I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

Stress's Impact on Your Period & Energy: Why You Should Take Stress Seriously | Ep. 88

• Bridget Walton, Women's Hormone Coach • Episode 88

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Stress isn't just a mental burden—it's actively derailing your hormones and gut health, leading to unpredictable periods, constant bloating, and depleted energy levels.

• Different types of stress affect your body: work pressure, chemical exposure, food sensitivities, sleep deprivation, blood sugar spikes, and intense workouts
• High cortisol levels can prevent ovulation, disrupting your entire hormone cycle
• Without ovulation, your body can't produce adequate progesterone, leading to PMS symptoms
• Stress impairs gut health by reducing appetite, decreasing stomach acid production, and disrupting digestion
• Poor digestion prevents proper hormone excretion, creating a cycle of estrogen dominance
• Mitigate stress by identifying major stressors and creating a plan to address them
• Avoid alcohol, reduce caffeine, and skip intense workouts during high-stress periods
• Support your body with adaptogens like maca and reishi mushroom
• Replenish electrolytes with pink Himalayan salt, lemon water, or mineral supplements
• Consider magnesium glycinate specifically for hormone and mood support
• Don't underestimate the stress-relieving power of social connection with friends

Products/resources mentioned in the episode:

  • AG1
  • LMNT
  • Digestive enzymes
  • Yuka 
  • Headspace
  • Activations
  • Insight Timer



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Speaker 1:

All right team. Let me know if this sounds like you, but I work with women who are doing everything right. They're eating healthy, they're working hard, moving their bodies, yet their energy is still tanked, periods are unpredictable and bloating is nonstop. The common thread here is oftentimes stress. In today's episode, I'll show you how to stop stress from destroying your hormones and gut health without quitting your job or overhauling your life. Let's get into it. Without quitting your job or overhauling your life. Let's get into it. 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? Hey there, and welcome again to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, women's hormone coach, and I'm really excited to talk about stress today. If you've been here before, then you've heard me talk about stress probably many a time, but this episode will be dedicated solely to stress, and I think it is more applicable than ever because, I mean, do you know anybody who's not at least a little bit stressed? I certainly have had my fair share of stressful months and years working in different careers, and so, especially for me, being on the road traveling when I used to travel in a sales role that really did a bamboozle, did a big stress operation on my body. So my hope for you is that by the end of this episode, you're going to understand exactly how stress can actually impact your hormones and what that means, how stress also impacts your gut health, because perhaps you know by now that your gut health and your hormone health are so closely related. We will talk about what are the best ways that, of course, you can support your body and support your hormones during times of stress, and round out the conversation with some resources that are free or easily accessible that you can use to have a better, less stressful life. If you are new here, I just want to say a special welcome and give you a little orientation. On Tuesdays, we do these longer form episodes where I really dive deep into whatever the topic is, and then on Thursday you'll have the shorter form episode that is getting more into the nitty gritty, more specific examples, and I know that so many of you out there are gals who travel, you're on the move, you are living busy lives, so it's with or through that lens that I will be putting together a lot of those episodes coming up here. I'm excited because I have a rebrand that is going to be ready for you all in just about May, and what that means for you is a new array of free resources and downloadables. Again, these are really going to be focused on for those of you who are out and about on the move, trying to figure out how you can regulate your periods, support your digestion and, overall, really just feel your best again back in your body. So if that sounds a little bit juicy to you, then stick around. Let's get into the good stuff for today.

Speaker 1:

I think it's worth starting off by addressing the fact that stress can present through many different form factors. So it's not just stress from work or from relationships, but they're which I mean. Of course, those are valid sources of stress, but it's also stress on your body from, maybe chemicals that you're exposed to, maybe foods that you are sensitive to. A lack of sleep can also impact your stress hormone. Blood sugar spikes If you listened to last week's episode, you'll be familiar with how blood sugar can impact your stress hormone. And last but not least, physical stress, like doing really hard workouts or doing really long workouts those can also be a source of stress on your body. That one is a little bit interesting, right? Because stress sorry. Exercise is also a good way to help support normal stress levels in your body. But if you are really going big at Barry's bootcamp or F45, while you have these other stresses from work, your relationship or your finances, whatever is going on for you then that can just continue to drive up cortisol.

