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I'm Hormonal | Hormone balance, gut health & nutrition insights
Welcome to I’m Hormonal — the podcast where we make sense of your bloating, brutal PMS, and missing periods… without blaming it all on “just stress” or “being a woman.”
Hosted by Bridget Walton, Women’s Hormone Coach, this show is your no-BS guide to decoding your cycle, calming your gut, and actually balancing your hormones (not just crossing your fingers and hoping for the best).
Each week, we break down what no one taught you about hormones, nutrition, and gut health in your 30s — especially if you're tired of guessing what your body is trying to tell you.
Expect solo episodes packed with real talk and root-cause tools, plus the occasional expert guest to help you feel less confused and more in control.
Because you deserve better periods, better digestion, and a better shot at getting pregnant — without burning out trying to figure it all out alone.
I'm Hormonal | Hormone balance, gut health & nutrition insights
Four Words That Are Keeping You Stuck in Your Period Problems | Ep. 122
We explore the psychological trap of believing "I've tried everything" and how this mindset prevents many women from finding solutions to their hormone health issues. The 100-day follicle development cycle means many women don't give interventions enough time to work before abandoning them.
• Taking a step back to look at your health holistically rather than focusing on isolated interventions
• Understanding that consistently implementing changes is crucial for hormone health
• Recognizing that unpredictable periods often indicate inconsistent ovulation
• Identifying whether blood sugar regulation might be affecting your hormone balance
• Exploring the possibility that gut health issues are causing symptoms like acne and bloating
• Considering how stress and inadequate nutrition affect hormone production
• Acknowledging that healing takes time and requires patience
• Recognizing your power to change health patterns through consistent action
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I have talked to a lot of women who feel like their period symptoms are unsolvable. They've tried supplements, they've cut out the dairy, they've tracked everything, yet nothing has worked for them. Yet, anyway, when I hear these four words I've already tried everything I know that we need to pause, because that sentence might be the very reason that you're not seeing results. In this episode, I'll explain why and what your next step should actually be. 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? Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hey friend, thanks for joining me for today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm so grateful that you are here with me today. As you heard in the intro, we're going to be talking about these four little words, these four not-so-cute words I've already tried everything, because, in my work with clients, one-on-one and tell me if this is how you've ever felt in your life those gals who feel like, hey, I've already tried everything, I already did an elimination diet, I've already done lab testing, I've already done food sensitivity testing, whatever it is for you they think, well, shoot, now I'm backed into this corner because nothing works for me. And then you start to tell yourself, nothing works for me. And you know, when you're saying that to yourself, you're going to just prove yourself right in many cases by continuing to tell yourself that In this episode today, we will absolutely be getting into the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 1:I'll go through a couple of examples so that if you are somebody who has unpredictable periods, if you have acne, if you have bloating and you are feeling like you've tried everything, I'll give you some thoughts about how you can take a step back and how you can realize where you actually can head, what is the right direction that's for you, and give you a couple of questions that would be really helpful for you to explore. If you have not done so already, or even if you have, time has potentially passed and maybe it's time to go back and revisit something that you've tried before. We're not reinventing the wheel and I certainly don't want you to think why is Bridget telling me to do something that I've already tried? Stick with me, but if you feel like you've tried everything, then this is going to be the episode for you, and I'm really excited to get your thoughts on it. I'm always looking forward to thoughts that you guys share with me via DM. You can connect with me on Instagram at I'm underscore hormonal and also on that note, if you ever have any topics that you want to hear me talk about, send me a DM with that request too, because I would love to do an episode on it. If this is the first episode of I'm Hormonal that you are checking out, I want to say a special welcome to you. I'm really glad that you found me, thanks to those of you who have subscribed to the podcast, who have shared with your friends, who keep on coming back every week. I, of course, couldn't do this without you, or wouldn't do it without you, so I hope that you are making the most out of these episodes.
Speaker 1:If you want to connect a little bit more, and just coming back to Instagram DM opportunities, I get questions a lot about the luteal phase. There's so much content out there about what to eat in the luteal phase, how to move your body in the luteal phase, and I have some episodes that talk through the phases of the cycle. But this is just to say this is a question that I get a lot when actually is my luteal phase? So I put together a quiz and if you just send me a DM and say luteal, which is spelled L-U-T-E-A-L, just send me a DM, say luteal and that will kickstart the quiz so you can get more clarity on when exactly is your luteal phase. Those are all the admin notes that I have for you today.
