August 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Your menstrual cycle is more than just your period... it is a vital sign of your overall health. Understanding it can give you powerful insights into your energy, mood, and wellbeing.
In this episode of Reset, Ash speaks with Fertility Specialist Grace about why cycle health and tracking are essential for every woman.
Together they explore:
* What a healthy menstrual cycle really looks like
* Are women eating enough?
* Why you shouldn't skip breakfast
* Why girls are getting their period earlier
* The four phases of the cycle and what happens in each
* Signs your cycle may be out of balance
* How conditions like PCOS, endometriosis, or low progesterone impact fertility
* The influence of stress, sleep, and lifestyle on hormone balance
* How nutrition and supplements can support ovulation and hormone health
* The truth about seed cycling, blood sugar balance, and anti-inflammatory diets
* Whether cycle tracking apps are helpful or overwhelming
This episode is for anyone wanting to prepare for conception, improve hormone health, or simply better understand their body.
Watch Interview with Grace "Fertility 101 - How to Actually Fall Pregnant" https://youtu.be/N48xcRUDBVk?si=8hT0NUg3_uayxxsd
Watch Interview with Grace "Male Fertility - How To Support Your Partners Sperm Health" https://youtu.be/Gv1UDJEvpTc?si=8pi5vQ-PCECBDXYQ
Connect with Grace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_fertilitynutritionist
Connect with Ash on Instagram:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome back to Reset. Today we are talking about
female cycles. And I think we all are aware
that it's important to be understanding our cycle,
tracking our cycle. But I wanted to dive a little
bit deeper today and do like a bit of a refresher on what a
healthy cycle looks like, what we can do to help regulate our
(00:26):
cycle. And I am very excited to have
the lovely Grace back in the studio with me to discuss this.
Hey, Grace. Hello, thank you for having me
again. I'm excited to dive into this
one too. Yeah, no, this is going to be
great. So for anyone that's meeting
Grace for the first time, she isa fertility nutritionist that
specialises in all things pregnancy and we did an episode
(00:49):
recently around male fertility. This episode is going to be
relevant for people whether or not they're trying to have a
baby, but just looking at their cycles and as a health measure,
I guess in general. Oh 100%.
It's so important to really tap into your cycle, whether you're
actively trying to fall pregnantor actively trying to avoid it.
(01:10):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
And so let's start from the basics.
Why is having a healthy cycle? What is a healthy cycle?
Yeah. So a healthy cycle is going to
be a cycle from 24 days to around 35 days.
We want ovulation to occurs at some point in the middle of that
(01:34):
and we want to be sure that ovulation is occurring.
And then we want to have a healthy blood flow that looks
like minimal spotting, that looks like red, nice rich blood
with minimal clotting, minimal discomfort, minimal pain.
And we want reduced or minimizedsymptoms around that time as
(01:56):
well. So no extreme PMS, no extreme
highs and lows throughout the cycle.
If anyone's experiencing those things you said we don't want to
be experiencing, what could there be signs and symptoms of?
A hormonal imbalance, you're looking at what hormonal
imbalance you kind of need to dive into what area or what
thing you're experiencing and then be able to understand
(02:19):
through that what could be out and where needs the support.
It could also be an indication that there is something deeper
going on, you know, like a endometriosis, PCOS, thyroid
health issues. Yeah, if someone has gone
through their whole life not really thinking too much about
their cycle, not tracking, not really noticing any trends,
(02:41):
where's the best place to start?Yeah, the best place to start is
by tracking your cycle. And there's many different
methods to do that, I guess whether you are actively trying
to conceive or actively not. Using something like your
cervical mucus, which we can chat around, and your basal body
temperature to better understandyour cycles is the best way to
(03:03):
start. That way you can really dive
into where you're sitting, you know your cycle length, you
start to, you know, note down any symptoms that you're
experiencing. And when you're experiencing
them and you notice around what your blood flow and quality
looks like, That gives you a really good starting point to
understand, OK, we're in this, you know what, what kind of
(03:27):
thing do we need to be able to shift to better support what
we're looking for? Basal body temperature
measurement. What is that?
Yeah. So essentially it's it's your
basal temperature. So it's something that you
measure every morning before youget up.
You have a pre ovulatory temperature and then once you
have ovulated your temperature will increase just by, you know,
(03:48):
a couple of point degrees really.
