August 19, 2025 • 22 mins
👉 Ready to fix your hormones for good? Apply for 1:1 coaching at imhormonal.com/goals
I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.
If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.
On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.
Today's episode covers irregular menstrual cycles, short cycles, long cycles, ovulation problems, fertility issues, and how cycle length affects your ability to conceive. Learn the difference between normal period length and concerning cycle irregularities that could impact your reproductive health.
👉 DM us on Instagram @im_hormonal - we want to hear your biggest takeaway
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A lot of gals don't know that if your cycle varies
by more than four days from onecycle to the next, to the next,
that is technically consideredto be an irregular cycle.
So today we're going to bediving into what your cycle
length actually means, what thatcan teach you about your
fertility, or what that random26 or 32 or however many day
(00:23):
cycle can actually teach youabout your body and your
fertility.
Welcome to I'm Hormonal, yoursource of information about
women's hormone health and howto support your body.
Naturally, I'm your host,bridget Walton, and I'm a
certified functional hormonespecialist and menstrual cycle
coach.
I am on a mission to hold thesehormone conversations with as
(00:44):
many menstruators as possible,because you deserve easier
access to accurate informationabout what's up with your unruly
menstrual cycle and with yourfertility mysteries.
Don't you think it's time thatwe figure this out once and for
all?
Hello, hello.
Welcome to I'm Hormonal.
(01:05):
This is episode number 128.
I'm your host, bridget Walton.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Today we are going to be talkingabout cycle lengths, right?
What does it actually mean?
What can you learn from yourcycle length?
What would you want to knowabout cycle length, especially
if you're somebody who iswanting to conceive.
So that's what we're going toget into, because this is
(01:27):
something that I see gals notdismissing but like not even
knowing that they shouldconsider it, which is fair, I
mean, like nobody really taughtus this stuff.
But despite that, the length ofyour cycle, the length of your
menstrual cycle, meaning fromthe first day of your period to
(01:48):
the first day of your nextperiod that can be really
telling about what's going onwith your hormones, what your
fertility health is like.
So, again, if you're somebodywho wants to maybe you don't
even want to get pregnantsometime soon, but you like want
to understand what's going onwith your hormones like shocker
probably, why you're listeningto this podcast, and I love you
(02:10):
for that then this is going tobe a really good episode for you
too.
Just a little bit of a reminderwe'll kind of cruise through
here, but I just I can'temphasize enough that having an
awareness of how long are yourcycles, are they changing in
length, being able to kind ofconnect the dots between what is
(02:31):
impacting your cycle length,it's gold, gold, gold, gold,
baby for understanding how youcan support your body.
Let's talk first about cyclesthat vary in length, right,
because if you have a cycle thatvaries in length by more than
about four days, each cycle thatis kind of like textbook
(02:56):
considered to be an irregularcycle.
So what that means is you know,in June I had a 27-day cycle.
You know, in June I had a27-day cycle.
In July I had a 31-day cycle.
In August I had a you know,28-day cycle, and then maybe
(03:19):
this next cycle is going to be,I don't know, 35 days.
You see what I'm getting at, inthat each of those cycles
differed by more than four days,cycles differed by more than
four days.
What the takeaway is from thisis that, like, what's going on
with ovulation?
If you're not having regular orconsistent cycle lengths, then
that's going to tell yousomething about ovulation timing
(03:40):
or lack thereof, and so that'swhy let's just hone in on this
regularity aspect and next we'lltalk about, like, what about
short cycles, what about longcycles?
And kind of go from there.
I'll just share this one moretime, though, because in my
coaching practice, I see galswho overlook cycle
(04:03):
irregularities for like notmonths, but years, right by the
time they get to me and we sayokay, well, let's take all this
context, all of this data, let'sfigure out a plan that's
personalized for you.
But, that being said, my hopefor you is that you don't have
to spend years fighting withyour period.
(04:24):
You can start to understand howyou can work with your hormones
, how you can work with yourcycle, and you won't have to
sweat it.
So if you are having cycles thatvary by, again, more than four
days each cycle, what that'ssuggesting to you is that you're
not ovulating at a consistenttime in each cycle, most likely.
(04:47):
So how does that actually look?
That could look like, or Ishould say, in contrast with
maybe a different person whoovulates around cycle day 14
each month.