Speaker 1:

Cortisol is your stress hormone. It is produced in the adrenal glands. Just a little bit of background on that. Maybe remember that from back in the day in middle school or high school. But overall, when we are talking about stress, the common thread here is cortisol Because, just to reiterate this, regardless of the source of the stress whether it's from chemicals, or maybe you live near fields where the farmers spray pesticides, or maybe you're eating some foods that are not organic, but whether it's that sort of stress or from a deadline that is coming up the impact is oftentimes quite similar, resulting in elevated cortisol. Your body's cortisol levels are designed to go up and down throughout the day. They do not need to be stable all the time. But let's talk about how elevated cortisol can impact.

Speaker 1:

What's going on with your period Now, when cortisol levels are high or relatively high? First of all, that's sending a signal to your body that like hey girl, this is not a good time to procreate-ish is crazy out here. So maybe we should avoid ovulating this cycle, because it's clearly not a good time to procreate. So that results in potentially a lack of ovulation. Now we'll come back in a moment to what a lack of ovulation means as far as symptoms. But the takeaway is, when the cortisol levels are high, that can prevent of ovulation means as far as symptoms, but the takeaway is, when the cortisol levels are high, that can prevent proper ovulation or like a healthy, strong ovulation from occurring. It's also worth noting that elevated cortisol levels can also drive up blood sugar levels and then therefore, insulin levels. Now again, if you listened to last week's episode, you'll know that that is not the goal. That is not what we are shooting for, because those things also contribute to less desirable outcomes as it relates to good, strong ovulation.

Speaker 1:

The reason why I'm saying a strong ovulation is good is because when you, once you ovulate and the egg is released from the follicle on your ovaries, that's when and how your body can create progesterone in that second half of your cycle. Now, the absence of progesterone, or if there is insufficient progesterone to outweigh what's going on with estrogen, that is what contributes in many occasions to symptoms like PMS, which include breast tenderness, irritability, mood swings, headaches everything that you don't want so much about your cycle. That's what can happen if you are not ovulating, or rather if progesterone is relatively low compared to estrogen. So let me just bring that all together in one sentence. When stress is high, you're less likely to ovulate, which means that you will have potentially excess estrogen and that results in PMS symptoms, also potentially heavier periods themselves, and it can contribute to those unpredictable all over the place periods, because the act, not the act, the event of ovulation, that is the kind of dictator for your cycle length. If you're not actually ovulating, then it may not be the case that your bleed begins, you know, 10 to 14 days later. So that's why ovulation is important and that's how stress can impact ovulation.

Speaker 1:

Now let's zoom in for a second on how stress can impact your gut health because, again, your gut health and your hormone health are really closely tied together. I mean, your gut health is really closely tied to basically all areas of health in your body. But let's look at this more specifically. For many people, during times of stress, appetite is lower, and so if you're not eating as much food, then you guessed it you may not be getting in the adequate calories that you need, or you may not be getting in the adequate nutrients that your body needs in order to have all the ingredients that it needs to create hormones and keep things running smoothly, not to mention keeping your gut health and your gut lining in good shape too. So stress generally not the best for consuming enough food, or it has the opposite effect. This is probably how I've been for more of my life If I'm stressed, then I'm more prone to eat more healthy food, and it's not. It's not Like the oh my gosh, freudian slip there. Did you hear that If I'm stressed, I'm likely to eat more food, but probably not healthier food, probably more, like you know, salt and straw or Ben and Jerry's.