So it's a very minor shift, but that is your confirmation that
ovulation has happened and it's the second part of the cycle
where progesterone is going to be that dominant hormone.
And this might be a silly question, but how are we
measuring this? Yeah.
So you can measure it just through a basal body temperature
thermometer. You can just get anyone at a
(04:09):
pharmacy and you'd literally just pop it under your tongue
and you take, you take and record the temperature.
There's lots of different apps that you can do that on and you
just track it every morning. There are alternatives where
they're still measuring your temperature.
It's just the the method that ofdoing it.
You could get like an armband oryou could have a ring to measure
(04:30):
your temperature. They're the most reliable.
Something like your Apple Watch is not going to be super
reliable. OK, so something like a aura
ring or something? Yeah, an aura ring temp drop.
Yeah, which is the armband. OK.
And we often hear about these 4 phases of a cycle.
Can you just give us a bit of anoverview of what each phase is?
(04:50):
Yeah, 100%. So you are going to start with
menstruation. So that is your period we start.
Day one is your first day of fresh red blood.
So if you have spotting before that is from the old cycle.
So when you see that fresh red blood, that is your day one.
You'll go through your period, your menstrual phase, which
(05:12):
typically last around four to seven days for most people, and
then you'll be in your follicular phase and that is
really the build up to ovulation.
In your follicular phase, you have estrogen being the dominant
hormone. Estrogen grows things, so it
grows that endometrial lining. It does a final maturation phase
(05:33):
of the egg. It makes us feel really good.
It makes us energetically be a lot more outward.
We tend to be more confident. Oh, face structure changes as
well. So we've become a little bit
more attractive in this time. We function better, we perform
better. So if you have a work
presentation, if you're performing at a gym or something
(05:57):
else, this is your best time. This is your best performance
time. And it's all leading up to the
ovulation point. Basically, when you have a
dominant follicle ready to be ovulated, estrogen will tell the
rest of your body your your brain, all right, we've got a
dominant follicle, let's releaseit.
And this is ovulation. Ovulation happens, which is
(06:18):
really just for 24 hours. So your egg is released and it
has 24 hours to fertilize and hopefully go into conception if
that's what you're looking for. And then you enter into the
luteal phase of your cycle. The luteal phase is really that
last phase before menstruation. Again, in your luteal phase, we
(06:39):
have progesterone being the dominant hormone.
This is released after ovulation.
This has a very calming effect on us.
So typically we go more inward, we start to relax a little bit
more, has a very calming effect on us.
At the end of that cycle, it's either going to be pregnancy or
you're going to get your period.There's no other alternative.
(07:02):
And then you restart that cycle the next cycle.
OK. And you said it's really
important for us to be understanding our cycles,
whether we are trying to fall pregnant or not.
For someone who's not trying to fall pregnant and is actively
trying to avoid it, what do theyneed to know about their cycle
and is there certain times of the month that they should avoid
(07:26):
activity? Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
So they, they do need to pay close attention to their cycle,
you know, regardless, but obviously for kind of different
reasons, but they need to know when they're ovulating, which
your BBT will confirm that ovulation has happened, but not
predict it. So you've got to be careful
(07:47):
because you can fall pregnant inthe, your fertility window is
the five days before ovulation and the day of ovulation.
So This is why we use things like cervical mucus and tracking
over time to understand what your, what your, what your cycle
(08:07):
looks like at an individual level is then obviously if
someone is aware of when they typically ovulate within the
cycle, especially if they have avery regular cycle every month,
it's 28 days, it's 30, it's 31, but it's very regular for them.
And they then through that can predict when the ovulation is,
the time before that. And then they use their cervical
(08:29):
mucus to better guide that window as well.
And then obviously it's not either taking additional method
of protection to to prevent pregnancy happening within that
five days before and the day of.Yeah, interesting.
And if someone's noticed that they've stopped getting their
period and they're not pregnant,what are some of the things that
(08:51):
could be causing that? Yeah.
So someone was getting their period before and now they've
stopped. Want to look at is it
potentially PCOS, Is it something going on with your
thyroid where there's just not there, there's a break in the
connection of what's happening to support ovulation actually
occurring or potentially are they going through a time of
(09:15):
elevated stress and the body canunderstand stress to be
different than the mind. So potentially under eating,
over exercising could be a form of stress that a person doesn't
perceive as stressful, but theirbody does and their body will
shut down ovulation through it. So humans are the only mammal
that can turn off their reproductive system.
