Cycle Phase Symptoms

Are you tracking your symptoms and notice they are happening at the same times in your cycle each month? This can be due to specific hormonal shits that occur each phase. Symptoms can indicate possible imbalances during that phase of your cycle.

Overview of Hormones During Each Phase:

Menstrual: Estrogen and progesterone are low
Follicular: Estrogen is rising; progesterone is low
Ovulation: Estrogen is high; progesterone rises after ovulation
Early luteal: Estrogen is high; progesterone is high
Late luteal: Estrogen and progesterone are decreasing

So let’s review some common symptoms and the cycle phases the usually occur in:

Ovulation Symptoms

Lots of info out there makes it seem that everything should be amazing around ovulation. Your energy is high, your skin is clear and you’re ready to take on the world!

That may be the way it is for some but if that’s not your reality it can feel a bit confusing – like why are you breaking out, noticing pain or your mood isn’t really that great? Some mild or pressure around ovulation may be normal-this is known as ovulation pain. Symptoms you might be experiencing around ovulation could include:

Pain
Mood swings
Headaches
Pelvic pressure
Nausea
Acne/breakouts
Breast tenderness

Most of these symptoms can relate to something going on with estrogen levels: high estrogen, poor estrogen metabolism, or poor estrogen elimination.

Food Cravings

Imbalances in estrogen and progesterone can contribute to food cravings. After ovulation you move into the luteal phase. Estrogen and progesterone peak at the beginning of this phase and then they start to drop as you move toward menstruation.

Serotonin which is our brain’s sunshine mood chemical, drops in the luteal phase. We can tend to gravitate towards carbs during this time as they can give us a small serotonin boost.

Cravings for foods with fat may be due to a need for fatty acids. Omega-3s have anti-inflammatory properties and may help to balance the effects of prostaglandins which are inflammatory compounds released right before your period to help shed the uterine lining.

Insulin sensitivity also decreases in the luteal phase. Therefore, its super important to incorporate protein and healthy fats at meals and snacks to keep blood sugar balanced.

Cyclical Gut Issues

Cycle Day 1 is the first day of your period – not spotting but full bleed. Before your period starts, inflammatory compounds – prostaglandins – are released to shed the uterine lining. These prostaglandins also affect your GI tract muscles as the uterus is so close. This contraction can result in looser stools or even some diarrhea on or around your period.

After your period when estrogen levels are rising you may experience more regular bowel movements during this phase as prostaglandins are no longer rising and your progesterone has not kicked in yet. Generally you may feel pretty good during the follicular phase with the rise in estrogen and increasing energy levels.

Feeling pretty good around ovulation with the estrogen peaks and energy being up, right after ovulation your corpus luteum (the leftover sac from when the egg was released) starts releasing progesterone. Progesterone is needed for healthy fertility and it also has anti-anxiety benefits because of the GABA (natural mood chemicals). It can also have some relaxing effects on the GI tract muscles and slow things down resulting in some mid-cycle constipation.

The second half of your luteal phase when your estrogen and progesterone start to drop can provide some constipation relief. Then starts the approach to your next period and the cycle goes on.

Acne

Do you have cyclical pre-period acne? Generally this is due to imbalances in estrogen and progesterone. Uncovering these questions as to what is going on can help:

Is my estrogen high?
Is my progesterone low?
How is my estrogen detox?
Am I ovulating?

Around mid-cycle painful acne can be worse and is usually drive by elevated androgens – testosterone and DHEA most likely due to which pathway of androgen metabolism is happening. Answers to these questions are important:

Is my testosterone high? (most likely from blood sugar imbalances)
Is my DHEA high? (often due to stress)
How am I metabolizing my androgens?

Do you have acne that is not cyclical and always there and on cheeks/forehead? Are you experiencing bloating, indigestion, stomach pain, diarrhea, constipation? If so, digging into gut health is a must.

PMS

Premenstrual syndrome – PMS – are the collection of symptoms you can experience the wee or two before your period. But—-there are reasons you are experiencing PMS and pain symptoms like:

Cramps
Breast tenderness
Headaches
Migraines
Bloating
Acne
Food cravings
Mood swings
MORE!!!

Some root causes for this are estrogen dominance and inflammation. When you uncover exactly what is driving your symptoms you can heal the root causes and experience symptom relief.

So, where do you begin? You have a few options! Your foundational steps for regular, pain-free periods and symptom-less cycles are here!

Look into some function lab work. These labs can give you much more information than what you can get from conventional lab work. Not only does it look at hormone levels, it shows how you are metabolizing your hormones and how they are functioning in your body. For more info look here. You can use your HSA/FSA card for these labs!

Next, you can set up a discovery call and we can go through your symptoms and come up with a game plan for what to do next and start feeling better. You an set that up here.

Next, look into joining my Fertile Ground Holistic Fertility program and set yourself for more understanding of what hormones are all about and how to get them back into balance. You can check it out here.

Taking some kind of action will help ensure you are taking steps to optimize your fertility and hormone balance. Start feeling better today!