Speaker 1:So with that, let's dive back into this conversation on what to do. If you feel like you've done it all and let me be the first to tell you that I've absolutely felt like this in the past, even in the not so distant past If you've been listening for a while, then you heard an episode I did last fall or so where I talked about how last summer I was having a couple of months of unpredictable cycles. My cycles were a bit longer than normal and I'm like what's happening? This is my actual job. This is the thing that I think about all the time that I study, that I read about, that I listen to podcasts about, about how to support my cycle, and yet here I am feeling like, okay, I'm doing everything that I know how to do. I also started to incorporate red light therapy and cryotherapy. I got on the melatonin train. I really focused on prioritizing restorative exercises. I wasn't focusing on doing high intensity workouts and I was extra diligent about nourishing my body with good, well-rounded, whole foods in my meals and avoiding alcohol and caffeine.
Speaker 1:Now I give you this laundry list to say sometimes we can be doing all of the things and it might just take a little bit of time to actually see those changes right. For a lot of changes, or for many of the changes that relate to your menstrual cycle, it could take 100 days or so to see that change. Why 100 days? That's because the follicle that develops on your ovary that eventually releases an egg during ovulation, that follicle takes about 100 days to develop. So what you're doing now, your stress levels now, how you're moving now, or all the good things you're doing, you can see the impact of those changes about 100 days later when that cycle pops up. Now, kind of on the other side of the coin. Here.
Speaker 1:I want to tell you a quick story about a gal that I met recently, and, as I do with many, many gals out there, we started talking about her cycle and her hormones and she had clearly been around the block trying to figure out how to get her hormones back on track. She was having irregular periods, she was having acne and a little bit of bloating, and she was able to just like cite lab after lab or sensitivity test I would make. We were in a group setting, actually, and so I say that because I would share a couple of recommendations with the group, but for many of the recommendations or best practices that came up, she already had a oh well, I know that that doesn't work for me because I need to do this other thing for the sake of my blood sugar, or, yes, I've already tried that, but it didn't work for me, and so I started doing this other thing to see if that works better for me thing, to see if that works better for me. A lot of the stuff that. Let me take a step back too. By no means are all of my recommendations perfect for everybody, so that's not the thing here.
Speaker 1:What stuck out to me, though, and the topic of today's episode, is this situation that we can get ourselves in by accident sometimes, where we're holding ourselves back because we think that we know what will or won't help, instead of taking a step back to look at our health. Look at our life. What's going on in life right now that could be impacting my health? From a more holistic view, the last two things I want to mention to you, and then I will start walking you through. If you have unpredictable periods, acne or bloating what might you want to consider and how might you want to gather some information to move forward?
Speaker 1:But these two things that I want to share with you is this first question of what is best for your body right now your body, because your body isn't the same as everybody else's body, and your body might not need what the last podcast you listened to told you that you need, even my podcast. I don't know you. I don't know you yet, because that's not how podcasts work. Right, you have to take everything that you are learning and really learn to apply this filter. Learning and really learn to apply this filter, this question of how does this apply to me and my body.
Speaker 1:Now, the second side of this question that I want to reiterate for you again I mentioned it a moment ago is how can you look at the bigger picture of what's happening? How can you take a step back from the very specific changes that you might be making to your diet and say, okay, well, looking at the foundational stuff, am I moving my body? How is my stress? How is my sleep? How are those things? How are my? You know, take a look at your labs that you might get annually when you take a, when you go to your normal doctor's appointment. These things that aren't so nuanced but can still really reveal something huge about what's going on in your picture, the picture of your health. The final thought that I had here for you is just again reiterating this point that, when it comes to your hormones and many facets of health, consistency is so important, and so implementing a particular change for a month, it might not be long enough. It also might not be the right change for you. So you know there's more investigating to be done to make sure, but you see where I'm going with this right. If you're not. It could have been an intervention, maybe like eliminating dairy. That could have been something that really was helpful for you, but you quit on it before you got to the point where you would have seen those benefits.
Speaker 1:So a couple of thoughts to start you out with before we jump into this conversation about unpredictable periods. If you are someone who falls into this category, then you've probably already tried different vitamins, different minerals, maybe some magnesia. Maybe you've gotten on the Vitex train, chattavari, another botanical that can support, or that's known to support, fertility and ovulation. Maybe you've tried cycle syncing because you said, hey, is this going to get my cycle back on track? Or hopefully. If you have a fair amount of stress in your life, then you've already started to think about okay, how can I dial down the stress? Because I know that stress is going to impact my cycle.