Speaker 1:

The next reason, or the next way that stress can impact gut health is by resulting in inadequate stomach acid levels. So even if you are stressed, let's say, like I don't know what your morning was like, but maybe you were rushing around you're trying to get your kids out the door, you're trying to get out the door yourself for a meeting or for a flight by being at least a little bit stressed, or relatively stressed, while eating. Your stomach acid isn't going to be produced in adequate amounts because basically your body's like okay, we have more important things to focus on than digesting, like this can wait for later. We got to focus on these other threats that are out there. So that has a cascading effect on everything else that goes on in your digestive system and your body's ability to get out all of those nutrients that were in the food that you ate. Also, you know, are you producing the right amount of enzymes and those good things that you need to break everything down? Because if the first step in the process and that second step there then with stomach acid levels, is disrupted, then enzymes, et cetera, are impacted. Third and final, what I want to mention as it relates to stress in your gut health is that if you are having disrupted digestive processes, then you're probably not going to be having regular daily bowel movements, and so that poor digestion or poor excretion can also contribute to excess estrogen. Who knew all of our systems are so tied together, right? Excess estrogen, or I should say, once our body uses estrogen and it's being filtered out, processed out of our bodies, some of that estrogen is excreted through your stool. So if you're not having those daily bowel movements, then that estrogen can be recycled back into your system Again, resulting in those experiences of high estrogen like PMS.

Speaker 1:

Now that we've covered this topic of what is actually happening inside your body when stress levels are high, I want you to just take a quick beat to think back on a time recently or you know, however long ago, but think of a time when you were stressed and did you notice any of these things happening to you. Like, do you have a memory of a cycle that maybe you were traveling, or maybe there was something just particularly chaotic going on in your family life you had a lot of stress about, and then your next cycle was late, or you noticed that you did have lower energy, or something like that? Just reflect, because that can really help to make this more salient, I know it's so like, okay, yeah, well, I have stress all the time. Like we are humans on planet earth, we're not going to have no stress, so it can be easy to just say whatever, bridget, I'll just come back to this another time. I don't have time to address my stress levels right now, but I really want to, you know, I really want to encourage you to recognize when stress has impacted your body, impacted your experience, impacted your mood and all of those things, because you deserve to be in a good mood and feeling good and having balanced hormones.

Speaker 1:

Let's go ahead and focus on what are some things that you can do now to support your body during times of stress, and the first recommendation that I have for you is certainly the hardest, probably hopefully the most annoying one, which would be to really take a beat to understand how can you mitigate some of the stressors in your life. Something that I like to do when I'm feeling stressed is sit down with a journal and just, even if it seems obvious, just write down okay, what are the things that are stressing me out right now? And by writing it out and thinking through okay, realistically, how can I problem solve for some of these Are any of these stressors, things that I can just take off my plate. Maybe that's by hiring a babysitter or by ordering my groceries through Instacart or something, instead of making myself feel like, oh my gosh, I have to rush around and go get groceries. You see what I'm getting at anyway, it's how can you either outsource, how can you eliminate them all together? And then, finally, what are the stressors that are the most heavy hitting, that have the biggest impact, and how can you create a plan to overcome those?

Speaker 1:

Sometimes this can be a really well, I don't want to say cumbersome, but it can just be like a long list. You don't want to end up at the end of this exercise having 25 things on your to-do list, because that's not going to make you less stressed, or at least that won't make me less stressed. So, going through this exercise and identifying what are the maybe five to do's that you have that you want to focus on, that's what I would really encourage you to do, and sorry again, I know it's like annoying to say that right, but if you want to have less stress, if you want to remove stress that can be impacting your cycle, then you're first going to have to actually address it and not just slap on an adaptogen or some of these things that we will talk about in just a moment here. A couple of other thoughts on this. If you have a local library or I mean, of course you could buy the book, but there are so many great books out there that talk about practicing setting boundaries. So check out what your library has, maybe an audio book or an ebook that you can just get right to your phone today.

Speaker 1:

And then, last but not least on this topic, I like to use the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize my tasks. This is something that really helps me from feeling stressed out. If you haven't heard of this before, then maybe you. Well, maybe it'll ring a bell, but you basically draw a quadrant and have your identifying tasks based on what is urgent, what is important, what is not urgent and not important, and it can really paint the picture of okay, what do you like, what is not a priority, what can you save till later, what do you need to focus on right now? And then, ultimately, what do you need to make time for? I'm sure that there is an article online or a YouTube video that can give you a bit of a better description than that, if that piques your interest.

