Intro to Cycle Health

Learning about hormonal health has been life-changing. Planning my diet, workouts, and work schedule with my cycle and getting off synthetic hormonal birth control has been the most impactful thing I’ve done for my health in years.

After nearly a year of focusing on my hormonal health, I’m now ready to share details about my experience and resources to get you started on your hormonal health journey. Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing a series of blog posts highlighting certain aspects of cycle health, but this post will serve as an introduction to cycle health.

What does it mean to focus on cycle health?

Because K-12 education often does an inadequate job of explaining how your cycle works, most people are under the assumption that your cycle is synonymous with your period or menstruation, when the term cycle refers to the entire hormonal cycle.

Your cycle consists of 4 stages across ~27-31 days.

• Days 1-5: Menstrual phase

• Days 6-12: Follicular phase

• Days 13-16: Ovulatory phase

• Days 17-30: Luteal phase

(These are approximations - everyone has an individual process)

With planning around your cycle, you use these four phases as a guide to better understand what your body needs based on your hormones and where you are in your cycle. Unlike people who don’t menstruate, people who menstruate have different hormone levels day to day, which is important to consider when developing your workflow, sleep routines, diet, and exercise plans.

How to start your cycle health journey -

I refer to this as a journey because everyone starts from different points, and the process is incredibly individualized. For instance, I was on hormonal birth control before I started planning around my cycle so it took my body roughly three complete cycles to get into a natural rhythm. This won’t be everyone’s experience, so I’ll keep the following steps reasonably general.

tl;dr (1) buy In the Flo by Alisa Vitti (2) find an app/buy a journal to track your cycle (3) use a menstrual cup

First, you need to get a basic understanding of the hormonal process and a bit about the biology behind it, so I’d suggest reading books or watching YouTube videos on cycle health. When I first started, I read Alisa Vitti’s In the Flo and gained a lot of knowledge around hormonal health more broadly. So I highly suggest this book! If you get any book on cycle health, this is probably the most encompassing, and it has a lot of other resources and info about certain hormonal conditions.

Secondly, You should also find an app you like or buy a journal specifically for tracking each day/phase of your cycle. In the journal or on the app, write down what you ate, how you’re feeling emotionally, any physical symptoms, etc. This is also an excellent opportunity for you to have a record of your hormonal health patterns if you need to speak to a doctor or medical professional about what you’re experiencing.

Lastly, I also recommend buying a menstrual cup and using it while you start to track your cycle. Understanding how heavy/light your menstrual flow is will tell you where you need to begin, i.e., focusing on estrogen or progesterone levels. I was a bit apprehensive about using a menstrual cup, but I learned that your flow could indicate other hormonal issues, so I wanted to make sure everything was “regular,” which is difficult to track if you use pads.

I hope you found this general intro to cycle health useful. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll be sure to answer them in my next post.

I’ll be sharing more details and info with my email list through 2022, so I recommend subscribing here if you haven’t already.

Xoxo,

Breanna