(09:35):
And if your body is feeling likeit's running away from a tiger,
it will just turn it off. But what the body understands to
be running away from the tiger and what the brain understands
is very, very different. Our bodies are so intelligent,
aren't they? They are.
And it is obviously a protectivemechanism, right?
Like if you were to run away from a tiger, that wouldn't be
(09:57):
the time to have a baby. Correct.
Are there some lifestyle factorsand I guess which lifestyle
includes food, exercise, how we spend our time?
Are there some things that you think all women should be paying
more attention to? Yeah, 100 A 100%.
So I guess to begin with, if there is a deeper issue going on
(10:20):
with cycle health such as endometriosis, PCOS, or anything
with the thyroid, then this is where it can require that extra
level of personalization just tomake sure that those factors are
being managed and addressed properly.
If we're talking about just general cycle health and just
supporting our healthy hormones,it's 1, making sure that you're
(10:41):
adequately fueling yourself. So making sure that we are
having enough proteins and fats within the within your diet and
carbohydrates as well. So all of those play an
incredible but really important role on your cycle health.
If you do not eat enough proteins and fats, you're not
going to have the ability to make the hormones.
(11:04):
If you're under eating carbohydrates, your body's going
to understand that to be stress and that's when ovulation can
shut down. So we do need to make sure that
we're getting our micronutrient needs in there.
We need to make sure that we're eating within the morning so
that we're supporting our blood sugar, we're supporting hormone
health, but we're also telling our body it's safe.
(11:24):
We're not in a restrictive spaceat the moment.
We're feeling safe. So that's nutrition adequately
exercising, so not under or overexercising.
And that limit is going to be dependent on the person.
But I guess what you're looking at within that is if you have a
very healthy cycle, if you're fueling yourself, but you are
(11:48):
exercising to a good like a higher level, potentially your
benchmark is higher than someoneelse's.
So it needs to, you need to lookat your cycle and the
relationship you have with food and exercise to really determine
that. Really looking at the nervous
system again, you know, I think so many of us, myself included,
(12:09):
just run on high functioning anxiety and we're, we're
productive, right? Like we're busy being
productive. But it does have a knock on
effect onto hormone and cycle health too, and obviously making
sure that we're getting adequatesleep, which is more than what
males need. If someone is aware that their
(12:29):
cycle is not quite as they wouldwant it to be and is thinking
about starting to make some of these nutrition and lifestyle
changes, how long does it take before we start to see results?
It depends what shift is out to be honest.
I like to see changes being madeand then you can see the impact
(12:50):
of them within a couple of months.
For other people that journey might be longer, especially if
they have lost their cycle and need to regain it.
It can take longer than that forthe body to feel safe enough to
regain their cycle. But for anyone else who is
potentially looking at very painful periods, potentially
they're looking at spotting within their cycle or just
(13:12):
occasionally missing ovulation, their journey could look
shorter. So within a couple of months I'd
like to see something and usually like to see something
completely resolved within, you know, a six month period, say.
OK. And if you go through, say, a
really traumatic or stressful month, does that show up in your
(13:34):
cycle the following month? Or does it take time to process
with our bodies? Both.
OK. Both, yeah.
So potentially could take, it could potentially be that that
cycle, the following cycle, especially if we're looking at
that ovulation shutting down or spotting where there could be
progesterone levels. But it also can come in the
(13:55):
months prior. So if you've gone through a
stressful time, your hormones have been impacted through that,
then the egg that has been developing, it takes around 100
days for the egg to mature before ovulation.
So if in that 100 days you've been exposed to higher levels of
(14:16):
stress are the factors that thenimpact the quality of that egg,
you're not going to see the trueimpact of that until months
later. So if someone's looking to start
actively trying to have a baby in the future, how far in
advance do you usually recommendthat they start sort of looking
at their cycle and trying to optimize things?
(14:38):
As early as possible, as early as possible, because if there is
something deeper going on withintheir cycle, say they're having
very varying lengths of cycles. So you know, sometimes it's 26
days, sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 35.
You really want to understand why that's happening.
