Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods
Nutritional treatment for balancing hormones and improving fertility. Treatments discussed include diet changes and herbal and nutritional supplements for PCOS, endometriosis, and other causes of female infertility.
Ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone are beneficial for health. That means natural ovulatory menstrual cycles are beneficial for health because ovulation is how women make hormones.
Does that surprise you? Men make testosterone every day, so you might think women do something similar, but we don’t. Instead, women make hormones as a surge of estradiol leading up to ovulation and an even bigger surge of progesterone after ovulation.
Lost your period? You might just need to eat more. A lot more. Losing your period to undereating is called hypothalamic amenorrhea and is common, especially in women under thirty.
Hypothalamic amenorrhea is sometimes misdiagnosed as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) because both hypothalamic amenorrhea and PCOS can have “polycystic ovaries” on a pelvic ultrasound exam.
A menstrual cycle is, by definition, an ovulatory cycle in which ovulation is the main event and progesterone is made.
Any other kind of bleed is either an anovulatory bleed or a pill-bleed — neither of which are real menstrual cycles. Ovulatory cycles are the only way to make progesterone which is important for general health, not just for making a baby.
Progesterone is beneficial because it lightens periods. It also reduces inflammation, regulates immune function, and supports healthy thyroid, brain, bones, and breasts.
Do you make enough progesterone? Are you sure?
The only way to make progesterone is with ovulation and a healthy luteal phase.