How your cycle affects everything
Unleash your full potential
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes. If you are experiencing any issues with your period, you should seek help from a medical professional.
Today is Menstrual Hygiene Day, created with the goal of removing stigma around periods and raising awareness of menstrual products. The date comes to be as a result of what an average cycle looks like — 5 days in duration (May is the 5th month) and 28 days of average cycle (hence why the 28th of the month).
Majority of us were raised in a society where there is little information around what is happening to us during our periods. Yeah, sure, in biology class you learnt there is something called “menstruation” and around grade 7–8 you and your friends talked about who got their first period.
The women (or menstruating folks) in your family gave you a pad for the first time, maybe some instructions on how to put a tampon, told you there will be cramps from time to time and off you went. With this very limited knowledge, you are to embark on a journey that will affect the next 40+ years of your life.
Today, I want to show how your period is not just the “shedding of your uterus”, but a whole cycle that affects your everyday, from how much room you have for decisions making to how your energy levels look like.
Hormonal? Yes babe, we all are
Hormones play a key role in every body (literally) — they are the chemical messengers that coordinate our bodily functions. Without them, you would not be able to function. So, technically, we are all hormonal.
Now, for menstruating folks, because our life was already not easy, hormones play an even more important role. Imbalances in our hormones will create uncomfortable pain, irregular periods, excessive or too little bleeding, etc. The biggest misconception out there is that periods are supposed to hurt — nu-ah. Any major pain is indicative of a bigger issue — and, most likely, hormonal.
The phases
We tend to say that “our period” has come, but technically, your period is the whole 28-day cycle (I myself have misused this word just above!), and is composed of 4 phases:
- Menstruation: the whole bleeding shebang. If you are not pregnant, the lining of your uterus will shed in the first 1 to 5 days.
- Follicular phase: from day 6 to day 12 of your cycle, this is where estrogen (yep, a hormone) raises, your uterus thickens and follicles are created in order to develop an egg.
- Ovulation: on around day 13 to 17, your ovary releases its egg.
- Luteal phase: on days 18 to 28, where progesterone (yet another hormone) raises to prepare your uterus for pregnancy. If that does not happen, progesterone and estrogen will lower again and this will cause the shedding of your uterus — back again to Menstruation.
Because of all these changes, you will experience an array of symptoms. We all know how sometimes it feels that we only have that one week a month where we are not PMS-ing, on our period or extremely tired after it. This is the origin.
Energy levels
Your energy levels go with your cycle: the menstrual phase is the lowest in energy, so it is better to do something low impact like yoga or walking. During your follicular phase, your energy levels start raising and you can dedicate a bit more intensity to your workouts. The biggest energy points will be your ovulatory and luteal phases — here is when you can go all in, during your strength training or the heavier yoga workouts, winding down as you get closer to your menstruation again.
Even felt that you are able to lift less at the gym that you used to do the previous week? This is why.
Decision making
Believe it or not, your cycle affects how you make decisions. Again, hormones are your body messengers, so your changing hormonal balance during your cycle will make you feel more and less ready to take on specific tasks.
Flo Health, one of the best period tracking apps out there, explains it very well. Your menstrual cycle is for purging and organizing, the same way your body is kind of cleansing itself. The slow and steady rise in energy during the follicular phase is the best for changes — in projects, career, even workouts. For the ovulation and luteal phase, the peak of your hormonal levels will take you to introspection and re-think about your current options.
This is not to say you cannot re-think your options during your menstrual cycle, but if you sometimes feel like your mind is not in the right place, look out for your time of the month.
No 24h cycle — but 28 days journeys
The world is largely shaped around men’s 24h hormonal cycle — the daily routine, all about repetition, productivity and the grind. Energy levels of men are usually very structured — start the day with the biggest amount of energy, triggered by testosterone production during the night.
Women (or menstruating folks) are not the same — we operate on 28 to 32-day cycles and hence should be more flexible on how we structure our lives. This is not to say we cannot have a morning and night routine, and a set workout schedule. But we might want to reconsider that weightlifting session if it turns out we cannot lift as hard as we did the previous week or we are feeling generally exhausted.
What now?
With this article, I wanted to raise awareness to how important your cycle is and how it impacts your life — this is why many believe they should be considered the 5th vital sign for women.
From here, I invite you to look more closely at your cycle (at least, by tracking it through one of the many apps available) and to become more in sync with your body and listen to how it is feeling — realise that, sometimes, not pushing yourself is the right thing to do.
