Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1203 | The Secret to Fixing Your Period | Guest: Dr. Lara Briden

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Today, we sit down with naturopathic doctor Lara Briden to discuss all things women's health. We talk about the different phases of a woman's menstrual cycle and why hormonal birth control doesn't actually "regulate the period" despite what doctors may say. Dr. Briden also tells us about the difference between artificial hormones and the natural ones produced during a woman's cycle and just how dangerous these artificial hormones can be. And she shares some tips for women struggling with period pain or irregular cycles and what they can do to improve their health. Buy Dr. Briden's book, "Metabolism Repair for Women": https://a.co/d/7oyZU6u Share the Arrows 2025 is on October 11 in Dallas, Texas! Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sharethearrows.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for tickets now! Sponsored by ⁠⁠Carly Jean Los Angeles⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Good Ranchers⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠EveryLife⁠⁠. Buy Allie's new book, "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://a.co/d/4COtBxy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Timecodes: (02:30) Birth control pill & menstrual cycle (12:35) Breaking down menstrual cycles (22:25) Phases (26:00) Progesterone (40:55) Progestins vs progesterone (45:10) Fixing your period (53:10) Birth control affecting metabolism (57:00) Perimenopause & hormone therapy --- Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks Coffee — Experience the best coffee while supporting the pro-life movement with Seven Weeks Coffee; use code ALLIE at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.sevenweekscoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to save up to 25% off your first order, plus your free gift! Good Ranchers — Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GoodRanchers.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and subscribe to any of their boxes (but preferably the Allie Beth Stuckey Box) to get free Waygu burgers, hot dogs, bacon, or chicken wings in every box for life. Plus, you’ll get $40 off when you use code ALLIE at checkout. A’del — Try A'del's hand-crafted, artisan, small-batch cosmetics and use promo code ALLIE 25% off your first time purchase at AdelNaturalCosmetics.com Shopify — Shopify is the commerse platform behind millions of businesses around the world. Get started with your own design studio to turn your big business idea into profit. Go to shopify.com/allie to sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling with Shopify today! --- Related Episodes: Ep 976 | Birth Control: What the Media Won’t Tell You https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-976-birth-control-what-the-media-wont-tell-you/id1359249098?i=1000650764644 Ep 1133 | Birth Control Made Her Blind; IVF Made Her Pro-Life | Guest: Chelsey Painter Davis https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1133-birth-control-made-her-blind-ivf-made-her-pro/id1359249098?i=1000688650828 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://alliebethstuckey.com/book⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

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That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819382. Dr. Laura Brighton is a naturopathic doctor with a focus on women's health. She has written several books, including the period repair manual, the hormone repair manual. She is here today to talk about why ovulation in our cycle matters for women, not just to make babies, but also for our brain health, for our metabolic health. and how this relates to paraminopause and minipause. I learned so much from Dr. Brighton today, and you will too. If you're like a women's cycle nerd like I am, I want to know as much as possible.

This episode is for you. Get out your notes app. Get out a pen and paper. Take notes so you understand everything that she's saying. It is so enlightening. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Kexie. Kexie cookies are amazing, and I can tell you from experience. The only bad thing is that you're not going to be able to stop eating these cookies.

They deliver right to your front door. Go to kexy.com and use promo code Alley 15 for 15% off, k-e-k-s-I-S-I-com code Alley 15. Dr. Brighton, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. If you could just tell everyone who may not know who you are and what you do. Hi, Ali. Yeah, thanks for having me. My name is Laura Braden. I'm a naturopic doctor. I'm Canadian originally, that's the accent, but I live in New Zealand currently. And a naturopathic doctor means that I treat people with diet changes, nutritional supplements, herbal medicines. Through my 30 years of practice, I've also used what are called body identical hormones or bi-identical hormones to treat women's health problems. I've had a very strong women's health

focus in my almost 30 years of practice. So I treat women with PCOS, endometriosis, parimenopause, And out of all of that work have come so far three books on women's health that have, I'm very grateful have seemed to have reached people in all parts of the world. So that's been a great opportunity. Yes, they have. Okay, can you define for us what is a naturopath doctor? Yeah, fair enough. Good question. So a naturopathic doctor is a, yeah, Dr. Hughes's natural medicine in North America where I trained.