Maybe stress has a biggerimpact on you, or maybe blood
sugar dysregulation, maybethere's something else
(05:08):
inflammation in your body,infinite number of factors Well,
that sounds dramatic.
There are more factors thanjust those three that I
mentioned anyway that can impactwhen you ovulate.
We'll get into that more hereshortly, but that's the main
takeaway.
If things are balanced, if yourhormones are balanced, if there
(05:31):
is like optimal levels ofinflammation, optimal stress
levels, things with your cycleshould be more consistent and
should be easier to.
It doesn't have to be acatastrophe, it doesn't have to
be.
You know, we don't have to call911 if you know our cycle is a
little bit long or a little bitshort, one month or the next.
(05:51):
But take that as a part of yourreport card to teach yourself
about your health and makeadjustments so that you can
support a more consistent cycle.
Let's talk now about shortcycles and what that can mean.
So you know, we all know, thatapproximately a 28-day cycle is
kind of that golden number.
(06:13):
If your menstrual cycle is lessthan 21 days, that is the
textbook, kind of hey girl, yourcycle is short.
I would say, though, that ifyou are trying to conceive, or
if you someday want to conceive,you want to be shooting for at
least a 25-day cycle.
Of course, everybody's cycle isdifferent, everybody's body is
(06:34):
different, but that's the ruleof thumb that I would operate
off of.
Now, a couple things to knowhere when it comes to short
cycles, because a lot of thetime, the well, okay, okay.
There are two scenarios herethat are most common with short
cycles.
Scenario one you're notovulating.
Or scenario two ovulation iskind of weak.
(06:56):
So, coming back to scenario oneyou didn't ovulate that cycle.
What can?
What that can mean is that yourestrogen levels are at at least
in the second half, mayberelatively high.
You're probably not producingany progesterone.
That's the hormone that'sproduced after you ovulate, and
(07:17):
so you don't need me to tell youthat this will be important if
you want to conceive.
We'll talk through some of thereasons why you might not
ovulate, or at least not ovulateregularly, in just a moment
here.
But I want to talk for a second, too, about weak ovulation,
because maybe, yep, the egg gotout, but you didn't have a
(07:38):
strong foundation for that newlittle baby endocrine gland that
you just produced, and so bydialing in things like your
nutrition, your stress, yoursleep, your hydration, all of
those foundations, those will bereally impactful on your period
(08:01):
health.
Absolutely Right, this isexactly what I work on with my
one-on-one clients.
It's going through the rootedmethod with them is part of that
.
Saying how do we focus on thefoundations?
Because those are the thingsthat will definitely move the
needle and they're also going toset you up for success, to see
(08:21):
the most success once you dohave different interventions
like supplementation or whathave you.
Okay, I got a little bit offtrack there, but let me bring us
back to center.
Okay, so if you're thinking allright, bridget, I hear you
Short cycle, no ovulation, maybeweak ovulation, but how do I
(08:43):
know which thing applies to me?
Right, that's one area whereusing hormone panels can be
really essential.
Right, I don't use hormonepanels with all of my one-on-one
clients, but for some folks itis very helpful to see exactly
what's going on inside your bodand how are your hormones being
(09:06):
produced and what amounts.
Also, it's worth noting thatsome hormones are made from
other hormones, right, hormone Akind of transforms into hormone
B, and so you can trackbackwards, essentially to see
where is something kind of goingawry and where can we support
(09:28):
your overall hormone production,not by just like putting a
band-aid on it, but by sayingwhere is something kind of
foundationally going wrong thatwe can address through diet,
lifestyle etc.
Changes I think it's worthmentioning now.
I alluded to this earlier.
(09:48):
But what are some underlyingcauses of short cycles?
The big dog option,unfortunately or I should say
contributing factor, not optionis stress.
Stress is going to bamboozleyour hormones every time.
If you've listened before, youknow that stress doesn't have to
be just like emotional stress.
(10:10):
It can also be physical stress,like overexercising or under
eating, or exposure to chemicalsor inflammation in your body.
There are a bunch of differenttypes of stress beyond just work
stress or frustration with yourpartner.
So that's really importantbecause when cortisol levels are
high, that is going to cloudthe communications between your
(10:33):
brain and your ovaries and candelay or just forego ovulation
altogether.
Forgoing it again might be partof this short cycle equation.
Another factor here could bepoor nutrition.
Right, are you lacking certaincomponents in your diet that you
(10:55):
really need?
