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.
Soy contains phytoestrogens or “plant-estrogens,” which sounds bad but by out-competing estradiol, phytoestrogens can have a beneficial anti-estrogen effect in women of reproductive age.
That’s why soy and other phytoestrogens can make periods lighter and improve estrogen excess symptoms such as PMS and heavy periods.
Prolactin is a pituitary hormone that promotes lactation. It’s also involved in ovulation, orgasm, breast health, immune function, and mood. High prolactin is called hyperprolactinemia.
Symptoms of high prolactin include irregular periods or no periods, premenstrual mood symptoms, loss of libido, headaches, breast pain, vaginal dryness, acne, and hirsutism or facial hair. It’s one of several causes of excess androgens that can be mistaken for polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS.
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 the breakthrough bleed of an anovulatory cycle or a pill-bleed, which are not real menstrual cycles.
An ovulatory cycle has two phases.
Ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone are highly beneficial for health. That means that natural ovulatory menstrual cycles are beneficial for health, because ovulation is the only way to make ovarian hormones.
Does that surprise you? Men make testosterone every day, so you might think that women would do something similar, but we don’t. Instead, we make our hormones as a surge of estrogen leading up to ovulation and an even bigger surge of progesterone for the two weeks after ovulation.
Read moreThe Secret Powers of Ovulation (It’s Not Just for Making a Baby)