So it's a registered, accredited profession. There are, I think it's about, I think at the moment, like four colleges, naturopathic medicine colleges in the U.S. and two in Canada. And we go through a very, it's a parallel training. So it's similar to medical doctors, but it's, you know, done separately. So we learn, you know, physiology, anatomy, pathology, and we do, you know, an internship. But rather than prescribing only medicines, we also learn to treat the whole. person and yeah so it's it's yeah it's a it's a great profession to be part of and yeah as I said it's

given me an opportunity to do things very differently in some for some conditions yes I can imagine you said that you've been practicing for over 30 years and what interested you specifically in women's health why did you go into that specialty yeah um not quite 30 years but I think I'm about 28 years practice so it all started just on the ground when I first started practicing in Canada I was in rural. I was actually just south of Calgary. So I was in a small town in rural Canada. Many of my patients were just ranchers and teachers and just really ordinary people,

which is great to get a chance to work with them. And obviously, when I first started practicing, a lot of my patients were women. And I did treat some men back then too. But I think part of it was just back in the 90s, there were women just didn't have a lot of other options so I was seeing women who were facing surgeries who were on high dose hormonal birth control who were you know really struggling with those approaches and wanted something different and I was as you do when you learn on the ground you know stakes are high I was just very grateful to discover early on that some of the tools I'd been given

for nutrition diet herbal medicines actually worked quite well for women's health conditions and so I was excited by that. So then when I moved down, I first moved to Sydney, Australia for quite a number of years, I opened up a much busier clinic there, an urban clinic where I was pretty much only focused on women's hormones. I had other doctors working, NETCHAPS working under me. And so I got an opportunity, again, to learn on the ground to just see, you know, thousands of patients and learn what works for them. So you wrote this book, Period, Repair Manual. for a lot of people, that title alone may be confusing. What is there to repair about a period?

What does it mean to repair your period? How can you have a manual that gives you a guide on how to repair your period? Because for so long, we've just, you know, we've been told that you take hormonal birth control that will regulate your hormones, that'll regulate your period. It'll stop your cramps. It'll heal your endometriosis. And then as soon as you want, to have a baby one day. You get off your birth control. No big deal. Life goes on. But it doesn't seem like that is your approach or your thought process about women's menstrual cycles. Yeah. Well, let's start with that. You take the pill to regulate your period. I'm just going to start with that because it's such a weird idea. It's one of these kind of strange narratives that

got locked in about it feels like forever, but it's really only about 60 years since we've had the pill. And to be clear, most, almost all methods of hormonal birth control, shut down the menstrual cycle. Like they switch off ovarian, temporarily switch off ovarian function and they therefore flatten ovarian female hormones. And for example, if you were to measure female hormones while on the pill or other, most other methods of hormonal birth control, you would find, in a young woman, you would find close to menopausal levels. So ovaries are switched off. And then as some of your viewers probably know on the pill, the kind of the drug-induced bleed or the withdrawal bleed that women get. It's time to be monthly, but it's

only mimicking a menstrual cycle. It's not a menstrual cycle. There's no medical reason to bleed monthly on the pill. So in that sense, obviously, yeah, the pill cannot regulate. the menstrual cycle. That's been a, that's very clear in my book, and I will, I have found that actually that in my communication with women all over the world and on social media and when I do presentations, when that finally sort of when the penny drops on that for women, they, a lot of them do feel a sense of, you know, sort of confusion and betrayal, especially if that's what they were, the pill was prescribed for. So. Yeah. I just want to make sure that people understand what you're saying is that when you were on hormonal birth control,

for the most part, you are not having a period. You said there's no medical reason to bleed while you're on the birth control pill. So why do hormonal birth control pills have that week, maybe it's white pills or whatever, where you are going through that withdrawal bleed? What's actually going on? Yeah. Very good question. So, well, first of all, I mean, it usually is necessary to bleed sometimes while you're on the pill,

