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I'm Hormonal | functional hormone insight + advice
If you're looking for information on women's hormone health, how to support your menstrual cycle, and what you need to know for long term wellness--look no further. I'm Hormonal host, Bridget Walton, provides you with the information you need to get your hormones in balance so you can feel your best.
I'm Hormonal | functional hormone insight + advice
Troubleshooting your period problems: a look at the most common signs of hormone imbalance | Ep. 49
What if you could achieve hormonal balance and reclaim your energy levels? This just in: you absolutely can! Let me help.
In todays episode, we’ll troubleshoot symptoms including:
- PMS
- Period pain
- Irregular cycles
- Missing periods
- Low/irregular energy
You’ll learn about common causes as well as first steps you can take to get some relief.
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Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hello out there and welcome to this week's episode of I'm Hormonal. My name is Bridget and I am so happy to be recording this episode for you today. What I'm going to be walking you through are some of the most common signs of hormone imbalance, which I'm assuming for many of you is probably why you're listening. You're like okay, what's going on with my body? How do I make sense of this? How do I move past it? What do I start doing? So I thought we'd just kind of bring it back to the basics today and cover that We'll be going through unruly PMS period, pain, missing periods, irregular periods and, finally, irregular or low energy. So give me just a couple minutes and then we will dive into that goodness. In the meantime, though. I just want to say thank you so much for listening. I know you have one zillion different options that you can have in your earbuds, so it's not lost on me that you are hanging out here. I can look and see where you guys are listening from. I see you out there in Monroe, north Carolina, west Palm Beach, florida, across the pond in Brussels and Prague, and I see you guys here, local near Encinitas, california. So sending you all of the love. I started this podcast a little over a year ago now, and really the reason behind it is because I've learned so much about well, about hormones, you guessed it about how to make sense of the signals that our bodies are trying to send us and what we can do to help it, so I really want to spread the word. I think that we all deserve access to this sort of information, so that's what we're doing here today. One quick reminder as always, the information that I share with you today is for educational purposes only, should not be used as a replacement for any sort of medical advice, diagnosis or other one-on-one support from a certified practitioner. Now, that being said, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me on Instagram, you can find me at Bridget Walton or check out the link in the show notes. Or if you are like, hey, I'm ready to get some one-on-one support, I want somebody to help me understand what's going on in my body, then maybe I'm your gal, right? I would love to connect with you. You can also check out a link in the show notes and we can connect and understand what your goals are. So, with that being said, let's get into the good stuff. For today it's not going to be all inclusive, right. We'll be hitting more wavetops.
Speaker 1:Health is so nuanced, right In this, I don't know 10, 15 minute episode. We can't have everything, but hopefully this is a good guide for you to set you on the path, your first second steps of what direction to take it. So let's jump right in. Let's talk about unruly PMS. First of all, what even is PMS? Generally, pms would consist of symptoms like irritability, mood swings, headaches, tender breasts, bloating, fatigue. Those are the top ones that come to mind, and these are specific to being in the later part of your cycle, so during your luteal phase, if you're familiar with the four phases, or in other words, that seven to 10 days before your period starts. So what's going on here and what normally causes PMS is a state of estrogen excess estrogen excess. So, zooming out a little bit, what are our main sex hormones? Estrogen, second progesterone, third testosterone and a smattering of others that help us to ovulate and keep the cycle flowing. But I just mentioned this so you have kind of the bigger picture. What are we looking at? And so in the luteal phase, those seven to 10 days before your period begins, if estrogen levels are relatively high compared to progesterone, then that's what can be causing your mood swings, your fatigue, et cetera. So what can we do about it? Or really, what would cause estrogen to be high? Let's talk about that first. So one thing that can cause estrogen to be higher than progesterone would be if you are not ovulating. So that's a good one to know, because if you're not ovulating, right, you'll want to start with. Well, how do we get ovulating again, as opposed to on the other side of the equation here, how do we support estrogen detox? Now let's make this more actionable and practical.