(14:58):
If someone's very symptomatic, you want to understand why
that's happening. And the longer you have run up
in that journey, the better. But as early as possible, the
the more that you understand where you are within your cycle,
the more that you can know each month is even very consistent
and reliable and you can predictit, the better ability that you
(15:20):
have to maximize your time from when you start trying to
conceive. And what about contraception?
If someone's taking the pill, ormaybe they have Marina or
there's a whole host of different things they could be
on, how far in advance before having a baby should they come
off these things Like how long does it take our bodies to kind
of work out what our natural rhythm is again?
(15:42):
Yeah, it can take a good few months.
So again, depending on what contraception you were on prior,
but it can take a while for the body to kind of get back into
that ovulation phase and for that to be predictable and
reliable. And then some forms of
(16:02):
contraception can lower the levels of micronutrients that
you have in your body, making deplete nutrients.
And so if you're then looking toconceive, you want to make sure
that going into conception, you have long enough to rebuild all
of those nutrients up. So I like to say like a three to
(16:23):
six month window is the best if I know.
I guess it also depends on why you went on to contraception in
the 1st place, whether if it wasjust to prevent pregnancy or
because it it was being given asa Band-Aid solution essentially
because if something else was going on in your cycle.
So if you went to the doctor andthe the conversation was very
(16:45):
much around like reducing symptoms, your cycles were
irregular, you know, these things, you going on to the
contraceptive pill is only just kind of put a Band-Aid on that.
So you kind of need to take off the Band-Aid and then reassess
where your cycles are because potentially what you were seeing
before was trying was your body trying to tell you something.
(17:06):
And we need to know that to be able to better support that
fertility journey itself. And now zooming out a little bit
and looking at sort of the firsttime we get our period and the
last time we get our period, I keep hearing that it's becoming
younger and younger for women. Is that true?
(17:26):
And if yes, do we know why? Yeah, it is true that it is
becoming younger and younger. One of the potential reasons is
our exposure to environmental toxins and how exposed we are
from day dot with environmental toxins and just the I mean they
mimic your sex hormones. So it's it's driving that that
(17:49):
occur earlier. Is there anything we can do as
if we've got daughters or we're around young females to help
minimize those? Like what are some of the common
things that we might be able to make changes with?
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's depending
on when you're starting. If you are on your conception
(18:09):
journey or you're already pregnant, especially if you have
a daughter, their reproductive health will be partly dependent
by your exposure to environmental toxins while
they're in utero. So through that pregnancy and
then it's through their life, you know, reducing things like
chemical exposure, which could be through personal products, it
(18:30):
could be through baby care products, it could be using
filtered water, you know, so many different ways that they
can kind of minimize it. Yeah, it's, it's a big question,
that one. Huge question and a lot of
pressure and responsibility. What's the average age at the
moment that girls will start to get their period?
Kind of changes depending on country to country is typically
(18:54):
around the 11 to 13. OK.
And then looking forward into the future, when does sort of
perimenopause, menopause, what are the age ranges of those at
the moment? So they do.
It largely varies from late 30s to mid 50s.
(19:16):
You know you're really looking at because menopause is a
retrospective diagnosis. So you go through menopause to
be able to say I've gone throughmenopause.
The perimenopausal, the state can last for years.
Your best indication is to look at when your mum went through it
or when other kind of female family members went through it
(19:38):
as well to understand if you might be earlier or later on
within that journey. OK, I feel like that's a whole
episode. It is a.
Whole episode, yeah. For sure.
And are there some supplements or things that we should all be
thinking about taking if we wantto optimize our cycle or is that
again just case by case basis? It's very case by case.
(19:59):
It's very case by case. A lot of supplements and herbal
formulas that are regulating your cycle can have the opposite
effect for some people. So we do want to.
That is something that I would definitely say needs
personalized advice over, OK? Is there anything we haven't
discussed today that you wish more women knew?
(20:21):
I guess one thing is potentiallyjust changing the narrative that
your cycle is this annoying thing that you have to put up
with. There's a lot of power that you
can gain by really leaning into the different cycle phases and
what they mean. And you know, I think within
society there's this expectationthat you're going to show up the
(20:42):
same every single day. And the fact that we don't and
we can't and we shouldn't is nota bad thing.
