Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working For You

Product Information

I make no secret of the fact that I hate my periods. I hated them when they started, and twenty years later I hate them even more. However, this is the first book I’ve ever read, or indeed come across, on the subject of menstruation. I saw a copy in a bookshop and immediately became hopeful that it could tell me what I’ve been doing wrong all these years. The blurb makes some pretty grand promises about ‘taking control of your menstrual cycle’ and by nature I’m inclined to put great faith in reading books as a means of life improvement. It was therefore almost inevitable that I’d feel at least slightly let down by the reality of the book. I don’t regret reading it, however it hasn’t had the effect on me that the author clearly intended and I'm doubtful of whether it'll help me manage my periods any better.

The different stages of your menstrual cycle are like the seasons of the year; each brings with it a different set of strengths and challenges. Your period, during which you withdraw from the world and rest, is like winter. After that comes spring, when your body and mind begin anew. Around ovulation you’re in summer, when you feel light and energetic. Finally, before your period, you move into fall to slow down and get ready for another winter. Join me on this episode as I demystify the menstrual cycle for you, clarifying what it is and explaining it in a way that makes sense, whatever your cycle looks like for you. I’m sharing how learning to understand your cycle can help you understand your behaviour, and how you can use your cycle to get what you want out of life. Much criticism arrived to pseudoscience in some aspects and this I do have to agree with and would urge others to take caution with. However, that for me was not my purpose for reading, so I was less intent on taking everything said as fact. In the book, many of the things said are still genuine helpful treatments that doctors themselves do use (i.g Vitus Agni’s-Castus supplementation being a popular homeopathic remedy and upping fat intake etc) so I’d say the majority follows good word. This is the first non-fiction book I've ever voluntarily read from cover to cover and it has definitely awoken a thirst for knowledge in me. If they can all be this engaging, relevant and interesting then sign me up. How often have you heard, or overheard, this statement? Even in ostensibly progressive societies, it’s all too common for men to dismiss women’s ideas, opinions, or anger simply on the basis of their ability to bleed every month. The idea behind this is that periods somehow make you volatile, dangerous, or outright crazy.I just can't express how much I couldn't relate to literally any of her descriptions, except Autumn. And that made it really difficult for me to take the rest of the book as seriously as she takes herself. There's a lot of floof, as other reviewers have said, and while it's clear that to some extent she knows what she's talking about, she's also drunk the new age kool-aid -- and she's not great at drawing boundaries around what's kool-aid and what's legit. So it all sort of melds together into her anecdotes and season-speak, alongside legitimately helpful information about hormones and body cycles (and why hormonal birth control is really terrifying). So this woman read the guidelines and when her GP suggested more blood tests she was able to say, “Look, I think I meet the criteria, this is what the NICE guidelines say.” And because of that she was just referred to a menopause clinic. And I will link to the NICE guidelines in the show notes so that you can read them too and perhaps take them into your appointments if you’re having any discussions with GPs or other healthcare professionals. But also we’re often already in perimenopause without realising it. Menopause can also happen earlier. So 1% of us will go through menopause before we are 40 years old. So although it’s true that most of you will go through menopause in your 50s, perimenopause is going to start in your 40s, for some of you the hormonal shifts will start before then. This podcast is something that I’ve let percolate in me for well over a year. And I’ve used my cycle to figure out and create, until it got to the point where I was like, “Okay, you’ve done enough thinking. Now you need to start doing.”

So, to those of you who’ve been asking for this for a while, thank you for your patience. I’m in the ovulation phase of my cycle. And I actually suspect that I ovulated yesterday as, along with some other key indicators, I feel a shift in my energy today. As in a shift in the amount of energy that I have, and the nature of my energy. Have you ever wondered what perimenopause is and how to know if you're experiencing it? If so, today's episode is for you. Although a lot of health practitioners fail to inform their patients about the negative aspects of hormonal contraception, these are worth considering when deciding on a contraceptive. Your menstrual cycle shouldn’t be a burden to get rid of through hormonal contraceptives, but a source of joy and power. If you can work on regulating your cycles through lifestyle changes and with the help of a trusted healthcare professional, it’s worth a shot. Now, colloquially, some people will say that they are cycling when they are bleeding. But technically a cycle is not a period. Whenever I refer to a cycle, I mean the whole damn thing. The length of time from one period to the next.But the fact that your hormones fluctuate every month doesn't make you any less of a level-headed or competent person. Changes in mood, energy, and desire throughout your cycle are all perfectly normal; if you learn to recognize and work with them, they can even boost your natural talents and abilities. In the same way as right now we're experiencing such horrific weather in the UK, you could describe your cycle in the same way; so in your winter, the time of menstruation when you're bleeding, you may be more inclined to want to stay indoors, hibernate a bit, prioritise your own needs rather than being out there in the world serving others which we are often doing. Whereas in the summer you are more extroverted, more likely to want to be outside being social. Hormones are very low at the start of the cycle and then they peak mid-cycle around ovulation. Everyone’s experience will vary and it's about your levels of hormones, your response to those hormones and the context of your life. Number seven, there’s no benefit to the menopause transition. What do you think, true or false? This is an important one and especially after everything I’ve mentioned so far it can sound like this is all going to be pretty shit, there’s going to be no positives to this. And for sure this one is very much down to opinion. But for me this is false. Do bear in mind that I’m on this side of it, not the other side of it. Now, because I want to keep this as straightforward for you as possible I’m going to be making some sweeping generalizations. And because I’m going to be oversimplifying this, I have to tell you something upfront. What I describe may or may not reflect your experience of your cycle. The timing of events in your cycle and how you feel may be slightly different, or very different, to what I’m about to describe. They may be different to your BFF’s or sister’s experience of their cycle, or for that matter mine. That doesn’t mean that yours is wrong. All it means is that you have a unique experience of your cycle and your hormones, and that’s true of every person with a cycle. Okay?

I walked 54 miles in 24 hours along the West Highland Way in Scotland. This is true. I think we actually did it as a team in about 22 hours. It was something called the Caledonian challenge, which was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Now, if you’re like, “What the hell is this woman talking about?” Then don’t worry. All will be becoming clear because today I’m going to be demystifying the cycle for you. I’m going to be explaining it in a way that will help you to make sense of your cycle, whatever your particular experience is like. Join Menstrual Health Expert, acupuncturist, certified Life Coach, and author of Period Power, Maisie Hill, each week to get insights and strategies that will improve your cycle and take you from hormone hell to harmony. Okay, let’s get onto the big one, number four, true or false. HRT is dangerous. So I’ve already given you a little bit of a clue, but let’s get into it. So I’m going to guess that a lot of you think that I’m going to slate HRT but I am not. There’s a whole chapter about HRT in the book, so you can get the full lowdown when you read it. But the short version of it is that I am onboard with HRT. I actually prefer calling it menopausal hormone therapy, MHT which is how a lot of the scientific literature now refers to it. And I explain why in the book.I used to work in a shop that sold exotic birds. This is true. I used to live in New York in my early 20’s and I worked in a parrot shop, or store as Americans would say, in the West Village.