Speaker 1:If you are having PMS, the couple of things that I would recommend to you to do right away would be first, avoid alcohol. Avoid it altogether if you can. There's never a moment in time when it's good for you, but especially during your luteal phase, because that's the time in your cycle when your liver is doing a bunch of good work to filter out your estrogen metabolites, and it filters out thousands of toxins and other hormones, but specifically estrogen too. And so if you are cutting out alcohol, if you're also cutting out or minimizing caffeine during that part of your cycle, that's just giving your liver the latitude to do what it needs to do and take care of your estrogen. The next thing that comes to mind would be moving your body a little bit sweating. Oftentimes during this phase you might not have the energy to go for a run or do whatever kind of bar Pilates legree class you did earlier in your cycle, but by sweating that's helping your body to excrete some of those hormone metabolites. So you could find that to be helpful.
Speaker 1:If you are a gal who has a castor oil pack at home, break that baby out. Do a castor oil pack over your liver. If you're new to castor oil packs, it's basically just putting castor oil on your skin and then covering it up with a fabric so that it doesn't like get all over your clothes or get all over your sheets if you wear it to bed. I don't know why we call it a pack, though. That doesn't really make sense. I didn't invent it, though Don't come after me for that. Anyway, castor oil pack. Really, what's going on there is the castor oil is supporting movement of, like the fluids. It helps to support circulation. That's what I meant to say. Movement of the fluids, I suppose that's the same thing, but it's helping to support circulation, and so that could be worth a try.
Speaker 1:Some final honorable mentions here. If you are not getting enough sleep, that's a pretty easy spot to start. Maybe easier said than done. Right, but make sure that you're getting enough sleep. That's a pretty easy spot to start. Maybe easier said than done, right, but make sure that you're getting enough sleep. Most of us need more snooze time in our luteal phase and while we're on our periods. Similarly, if you can minimize stress again, this is not a newsflash You're like thanks, bridget, I never thought maybe I should be less stressed, but specifically during this time, dialing back the stress and dialing up sleep, that's going to help you out.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk next about period pain. So period pain? Why does that happen? It happens because when our period begins, which is triggered by our estrogen and progesterone levels dropping below a certain level, prostaglandins are released in our body. And prostaglandins are little inflammatory bugs inflammatory bugs not literally, but you see what I mean and they're released so that they can cause our uterine lining to contract, starts to get a little groovy, a little wavy, and that's what helps your endometrial lining shed, aka period. So they are, I guess, helpful, right, helping your body. It is a normal, natural process or thing to have happen.
Speaker 1:But when period pain gets to be too much, right, if you're having to or I guess wanting to, having to take a pain reliever, or certainly if it's impacting any of your day-to-day activities, if you're having to cancel plans, cancel school, cancel work, then let's see what we can do about that and let's talk about that now. Stress, as I just mentioned, is like let's get that out of here, because when we are stressed, while that could be emotional or mental stress, that can still what's the word I'm looking for Manifest, that can still present in the body as inflammation. And so when we have more inflammation in the body, that can result in more prostaglandins, more irritation. What else can we look at when there's period pain? Well, one thing to consider, and this isn't a super easy solution but do you have allergies? Is it allergy season or are you consuming foods that are higher in histamines? So some things that come to mind. Well, what's most top of mind is red wine that can be high in histamines. So when histamine levels are high in the body, or even like relatively high, what's high for my body might be unremarkable for your body, but anyway, estrogen levels drive histamine levels up and vice versa. So that's just to say, if you already have higher or relatively high estrogen levels and you are, for example, having red wine, that's going to potentially push your estrogen up higher. Also, if you just have allergies right, it's spring and you live in, I don't know, south Carolina then that can also exacerbate your symptoms of estrogen excess, to include PMS.
Speaker 1:Let's look at a couple other things. When it comes to period pain, you can always incorporate anti-inflammatory foods, right? So how do we do that? Well, focusing on a whole food diet, avoiding processed foods. That's always a good place to start Period pain, or just like, as a human being on planet Earth would recommend. When it comes to foods that are particularly good, you might be familiar with curcumin, which is found in turmeric. If you partner or pair curcumin and black pepper, then that's the magic combo.
Speaker 1:So I would recommend that, in addition to investigating if there's any sort of histamine chaos that's happening, and then again, just to wrap this up, for period pain, looking at overall inflammation levels in the body, how can you bring it down Personally too, in case you happen to be an unlucky one in this situation? But I know, in the past when I have had a UTI, my period pain has been absolutely bonkers, right. So how do we wrap this up? What do we make of this? What I make of this is that during that time when I had additional inflammation in the local area there right, the prostaglandins, they don't judge, they don't discriminate right, they say, oh cool girl, your bladder is so close to your uterus. Well, prostaglandins, there's no boundaries, and so, anyways, just causing that inflammation.