Cholesterol is one.
I did an episode recently aboutfat, why it's so important for
your hormone health.
So go back and check that out.
If this feels like a new areafor you.
Hormone health so go back andcheck that out if this feels
like a new area for you.
But making sure that you'regetting in all of the essentials
that you need through your diet, that's going to be really
(11:17):
important.
Again, this is something that Igo through with all of my
clients, so if you're like dude,I don't even know where to
start with my diet, I got you,girl, I got you.
Yeah, check out the link in theshow notes.
The last thing I want to mentionhere, for a potential
underlying cause, would be justthinking back to those
inadequate building blocks.
(11:37):
Right, and when I say this Imean inadequate building blocks
of other hormones.
So being able to understand howyour like, how are your
hormones, that you know yournon-sex hormone hormones, what's
going on with them, that can bereally helpful to getting to
the root cause Super important,focusing on the root cause to
(12:02):
start bringing your cyclelengths back into a good,
healthy, like strong ovulationkind of length.
And so that's yeah, that'swhere I'm going to leave us for
short cycles.
No lie, I guess.
My last thought here is reallylike just emphasizing again if
(12:24):
you have a short cycle like thatand I'm not going to go into
all of the phases of themenstrual cycle right now but if
you have a short cycle, yourluteal phase is definitely a
shorty.
And if you want to conceive, ifyou're thinking about
conceiving in the future, thenhaving a longer luteal phase,
(12:47):
normally like 10 to 14 days, andthat's going to be really
helpful in making sure thatyou're producing enough
progesterone to support ahealthy pregnancy through your
first trimester.
So just one other big emphasisfor this section long menstrual
(13:16):
cycles.
If you have a cycle that ismore than 35 days long, I would
say she long.
If you have a cycle that isover 32 days, I would keep my
eye on it.
30 days, I would keep my eye onit, but let's use 35 as that
like.
Okay, this is where I shouldtake some action.
I need to figure out what'sgoing on Now, a lot of the times
when we're looking at longcycles and why they occur.
(13:40):
It can also be because ovulationis absent I know this sounds
like what we just talked about,which is kind of annoying, right
?
Or, in addition to ovulationbeing absent, it could also be
that it's delayed.
So the same factors that candelay ovulation can also just
(14:05):
like cause it to skip altogether, right?
So, coming back to theconversation we just had about
stress, that can definitelyimpact the timing of your
ovulation.
I know that for me, when I'vehad a really packed work weeks,
my period that month has beenlonger.
I'm like, okay, that makessense, right?
(14:27):
If you are somebody who youtrack your basal body
temperature, then you'll be ableto kind of see that in.
Well, it's not real-timefeedback, but almost real-time
feedback of, okay, I'm stressedtoday and I'm like kind of
waiting for ovulation.
I normally ovulate around thistime and then you're going to
(14:48):
see that it comes a couple ofdays later.
Everybody's body's response tostress is different duh, so how
stress impacts me might impactyou totally differently, but
this is something that we can'tignore.
Like we gotta stop acting likestress is normal and like
(15:09):
operating at a 6 out of 10stress is, you know, cool.
Okay, I'm going to challengeyou to think about one thing
this week that you can do to beless stressed, enjoy less stress
, relax more and actually goahead.
If you feel so inspired, take alittle screenshot of the
(15:30):
podcast player that you'relistening to now.
I would love for you to share astory on Instagram.
Tag me at I'm underscore,hormonal and just like what's
the thing that you're going todo differently that you're going
to stop doing or that you'regoing to start doing this week?
It doesn't have to be complex,it can be quite simple, but
(15:51):
what's that one thing that'sgoing to support your optimal,
ideal stress levels to startbringing your cycle back into a
healthy and consistent length?
Okay, so, coming back, gosh,I'm really going on some rabbit
holes today.
(16:11):
But coming back to my notes here, stress is the main culprit,
because it's going to tell yourbrain not to prioritize
reproduction.
The interesting thing, thoughand I know I just mentioned this
that, like stress, can show updifferently for everybody.
But this is another area whereI think that testing can be
helpful Again, not essential forevery single client Like I
(16:35):
certainly don't use it foreverybody but if you are
somebody who, like you've beentrying to get to the bottom of
what's going on with your periodfor a long time, that can be
really validating to see inblack and white what's going on
with your stress hormone or withany of your other hormones,
what's going on with your stresshormone or with any of your
other hormones.
