Pallavi Gupta In this fast-paced world, which has become increasingly stressful in recent years, it has become vital for us to take special care of both our mental and physical health alike.
Particularly as women, we have been bearing the brunt for too long now. Internal and external expectations from us can sometimes make us feel as if we are losing our mind.
Thus, it’s crucial for us to understand our physiology, primarily our menstrual cycle, as that is one biological system which affects us in more than one ways and can impact us drastically if it gets haywire.
Understanding how our reproductive hormones shift up and down throughout the menstrual cycle, and what impact each of these hormones can have on our mood, behaviour, abilities and emotions, may, to some extent, help us manage the stress we feel each month on certain days.
Before we go further, first let’s understand,
What is a menstrual cycle?
On average, a healthy woman with a 28-day menstrual cycle, menstruate (bleeds on her period) for two to seven days of the month; followed by better mood, lesser stress, more sociability, increased self attractiveness and peak period of sexual desire somewhere mid-cycle on day 13 or 14. Even the content of your dreams become happy and erotic, sometimes.
Then follow two weeks of build-up stress, anxiety, overthinking, aggression, strange dreams and nightmares, introspection, lethargy, inactivity, craving for carbs and fat, and sadness. If you observe your period for several cycles, chances are, you may find similar patterns too.
So, what causes this cycle? It’s our hormones.
Nature made woman in such a way so that she can reproduce and give birth to human offsprings. That is the role mother nature defined for us women; and bestowed us with all the hormones which help us achieve that task — the task of paving the way for our next generation.
With time, centuries after centuries, as we developed more mental capabilities, we realized, we could be much more than a child producing machine. Thankfully, now we know that our roles are not just limited to breeding and rearing, but we can do anything we would like to.
However, neglecting our core physiology and comparing ourselves with men, would harm us more than it would do good. Nature made us different from men, and it’s not an argument about who is superior and who is not. It’s about embracing our womanhood and lead a life in tune with that so that we can find ourselves at peace.
The Hormones Which Make Us Feel and Act the Way We Do
In simple terms, the hormones estrogen and progesterone define the two halves of the cycle. It’s the fluctuation between these hormones which make us happy and excited in the first half, and low and reflective in the other. Then there are other hormones as well such as Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), Luteinizing hormone (LH) and a little bit of testosterone (yes, females too have testosterone, but as compared to men, it’s quite less).
These hormones do not act independently. Hormones such as cortisol (produced when we are under stress) and serotonin (which makes us feel happy) do get affected by any changes in estrogen and progesterone.
That is the reason why it’s so vital to keep our menstrual cycle healthy. It’s not just about reproducing. Being in sync with our inner workings can significantly improve our mood on most days. Understanding the same can help us accept the stress and equip us with the knowledge to avoid a situation or act accordingly.
What does Mother Nature Want from Women?
Now that you have a basic idea of how our menstrual cycle works let’s go deeper.
The day we get our period is day 1 of a 28-day cycle. We know we are bleeding, but what is that bleeding, where does it come from?
The bleeding through your vagina is not just blood, but it is uterine tissue, mucus and bacteria. The uterus is like a pouch which starts preparing itself, hoping that it would carry a child. But because of no pregnancy in the last cycle, it discards away the ‘extra uterine lining’ which it no longer needs; hence the period occurs.
On the first day of your period, most of your hormones such as estrogen, progesterone are at their rock bottom. That makes you feel tired, moody and highly irritable.
As the period progresses, these hormones begin to shift, estrogen in the first 14 days and progesterone in the last.
What does increasing estrogen do to our bodies?
Not just it helps the uterus to start thickening itself for the next pregnancy, it starts affecting our mood too, in a positive way.
It’s the same hormone which helps produce more serotonin, the feel-good hormone. It makes us friendly, confident, chatty, light, happy and excited.
There is a reason for this behaviour. Mother nature wants us to attract males and be more attractive to them so that we can increase our chances of sex and reproduction. Do you think a grumpy, sullen, lazy, inactive woman attract a male sexually for sex? You know the answer.
All these things happen subconsciously. It has nothing to do with what we want consciously. It’s subliminal and enigmatic. Mother nature works in mysterious ways.
As the level of estrogen grows, other hormones too start getting active. Physiologically speaking, our ovaries begin to activate its follicles. With the help of Follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH), follicle/s begin to grow more than others. As a woman approaches day 13 or 14 or her cycle, the follicle/s are ready to rupture and release the egg/s (ovulation). The luteinizing hormone (LH) kicks in and helps to release the egg from that follicle. It’s also the exact time when testosterone (the male sex hormone also found in females) too, reaches its peak.
All these hormones trigger a woman to get ready for sex. It’s the time when her libido is at its peak. I would repeat, all this happens at the subconscious level. You might not be ready for sex with someone yet consciously, but you subconsciously your body wants you to do the deed.
It is the time when you would find yourself doing everything, which makes you feel attractive. Whether it’s buying that new dress or makeup kit, you would be doing something or other which would make you look attractive to yourself and the other sex.
Interestingly, this is also the time when a man finds you the most attractive. Ovulating women, as some studies indicate, release more pheromones in the air which are picked up by males, without them realizing it.
In a study done on female strippers at a club, scientists observed that the days when they were ovulating, they got a much higher tip than that on the days when they were about to start their periods!
So, you see how much our hormones govern us! You can’t deny that.
