As a naturopathic doctor, one of our main guiding principles is doctor as teacher. I truly believe the more we know about our bodies and understand our physiology, the more we can work with and celebrate bodily changes, rather than being constantly disappointed. As cycling people, our bodies are always in hormonal flux. It’s not just the monthly cycle, but the daily, weekly and larger transitional changes. Expecting ourselves to think, perform, look and feel the same every day is only setting us up for a lifetime of frustration and discomfort. It is always my goal with patients to inform and encourage a relationship, with our bodies and hormones, that allows us to be compassionate, understanding, and caring. Physiological hormonal...
We sat down with Carly from @thecyclicbody_ a Hormone Holistic Nutritionist, to ask her some questions & better understand our hormones and what can help some of the symptoms and side effects during our cycles. Firstly, we asked Carly about our famous Period headaches. Why do we get period headaches? What can we do to reduce and ease period headaches? Cyclic headaches can be tricky. They’re so often in our luteal phase, during the time before our period or during the first day or two of our bleeds. More often these are actually associated with oestrogen dominance. In our cycles we have two of our main hormones, oestrogen & progesterone, they are both beautiful hormones but if they are not in...
There are still some functions and natural occurrences in our bodies that carry a taboo. We are beginning to talk more openly and comfortably about certain things and especially natural bodily functions, however, some of them we still cloak in embarrassment and pretend aren’t happening to us and don’t end up talking about the issue, or the shame that surrounds it, and this is the case with bladder leakage. This cloud of taboo embarrassment can also then cause many conditions of bladder leakage to go undiagnosed a lot longer than they need to. Bladder leakage affects 1 in 4 women! Yes, 1 in 4. And it affects twice as many women as men! It’s time we started deciphering the condition...
Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women. It is an incurable gynaecological disorder that in some is symptomless; in others it is painful and extremely debilitating. Endometriosis occurs when the endometrial lining, normally located inside the uterus grows outside the uterus. This can occur in the pelvis, peritoneum, ovaries, vagina, fallopian tubes, uterosacral ligaments, rectum, bladder, and intestines. The problem is that too often the disorder isn’t diagnosed, leaving women suffering pain that lasts years undiagnosed & unexplained! Photo: Cristina Gareau WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ENDOMETRIOSIS The endometrium lining covers the uterus walls. It thickens during the cycle to prepare the uterus for a possible pregnancy, if there is no egg fertilization during ovulation, it disintegrates and releases, this is...
Asking the question ‘what is PMS’ is rather futile. Almost all menstruators will have experienced the familiar feelings of PMS in their menstruating life time and have probably also witnessed the same hormonal effects on others close to them. We all know how it feels; we all know what it is for ourselves. The unexplainable rage, the uncontrollable tears, the ability to be wildly irritated and desperate to be loved by the same individual all at the same time are just some of the feelings we can experience. However, we aren’t all completely sure what causes them. Or why some months we are relatively rational, and others we can feel like something that closely resembles a raging mythical creature that...