(16:55):
I also kind of bring this upjust to say that I have, uh, I
recently I had a client who,when we did her testing and she
was like, yeah, no, I, I'm lucky, I don't have a lot of stress
going on lately, and we got hertest results back and her
adrenal output was like low, low, low, um, which was surprising,
right, but that helped us toput together a more specific and
(17:19):
clear kind of protocol for herthat was going to support her
energy levels and support herhormone production, her overall
hormone balance.
I want to kind of start wrappingthis up by talking about why
cycle length matters forfertility, in case we need to
(17:40):
clarify that a little bit.
And that's because if yourcycle lengths are unpredictable,
if they're long, if they'reshort, if there's something
weird, if they're atypical okay,got a lot of words to say weird
if your cycle lengths are beingweird, then that can be a
strong indicator that ovulationis not consistent.
(18:02):
And if you want to, like, makea baby, and especially a really
strong, healthy little baby,then you're going to want to
grow that consistency.
Then make sure that everythingis in good shape ahead of trying
to conceive.
You might be familiar with thislittle fun fact as well, but
(18:25):
just know that it takes about ahundred days for the follicle
that will eventually release anegg to develop.
And so if you kind of like,let's trace time backwards from
that egg releasing, like, those100 days leading up to ovulation
are really important in how isthat corpus luteum forming.
(18:49):
And so you want to.
You know, I think I just talkedin a total circle, but
hopefully you're following me.
I guess really what I want tosay is that the health of the
egg or the health of a potentialpregnancy, it doesn't start at
the time that you ovulate, itstarts before that.
(19:09):
We got to do a little bit ofprep work we got to focus and
support a good, healthy, strongovulation for a healthy
pregnancy.
Now, this also kind of makes methink, too right, like I mean,
I've mentioned, hey, you got totrack your cycle.
You got to track your cycle.
Maybe you've heard that oryou've talked to your friends
(19:30):
about it.
Your friends are tracking theircycles and if this isn't
something that you are doing yet, my girl, I think you really
got to start doing this.
This is something that can helpyou just see how your cycle is
changing over time.
It can help you to understandhow, as you make changes, or
when you went from your you knowvegan diet back to your kind of
(19:51):
omnivore ways, like when youstopped doing CrossFit and
started doing yoga.
It doesn't have to be thattraumatic, but it can help you
to see, when it like differenttimes in your life or different
interventions, how thoseimpacted your cycle, and that
can be helpful.
That can be such an incredibletool to have in your back pocket
(20:12):
when you're trying to do sometroubleshooting.
Or and I'm crossing my fingersover here my hope for you is
that you are able to kind of getahead of these things so you
don't have to do troubleshooting.
You can be more in a proactivekind of position, and that's
exactly what I work on with myone-on-one clients.
Of course, these gals are comingto me because something is
(20:36):
already off, but my real focus,like my priority in our work
together is, yes, like let's getyour cycle regulated, let's
support your digestion, let'sbring your energy levels up,
let's clear your skin up.
Beyond that, it's so importantto me that you know how to
maintain this.
(20:57):
You know how, moving forward,you can read the signs that your
body is sending you.
You know how to like justlisten to your body and trust
your body more, and that willtake you a long, long, long,
long, long way, my friend.
So that's, I think that's allI've got for you today.
(21:19):
Gang, I hope this was a helpfulepisode for you.
I'm going to talk a little bitmore about the same thing on
Thursday, so come on back ifthis is kind of hitting home for
you.
If this episode did open youreyes to this conversation of
cycle length, I would reallyappreciate it.
Honestly, if you went ahead andleft a rating or review for the
(21:43):
podcast.
It helps other gals who maybehave the same questions as you
to find the podcast.
So, whatever podcast player youwere listening on.
Go ahead, rate and reviewbefore you move on to whatever
is next for you in the day.
That's it, gang.
Again, I'm Bridget Walton, andthis is I'm Hormonal.
(22:05):
We'll see you on the next one.
If you loved today's episodeand got something good out of it
, make sure you subscribe sothat these episodes show up
automatically in your feed, nowork needed on your side.
Let's put it on autopilot.
As always, I need to give youmy reminder that the information
I share with you here is foreducational purposes only, and
(22:28):
it should not be used as areplacement for medical advice
or diagnosis.