Speaker 1:

Next, let's talk about three things that you can avoid that will be helpful for your stress levels. The first thing that I want you to ditch is alcohol. This is probably not a huge surprise, because it's clear that alcohol is not a health food. But the reason why this can be important is because when you're consuming alcohol, you're really asking a lot of your liver to talk to process out the toxins in the alcohol. When your liver is focused on that work, it's not processing out your hormones, it's not helping to support your normal stress levels, right? Because your liver is important and involved in regulating your stress hormones between cortisol and cortisone as well. So how can you minimize your alcohol intake? I'll leave that up to you to brainstorm.

Speaker 1:

Next, and probably equally undesirable to hear, but is there a way that you can cut out some of the caffeine that you're consuming? Can you opt for decaf, or or can you just, if you normally have four cups of coffee a day, can you cut it down to three? For the same reason that alcohol is not super great when you're stressed, caffeine has a similar impact, in addition to the fact that caffeine can increase your adrenaline and cortisol. So, like taking your double shot latte is just literally adding stress onto your stress. So opt for decaf, opt for maybe something like matcha or green tea that has less caffeine than maybe whatever you're already consuming.

Speaker 1:

Third and final, when it comes to things to avoid, if you are stressed, then probably doing a really tough workout is not something that is going to be very supportive of you or for you. So exercising is definitely good, don't get me wrong. If you are stressed, sometimes, exercising certainly can help you to feel better and be more relaxed. But, that being said, when cortisol levels are high, going out really taxing your body by doing a 50 minute HIIT workout or going for a 10 mile run, that's probably not what your body is asking for, because your body is asking for more stability and calm. So reframe how your workouts are when you're feeling better than when you're feeling better, meaning when you're out of this kind of acute time of stress. Come back to whatever workout you want, but just look at it as you know a tool to supporting your body's normal stress levels. Okay, so we talked about mitigating stress as a whole. We talked about three things that I would love for you to avoid. Third, here let's talk about food and nutritional support.

Speaker 1:

You may have heard of adaptogens before. Right, adaptogens are plants, so whether it's an herb or a root that can be supportive of normal stress levels, or rather supportive of your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, right? So basically that's the long way to say it supports your adrenal glands, which again make cortisol. So what can this look like for me? When I am particularly stressed, I like to add a little bit of maca powder into my smoothies. You can also get, you know, maybe, a mushroom mix to add into your decaf coffee, at least where I live in California. So I mean, now that I've said that there's some bias, but a lot of the coffee shops that I go to will have adaptogen like add-ons that you can put in there. So, overall, though, you're just saying like, get familiar with some of those adaptogens. Maca I mentioned also reishi is one of the most common mushroom adaptogens. Just keep those two in mind if those are new to you, and see what you know, what's reasonable to add to your smoothie, to your coffee, or you can work them into. Um, what are those things called? When you make a, I guess they're like energy balls. You know where you have oats, and you have almond butter, and you have chocolate chips or whatever it is, and you kind of mix them in there. I think that's another good option too. All right, so adaptogens first.

Speaker 1:

Second, electrolytes. Electrolytes are really important to help facilitate the gazillion processes that our body is executing every second, and especially during times of stress, they can become depleted. So you don't have to do anything particularly wild and crazy and fancy. By wild and crazy and fancy, I mean getting an electrolyte drink mix like Element. Maybe, instead of getting Element packets, you are incorporating trace minerals drops into your water. Or, even easier and most accessible, add some pink Himalayan salt. Or maybe add some sea salt and lemon juice to your water in the morning Super easy way to get electrolytes. Remember, too, electrolytes are minerals like sodium, magnesium, potassium, so you don't have to go digging super deep for them. They're also in foods that you are normally eating.

Speaker 1:

Okay, third, let's talk about multivitamins Now. Ideally, you're getting all the vitamins that you need from the food that you are eating, but this is something that I think is good to do for a short period of time, or for me personally, if I am starting to get sick, if I am traveling, I know that I'm probably not going to be eating. You know a really diverse array of foods, then I definitely like to bring in a multivitamin. I also recently jumped on the AG1 train, and so that's good, because Athletic Greens has a lot of AG1, athletic Greens same same, for me at least. Anyway, it has an array of vitamins and minerals, and it also has adaptogens in it too.