Speaker 1:If you have unpredictable periods, you inherently know that because they are unpredictable. But I do want to take a second to just highlight what does that actually mean? I do want to take a second to just highlight what does that actually mean, like what's going on there? Because when your cycles are irregular, when they are not predictable, when you don't know if it's going to be 40 days or 30 days or is it going to come next month or the month after, kind of thing. That's a sign that you're likely not ovulating each cycle, or at least you're not ovulating consistently, right? So is that a situation where your estrogen levels are a bit low, because you need an adequate level of estrogen in order to ovulate? Could it be a situation where your luteinizing hormone and or follicle stimulating hormone just aren't they aren't peaking or spiking right before ovulation when they should, so it's just not happening? Or is there something else again, like stress, like blood sugar dysregulation or any one of the many things that can increase your stress hormone, that would prevent you from having kind of an on-time ovulation?
Speaker 1:All of that being said, if you feel like you've tried everything to get your periods back on track, then I wonder if you have been considering this question of how long did you try each solution? How long did you try a certain diet? How long did you stick with one of those supplements or vitamins that you may have already started with? Make a note of that for yourself, or pause me so you can think back on it, because that will be an important clue for you as you move forward and as you decide what is or isn't worth your time, money or energy. As you move on to that next intervention for you, the next thing that I want to suggest to you is have you been aware of what's going on with your blood sugar?
Speaker 1:This is another thing where, if you've listened to the podcast before, you've heard me talk about blood sugar, blood sugar, blood sugar. It's really important, and if you're somebody with PCOS, then you may already know that blood sugar can be a particularly important factor for you, because many gals with PCOS have dysregulated blood sugar levels that can cause stress and a bit of inflammation in the body. Also, though, if you're an American, like a lot of Americans, have blood sugar problems because we grew up drinking Coca-Cola and Gatorade and eating Froot Loops. So, anyway, that's a whole other episode. Let me reel myself in because, yeah, I would just ask you, despite maybe any specific change to your diet that you've made, have you thought about how that impacts your blood sugar? There are more things than just food that impact your blood sugar, but let me leave you with that thought, because, during times and this is something that might take a little bit longer to see a benefit from, but when you are prioritizing that stability, there can be a positive cascading effect. So time to implement a solution. Blood sugar.
Speaker 1:Another question that I have for you that I want you to take a step back and look at is could there be a possible digestive imbalance or something going on with your digestion that may be contributing to your digestive issues? This is something that I see pretty often with my one-on-one clients. I'll have a gal who comes to me because, like you, she has unpredictable periods and maybe she wants to run a Dutch test, which makes sense. Dutch test is what you use to check your hormones, one of your options. But once we get into her initial interview and I'm really digging into what's going on with her, we say, hey. I think that the best first step we can take, what will move the needle the most, would be to focus on what's going on with your digestion, namely improving it, and then see how that can impact cycle regularity overall.
Speaker 1:I have one client specifically Let me think of the dates real quick if I can but I started working with her. When I started working with her, I think she'd been off of birth control for about eight months by that point and her cycles were coming maybe every three months or so Once we implemented her gut health protocol. So if that was it, so I want to say, after maybe three months of implementing the protocol, her cycles had come back down into the 40-day 30-day 40-day kind of range 30-day 40-day kind of range. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter she had to take antibiotics for an illness and that threw her gut health back into a spiral and her cycle lengths lengthened out even more. So then we kind of had to go back, start fresh, reel her in so that now her cycle lengths can come back into an appropriate range. Hopefully that made sense for you, but I just wanted to mention that to really drive home the impact that your gut health can have on your cycle regularity.
Speaker 1:The next question that I want you to think of if you think I've already tried everything question that I want you to think of if you think I've already tried everything, I've done this, I've done that, I've done this Is the problem, then that you are doing, doing, doing, doing and your body is asking for a little bit more of a break, for a little bit more rest. Leave that with you to think on. One other thing that comes to mind would be whether or not you are under eating or if you're appropriately nourishing your body. Now, this is important. Well, for a gazillion reasons because that's how we get our nutrients, but specifically here, because a lot of the times and I've done this by accident myself too but when we say, okay, let me cut out X, y and Z, let me cut out gluten, let me cut out dairy, I'm going to cut out processed foods, all of those things in and of themselves can be helpful, for you can be supportive of your overall health depending on your bio individuality.