just so you don't get, you know, the uterine lining is going to let go at some point and sort of, so sometimes, I mean, yeah, the induced bleed, it's a withdrawal bleed. So the white pills, as you see, have the sugar pills. They're the non, they don't contain the contraceptive medication. So they do, they will, whenever they're timed, they will allow a bleed to happen. But there's no medical reason for it to be monthly. The whole monthly thing, it sounds weird to think about, you know, 60, 70 years on, but it was really just kind of a cover story for, so I mean, there's, there's always history. I'm a bit of a history buff, so it's always interesting to think about, you know, medical

history and how things came about. But back in the 50s and 60s, when they were, you know, bringing the pill to market, they were, you know, they were, the pill, taking a medication to avoid pregnancy was not legal. So they had to kind of, like, you know, wink, wink, it was really just. It's not to avoid pregnancy. It's like to, you know, air quotes, air quotes regulate the cycle. But at the time, the doctors back then and the scientists back then knew that wasn't really what it was for. But then weirdly, we've had this, as I said, this sort of strange narrative that's taken hold.

And now it's prescribed for that. And to be clear, I mean, the pill can, hormonal birth control can relieve period symptoms. So I'm definitely not saying that it has, you know, no place medically. Some women, it can, you know, relieve symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome. That's a condition of high testosterone in women. It can relieve pain. But it can't regulate, it can't fix the menstrual cycle. It really relieve symptoms by shutting down the natural menstrual cycle.

And a big part of my work is that I, well, believe, you know, based on several lines of evidence that a natural menstrual cycle is beneficial for women because it's how we make hormones. So men are, I was phrased it this way, men are kind of quirky. They make their hormone testosterone every day, whereas women, we make it on a monthly pattern. But that doesn't mean those hormones are not important. They're actually our own estrogen and progesterone are important for healthy bones, for example, for healthy brain, for metabolism, metabolic health, for heart.

health and we need those hormones over all of, you know, the decades of our menstruating years, just like men need testosterone. And so the very, I would say somewhat reckless approach that we've had for the last three or four generations of just shutting it all down and replacing women's own hormones with contraceptive medication has, it's been quite a startling thing to happen. And another thing to just point out is that the medications in the pill are not natural hormones. They do not have the same effects on our brain or bones, for example. Quick pause before we get into the rest of that conversation to tell you about share the arrows brought to you by our friends at Carly Jean, Los Angeles, October 11th, Dallas, Texas. We are going to be there before you know it.

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And then of course yours truly, I don't know another women's conference like this. This will continually give you edification throughout the year because of the fellowship, the worship, and the teaching that you will get from this one day event. Go to share the arrows.com. Let's go through the cycle. And you shouldn't, you shouldn't fear, like sounding too scientific.

I mean, not everyone, myself included, will understand everything. But a lot of my audience has been kind of paying attention to this subject, and they would love to hear it broken down from a scientific expert doctor perspective. So in order for us to understand. why the cycle is important, I think we need to understand what is actually happening in the cycle. So can we go through, starting on day one, what is day one of the menstrual cycle? Yeah, I love talking about this. I'm a cheerleader for menstrual cycles and hormones, so it gives me a great opportunity. And it's not that complicated. So people don't need to worry.

It's not that sciencey. It's, so on day one of the, when you're counting your cycle, and I'll just say if people are using a period app or charting their cycle, day one of the cycle is the first day of the proper flow. If there's a bit of spotting, pre-menstrual spotting, a light flow before the flow actually starts, that's actually part of the previous cycle. So it's quite important to get the day right. So day one would be the day of the first day of proper flow. Hormones are very low at that point. That's like a reset for the whole cycle. Again, if you were to measure, do a blood test for estrogen.

our main estrogen estradile on that day, they would be menopausal levels, even in a young woman. That's normal. Actually, that's just something I like to communicate. So people, because sometimes people have a blood test at that time and then they feel a little frightened that they see such low levels of hormones. So that's normal. So both hormones, sorry, is progesterone low too? Are we just talking about estrogen?

