PSA: Most of the health advice you’ve heard is probably not meant for your body. I know that’s a massive statement, but allow me to explain. The vast majority of research and studies (and pretty much all studies before the 1970s) were primarily done on men (when women were involved in studies, they were almost always menopausal). It’s not that the healthcare industry is sexist (although that’s inherently true too), but because even early on, scientists, doctors, and researchers understood that women during their reproductive years were not “consistent” enough for studies, AKA the results changed based on which phase of their reproductive cycle they were in. In other words, our bodies drastically change throughout our cycles, so only men and non-menstruating women were included in the study. But what does this mean for us? Not only are we left out of studies and unsure how many diets, medicines, and rituals affect our bodies, but this is confirmation that our bodies do in fact need different things throughout our cycle. What may be good for us in one phase might be damaging in another phase. But no one teaches us this (even though it’s widely known in the research community)–instead, we’re meant to try to be more like a man’s body. We’re told that things like intermittent fasting, early morning routines, and HIIT are good for us, because of studies only done on men. We’re made to believe daily routines are beneficial, and every 24 hours should look the same. Lastly, we’re made to believe that bleeding is an inconvenience. I was put on the Pill at age 15 to stop bleeding altogether, and I truly believed it made my life better.

Over a decade later, thank god I now see the light. Because there’s so little healthcare and wellness care available for women’s bodies, my mission is bringing you information that’s actually meant for your body. Alisa Vitti and her powerful Cycle Syncing Method, as well as leaders like Dr. Christine Northrup, taught me everything I know. I’ve underlined, dog-eared their books many times, and allowed the information to not only change the way I treat my body and guide my clients, but also has transformed the way I think of my body. And bottom line: your cycle is not something you want to suppress or stop altogether from a Pill. It’s a powerful life force; not an inconvenience. One of the most life-changing things I learned was that the cycle affects wayyyyy more than PMS or whether or not we get pregnant. Here’s how your reproductive cycle and hormones affect the other major systems in your body, as cited and explained in Alisa Vitti’s book In the Flo.

The brain:

You know what’s so crazy? You might have heard that the female brain is 10% smaller than the male brain on average, but what you probably haven’t heard is that the internal parts of the brain are bigger, and the female brain functions with stronger networks. The female brain has a larger prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for empathy, controlled risk-taking, and focus), hippocampus (long-term memory), and corpus callosum (nerve bundles that bridge the two hemispheres of the brain, meaning greater connected to both left and right sides of the brain) to name a few. So hello, tap into that power when in arguments with your SO or at a board meeting. The brain changes 25% throughout your cycle, meaning you’re wired for different purposes at different phases. The coolest part? During your menstrual phase, there’s the strongest connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain , which means you have the strongest intuition and best decision making during that time (stronger than the male brain at any time of their 24-hour cycle). This is probably why many ancient matriarchal societies left the all the decision making for menstruating women.

The gut:

Estrogen influences the gut in many ways. It promotes growth and survival of healthy bacteria and provides a protective barrier to prevent leaky gut (AKA what most of us have…coincidence that our whole generation of women have gut issues and were put on the Pill as teenagers?). On the flip side, an unhealthy gut can lead to estrogen dominance, and estrogen dominance is tied to basically every symptom from PCOS to bad cramps. Balanced hormones throughout the cycle can help promote a more vital microbiome, while imbalanced hormones can lead to leaky gut and cause the microbiome to become imbalanced as well.

The immune system:

Yes, your immune system fluctuates with your hormones too. According to 2017 research, testosterone suppresses immune responses, so the majority of our cycle contains an enhanced immune system (basically, overtime the human body has developed for female hormonal functions to improve immune system so they stay in tip-top shape during reproductive years for healthy childbearing). Right before your period (the second half of your cycle), the immune system takes a dip so your body won’t attack a potential fertilized egg as a foreign invader, which is why many people get a cold before their period. When your hormones are imbalanced or you’re on synthetic hormones and have no cycle, the immune system is missing out on its full potential. There’s a lot of hormone, scientific reasons for this, but I think of it like the body is so smart and is primed for procreation. If it believes there’s no chance for procreation, we lose a lot of the super immunity we get as females because the body has no reason to be in tip-top shape (sad but evolutionally true).

The metabolism:

Now for my personal favorite: how hormones affect weight and our ability to burn calories (because nobody’s talking about this!). Did you know that a faster metabolism is not actually “better?” We want a healthy metabolism that burns and stores the amount of calories we need for optimal health (too fast and we age quicker, don’t absorb enough nutrients, can’t hold onto energy, etc.). Females are meant to conserve nutrients longer and extract more from the foods we eat to provide a more nutrient-rich environment for the childbearing process (how cool is that?). This means that your metabolism has different nutrient and caloric needs at different phases of your cycle. For example, during the luteal phase, you burn up to 16% more calories (just at rest). So if you’re eating the same way every day or are going on diets regardless of where you are in your cycle, of course you’re having crazy side effects, unable to reach a healthy weight, and doing longterm damage.

Stress:

OK so this isn’t technically a system in the body, but stress response is an important biological marker, and one of the main thing we all have imbalanced. One way this relates to the hormone cycle is because female biology is programmed to heighten stress response in the second half of the cycle. While you may think great, another way my cycle is ruining my life, the reason your body does this is to so you are on optimal alert to increase your chance of survival to protect a fertilized egg if you were pregnant–how cool is that!? Since we’re not in danger of a tiger attack, it’s important to know this so you can turn inward during this time in your cycle and take extra care of yourself so to not activate a stress response. But mostly, I include this point for my 21-year-old self who was having random bleeding and awful symptoms and went to my doctor with my own intuition and said, “I think this has to do with stress, I’ve been really stressed lately,” and instead of answering with '“I trust your intuition, let’s look into that,” or “let’s try that and prioritize some de-stressing practices,” or even a “I’m so sorry you’ve been stressed, let me refer you to a therapist so we can get that under control,” she answered, “Stress can’t affect hormones that much. Let’s do another internal X-ray.”

So I suppressed that intuition, and years later after educating myself from scientific research and ancient sources, I want to say Lady–stress is hormones ! Chronic stress can interfere with insulin, decrease progesterone, delay (or totally halt) ovulation, and change the length, time, and symptoms of your period.

For more information on how your hormonal cycle affects the rest of your body, check out In the Flo by Alisa Vitti, This is Your Brain on Birth Control by Sarah Hill, or Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christine Northrup, where all of this information came from.