Speaker 1:At the same time, if you're not inspecting what you are eating, you could inadvertently be under eating. Plus, like in society, we're just taught to be smaller, smaller, smaller we gals here in these United States. So just consider doing a little audit to see, are you eating enough? Or just ask yourself throughout the day like do I feel good, do I feel full and satiated after I have a meal? Some last thoughts here for unpredictable periods. So hopefully those questions maybe inspired some thought or some curiosity in you.
Speaker 1:But some other thoughts, because if you want to figure out, okay, well, how do I move forward? What would be the right information to have moving forward? Number one it'll be really helpful to understand whether or not you're ovulating. We don't necessarily ovulate every single cycle, but figuring out if you're ovulating every cycle, that will be really important, because that helps you to understand where you need to focus your effort. I mentioned this earlier in the episode. But another great step to a first step that I recommend for everybody is just, hey, if you haven't had your annual checkup with your doctor yet, go ahead, check out that appointment, ask them to run whatever are the normal labs that they run, whatever your insurance covers, and just make sure that everything is in good shape there. Because if it is something so I don't want to call it low-hanging fruit, but if it's something that you can get covered by your insurance would love for you to go that route and get their guidance or bring that to the practitioner that you're working with. If that's me, I oftentimes will take a look at my client's lab work just to say, okay, how can this inform us on what systems in your body need some more support?
Speaker 1:I want to move on to talking about acne next, and these next two subjects subjects, topics anyway will go a little bit quicker, since I've already, you know, tossed out a bunch of these hypotheticals or questions for you to ponder on. So when we're thinking of acne I want you to think about, you know, okay, first of all, is this really a hormone problem or is this a gut health problem? And let me tell you that I, until the age of I don't know, probably 30, 29, I thought, wow, I just have all this hormonal acne every month, all the time. Oh, and for some reason, acne when I'm ovulating too. My hormonal acne. Doesn't care what time of the month it was, but it's on my chin, on my jaw area, so I know it's hormonal. Okay, well, hopefully you could hear the sarcasm in my voice a little bit, because eventually I fixed my gut health and my acne went away, my skin cleared up. So that's all to say. Really, being sure, is this a hormone thing or is this a gut thing? That will be a really helpful piece of information for you.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm confident that if you are dealing with adult acne, then you've already thought through is this acne a result of a product that I'm using? Is it because I need to maybe wash my pillowcase more or fix whatever product I'm putting in my hair that's getting on my pillowcase? You've already thought through those things. You've already tried different skincare lines. You've already spent a bunch of money on different skincare products maybe facials as well but what would be a much better use of your funds would be to redirect them and to figure out, okay again, is this a hormone thing or is this a gut health thing, and then take action from there.
Speaker 1:Now, quick, honorable mention is there something with lymph drainage that needs some focus? Now, I'm not a lymph drainage professional. There are plenty of beautiful tutorials that you can find on YouTube or on social media, but just knowing that if there is any kind of stagnant lymph fluid that needs some help draining, or maybe your lymph nodes are a little bit bogged down and so they're not draining like normal that could also be something that contributes to what's going on in your skin. So, all that being said and I feel like I really jetted through that, even though I knew that it would be faster this is just to say if you've tried all these things to figure out what's going on with your acne, maybe you've already tried to eliminate dairy, because dairy can be really inflammatory for some people, and if you're sensitive to dairy, then acne might be the thing that pops up. I have a friend who she knows, without a doubt, every time that she eats, you know, a piece of cheese, because sometimes she's like, hey, the goats make some good cheese. I'm going to have some, I'm going to enjoy it. She knows that she will have a pimple and that's okay. It's not the end of the world if you have acne, but this is to say that for something like removing dairy from your diet, you will need to. You need to do that consistently and, you know, for several weeks, if not more than a month, before you can really see okay, is this something that moves the needle, alrighty friend.
Speaker 1:Next we're going to talk about bloating, because, again, something that I dealt with really everything that I'm talking about today I've dealt with, because that's how I got here, that's how I ended up becoming a women's hormone coach, because I was like this is some bullshit and I would love to help the other gals out with it so they don't have to go through this. Anyway, when I was experiencing a lot of bloating, honestly I didn't even know what to do. I didn't really have any toolkits tools in my toolkit, rather, I'm certain that I rotated through some different supplements to see if I couldn't figure it out. I know now that, okay, maybe intermittent fasting can help my gut health. Right, we know that not eating super close to bedtime that could be good for your gut health. So maybe you've tried some of those things. Maybe you talked to your doctor about it and they gave you a recommendation for antibiotics. Maybe they gave you a recommendation for something that could help like keep your stomach acid at bay. I'm not sure. If that, tell me. Somebody, dm me and tell me what your doctor recommended to you.