Both hormones are baseline very low at that time. It's kind of dang. So we get this sort of just, our hormones, so I mean, our hormones. cycle. We're not like men. We don't make our hormones every day. We make them on this monthly pattern if everything is going well. And so yeah, hormone, both estrogen and progester on our flatlined, that's kind of our baseline. And then as we move through the first phase of our cycle, which is called the follicular phase for anybody who is already knows about this. I guarantee some of your listeners or viewers are chart cycles or do something called fertility awareness method, which is like a

I love it. Like, you know, and when you meet women who do it or I've been doing it for years, they're also, they share my enthusiasm for the menstrual cycle usually. So that first, yeah, pre-ovulation phase is when the ovaries start making estrogen. Quite a lot of estrogen by just before ovulation, that'll be peak estrogen. And it increases by about four times, you know, baseline. And that estrogen is highly beneficial for, for example, bones is the most well-known that we really need that estrogen to build, you know, to have

strong bones, especially as a young woman. And then, you know, it's good for brain and metabolism and all sorts of other things. We're usually great for mood, although some women do get some negative mood effects from that high estrogen, but most of us feel great with it. I say us. I mean, I'm now menopausal, so this is all behind me, but I kind of miss it. I do, I do miss that pre-ovulation almost sort of not, I won't say euphoria, but a lot of women get like really get quite an outgoing high confidence during those days. I was about to say confidence for sure. I think that there's a lot of confidence and you just kind of think you're like, why am I in

such a good mood? Why do I feel like I just kind of want to go out and see people and talk to people? And then a lot of people who don't know their cycles, they might not connect it to that. They might just think, oh, I'm just in a good mood. but a lot of times it's connected to that like pre-ovulation phase. It is. And women who chart their cycles kind of harness that. They'll be like, ooh, I've got this public speaking thing coming up and I'll be pre-ovulatory.

That's going to be great. We also get a little bump up in a tiny increase in testosterone at that time as well. It's not very much at all, like a tiny drop in the bucket compared to what men have. But it's still enough for women to feel, it feels quite good. And to be clear, ovulation, you know, the mean or the average is that it happens on day 14, but I just really want to be very clear. It doesn't have to happen on day 14. There are, there's a, there's a range of normal for the menstrual cycle, the duration, the length of it. And counting from day one to day one of the next cycle, that can, in an adult woman,

that can range from anywhere from 21 days to 35 days. That's considered normal. Teenagers will be longer because younger women have longer cycles, so up to 45 days in total for that cycle. So, and it's the follicular phase. It's the first part of the phase, a first part of the cycle that varies in duration. So if someone, for example, has a 35 day cycle, that's their natural cycle, then they're actually not going to ovulate until around day 21 rather than this classic day 14. So because it's that, again, it's that first phase that kind of moves. around quite a bit. So then you get to ovulation, which is obviously the release of an egg, which is important if you're trying to make a baby, but it's not only for that. It's also the main

hormonal event of the menstrual cycle. I call it the engine of the menstrual cycle. That's how everything works. That determines the timing of the menstrual cycle. So it takes, depending on the woman, it'll take, you know, two to three weeks or one to three weeks to kind of get to ovulation. And then ovulation is a brief event. And then a temporary gland, after ovulation, the sack that released the egg, you know, reconfigures. It's quite an amazing thing. It goes from just being quite tiny to almost, it can be up to four centimeters. I don't know what that is, an inch is like, like half an inch or something, structure.

