The myths of your period

For those of you who missed yesterday's masterclass, I busted some serious myths about our period. They were too important not to share with ALL OF YOU, so here are the key takeaways:

👩🏼‍💻 “It’s ok, it’s normal” - The media makes us believe that PMS, PCOS and Endo are totally normal. NEWS FLASH: these are common but NOT normal. The only benefit of the media saying this BS, is that it’s opened up the conversation around periods which I’m so here for.

👩🏼‍⚕️ “You have PCOS” - The problem is that doctors are so quick to give a ‘diagnosis’, which means you fall into the trap of thinking you have an answer, when really all it does is slap a label on it so you feel validated by your experience. This validation is helpful, but it’s not fixing the root problem. For example, you’re told you have endo so you need surgery… you're not actually fixing the root cause and you will likely still experience issues post-surgery.

🔥 “Mood swings are just a part of being a women” - Erm, no! The real reason for mood swings is because you’re not feeling emotionally stable in your life or safe in your body. This could be a really simple thing like waiting for your apartment to be ready so you can move in (AKA, me right now). Your life can cause ups and downs in emotions, but your cycle should NOT cause severe mood swings. Severe mood swings are caused as a result of a hormonal imbalance between estrogen and progesterone. After you ovulate, your estrogen drops and your progesterone rises. If you don’t have enough (or have too. much) it will create an imbalance and you’ll feel the effects in your luteal phase.

🩸”Cramps are normal, deal with them” - Absolutely-fucking-not. When you have a lot of cramps, this is a sign of inflammation, low progesterone, high estrogen and/or a lack of circulation. They are not normal, and you certainly don’t need to put up with them.

💊 “Go on HBC, it’ll help with x issue” - SPOILER, going on ANY form of hormonal birth control will NOT fix your period problem. If a doctor says going on the pill will help fix your endo, call BULLSHIT. HBC is simply a band aid and will help you not feel the effects of your period problem. I understand that some women have horrendous endo and they need to go on the pill to help ease the pain, however the problem here if that you’re not being correctly educated to understand that the pill is something to be used TEMPORARILY whilst you’re actually doing the work to fix the issue.

💦 “You can fall pregnant at any time of the month” - you can’t. (Listen to episode 8 of my podcast!) This is a lesson on the basics of biology by Miss Yates: You need an egg to fall pregnant, so that the sperm can fertilise the egg. Sounds so simple, right? You only have an egg when you’re ovulating. You have to be careful before you ovulate, because the sperm can still survive inside of you. For those of you that want to understand your own times of fertility/infertility and harness the power of your period, get your hands on the Feme Flow Journal. HBC is not bulletproof by any means, and there are still millions of women who fall pregnant a year. If you’re on HBC simply to avoid pregnancy, I’d recommend using my Feme Flow journal. Your cycle never lies, so it’s actually way safer this way.

Decode your period

1. Excess estrogen:

Majority of women have this. Bloating, puffiness, water retention, abnormal pap smears, heavy bleeding, rapid weight gain (particularly in your butt and hips), thyroids, ovarian cysts, endo, painful periods, PCOS, mood swings, PMS, depression, irritability, frustration, anxiety, mini breakdown, crying over nothing, and brain fog before your period, migraines, insomnia. If you have 1 or more of these symptoms you possibly have excess estrogen. If you have 5 or more, definitely.

2. Low estrogen:

Poor memory, really emotionally fragile compared to how you used to be, depression, night sweats or hot flashes, regularly having trouble sleeping or waking up in the night all the time, achey joints all the time (separate to working out really hard), brittle bones, vaginal dryness, low libido, painful sex, lack of a glow in your face, dry eyes, skin and pussy, no interest in exercise (not laziness), low drive for life, no zest for life.

3. Excess androgens:

This is often the case if you have PCOS. Excess hair on face, chest and arms, acne on back, greasy skin, thinning hair on head, depression, anxiety, having your cycle longer than 35 days, being told you have pros (listen to episode 50), ovarian cysts, mid cycle pain, infertility. The most common sympton is abnormal hair growth.

4. Low thyroid:

This is a result of high stress. Hair loss (eyebrow and eyelash) dry skin, dry hair that tangles easily (separate to bleaching), thin or brittle fingernails where you can’t press into your nail without it bending easily, swollen ankles, additional weight that you can’t lose and that came on quickly, if you’re shitting less than once a day (not good!), reoccurring headaches, not sweating as much as you used to, cold hands and feet, tingling in your hands and feet, sore muscles (separate to the hard pilates you did the day before), sensitivity to cold, feeling really lethargic and fatigued no matter how much you sleep, slow brain and sluggish, low sex drive, miscarriage issues, heavy periods, blood clots, painful periods, family history of thyroid.