Speaker 1:

The fourth item that I want to talk about when it comes to food and nutritional support is magnesium glycinate. I mentioned magnesium just a moment ago as it related to electrolytes, but magnesium glycinate specifically can be supportive when it comes to PMS and when it comes to overall supporting your mood and wellness during times of stress. Note that there are multiple times that there are multiple kinds of magnesium and some are different. Rather, some are better for one reason or another, but magnesium glycinate is the one that you'll want to look into when it comes to stress and mood support. And then, last final note here, go back to the tips in the last weeks, in the week before episodes about nutrition and blood sugar regulation, because all of those tips tie closely into stress and are really foundational. So if you haven't listened to the episodes on nutrition and blood sugar regulation. Yet once you're done here, hop on over and listen to those next.

Speaker 1:

All right, my friend, we started this episode just really putting together the fact that what happens when you are stressed, that can absolutely impact your hormones and your gut health. Now you are a beginner pro on that. Beginner pro is the technical name. Yes, so you understand how stress impacts your cycle. You understand what you can start to do to support your body during times of stress. Let's close out the episode just by looking at a couple of resources. So I'll rattle off a few. Make a note of what makes sense for you. I'll put them in the show notes too. First of all, I mentioned chemicals. Right, chemicals can be sources of stress for your body.

Speaker 1:

If you are somebody who wants to start using cleaner products, there are plenty of great apps out there that can help you to scan the barcode of your deodorant or toothpaste or whatever it is, your food as well, before you buy it. So, personally, I use Yuka Y-U-K-A. There's also a great app by EWGU, which is Environmental Working Group. So download an app, if you don't have one on your phone, that can help you to identify clean products or at least understand if you are getting a product that has some of these flagged ingredients, then you're just understanding how that could be impacting your hormones.

Speaker 1:

I want to mention Insight Timer or Headspace, which are good for mindfulness and meditation. I personally used Headspace for many years when I was starting to practice mindfulness, and I thought it was a really great tool. Insight Timer it's really just a timer, as you may have guessed, and so it's a little bit more straightforward. You can use it for free. Third here, when it comes to mindfulness, I like to use this app called Activations. This is something I use probably five days a week. It is a little bit pricier, but they have guided well activations not even meditations, but to kind of help keep you grounded, help for focus, so maybe that'll be a good tool for you.

Speaker 1:

If none of those sound good, there's a kabillion different options on YouTube. One of those might work for you. I'll also just mention like hey, girl, do you have a journal and do you use it? Because I know that that's a cliche one too, but journaling and writing about what's going on in your life can be, yes, a good tool to mitigating or at least understanding where your stress is coming from. All right team, that's pretty much it for today. Literally the last thing I have on my page here is make plans to grab coffee with one of your friends, or make plans to see some of your friends if it's been a minute. That's one of the other best ways to support your stress, or rather eliminate some stress getting together with the team there. So don't sleep on the social plans.

Speaker 1:

All right, I hope this was a helpful episode for you when it comes to understanding how stress impacts your cycle. Understanding that if you have irregular cycles, if you have really long periods, long bleeds, if you have a lot of PMS, if you aren't conceiving, even perhaps due to lack of ovulation, and understanding if you're ovulating, that's a good step when you are trying to conceive. But regardless, stress can impact all of these things and more. But regardless, stress can impact all of these things and more. Stress can certainly impact your energy levels as a human being on planet Earth. In the 21st century, getting a grip on your stress and how you can minimize it is going to be so important. Of luck to you. You've got this.

Speaker 1:

Send this to a friend if this was helpful, and I can't wait to see you here again for the episode later this week, I'm going to be talking more specifically about, when it relates to stress with travel, what you can do to help keep grounded while you're on the road. If you loved today's episode and got something good out of it, make sure you subscribe so that these episodes show up automatically in your feed, no work needed on your side, let's put it on autopilot. As always, I need to give you my reminder that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, and it should not be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. Now, if you are, on the other hand, in the market for some one-on-one support, then I would love for you to take me up on my offer for a free strategy call. You can find these links and more in the show notes.