It's actually allowing ourselvesto lean into the fact that, you
know what, I'm going to go through these seasons within my
cycle and it's actually really positive thing.
And there's actually a lot of power that can be gained from
it. I think part of the issue is
(21:03):
that we're we're told to kind ofgo against that, where switching
that narrative, leaning into it and really understanding this is
happening to me and it's really positive thing I think is
probably the biggest thing. Yeah, that's a beautiful
reframe, Grace, thank you so much.
That's that's a really nice summary and hopefully leaves
(21:24):
everyone with a little bit of homework to go and reflect.
And if we're not already tracking our cycles, then
probably something we should be doing and just understand what
is normal for us. So thank you.
Thank. You thanks for having me again.
Welcome back to Reset. Today we are talking about
female cycles. And I think we all are aware
that it's important to be understanding our cycle,
tracking our cycle. But I wanted to dive a little
bit deeper today and do like a bit of a refresher on what a
healthy cycle looks like, what we can do to help regulate our
(00:26):
cycle. And I am very excited to have
the lovely Grace back in the studio with me to discuss this.
Hey, Grace. Hello, thank you for having me
again. I'm excited to dive into this
one too. Yeah, no, this is going to be
great. So for anyone that's meeting
Grace for the first time, she isa fertility nutritionist that
specialises in all things pregnancy and we did an episode
(00:49):
recently around male fertility. This episode is going to be
relevant for people whether or not they're trying to have a
baby, but just looking at their cycles and as a health measure,
I guess in general. Oh 100%.
It's so important to really tap into your cycle, whether you're
actively trying to fall pregnantor actively trying to avoid it.
(01:10):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
And so let's start from the basics.
Why is having a healthy cycle? What is a healthy cycle?
Yeah. So a healthy cycle is going to
be a cycle from 24 days to around 35 days.
We want ovulation to occurs at some point in the middle of that
(01:34):
and we want to be sure that ovulation is occurring.
And then we want to have a healthy blood flow that looks
like minimal spotting, that looks like red, nice rich blood
with minimal clotting, minimal discomfort, minimal pain.
And we want reduced or minimizedsymptoms around that time as
(01:56):
well. So no extreme PMS, no extreme
highs and lows throughout the cycle.
If anyone's experiencing those things you said we don't want to
be experiencing, what could there be signs and symptoms of?
A hormonal imbalance, you're looking at what hormonal
imbalance you kind of need to dive into what area or what
thing you're experiencing and then be able to understand
(02:19):
through that what could be out and where needs the support.
It could also be an indication that there is something deeper
going on, you know, like a endometriosis, PCOS, thyroid
health issues. Yeah, if someone has gone
through their whole life not really thinking too much about
their cycle, not tracking, not really noticing any trends,
(02:41):
where's the best place to start?Yeah, the best place to start is
by tracking your cycle. And there's many different
methods to do that, I guess whether you are actively trying
to conceive or actively not. Using something like your
cervical mucus, which we can chat around, and your basal body
temperature to better understandyour cycles is the best way to
(03:03):
start. That way you can really dive
into where you're sitting, you know your cycle length, you
start to, you know, note down any symptoms that you're
experiencing. And when you're experiencing
them and you notice around what your blood flow and quality
looks like, That gives you a really good starting point to
understand, OK, we're in this, you know what, what kind of
(03:27):
thing do we need to be able to shift to better support what
we're looking for? Basal body temperature
measurement. What is that?
Yeah. So essentially it's it's your
basal temperature. So it's something that you
measure every morning before youget up.
You have a pre ovulatory temperature and then once you
have ovulated your temperature will increase just by, you know,
(03:48):
a couple of point degrees really.
So it's a very minor shift, but that is your confirmation that
ovulation has happened and it's the second part of the cycle
where progesterone is going to be that dominant hormone.
And this might be a silly question, but how are we
measuring this? Yeah.
So you can measure it just through a basal body temperature
thermometer. You can just get anyone at a
(04:09):
pharmacy and you'd literally just pop it under your tongue
and you take, you take and record the temperature.
There's lots of different apps that you can do that on and you
just track it every morning. There are alternatives where
they're still measuring your temperature.
It's just the the method that ofdoing it.
You could get like an armband oryou could have a ring to measure
(04:30):
your temperature. They're the most reliable.