Now, if you are, on the otherhand, in the market for some
one-on-one support, then I wouldlove for you to take me up on
my offer for a free strategycall.
You can find these links andmore in the show notes.
All right, we'll see you on thenext one.
A lot of gals don't know that if your cycle varies
by more than four days from onecycle to the next, to the next,
that is technically consideredto be an irregular cycle.
So today we're going to bediving into what your cycle
length actually means, what thatcan teach you about your
fertility, or what that random26 or 32 or however many day
(00:23):
cycle can actually teach youabout your body and your
fertility.
Welcome to I'm Hormonal, yoursource of information about
women's hormone health and howto support your body.
Naturally, I'm your host,bridget Walton, and I'm a
certified functional hormonespecialist and menstrual cycle
coach.
I am on a mission to hold thesehormone conversations with as
(00:44):
many menstruators as possible,because you deserve easier
access to accurate informationabout what's up with your unruly
menstrual cycle and with yourfertility mysteries.
Don't you think it's time thatwe figure this out once and for
all?
Hello, hello.
Welcome to I'm Hormonal.
(01:05):
This is episode number 128.
I'm your host, bridget Walton.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Today we are going to be talkingabout cycle lengths, right?
What does it actually mean?
What can you learn from yourcycle length?
What would you want to knowabout cycle length, especially
if you're somebody who iswanting to conceive.
So that's what we're going toget into, because this is
(01:27):
something that I see gals notdismissing but like not even
knowing that they shouldconsider it, which is fair, I
mean, like nobody really taughtus this stuff.
But despite that, the length ofyour cycle, the length of your
menstrual cycle, meaning fromthe first day of your period to
(01:48):
the first day of your nextperiod that can be really
telling about what's going onwith your hormones, what your
fertility health is like.
So, again, if you're somebodywho wants to maybe you don't
even want to get pregnantsometime soon, but you like want
to understand what's going onwith your hormones like shocker
probably, why you're listeningto this podcast, and I love you
(02:10):
for that then this is going tobe a really good episode for you
too.
Just a little bit of a reminderwe'll kind of cruise through
here, but I just I can'temphasize enough that having an
awareness of how long are yourcycles, are they changing in
length, being able to kind ofconnect the dots between what is
(02:31):
impacting your cycle length,it's gold, gold, gold, gold,
baby for understanding how youcan support your body.
Let's talk first about cyclesthat vary in length, right,
because if you have a cycle thatvaries in length by more than
about four days, each cycle thatis kind of like textbook
(02:56):
considered to be an irregularcycle.
So what that means is you know,in June I had a 27-day cycle.
You know, in June I had a27-day cycle.
In July I had a 31-day cycle.
In August I had a you know,28-day cycle, and then maybe
(03:19):
this next cycle is going to be,I don't know, 35 days.
You see what I'm getting at, inthat each of those cycles
differed by more than four days,cycles differed by more than
four days.
What the takeaway is from thisis that, like, what's going on
with ovulation?
If you're not having regular orconsistent cycle lengths, then
that's going to tell yousomething about ovulation timing
(03:40):
or lack thereof, and so that'swhy let's just hone in on this
regularity aspect and next we'lltalk about, like, what about
short cycles, what about longcycles?
And kind of go from there.
I'll just share this one moretime, though, because in my
coaching practice, I see galswho overlook cycle
(04:03):
irregularities for like notmonths, but years, right by the
time they get to me and we sayokay, well, let's take all this
context, all of this data, let'sfigure out a plan that's
personalized for you.
But, that being said, my hopefor you is that you don't have
to spend years fighting withyour period.
(04:24):
You can start to understand howyou can work with your hormones
, how you can work with yourcycle, and you won't have to
sweat it.
So if you are having cycles thatvary by, again, more than four
days each cycle, what that'ssuggesting to you is that you're
not ovulating at a consistenttime in each cycle, most likely.
(04:47):
So how does that actually look?
That could look like, or Ishould say, in contrast with
maybe a different person whoovulates around cycle day 14
each month.
Maybe stress has a biggerimpact on you, or maybe blood
sugar dysregulation, maybethere's something else
(05:08):
inflammation in your body,infinite number of factors Well,
that sounds dramatic.
There are more factors thanjust those three that I
mentioned anyway that can impactwhen you ovulate.