And it just forms over a few days. And it forms this temporary gland, hormonal gland, that releases progesterone. And it releases, if all is going well, it releases a huge amount of progesterone, like enormous amount compared to estrogen. Actually, progesterone goes up, from its baseline, it goes up about 14 times, not three or four times like estrogen. So we're actually at peak progesterone will be 100 times higher than peak estrogen. We always see them as, if you see the hormones depicted on a menstrual cycle, they always look

like they're about the same, but equal, but we make way more progesterone than estrogen. And we only make it for two weeks, mainly because that little gland in the ovary has a, in my book, I call it the lifespan of a butterfly. It doesn't stick around unless conception happens with pregnancy, then that little gland will be rescued and it will, you know, it'll stay there. It'll be responsible for making progesterone for the first three months of pregnancy until the placenta takes over that job. But for a menstruate, if there's no pregnancy, if there's no pregnancy,

then the end of the menstrual cycle will be when that little temporary gland reaches its end and progesterone drops and estrogen drops, that's all happening at the end of the menstrual cycle, and then a bleed is induced. Now, I will just say that's the common story and most people know that story. It isn't really important to know the fact about the body or what's called body literacy, that it is also possible to get a bleed without having ovulated. So that's not to get too technical. That's called an ovulatory cycle.

People don't have to remember that. It just means there's a cycle where there was no ovulation. And that's not uncommon. There's various situations when that would happen. And just a classic sign of a cycle where ovulation didn't happen is that the bleed could be a little funny. Like the bleed could be longer or kind of stop and start bleeding rather than just the proper, you know, three to five day flow that you'll get with proper menstrual

cycle where there was progesterone and, yeah, the two weeks of progesterone. Another break to tell you about America's pro-life coffee company. That is seven weeks coffee. We rely on seven weeks coffee for our caffeination, for our energy boost in the morning and the Stucky home. All of their flavors are really good. I love so many things about it. One, that they donate 10% of every sale to pro-life work.

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the follicle, right? Where the egg is. And that's why it's called the follicular stage, because the egg is maturing within the follicle. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Exactly right. Yeah. So it's it's the follicular phase because that's the egg is maturing in the ovaries. While it's maturing, its little sac or follicle is releasing estrogen. So that's the, yeah, follicular phase. And then I didn't say the name of this. The second phase is called the luteal phase. Yeah. The word luteel is making it into sort of a common conversation a bit more, which is fun for me. It's named after the corpus luteum, which is the temporary gland that form. So if people see the luteal phase, that just means it's the progesterone phase.

And I'll just give a little plug for progesterone as well. It has kind of a bad reputation. Definitely medicine is very scornful of progesterone. They see it as generally. Obviously, some doctors recognize that it has good sides. but I think part of the, I would call the, you know, the paradigm or the era of contraceptive medication that we've had for the last 60, 70 years, part of that came from this idea that, well, we don't really need our own hormones.

You know, they don't, these medications in hormonal birth control be good enough. And part of that would be this idea that the progestins, which are in hormonal birth control, are somehow good enough for health. But progestinns are not progesterone. They're very, actually very different from progesterone in some ways opposite. And so one of the big costs for women of, you know, potentially decades on hormonal birth control is not having an opportunity to make any of their own progesterone. And one of the things that progesterone does, it has many benefits, has some downsides

too, but many benefits. It's one of its main benefits is it, it's really good for the brain. It makes this, it metabolizes to, well, they call it a neurosteroid. It's kind of like a neurotransmitter. it's like that it's a hormone. So it interacts with, not to get too tactical, but it's calm, it's generally calming for the brain. It interacts with gabbo receptors in the brain. It's very nourishing for the brain. And yeah, so that's, that's part of my love of hormones. It's progesterone is, I call it the Cinderella hormone. It's been misunderstood. It's been kind of just pushed aside.

And it actually has many benefits. Many benefits, especially if you get pregnant, right? That's what, okay, so after, if conception happens, and on that day of ovulation, and ovulation is only one day, right? And that's kind of the star of the cycle. Yes. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, ovulation is the star, is the engine of the cycle. But the event itself, the release of the egg is quite, yeah, the ovary gets its final kind of stimulation, and then it just really all takes place over about 24 hours.

And then there's been some video footage circulating of actually the egg coming out, which is astoundingly. They managed to capture that somehow on a video. And it's, yeah, it's quite a beautiful event. It ruptures out the side. It sounds a little violent, actually. Like it does kind of rupture tissue push out the side. But, and then if people are interested, just one little thing about ovulation, because the human body is so amazing and beautiful.

