Menstrual cycle phase - Spring
This is the follicular phase of your cycle, when your follicles are growing and producing lots of oestrogen. This starts your uterine lining to build up in preparation for ovulation, and should be a time when you start to feel more energised, motivated and interested in the outer world again. You may feel enthusiastic and positive about opportunities, and gradually feel back in your groove.
Photo credit Marivi Pazos
Transition
After a long winter, there’s a sense of hope and excitement plus a new promise of another month. You feel and start to see the powerful creative force within you bringing life back after it’s been dormant during the winter.
You can shake off the hibernation of winter, as if you’re emerging from a cocoon, feeling lighter and brighter.
It’s a time of new possibility and for starting over again. In some women it can feel sudden, especially if you were resting in your winter; the energy was building and gathering inside and now wants to burst out.
It’s a time when, because oestrogen helps you feel positive and energised you may feel as if you’re wearing a jet pack on your back. Although it can be tempting to give in and propel yourself out into your world, it’s well worth grabbing the reins and holding yourself back a little. Taking care to ease yourself back in and letting that energy buildup, can help you feel grounded and more energised later on. Your period is like an anchor, and it’s helpful to not let go of that too soon and keep up some of the self-care practices you were doing when you were bleeding.
Once you have reached the full force of spring you can feel lighthearted, playful, curious, sociable, more resilient, energetic, increasing in self esteem and have more of a sense of self. Your skin may clear up and you may feel happier with your appearance.
Think of it as a time when oestrogen puts fertilizer on the shoots that emerge after winter – you can expand and be sociable now that you’re back in the world.
Creativity
Spring is a time of birth, and it’s worth checking in with yourself and noting what you feel emerging within you. Enjoy this time when you may feel the buzz of ideas and possibilities. As oestrogen increases you may notice your memory improving as well as your mental agility. After oestrogen starts increasing, so does testosterone, which helps you feel ready to embrace challenges.
BTW we all have testosterone, not just men – just as they too have oestrogen. It helps us build bones, supports our brain health, increases energy and helps us lose weight.
So tap into this creativity and be curious. Explore. Try something different – experiment with a different style of clothing, makeup or a new form of exercise.
Exercise
Now is also the time to step up your exercise and push yourself. Because rising levels of oestrogen helps you feel sociable, it’s a good time to do kinds of exercise that involve others like a team sport, or to try a different kind of exercise.
Also, your endurance and pain tolerance increases so you can recover better which means you can make progress with training and vigorous exercises such as spinning, running, dancing, weight lifting, kickboxing
Photo credit Kiwihug
Hold back
While this may seem like an exciting time, especially if you don’t enjoy your winter, it’s wise to hold back a little and let the feeling build and expand before you fully throw yourself back into it.
Feeling good can be irresistible but you’re at a vulnerable stage. If you become emotional and depleted now, you may take longer to emerge from your winter, so taking your time before jumping back into things can pay off.
In the same way that new shoots are vulnerable to a frost, exposing yourself too soon can be detrimental to your returning self esteem or new projects you’re working on. You can think of it a little as if you’re growing tender plants in a greenhouse that need to proliferate some more before being planted out in the garden. That’s another good reason for continuing some self care practices, and not just leave it for your period.
Some women know they’re in their Spring because they start cracking jokes and fooling around. That playfulness is worth holding on to if you’re facing a ton of work and feeling the pressure; it’s a fantastic buffer to stress.
Energy
Importantly too, if you feel drained and fatigued right after your period, or during it, it could be that you’re low in iron, which is fairly common and needs checking out. Tell your GP you’re tired despite adequate sleep and get your iron, ferritin and transferrin saturation checked.
If you feel tired after your period, you need to pay attention because your energy should be picking up so something isn’t right. It’s likely you could be doing too much during the rest of your cycle, so make sure your prioritise eating well and resting. Work out where you’re over extending yourself and how you can get more nourishment - in your diet, in your habits, your work and in your relationships.
It could be too that you aren’t respecting your need for rest and recuperation during your winter, or you emerge from it too soon. Don’t be hard on yourself by comparing your energy with others’. Don’t be like an overbearing parent chiding yourself about what you can or can’t do. Equally, don’t beat yourself up for playing around during this phase, which you can think of as an equivalent of your teens – a time for experimenting and exploring. It’s ok to mess up and get things wrong.
Oestrogen levels rising - or are they?
During this time your cervical fluid will be increasing to keep your vagina lubricated. However, if you feel dry, then it’s a sign that you could have low oestrogen levels.
It’s common to have low levels after having a baby and during peri-menopause, when your levels of hormones are lower or declining. But it seems to be occurring in younger women without children, which should be check out.
It can be caused by having a full hysterectomy, ovarian failure, breastfeeding, reduced blood flow to the ovaries, high stress levels, a lack of nutrients, low cholesterol, disordered eating, being underweight, over exercising, some medications including hormonal birth control, gluten intolerance and thyroid problems. And PCOS.
Other signs of low follicular phase oestrogen are absent, irregular periods, lethargy, depression, low libido, vaginal dryness, painful sex, wrinkles, night sweats or hot flushes, disturbed sleep, a leaky or overactive bladder, bladder infections, joint pain, dry skin and eyes, poor memory and feeling fragile.
If this is resonates with you, support your oestrogen production by…
• Keeping a routine to meals and sleep - don’t deviate more than an hour
• Eat healthy fats at each meal
• Ease off strenuous exercise
• Try acupuncture and visceral manipulation
• Avoid coffee, stimulants and booze
If you’re doing these things and you don’t see improvement, as your GP to check oestrogen, testosterone, prolactin, FSH and LH levels on day 2-3 of your cycle.
Star nutrient - flax seeds
As well as being rich in vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids, these marvelous seeds are a good source of phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are a group of compounds that physically resemble oestrogen.
This physical similarity means that phytoestrogens – compounds that look like oestrogen – are able to dock onto oestrogen receptors and have an effect, in a really positive way. Essentially, they trick the body, so if oestrogen is low, the body thinks it has more because oestrogen receptors are being used. And if there is too much, the phytoestrogens block the excess from docking onto the receptors. This regulating effect, of making the body think it has enough, and not too much oestrogen is really helpful.
As well as being a good source of phytoestrogens, flaxseeds are rich in vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids, as well as fibre. So they help to regulate oestrogen, lower inflammation, provide the minerals and vitamins needed for essential processes, and deliver good fibre to help the oestrogen be eliminated safely from the body. It’s a real powerhouse of goodness, and something I encourage women to have regularly, especially for women as they transition through peri-menopause.
Because they are rich in omega fats, which are delicate nutrients that can spoil easily, I advise you to keep the seeds in the fridge. Also, because you get more benefit from them being ground, not whole, I suggest you grind enough for a week, in batches and keep them in the fridge. Also, because of the fibre, make sure you drink extra water when you have flaxseeds, or you run the risk of become constipated.
Photo credit panco971
Spring highlights
• Enjoy the increased energy, stamina and self esteem, and let it gather before bursting back into the world
• Embrace the increased creativity and playfulness. If you don’t feel it, explore what you enjoyed as a child - could you rekindle something?
• Hold on to self-care practices
• Exercise; time to push yourself
• Take time emerging and don’t expose yourself too soon
• Try something different and experiment