We'll get into that more hereshortly, but that's the main
takeaway.
If things are balanced, if yourhormones are balanced, if there
(05:31):
is like optimal levels ofinflammation, optimal stress
levels, things with your cycleshould be more consistent and
should be easier to.
It doesn't have to be acatastrophe, it doesn't have to
be.
You know, we don't have to call911 if you know our cycle is a
little bit long or a little bitshort, one month or the next.
(05:51):
But take that as a part of yourreport card to teach yourself
about your health and makeadjustments so that you can
support a more consistent cycle.
Let's talk now about shortcycles and what that can mean.
So you know, we all know, thatapproximately a 28-day cycle is
kind of that golden number.
(06:13):
If your menstrual cycle is lessthan 21 days, that is the
textbook, kind of hey girl, yourcycle is short.
I would say, though, that ifyou are trying to conceive, or
if you someday want to conceive,you want to be shooting for at
least a 25-day cycle.
Of course, everybody's cycle isdifferent, everybody's body is
(06:34):
different, but that's the ruleof thumb that I would operate
off of.
Now, a couple things to knowhere when it comes to short
cycles, because a lot of thetime, the well, okay, okay.
There are two scenarios herethat are most common with short
cycles.
Scenario one you're notovulating.
Or scenario two ovulation iskind of weak.
(06:56):
So, coming back to scenario oneyou didn't ovulate that cycle.
What can?
What that can mean is that yourestrogen levels are at at least
in the second half, mayberelatively high.
You're probably not producingany progesterone.
That's the hormone that'sproduced after you ovulate, and
(07:17):
so you don't need me to tell youthat this will be important if
you want to conceive.
We'll talk through some of thereasons why you might not
ovulate, or at least not ovulateregularly, in just a moment
here.
But I want to talk for a second, too, about weak ovulation,
because maybe, yep, the egg gotout, but you didn't have a
(07:38):
strong foundation for that newlittle baby endocrine gland that
you just produced, and so bydialing in things like your
nutrition, your stress, yoursleep, your hydration, all of
those foundations, those will bereally impactful on your period
(08:01):
health.
Absolutely Right, this isexactly what I work on with my
one-on-one clients.
It's going through the rootedmethod with them is part of that
.
Saying how do we focus on thefoundations?
Because those are the thingsthat will definitely move the
needle and they're also going toset you up for success, to see
(08:21):
the most success once you dohave different interventions
like supplementation or whathave you.
Okay, I got a little bit offtrack there, but let me bring us
back to center.
Okay, so if you're thinking allright, bridget, I hear you
Short cycle, no ovulation, maybeweak ovulation, but how do I
(08:43):
know which thing applies to me?
Right, that's one area whereusing hormone panels can be
really essential.
Right, I don't use hormonepanels with all of my one-on-one
clients, but for some folks itis very helpful to see exactly
what's going on inside your bodand how are your hormones being
(09:06):
produced and what amounts.
Also, it's worth noting thatsome hormones are made from
other hormones, right, hormone Akind of transforms into hormone
B, and so you can trackbackwards, essentially to see
where is something kind of goingawry and where can we support
(09:28):
your overall hormone production,not by just like putting a
band-aid on it, but by sayingwhere is something kind of
foundationally going wrong thatwe can address through diet,
lifestyle etc.
Changes I think it's worthmentioning now.
I alluded to this earlier.
(09:48):
But what are some underlyingcauses of short cycles?
The big dog option,unfortunately or I should say
contributing factor, not optionis stress.
Stress is going to bamboozleyour hormones every time.
If you've listened before, youknow that stress doesn't have to
be just like emotional stress.
(10:10):
It can also be physical stress,like overexercising or under
eating, or exposure to chemicalsor inflammation in your body.
There are a bunch of differenttypes of stress beyond just work
stress or frustration with yourpartner.
So that's really importantbecause when cortisol levels are
high, that is going to cloudthe communications between your
(10:33):
brain and your ovaries and candelay or just forego ovulation
altogether.
Forgoing it again might be partof this short cycle equation.
Another factor here could bepoor nutrition.
Right, are you lacking certaincomponents in your diet that you
(10:55):
really need?
Cholesterol is one.
I did an episode recently aboutfat, why it's so important for
your hormone health.
So go back and check that out.
If this feels like a new areafor you.
Hormone health so go back andcheck that out if this feels
like a new area for you.
