease to normal levels so that you feel tired by the end of the day. At this time, your cortisol levels should be at their lowest point. Many women do not have this cycle of cortisol because if you are not getting enough sleep or not getting enough quality of sleep this can inhibit cortisol from dropping throughout the day, and it can cause a spike to occur before bed. A cortisol spike in the evening may be behind your inability to fall asleep, nighttime racing thoughts, or insomnia.