Speaker 1:Third, I want to talk about what you can do if you are just not having a period at all. So if it's been like three or more months and you haven't been bleeding and this is assuming that you have not or are not taking hormonal birth control, this is assuming that you're not pregnant then the first thing I want you to consider is are you appropriately nourishing your body? So, are you eating enough? Are you getting enough nutrients that are going to send these signals of safety to your body, to your brain, which then is going to produce the proper hormones, or send signals for the production of those hormones, so that your body can keep on cycling? Keep on cycling.
Speaker 1:It can be easy, well, for some people. I don't know, tell me what you think but it can be easy to not be super in tune with what we're eating. If you are living a fast-paced life, if you are on the move all the time, if you are traveling, if you are just trying to fit in meals like when and where you can, without much planning ahead, and no shame, right, that's all of us from time to time, or for me at least. But I'll just reiterate this one more time that take note of if you're properly nourishing your body, if you're eating enough and if you are really eating the right stuff. The next thing that I would suggest to you is just make note of any medications that you might be taking. Is there a change in supplements that you've been taking lately that could be impacting your cycle?
Speaker 1:And then, third and final for this topic. What do you know about perimenopause? Is that something you're familiar with yet? Because good old perimenopause, which we will all run into in our 30s or 40s, if we should live long enough, it's a life stage that can make you have wonky periods, kind of by design, right, Cycle length will vary. Cycle length will get longer and longer over time. So maybe you're just deep enough into a phase of perimenopause where your cycles are over 90 days apart or over whatever X number of days apart. I have other episodes on perimenopause if you think that might be you, if you're in your later 30s or in your 40s and things are kind of changing. So check out that episode and that'll really clue you into what are the changes, what's going on, all right.
Speaker 1:Next let's talk about irregular periods. So first let's define what do I mean by irregular periods. Now, from cycle to cycle, there shouldn't ideally be variation of more than four days per cycle. So if your, what month is it? It's October. If your, what month is it? It's October. So if your July cycle was 28 days, then October oh my gosh, october. Then August was 35, then September was 26. You see what I mean. More than four days, then that's like something you should kind of say okay, what can I examine more of?
Speaker 1:What causes irregular periods? Well, stress, again, is something that can really be a factor here. When we have higher levels of stress than what our body is particularly cool with is that it clouds our hormones communication pathways and it just basically sends a signal to our brain like, hey, dog, let's hold off on this like potential procreation thing, because we've got like bigger battles to worry about here. Our body doesn't know that. The stress is just like Bob from accounting, but it's our body's going to respond the same way. So I would really encourage you, if you are having irregular periods, see, okay, how can I nourish my body more food-wise, self-care-wise? How can I get some more sleep? How can I make sure I'm really not overtaxing myself too, even when it comes to exercise? Yes, exercise is good, but are you overworking yourself and your body is, I mean, stressed, right? What else do you want to consider here?
Speaker 1:When it comes to irregular periods, if this is something that's happened shortly after coming off of hormonal birth control, then know that that can be normal, or I should say that can be expected. But if it's been maybe six months since you've been off of the pill or done with your IUD or whatever form of birth control that you were using. Things should normally be back to a rhythm by then, so it could be worth investigating further. In the meantime, be patient, nourish your body all those good things that I just mentioned. The last thing that I want to mention here for irregular periods would be you know, if you feel like you are checking a lot of the boxes here and your period still isn't coming back, then it could be worth doing a little bit more. Investigating in the way of, or rather by the way. Is that the saying by the way of? Okay, sorry guys, I don't know what's happening in my brain right now, but what I mean to say is checking out some lab testing. If polycystic ovary syndrome is a part of the picture for you, then that could kind of make sense. Or if maybe your prolactin levels are high, which can happen after pregnancy or in other life circumstances, and that can be an obstacle to regular cycling. So just some things to consider.
Speaker 1:But let's start with the basics, the foundations of what you can do. Next up, let's look at what you can do for irregular and or low energy levels. So for the most part here we're talking about our cycle, but our stress hormones and our blood sugar, which heavily impact our energy levels throughout the day, also have a close relationship with our sex hormones. So that's why I think this is really important to focus on, because if your energy levels are wonky, then getting those in order can be helpful and fundamental to getting your cycle back on track. So let's zoom in here. When I say irregular energy levels, to me that means like in the afternoon you're crashing, or at the end of the day you're crashing. Like you're relying on caffeine to get through the day, even though you're getting quote unquote enough sleep, you're getting like eight plus hours. When I'm talking about low energy, I think you guys see where I'm going with that like consistent low energy throughout the day.