But making sure that you'regetting in all of the essentials
that you need through your diet, that's going to be really
(11:17):
important.
Again, this is something that Igo through with all of my
clients, so if you're like dude,I don't even know where to
start with my diet, I got you,girl, I got you.
Yeah, check out the link in theshow notes.
The last thing I want to mentionhere, for a potential
underlying cause, would be justthinking back to those
inadequate building blocks.
(11:37):
Right, and when I say this Imean inadequate building blocks
of other hormones.
So being able to understand howyour like, how are your
hormones, that you know yournon-sex hormone hormones, what's
going on with them, that can bereally helpful to getting to
the root cause Super important,focusing on the root cause to
(12:02):
start bringing your cyclelengths back into a good,
healthy, like strong ovulationkind of length.
And so that's yeah, that'swhere I'm going to leave us for
short cycles.
No lie, I guess.
My last thought here is reallylike just emphasizing again if
(12:24):
you have a short cycle like thatand I'm not going to go into
all of the phases of themenstrual cycle right now but if
you have a short cycle, yourluteal phase is definitely a
shorty.
And if you want to conceive, ifyou're thinking about
conceiving in the future, thenhaving a longer luteal phase,
(12:47):
normally like 10 to 14 days, andthat's going to be really
helpful in making sure thatyou're producing enough
progesterone to support ahealthy pregnancy through your
first trimester.
So just one other big emphasisfor this section long menstrual
(13:16):
cycles.
If you have a cycle that ismore than 35 days long, I would
say she long.
If you have a cycle that isover 32 days, I would keep my
eye on it.
30 days, I would keep my eye onit, but let's use 35 as that
like.
Okay, this is where I shouldtake some action.
I need to figure out what'sgoing on Now, a lot of the times
when we're looking at longcycles and why they occur.
(13:40):
It can also be because ovulationis absent I know this sounds
like what we just talked about,which is kind of annoying, right
?
Or, in addition to ovulationbeing absent, it could also be
that it's delayed.
So the same factors that candelay ovulation can also just
(14:05):
like cause it to skip altogether, right?
So, coming back to theconversation we just had about
stress, that can definitelyimpact the timing of your
ovulation.
I know that for me, when I'vehad a really packed work weeks,
my period that month has beenlonger.
I'm like, okay, that makessense, right?
(14:27):
If you are somebody who youtrack your basal body
temperature, then you'll be ableto kind of see that in.
Well, it's not real-timefeedback, but almost real-time
feedback of, okay, I'm stressedtoday and I'm like kind of
waiting for ovulation.
I normally ovulate around thistime and then you're going to
(14:48):
see that it comes a couple ofdays later.
Everybody's body's response tostress is different duh, so how
stress impacts me might impactyou totally differently, but
this is something that we can'tignore.
Like we gotta stop acting likestress is normal and like
(15:09):
operating at a 6 out of 10stress is, you know, cool.
Okay, I'm going to challengeyou to think about one thing
this week that you can do to beless stressed, enjoy less stress
, relax more and actually goahead.
If you feel so inspired, take alittle screenshot of the
(15:30):
podcast player that you'relistening to now.
I would love for you to share astory on Instagram.
Tag me at I'm underscore,hormonal and just like what's
the thing that you're going todo differently that you're going
to stop doing or that you'regoing to start doing this week?
It doesn't have to be complex,it can be quite simple, but
(15:51):
what's that one thing that'sgoing to support your optimal,
ideal stress levels to startbringing your cycle back into a
healthy and consistent length?
Okay, so, coming back, gosh,I'm really going on some rabbit
holes today.
(16:11):
But coming back to my notes here, stress is the main culprit,
because it's going to tell yourbrain not to prioritize
reproduction.
The interesting thing, thoughand I know I just mentioned this
that, like stress, can show updifferently for everybody.
But this is another area whereI think that testing can be
helpful Again, not essential forevery single client Like I
(16:35):
certainly don't use it foreverybody but if you are
somebody who, like you've beentrying to get to the bottom of
what's going on with your periodfor a long time, that can be
really validating to see inblack and white what's going on
with your stress hormone or withany of your other hormones,
what's going on with your stresshormone or with any of your
other hormones.