It's just, the egg is just put out into the pelvis, basically. It's just put out into space, really. and then the tubes, the fallopian tubes, gather it up. They kind of sweep around looking for it. They just, these like these tendrils and then they, obviously, hopefully they find it. And then they, you know, bring it into the tube. And that's, but the ovaries and the uterus are not actually connect. Well, they're connected in other places by connective tissue.

But like the between the ovary and the place where the, you know, the opening where the egg then goes in to reach the uterus is, there's a gap there. And it's just quite an amazing. That's a bit of a segue, but I mean, just love to like, or sort of like attention. That's, it is amazing. Yeah. And so it's really beautiful. It is so beautiful. And if conception happens, which that whole process is fascinating and beautiful, too,

just the whole thing that the body does to try to like select the right sperm and all of that. Yes. It's so interesting. But progesterone increases every day right after conception. Is that true that progesterone is right? really important for keeping that pregnancy alive? Yeah, well, that's where it got its name, progestation. So yes, it really does promote a healthy pregnancy. You cannot have a pregnancy without progesterone. Well, you can't really have a pregnancy without any of the parts that we've

just been describing. But yeah, it's, so it, um, progesterone starts as soon as the corporate, that little temporary gland forms. So it'll actually start, progesterone starts before conception. Well, conception is going to happen in the fallopian tubes. So conception will be pretty quick, actually. So it's kind of all happening at the same time. And then the fertilized egg kind of continues down the journey. And by the time it reaches the uterine lining, progesterone will have worked some of its magic on the uterine lining,

make it as receptive as possible. I mean, one of the things that progesterone is doing all sorts of things. It is affecting the woman's nervous system kind of one of the reasons, just as your listeners might find this interesting, but one of the reasons progesterone has a bad reputation. it is somewhat tranquilizing. So it does, it is calming the nervous system. And that's to do with that neurosteroid that I talked about earlier.

It's, and some women, depending on the woman, they can experience that in different ways. It can sometimes feel not great. It's very different from that euphoria that you get. Estrogen is very stimulating. And as you say, it makes you very outgoing and want to get out and explore the world. Progesterone makes you want to just kind of stay home sometimes. But that's, that makes sense. right? There's like the wisdom of the body. It's because if you might be pregnant, so you probably

just need to like eat, well, you eat more. Progesterone stimulates, appetites. You need to eat more, rest more. And that's kicking in every menstrual cycle. The body's, you know, in the early phases of preparing for pregnancy. So, and also, it also slightly suppresses immune function, which is, it has to, because the immune system has to, women's immune system is so fascinating. It's quite different from men's our women's immune system has to do quite a miraculous thing to allow another human being to live in the body. It's actually quite a difficult thing for the immune system to defend against everything else, but be able to accommodate what is essentially foreign tissue to start growing. So the immune system, that's one of the reasons progesterone will slightly

modulate or suppress immune function. But that can be good actually because that can help to prevent autoimmune conditions, for example. It also makes sense why you're so, I'm just thinking back, like, you're so tired at the beginning of pregnancy. I remember all my pregnancies. That was the first indicator. Like, I am so tired. And then you get the positive pregnancy test and you're like, oh, I have another human

being that is like taking out energy from my immune system. But I didn't know. I didn't think about that it also could be the increased progesterone that is kind of tranquilizing you and almost telling your body. hey, you've got this new fragile life inside you. Maybe you should stay inside and take a seat. Exactly. And well, part of it is the mismatch between women and society, right?