Speaker 1:Regardless, if you've tried these things, then it's coming back to the question of what's going on in your digestive system and a couple of things to consider here. Of course, on the one hand, there's the question of is there some sort of imbalance in your gut microbiome, like is there a certain overgrowth of bacteria or yeast A, b or C that's causing this bloating? On the other hand, some things that you can do, that you can influence, that will also influence your bloating, would be something like stress when you're eating your meals. Are you particularly stressed or, overall in life, is this a season when you have more stress and you notice that you're experiencing more bloating? Why does this happen? Well, this can happen sometimes because if you're stressed, you're likely not producing as much or potentially not an adequate amount of stomach acid and that kind of just sets off this unsavory domino effect for the rest of digestion. One of those side effects can be bloating. So thinking of okay, I've tried these things, but have I taken this step back to really look at my stress levels? Are you getting enough sleep? That can also tie into it.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that you eat every single day? Or you know some people, man, I had a friend who I was with this weekend. She's so lovely. We were talking about gut health and she said to me hey, bridget, I have some bloating and I just don't know what to do about it. So I'm asking her a couple of questions and I said oh, I remember you used to not eat gluten. How's that going? She goes oh well, okay, I eat some gluten actually. Yeah, I know that that's the problem and that's so valid. That's so valid If you know that something hurts your stomach or makes you feel bloated but it's hard to cut out. That's really valid. I guess that's not on the same side of the coin, as I've tried everything, but it can be really hard to get rid of something that you're used to eating every day or that feels really inconvenient to eliminate until you figure out how to have access to all the tasty foods that you like that are just gluten-free or dairy-free, whatever it is for you.
Speaker 1:You know the common denominator that ties together these three experiences unpredictable periods, acne, bloating and even anything unnamed here. Maybe you have really heavy periods, maybe you have no periods at all. Maybe there's something else that you are trying to work through, or optimizing fertility, getting through perimenopause. Maybe that's the reason why you're listening today, and the common denominator between all of these things is that you have the opportunity right now to change the pattern, to change what you're doing to support your body, and you can improve upon those experiences, those patterns that you're seeing. You can, instead of continuing doing what you've been doing, whatever that might be, you right now have the opportunity to take a step back, look at what's going on in your life, in your health, in your digestive system, in your reproductive system, from a more holistic view, in your digestive system, in your reproductive system from a more holistic view, and then take a different direction that will get you closer to your goals.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it might be uncomfortable. I can't promise you that it'll be just absolutely easy, breezy, but you have control over what you do, the decisions you make, what you eat, what your schedule is like. Sometimes it might feel like we don't have that much control, but I just want to remind you that you do, and if you want to feel better, if you want to bring your hormones or your gut health back into balance, then it is 1000% within your control to do so and you have the ability to influence that outcome based on whatever you decide to do, starting today and starting tomorrow, and then continuing it, continuing on with it day after day. As we get ready to wrap up this episode, I just want to reiterate this for you one more time, because really, my hope for this episode and what I wanted you to take away from it is the fact that, no matter what you've tried, even if you've tried so many things and this is not discrediting your efforts this is not saying you didn't try hard enough. It's just to say that, no matter what you've tried so far, if there is a change that you want to make with your hormones or with your gut health, you can do it. Don't limit yourself, don't back yourself into this corner, thinking like nothing works for me, because I can promise you that there will be something out there that works for you, that moves the needle for you. It just might take a little bit more time for you to figure it out and to understand what really is again moving that needle for you and helping you to see the changes that you want to see. Now, of course, if you are looking for some guidance, if maybe some of the lab tests that I mentioned today feel like they would be really helpful and fruitful for you or hey, like I mentioned, you got to start doing something different from how you've been doing it before and maybe that thing is working one-on-one with a hormone coach and if you feel so inspired I would love to support you on that journey. I'll invite you to go to imhormonalcom slash apply, where you can share some information with me about what your goals are and where you're at, and pick a time for us to talk on a free strategy call where we can just share more information about what you would like to see and figure out if a one-on-one coaching package would be a good fit to help you get to where you want to go. So that's what I want to leave you with for today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this one. I know this was a little bit longer than normal, but if you've made it this far, I guess it was worth it, huh? So with that, guys, thanks again. I really appreciate you out there, and I will see you on the next one. 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. All right, we'll see you on the next one.