Something like your Apple Watch is not going to be super
reliable. OK, so something like a aura
ring or something? Yeah, an aura ring temp drop.
Yeah, which is the armband. OK.
And we often hear about these 4 phases of a cycle.
Can you just give us a bit of anoverview of what each phase is?
(04:50):
Yeah, 100%. So you are going to start with
menstruation. So that is your period we start.
Day one is your first day of fresh red blood.
So if you have spotting before that is from the old cycle.
So when you see that fresh red blood, that is your day one.
You'll go through your period, your menstrual phase, which
(05:12):
typically last around four to seven days for most people, and
then you'll be in your follicular phase and that is
really the build up to ovulation.
In your follicular phase, you have estrogen being the dominant
hormone. Estrogen grows things, so it
grows that endometrial lining. It does a final maturation phase
(05:33):
of the egg. It makes us feel really good.
It makes us energetically be a lot more outward.
We tend to be more confident. Oh, face structure changes as
well. So we've become a little bit
more attractive in this time. We function better, we perform
better. So if you have a work
presentation, if you're performing at a gym or something
(05:57):
else, this is your best time. This is your best performance
time. And it's all leading up to the
ovulation point. Basically, when you have a
dominant follicle ready to be ovulated, estrogen will tell the
rest of your body your your brain, all right, we've got a
dominant follicle, let's releaseit.
And this is ovulation. Ovulation happens, which is
(06:18):
really just for 24 hours. So your egg is released and it
has 24 hours to fertilize and hopefully go into conception if
that's what you're looking for. And then you enter into the
luteal phase of your cycle. The luteal phase is really that
last phase before menstruation. Again, in your luteal phase, we
(06:39):
have progesterone being the dominant hormone.
This is released after ovulation.
This has a very calming effect on us.
So typically we go more inward, we start to relax a little bit
more, has a very calming effect on us.
At the end of that cycle, it's either going to be pregnancy or
you're going to get your period.There's no other alternative.
(07:02):
And then you restart that cycle the next cycle.
OK. And you said it's really
important for us to be understanding our cycles,
whether we are trying to fall pregnant or not.
For someone who's not trying to fall pregnant and is actively
trying to avoid it, what do theyneed to know about their cycle
and is there certain times of the month that they should avoid
(07:26):
activity? Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
So they, they do need to pay close attention to their cycle,
you know, regardless, but obviously for kind of different
reasons, but they need to know when they're ovulating, which
your BBT will confirm that ovulation has happened, but not
predict it. So you've got to be careful
(07:47):
because you can fall pregnant inthe, your fertility window is
the five days before ovulation and the day of ovulation.
So This is why we use things like cervical mucus and tracking
over time to understand what your, what your, what your cycle
(08:07):
looks like at an individual level is then obviously if
someone is aware of when they typically ovulate within the
cycle, especially if they have avery regular cycle every month,
it's 28 days, it's 30, it's 31, but it's very regular for them.
And they then through that can predict when the ovulation is,
the time before that. And then they use their cervical
(08:29):
mucus to better guide that window as well.
And then obviously it's not either taking additional method
of protection to to prevent pregnancy happening within that
five days before and the day of.Yeah, interesting.
And if someone's noticed that they've stopped getting their
period and they're not pregnant,what are some of the things that
(08:51):
could be causing that? Yeah.
So someone was getting their period before and now they've
stopped. Want to look at is it
potentially PCOS, Is it something going on with your
thyroid where there's just not there, there's a break in the
connection of what's happening to support ovulation actually
occurring or potentially are they going through a time of
(09:15):
elevated stress and the body canunderstand stress to be
different than the mind. So potentially under eating,
over exercising could be a form of stress that a person doesn't
perceive as stressful, but theirbody does and their body will
shut down ovulation through it. So humans are the only mammal
that can turn off their reproductive system.
(09:35):
And if your body is feeling likeit's running away from a tiger,
it will just turn it off. But what the body understands to
be running away from the tiger and what the brain understands
is very, very different. Our bodies are so intelligent,
aren't they? They are.
And it is obviously a protectivemechanism, right?
Like if you were to run away from a tiger, that wouldn't be
(09:57):
the time to have a baby. Correct.
Are there some lifestyle factorsand I guess which lifestyle
includes food, exercise, how we spend our time?
