For anyone who has ever heard the words “Are you on your period or something?” you know how infuriating it is that people assume periods are largely only associated with bad moods - maybe the person asking is actually the reason for the bad vibe?
The incredible Lucy Peach, the Period Preacher, explains the emotional phases in her Ted Talk, including the massive revelation that those who menstruate have a week where their hormones make them give more, quickly followed by a week of wanting to take - cue the cancellation of well-intended social plans.
She breaks down the four weeks into four seasons or phases she calls “dream”, “do”, “give” and “take”, which you can use to plan and maybe even enjoy your whole month and “go with the flow”.
1. Dream (Winter)
This phase starts on the first day of bleeding - your hormones have flatlined, and your body is letting go and craving being nurtured.
“The more you can surrender to the slowness and stillness that your body is craving, the more energy you will actually have in store for the rest of the month,” shares Peach.
2. Do (Spring)
This phase begins when you finish bleeding, at about day 5 and Peach calls this “your power week”, which comes on with “a rise in estrogen and a shot of testosterone” when your body is preparing your egg for potential fertilisation. This phase can often make you feel more motivated, organisational and full of energy and ideas.
3. Give (Summer)
This phase starts when your hormones peak, ovulation occurs and “giving” starts somewhere around day 14. With the rise in the hormone progesterone and “a booster top-up shot” of estrogen, Peach says this is the week you feel like saying “yes” to everything.
But Peach warns that you might need to be careful how much you give of yourself this week, in order to avoid burnout.
“You need to be a little bit careful that you don’t give everything away because if you skid into your next phase on empty, that’s when you can feel a little bit prickly.”
4. Take (Autumn)
At about day 21, the take phase kicks in as hormones plummet and the body gets ready to “let go” again in the lead-up to your next period. “If you feel pressured to maintain the emotional generosity that you had in the give phase, then you will feel out of sync and frustrated.”
It’s important to take time for tasks you love during this phase says Peach, “I guarantee you will feel a lot less prickly if you can make some time to do something that you love, something that makes you feel the most you.”
You can better pinpoint ovulation
Tracking your period is often done by couples - or strong independent women (I see you) - trying to fall pregnant. But with advances in technology, those trying to add a bundle of joy to their home now have so much more information at their fingertips.
For example, Apple Watch users using Cycle Tracking can use their watch to pick up changes in their body temperature through their cycle - a key indicator of ovulation is when a woman’s baseline body temperature increases from the standard 36.1°C - 36.4°C to between 36.4°C - 37°C.
Noticing and tracking this change can help those trying to conceive better understand their most fertile window. The more you track, the more accurate pinpointing it becomes - maybe use your “do” week to set this up.
Knowledge is power baby!
You can use it as a vital sign
According to sport and exercise medicine physician Dr Rachel Harris, the period should be a “vital sign” and tracking it can enable you to see when something might be wrong, especially if you find yourself losing your period.
“Amenorrhoea [losing your period] is a dangerous health condition, usually occurring when the energy you are expending [exercise, school, work, puberty, friends, stress, family, brain power] is not matching the energy you are taking in [food],” shares Harris.
“It can mean increases in injuries such as bone stress fractures and tendon issues, increased illnesses and inability to adapt to training, and in the longer term can cause osteoporosis and infertility.
“The menstrual cycle and periods can be used as a vital sign – if you are getting them regularly, you have that energy balance right. If they stop, you need to seek medical attention,” she concludes.
Tracking also enables you to put in front of your healthcare professional a detailed document of your menstrual health - Cycle Tracking users can download a PDF from the app with all the information your doctor might need.
You can use it for athletic performance
Understanding the physiology and psychology of women in sport is Esther Keown and Lydia O’Donnells’s passion and why they launched Femmi, a platform to empower female athletes.
The athletes and coaches use the menstrual cycle to build plans that cater to the female body, and according to the duo, their dream is that every young woman, coach, school and workplace normalise and utilise the cycle in all its glory.
“If girls could actually speak about periods in a really empowering way and be confident in the way that they talk about their periods, the environment would change around them,” the pair share.
“If it is competitive sport or even sub-competitive, if the coaches and the support people around them don’t know about periods, that’s damaging.”
Their goal is to break down the gender equality barriers initially in sport and exercise, and then the sky’s the limit.
“We’d love to see that happen. Femmi’s messaging is not just in sport and exercise, but put across all industries. We use sport and in particular, running as a tool to build confidence in ourselves, in our team and in women in general and to encourage more people to move and build confidence through sport.
“Hopefully women can take that confidence into other areas and break down barriers everywhere.”
Fancy adding a period tracker to your email signature? Keown and O’Donnell say why the bloody hell not.