Another important finding was the way a woman behaves in a committed relationship.
A woman in a committed relationship with a moderately good-looking partner or a partner with lesser manly features, tend to feel dissatisfied with them more around ovulation. They find themselves getting attracted to other males with more brawn and masculine traits. It doesn’t mean that she would cheat on her existing partner; it just means, that’s how mother nature equipped her with assessing a sexual partner with better genes.
A male with more masculine features can provide better genetic fitness to the child. That is the reason why a committed female with a lesser attractive partner might find her eyes wandering or criticizing more her current partner!
On the contrary, the females who were committed to an attractive partner didn’t feel the need to check out other males and reported higher satisfaction from their partners.
Mind you, and all this happens subconsciously. Fortunately, we have enough conscious power to make the right choice and ignore the wrong one; as the day after ovulation comes, most such females are back to loving and being appreciative of their partners, regardless of their attractiveness.
So, don’t feel guilty if you are someone who sometimes questions the attractiveness of their partner.
Party is Over! Now, what?
Mother nature would have wanted you to have sex in the last two weeks, as much as you could. She made you attractive, social and ready to mingle but not anymore. She assumes that by now, your egg has met the sperm of a male. Now is the time to keep you low, over-cautious to detect any threat, and somewhat unattractive to another male; and let the fertilization and implantation take place so that a child is born.
It is when we enter the luteal phase — the phase most of us dread, especially the ones who experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
The days after ovulation, you would start experiencing the decrease in your energy gradually as the estrogen level falls sharply. These fourteen days are prominently regulated by the hormone progesterone (known for having a sedative effect) which is produced by ruptured follicle — the corpus luteum — from the ovary.
Progesterone helps your uterus to grow its lining so that it can receive the fertilized egg and start the pregnancy. If the egg remains unfertilized, its level shifts accordingly to make way for the next cycle.
The two weeks of luteal phase makes you go through a plethora of emotions and act in not-so-nice-ways.
The first week is comparatively better than the last one, though. The corpus luteum is producing estrogen and progesterone now. There comes a time in this week, when for 1 or 2 days you feel pure calm and relaxed.
However, around 7 to 8 days after ovulation, the progesterone peaks, estrogen falls further, and that’s when things start to become ugh. When your system detects no pregnancy, the corpus luteum begins to degenerate and thus, the levels of progesterone start getting lower and reaches its minimum to trigger your period.
You Wonder Why You Become A Raging Witch When Approaching Your Period
Now that you know the workings of the luteal phase let’s understand how your emotions and behaviour get affected in this phase.
As estrogen falls, the level of serotonin (the feel-good hormone) falls too. If you are stressed-out for some reason, which is highly likely in the current age, the lower level of serotonin doesn’t give you protection against the primary stress hormone, cortisol. That makes you feel anxious, irritable and may even disturb your sleep as low estrogen level can make you more sensitive to noise and light.
These symptoms can worsen if your lifestyle is anything but healthy. Poor nutrition, lack of exercise, not enough sleep and high stress can make you feel depressed too.
The higher the level of cortisol, the lower the level of progesterone would be. You don’t want that, why? Because progesterone makes you feel calm.
But if your cortisol levels are high, your progesterone levels drop more than it should, making you feel the effect of cortisol strongly.
It’s not uncommon for a lot of us to feel sad, overly introspective, aggressive, irritable, withdrawn, have low desire to have sex, sluggish, moody, achy and more inclined to cry in this phase than other.
Even the quality of your sleep gets disturbed substantially as in this phase, your body temperature rises. The content of dreams become fearful and crazy.
You feel like everything is wrong in your life, you may even find yourself snapping at your partner frequently. These changes in the hormones let your mind direct you toward all the things in your life which are not going right.
What’s the result of this negative thinking? More stress hormones!
So, to feel better, your body can lead you to more carbs and fats, sugar and alcohol. Unfortunately, that only deteriorates the things for you, making you gain weight and feeling more pessimistic.
Managing your stress, especially in this phase, thus, becomes essential if you don’t want to feel like losing your mind.
Do everything which makes you manage your stress. Meditation and yoga relax your mind. Breathing and muscle relaxing techniques can calm your nerves. Eating a balanced diet with ample fruits, veggies, proteins and fibre at regular intervals, avoiding alcohol and caffeine, getting the sleep of seven-eight hours and rescheduling more demanding commitments in “happy phase” of your menstrual cycle, can help you feel better and at peace.
Do everything you can to feel more relaxed. Taking a bubble bath or full body massage could be some good ideas. If you want to have a better sleep and lesser strange dreams, try using aromatherapy and cooler bedroom temperature.
Smelling jasmine and lavender before you turn in, could induce restful sleep. Cooler room temperature would give you some respite from your already raised body temperature in the luteal phase. Doing more positive activities throughout the day too can help with reduction in nightmares.
The PMS could be managed if you just choose to let go off the extra stress and give your body some relaxation and nourishment it needs.
The good thing is this with the end of this phase, ends our troubles too. Only for the next two weeks, though!
And the Cycle Continues
With the start of your next period, your menstrual cycle starts again. And we go through the similar ups and downs of hormones and our emotions.
Well, this is how it is. And as a woman, we must learn to honour it and cut ourselves some slack. After all, mother nature made us different than men, and we must embrace that difference in such a way that it acts for us, not against us.