Are there some things that you think all women should be paying
more attention to? Yeah, 100 A 100%.
So I guess to begin with, if there is a deeper issue going on
(10:20):
with cycle health such as endometriosis, PCOS, or anything
with the thyroid, then this is where it can require that extra
level of personalization just tomake sure that those factors are
being managed and addressed properly.
If we're talking about just general cycle health and just
supporting our healthy hormones,it's 1, making sure that you're
(10:41):
adequately fueling yourself. So making sure that we are
having enough proteins and fats within the within your diet and
carbohydrates as well. So all of those play an
incredible but really important role on your cycle health.
If you do not eat enough proteins and fats, you're not
going to have the ability to make the hormones.
(11:04):
If you're under eating carbohydrates, your body's going
to understand that to be stress and that's when ovulation can
shut down. So we do need to make sure that
we're getting our micronutrient needs in there.
We need to make sure that we're eating within the morning so
that we're supporting our blood sugar, we're supporting hormone
health, but we're also telling our body it's safe.
(11:24):
We're not in a restrictive spaceat the moment.
We're feeling safe. So that's nutrition adequately
exercising, so not under or overexercising.
And that limit is going to be dependent on the person.
But I guess what you're looking at within that is if you have a
very healthy cycle, if you're fueling yourself, but you are
(11:48):
exercising to a good like a higher level, potentially your
benchmark is higher than someoneelse's.
So it needs to, you need to lookat your cycle and the
relationship you have with food and exercise to really determine
that. Really looking at the nervous
system again, you know, I think so many of us, myself included,
(12:09):
just run on high functioning anxiety and we're, we're
productive, right? Like we're busy being
productive. But it does have a knock on
effect onto hormone and cycle health too, and obviously making
sure that we're getting adequatesleep, which is more than what
males need. If someone is aware that their
(12:29):
cycle is not quite as they wouldwant it to be and is thinking
about starting to make some of these nutrition and lifestyle
changes, how long does it take before we start to see results?
It depends what shift is out to be honest.
I like to see changes being madeand then you can see the impact
(12:50):
of them within a couple of months.
For other people that journey might be longer, especially if
they have lost their cycle and need to regain it.
It can take longer than that forthe body to feel safe enough to
regain their cycle. But for anyone else who is
potentially looking at very painful periods, potentially
they're looking at spotting within their cycle or just
(13:12):
occasionally missing ovulation, their journey could look
shorter. So within a couple of months I'd
like to see something and usually like to see something
completely resolved within, you know, a six month period, say.
OK. And if you go through, say, a
really traumatic or stressful month, does that show up in your
(13:34):
cycle the following month? Or does it take time to process
with our bodies? Both.
OK. Both, yeah.
So potentially could take, it could potentially be that that
cycle, the following cycle, especially if we're looking at
that ovulation shutting down or spotting where there could be
progesterone levels. But it also can come in the
(13:55):
months prior. So if you've gone through a
stressful time, your hormones have been impacted through that,
then the egg that has been developing, it takes around 100
days for the egg to mature before ovulation.
So if in that 100 days you've been exposed to higher levels of
(14:16):
stress are the factors that thenimpact the quality of that egg,
you're not going to see the trueimpact of that until months
later. So if someone's looking to start
actively trying to have a baby in the future, how far in
advance do you usually recommendthat they start sort of looking
at their cycle and trying to optimize things?
(14:38):
As early as possible, as early as possible, because if there is
something deeper going on withintheir cycle, say they're having
very varying lengths of cycles. So you know, sometimes it's 26
days, sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 35.
You really want to understand why that's happening.
(14:58):
If someone's very symptomatic, you want to understand why
that's happening. And the longer you have run up
in that journey, the better. But as early as possible, the
the more that you understand where you are within your cycle,
the more that you can know each month is even very consistent
and reliable and you can predictit, the better ability that you
(15:20):
have to maximize your time from when you start trying to
conceive. And what about contraception?
If someone's taking the pill, ormaybe they have Marina or
there's a whole host of different things they could be
on, how far in advance before having a baby should they come
off these things Like how long does it take our bodies to kind
of work out what our natural rhythm is again?
(15:42):
Yeah, it can take a good few months.