5. Low progesterone:

This is so common. Cyclical headache, bloating and mood swings, painful or swollen boobs, irregular cycles, heavy periods (tampon every 2 hours), painful periods (painful meaning you can’t function without taking painkillers), bloating, cysts, easily disrupted sleep, increased clumsiness and poor concentration, having a miscarriage in first trimester.

Chicken nuggets:

1️⃣ Get curious, rather than deeming your period issues as normal. This is where your power is. From now on, when you have any physical symptoms, ask yourself: what was the combination of events that led me to feeling this way? Listen to your body so you can heal. Remember, the only thing that is normal for your cycle is that you’ll have different versions of yourself… e.g. during your luteal phase you may feel a little introverted, tired and hungry, but there will be NO major symptoms. Anything else ISN’T NORMAL.

2️⃣ You don’t have to suffer. We can ALL have juicy, delicious periods.

I've decoded my period, what next?

My free masterclass yesterday was the first step to help you decode your period. The next step is to jump into Your Perfect Period so you can fix your period problems, FOR GOOD.

⇢ Enrolment closes 21st May

⇢ You have forever access to the content

⇢ I’ll be hosting a live Q+A on the 8th July at 4pm EDT.

It’s the perfect time to join Your Perfect Period, because covid fatigue will fuck your hormones if you don’t know what to do. I’m talking, psycho period, your skin will break out… you need to know what you’re doing now, so that when you’re out being a social butterfly you can live your best life without compromising your hormones, or not being able to go out because your period is raging. I want you to be able to go out, dance on tables, drink tequila, without your period holding you back. Hello perfect periods, hello slutty summer ⚡💃🏼

Questions:

Q: What if your blood-works come back normal but you’re still having strong PMS?

A: Your blood-work can say things are fine when they’re not. Chicken nugget - trust your symptons. When you join Your Perfect Period, I provide you with lots of written material and a checklist so you can go through a massive list of symptoms and tick them off. So many women realise symptoms they didn't even know they had. Then, at the end, you can reflect back and compare yourself before and after. Symptoms don’t lie. If you are wanting to do a test, I'd recommend doing a saliva test with a naturopath as this way more accurate for testing hormones.

Q: Does the hormonal IUD have the same implications as the pill?

A: It's different in the sense that some women still ovulate on the IUD which is fantastic, but in terms of having the same implications - it does affect your gut health, how your body is not storing nutrients, inflammation, mental health and fertility. It's alarming how many doctors don't educate women on how you shouldn't get the IUD if you want a child. There are so many dangers of the IUD, including it getting displaced and/or rupturing your uterus. Neither the IUD or the pill are great, however if I had to choose one over the other it would be the pill (although this is still terrible for pumping your body full of fake hormones). The pill is not putting a foreign object in your uterus which can create so much trauma in your womb.

Q: I've been missing period for over a 1 year but doing low intensity exercise, eating enough, sleeping and trying to reduce stress. What would you suggest as the best next step for getting my period back?

A: 111% Queen Alchemy. For me it's obvious when someone needs to join Your Perfect Period or Queen Alchemy. If someone has been doing all the physical stuff (like you have been doing), it’s clear it’s energetic.

Q: Is a short cycle every 3 weeks normal? I’ve been getting so many different answers.

A: This is a sign of low progesterone. Ideally, you want a 4, 4.5 or 5 week cycle. You don't want it to be shorter than 28 days unless you've always have that. We want you to have a long ovulation phase because it’s juicy.

Q: Do you have to wait 6 months after going off the pill for your cycle to fully adjust before switching to natural birth control?

A: The fertility awareness method is about confidence. Don’t rely on it until you’ve had a natural cycle for 6 months to feel really confident in your body to use this.

Q; Really random but since stopping the pill in August last year, I have found I have sweated much more and my B.O is much stronger than on the pill...to the point I am conscious of it by the end of the afternoon, when on the pill I barely sweated. I don't wanna use aluminium deodorant, any advice? It makes me very self conscious.

A: I love this question. If your B.O stinks really bad, thats often high cortisol because your body is trying to release toxins and stress. You should smell me at events when my adrenaline is high and I'm sweating out cortisol. Stay on the natural deodrant, Babs Bodycare is incredible. Its the only natural deo I've found that works.

Q: Is a 31 day cycle ok?

A: It’s not alarming, but it depends on the symptoms you’ve experiencing with it.

Q: What are your thoughts on seed cycling?

A: I don't have time for that, it’s a lot of effort. I don't recommend it to my clients, mainly due to the fact that I don't want your period to become something on your to-do list.