Hormonal Harmony Begins With Understanding 🔒

Everyone Is Talking About Hormones

Social media talks about hormone-friendly workouts, eating for your cycle and building your routine around your hormones. But what are we actually talking about when we say hormones? Because while these conversations have become more common, understanding what hormones are and how they work can still feel confusing.

Last week at our Pilates & Hormonal Harmony event, we heard from Mia, a Naturopathic Doctor and Herbalist. Her work centres around helping women support hormonal wellbeing, fertility and chronic health concerns through herbal medicine, nutrition and sustainable lifestyle practices.

This article is a collection key takeaways gathered from Mia's talk and resources shared through Super Botanic. Hopefully this helps break down some key terms and root causes behind experiences many women have, and perhaps even helps you connect some dots within your own body.

Your Body Is Working With You, Not Against You

Something that really shifted perspective was the idea that everything our body does is trying to work for us. Symptoms can often feel frustrating. Painful periods, mood shifts, cravings, bloating or irregular cycles can sometimes feel like your body is turning against you. But often these experiences are signals rather than punishments.

Listening to our body and understanding patterns is an important part of caring for our health. Much of modern medicine often focuses on treating symptoms directly but there is also value in understanding the bigger picture and asking why symptoms may be showing up in the first place.

What Are Hormones?

Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the body, helping regulate many of our daily functions. They are produced by the endocrine system, a network of glands that create and release hormones when the body needs them.

These systems influence:

• Mood and stress responses
• Reproduction and fertility
• Growth and metabolism
• Menstrual health and hormonal balance

Some of the main hormones often discussed in women's health include:

Oestrogen
Supports ovulation, mood, skin and bone health

Progesterone
Produced after ovulation and helps balance oestrogen

Testosterone
Supports motivation, libido and muscle development

Insulin
Regulates blood sugar

Cortisol
Our primary stress hormone that helps regulate energy and wakefulness

Understanding Hormones Through Your Cycle

A lot of hormone conversations now focus on cycle syncing, such as changing workouts, nutrition and routines around different phases of your cycle. At its simplest, understanding the menstrual cycle is understanding what your hormones are doing.

Menstruation (Inner Winter)
Your uterus sheds its lining and oestrogen and progesterone are at their lowest.

Follicular Phase (Inner Spring)
Your body begins preparing follicles in the ovaries and oestrogen slowly rises.

Ovulation (Inner Summer)
Oestrogen peaks and triggers the release of an egg.

Luteal Phase (Inner Autumn)
Progesterone rises to prepare for a possible pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn't occur, hormone levels drop and your cycle begins again.

Not Every Regular Cycle Means Ovulation Is Happening

Something that came as a surprise was learning that some women may believe they are ovulating when they aren't. Stress and many lifestyle factors can influence ovulation. Even if your cycle appears regular, ovulation itself may not always be occurring.

Why does this matter?

If ovulation doesn't happen, progesterone isn't produced. This can mean the body is functioning with oestrogen without enough progesterone to balance it. Since progesterone plays an important role during the luteal phase, lower levels may contribute to bloating, breast tenderness or mood shifts. 

If you regularly notice the following, it may be worth paying attention to when these symptoms occur:

• Breast tenderness
• Water retention
• Intense PMS
• Mood changes
• Pain before your period 

Patterns matter, noticing whether symptoms happen before your period, during ovulation or throughout your cycle can provide useful information about where your body may need support.

Understanding PMS Beyond "Just PMS"

Premenstrual syndrome often gets grouped into one category, but symptoms can present differently and shouldn't be dismissed as "normal." Here is an overview of different patterns that can appear:

PMS-A (Anxiety)
Symptoms may include irritability, anxiety, mood swings and sleep disruption. Potential contributing factors discussed included higher oestrogen relative to progesterone.

PMS-C (Cravings)
Sugar cravings, fatigue, headaches and dizziness can sometimes be linked to blood sugar patterns.

PMS-D (Depression)
Low mood, withdrawal and low self-esteem can appear for some women before their cycle.

PMS-H (Hyperhydration)
Bloating, breast tenderness, water retention and temporary weight fluctuations.

PMS-P (Pain)
Cramps, headaches, lower back pain and physical discomfort.

Understanding PCOS Beyond The Symptoms

Another topic discussed was PCOS, recently renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS).

PMOS is a hormonal and metabolic condition where the ovaries can produce excess androgens, often contributing to irregular cycles, acne, insulin resistance, hair changes or weight fluctuations.

Mia highlighted three root causes:

Insulin resistance
Causing an increase in testosterone. Resulting in acne, hair growth, irregular periods and no ovulation.

Inflammation
Causing oxidative stress which damages the cells and fuels PMOS symptoms.

Mitochondrial dysfunction
Causing ovaries to suffer. Such as, follicles not maturing properly, insulin regulation suffers, ovulation is poor or absent and more testosterone is made. 

Your Healthiest State Is Your Most Supported State

One thing Mia shared that stayed with me was the idea that your most fertile state is often your healthiest state. Even if pregnancy isn't something on your mind right now, fertility isn't only about having children. It can also reflect broader health and balance within the body.

Daily life affects this more than we realise. Stress, sleep, movement, posture, nutrition and even how we sit throughout the day all influence our body's function. The small things do matter and more awareness around how we move and care for ourselves is needed because hormones don't exist in isolation.

A More Supportive Approach To Hormonal Health

Hormonal health is incredibly layered and this article isn't intended to replace professional advice or provide all the answers. It is simply a summary of information shared during our event that hopefully helps you understand your hormones better.

Maybe you've noticed bloating every month, your energy crashing during certain parts of your cycle or you've struggled with symptoms but never really understood why.

The goal is to be more curious, to understand that your body is always communicating with you and learning how to listen might be the first step toward creating more balance.

With love,
Productive Babe Club