Speaker 1:Cortisol is your stress hormone and it can correlate with what's going on with your blood sugar. I always talk about blood sugar. If you've been here before, then you've heard that before. It's really important and something that every single one of us can do to support our overall health, our overall metabolic health. So let me get more practical and actionable about what that actually means.
Speaker 1:If you are no, not if you are what I recommend would be to get up in the morning and eat something that's protein forward, ideally within the first hour that you're waking up. If you're somebody who's like oh, I can't imagine eating that soon after I wake up, I hear you, I feel you. Sometimes, though, that can be because cortisol levels are high, because that will suppress your appetite. A lot of times, my clients who put this practice into place of eating like a hard-boiled egg or eating an apple with peanut butter, something like that, that has some protein and fat, they will. After a week or two weeks they're like okay, now I feel good eating and I'm getting hungry in the morning. That's a good sign. A good sign that your cortisol awakening response is kind of doing its thing, maybe getting back into better shape.
Speaker 1:So what else can you do to support good, stable blood sugar levels? When you're looking at your plate, you sit down to lunch, go ahead and eat the protein first, so, or like eat the vegetables first, then eat the chicken, then save the carb for last. It's not really about like diet culture, right? I want to be clear about that. It's not like oh, I need to eat in a certain way and be like so specific and very strict about it. I would really encourage you to eat intuitively, but just know that the order that you eat your food can impact how it like what goes on in your blood sugar. So, eating the vegetables first. You can also have some apple cider vinegar at the beginning of your meal, during your meal, make a tasty mocktail or use it in a dressing, and that can help with more consistent blood sugar levels as well.
Speaker 1:One last thing for irregular or low energy levels, just take a look at what your thyroid is doing and what's going on there. Our thyroid hormones can certainly impact what else is going on with our cycle, and our thyroid hormone is just essential for I mean, many processes and functions in our body. But also, do we have the energy to get through our day? Functions in our body, but also do we have the energy to get through our day? So oftentimes, if you have insurance or here in the US at least your insurance will sometimes cover a thyroid panel each year along with your standard blood work. It's part of a standard panel in most places or at most doctors. So take advantage of that opportunity to use your benefits and investigate what's going on.
Speaker 1:Okay, we are just about to wrap up here. This is a little bit longer than I expected and, man, I felt like I was trying to cruise through it, but hopefully this was all helpful for you. If you have any questions again, please make my day by sending me a DM on Instagram at Bridget Walton or leaving a comment, leaving a review. Rather, I would love to answer your questions. I would love to help you make sense of what's going on and what you can do. I would encourage you to pick like one or two things to start with, instead of picking 80, 11 things and just trying to do it all at once.
Speaker 1:Make change sustainably, slowly. Create a plan on how you want to implement that change. Don't just say, okay, I'm going to start exercising next week, but then it's like Tuesday and you're like I don't even know. Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do to exercise. So you see what I'm getting at there. Knowing what to do is only as important as knowing how you, specifically, I'm looking at you how you're going to do it. You, specifically, I'm looking at you how you're going to do it.
Speaker 1:One final note, just to come back to something I mentioned earlier. But if you are having symptoms like hot flashes really long cycles, if you are having really heavy bleeding, if you are like your mood is just totally different than it was before your personality. Sometimes your mood is just totally different than it was before your personality. Sometimes that sounds Well for some people. Actually, perimenopause can really shift your personality, so I gave away the clue there. But those are symptoms that could be more aligned with perimenopause.
Speaker 1:Check out episode number 28. It came out on March 31st of this year. If any of that resonates with you 31st of this year, if any of that resonates with you, if you found this episode to be helpful, I would be eternally grateful to you if you consider sending this to your friend right now. Think of who you were last talking about your period with and, oh my gosh, okay, yeah, she was saying that she has period pain. Okay, send this to her. Thank you so much for helping me to extend the I'm Hormonal community. I really again appreciate you guys listening to these episodes. I will let you go from here. I can't wait to see you back here next week. Again, my name is Bridget Walton and thanks for making it all the way to the end here. You rock, rock.