So again, depending on what contraception you were on prior,
but it can take a while for the body to kind of get back into
that ovulation phase and for that to be predictable and
reliable. And then some forms of
(16:02):
contraception can lower the levels of micronutrients that
you have in your body, making deplete nutrients.
And so if you're then looking toconceive, you want to make sure
that going into conception, you have long enough to rebuild all
of those nutrients up. So I like to say like a three to
(16:23):
six month window is the best if I know.
I guess it also depends on why you went on to contraception in
the 1st place, whether if it wasjust to prevent pregnancy or
because it it was being given asa Band-Aid solution essentially
because if something else was going on in your cycle.
So if you went to the doctor andthe the conversation was very
(16:45):
much around like reducing symptoms, your cycles were
irregular, you know, these things, you going on to the
contraceptive pill is only just kind of put a Band-Aid on that.
So you kind of need to take off the Band-Aid and then reassess
where your cycles are because potentially what you were seeing
before was trying was your body trying to tell you something.
(17:06):
And we need to know that to be able to better support that
fertility journey itself. And now zooming out a little bit
and looking at sort of the firsttime we get our period and the
last time we get our period, I keep hearing that it's becoming
younger and younger for women. Is that true?
(17:26):
And if yes, do we know why? Yeah, it is true that it is
becoming younger and younger. One of the potential reasons is
our exposure to environmental toxins and how exposed we are
from day dot with environmental toxins and just the I mean they
mimic your sex hormones. So it's it's driving that that
(17:49):
occur earlier. Is there anything we can do as
if we've got daughters or we're around young females to help
minimize those? Like what are some of the common
things that we might be able to make changes with?
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's depending
on when you're starting. If you are on your conception
(18:09):
journey or you're already pregnant, especially if you have
a daughter, their reproductive health will be partly dependent
by your exposure to environmental toxins while
they're in utero. So through that pregnancy and
then it's through their life, you know, reducing things like
chemical exposure, which could be through personal products, it
(18:30):
could be through baby care products, it could be using
filtered water, you know, so many different ways that they
can kind of minimize it. Yeah, it's, it's a big question,
that one. Huge question and a lot of
pressure and responsibility. What's the average age at the
moment that girls will start to get their period?
Kind of changes depending on country to country is typically
(18:54):
around the 11 to 13. OK.
And then looking forward into the future, when does sort of
perimenopause, menopause, what are the age ranges of those at
the moment? So they do.
It largely varies from late 30s to mid 50s.
(19:16):
You know you're really looking at because menopause is a
retrospective diagnosis. So you go through menopause to
be able to say I've gone throughmenopause.
The perimenopausal, the state can last for years.
Your best indication is to look at when your mum went through it
or when other kind of female family members went through it
(19:38):
as well to understand if you might be earlier or later on
within that journey. OK, I feel like that's a whole
episode. It is a.
Whole episode, yeah. For sure.
And are there some supplements or things that we should all be
thinking about taking if we wantto optimize our cycle or is that
again just case by case basis? It's very case by case.
(19:59):
It's very case by case. A lot of supplements and herbal
formulas that are regulating your cycle can have the opposite
effect for some people. So we do want to.
That is something that I would definitely say needs
personalized advice over, OK? Is there anything we haven't
discussed today that you wish more women knew?
(20:21):
I guess one thing is potentiallyjust changing the narrative that
your cycle is this annoying thing that you have to put up
with. There's a lot of power that you
can gain by really leaning into the different cycle phases and
what they mean. And you know, I think within
society there's this expectationthat you're going to show up the
(20:42):
same every single day. And the fact that we don't and
we can't and we shouldn't is nota bad thing.
It's actually allowing ourselvesto lean into the fact that, you
know what, I'm going to go through these seasons within my
cycle and it's actually really positive thing.
And there's actually a lot of power that can be gained from
it. I think part of the issue is
(21:03):
that we're we're told to kind ofgo against that, where switching
that narrative, leaning into it and really understanding this is
happening to me and it's really positive thing I think is
probably the biggest thing. Yeah, that's a beautiful
reframe, Grace, thank you so much.
That's that's a really nice summary and hopefully leaves
(21:24):
everyone with a little bit of homework to go and reflect.
And if we're not already tracking our cycles, then
probably something we should be doing and just understand what
is normal for us. So thank you.
Thank. You thanks for having me again.
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