(16:55):
I also kind of bring this upjust to say that I have, uh, I
recently I had a client who,when we did her testing and she
was like, yeah, no, I, I'm lucky, I don't have a lot of stress
going on lately, and we got hertest results back and her
adrenal output was like low, low, low, um, which was surprising,
right, but that helped us toput together a more specific and
(17:19):
clear kind of protocol for herthat was going to support her
energy levels and support herhormone production, her overall
hormone balance.
I want to kind of start wrappingthis up by talking about why
cycle length matters forfertility, in case we need to
(17:40):
clarify that a little bit.
And that's because if yourcycle lengths are unpredictable,
if they're long, if they'reshort, if there's something
weird, if they're atypical okay,got a lot of words to say weird
if your cycle lengths are beingweird, then that can be a
strong indicator that ovulationis not consistent.
(18:02):
And if you want to, like, makea baby, and especially a really
strong, healthy little baby,then you're going to want to
grow that consistency.
Then make sure that everythingis in good shape ahead of trying
to conceive.
You might be familiar with thislittle fun fact as well, but
(18:25):
just know that it takes about ahundred days for the follicle
that will eventually release anegg to develop.
And so if you kind of like,let's trace time backwards from
that egg releasing, like, those100 days leading up to ovulation
are really important in how isthat corpus luteum forming.
(18:49):
And so you want to.
You know, I think I just talkedin a total circle, but
hopefully you're following me.
I guess really what I want tosay is that the health of the
egg or the health of a potentialpregnancy, it doesn't start at
the time that you ovulate, itstarts before that.
(19:09):
We got to do a little bit ofprep work we got to focus and
support a good, healthy, strongovulation for a healthy
pregnancy.
Now, this also kind of makes methink, too right, like I mean,
I've mentioned, hey, you got totrack your cycle.
You got to track your cycle.
Maybe you've heard that oryou've talked to your friends
(19:30):
about it.
Your friends are tracking theircycles and if this isn't
something that you are doing yet, my girl, I think you really
got to start doing this.
This is something that can helpyou just see how your cycle is
changing over time.
It can help you to understandhow, as you make changes, or
when you went from your you knowvegan diet back to your kind of
(19:51):
omnivore ways, like when youstopped doing CrossFit and
started doing yoga.
It doesn't have to be thattraumatic, but it can help you
to see, when it like differenttimes in your life or different
interventions, how thoseimpacted your cycle, and that
can be helpful.
That can be such an incredibletool to have in your back pocket
(20:12):
when you're trying to do sometroubleshooting.
Or and I'm crossing my fingersover here my hope for you is
that you are able to kind of getahead of these things so you
don't have to do troubleshooting.
You can be more in a proactivekind of position, and that's
exactly what I work on with myone-on-one clients.
Of course, these gals are comingto me because something is
(20:36):
already off, but my real focus,like my priority in our work
together is, yes, like let's getyour cycle regulated, let's
support your digestion, let'sbring your energy levels up,
let's clear your skin up.
Beyond that, it's so importantto me that you know how to
maintain this.
(20:57):
You know how, moving forward,you can read the signs that your
body is sending you.
You know how to like justlisten to your body and trust
your body more, and that willtake you a long, long, long,
long, long way, my friend.
So that's, I think that's allI've got for you today.
(21:19):
Gang, I hope this was a helpfulepisode for you.
I'm going to talk a little bitmore about the same thing on
Thursday, so come on back ifthis is kind of hitting home for
you.
If this episode did open youreyes to this conversation of
cycle length, I would reallyappreciate it.
Honestly, if you went ahead andleft a rating or review for the
(21:43):
podcast.
It helps other gals who maybehave the same questions as you
to find the podcast.
So, whatever podcast player youwere listening on.
Go ahead, rate and reviewbefore you move on to whatever
is next for you in the day.
That's it, gang.
Again, I'm Bridget Walton, andthis is I'm Hormonal.
(22:05):
We'll see you on the next one.
If you loved today's episodeand got something good out of it
, make sure you subscribe sothat these episodes show up
automatically in your feed, nowork needed on your side.
Let's put it on autopilot.
As always, I need to give youmy reminder that the information
I share with you here is foreducational purposes only, and
(22:28):
it should not be used as areplacement for medical advice
or diagnosis.
Now, if you are, on the otherhand, in the market for some
one-on-one support, then I wouldlove for you to take me up on
my offer for a free strategycall.
You can find these links andmore in the show notes.
All right, we'll see you on thenext one.
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