So society, I mean, well, for different reasons. I mean, it's kind of built for men. But, I mean, that's changing. But like there is this, it's sort of, it's not, society is not cyclical or it's not, so there's always this like you're on, on, on. Like, you have to kind of be the same every day. And women are. going to have times when their, you know, our energy goes down. And I think, so again, just referring

to, again, I'm sure there are people in your audience who are charting or kind of know about this. This will be something women can embrace. It doesn't mean that during your luteal phase or when progesterone is high or during the early phases of progester, it doesn't mean you can't do your work. I mean, if it's that, if it's that severe, then that's a, you know, a symptom that can be helped by natural treatments or different ways. But I mean, that's subtle kind of downshifting in energy and feeling a little more introverted. I think it can be worked with and kind of harnessed with a little bit more self-forgiveness and just be like self-understanding. It's like, I'm not broken. There's nothing wrong with the female body. This is just a natural part of it.

You know, I'm in my luteal phase now. So I'm a little bit more introverted and hungrier. Yeah. Just embrace it. sponsor is good ranchers. Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef, you know, like the healthy beef that we're all supposed to be eating, is actually imported from abroad. And so we're getting the cheaper beef from countries that don't have the same standards as us. And some of that meat actually says made in the USA. So you might be confused about that, but that actually only legally has to mean that it's packaged in the U.S. If you want to make sure that your meat, not just your grass- fed beef, but your chicken, your seafood is all really from American farms and ranches. Then the

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pregnancies over the past few years, but also just over the past year, like really trying to understand the cycle for almost the first time in my life, like independent of tracking a pregnancy, just really trying to understand it. And so with progesterone, if, so is it also rising before you ovulate? Like, what is progesterone at its peak if there's no pregnancy? Yeah. Okay. Great question. It's at its peak about five to seven days after ovulation. Okay. So, again, it depends on the length of the cycle.

So with a classic 28-day cycle, it's at its peak on day 21, which is why doctors roll off and order a day 21 progesterone. But just to go back, circle back to what I was saying before, cycles come in different lengths. So with a healthy ovulatory as an ovulation is occurring, you know, 35-day cycle, which is normal, peak progesterone will be on day 28. And I do mention that. I talk about this in my book, and I have an article about this on my website or my site called The Right Way to Test Progesterone.

People can, it's free access. People can just Google that. Because it can be, again, it can be quite frightening if the doctor orders a day 21 progesterone and it comes back super low. That could just mean, that could just mean, well, it could mean you're not ovulating. So they could mean that because like I said, that can happen. But there are different reasons that women don't ovulate, but still have periods. But it could also mean it was just tested at the wrong time. Like, namely if it was tested, if someone went on to have a 35-day-day-21 progesterone test, it's going to be low.

That's normal for them. So, yeah, it peaks about five to seven days after progester. And it peaks during the high temperature phase. So again, anyone who's charting their cycle, the luteal phase, the progesterone phase, it correlates with body temperature going up by about half a degree Fahrenheit. And it's measurable. It's an under the tongue temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. There's also different wearables that you can track your temperature for you. And it's not rocket science. Like it's a noticeable shift. So temperature will go up and stay out for the 12 to 14 days of the Luteal phase. And then when your temperature drops, it's quite a handy thing. Because if you know when you ovulated and then you see your temperature going down, you know to put menstrual supplies into your bag because your period is coming that day.

or the next day. Like it takes a lot of the mystery out of it. Like the female body is not that complicated. And this is where body literacy or cycle charting can be quite empowering to sort of know exactly what's happening. So that's your basal body temperature, right, that people are taking. And so that's just the temperature that you can take first thing in the morning. And when it goes up, that indicates the ovulation has already happened, correct? Correct. Exactly. Yeah. If it, if you're using it for trying for pregnancy and some of your viewers might have done this, yeah, temperature cannot, by the time, by the time temperature goes up, it's too late to conceive. Like ovulation's already happened. And as soon as progesterone kicks in,

conception is no longer possible. Like, sorry, I mean, sorry, I don't mean to say that. Progesterone, I mean, if conception has happened and progesterone is kicking in, that's good. That means, you know, the pregnancy is going to proceed. But the fertile window, the open window, when sperm can get into the fallopian tubes and when, you know, they need to be there just before the egg is released, basically. They need to be there just before ovulation. That's how the system works. So they, they, they sperm, if sperm had to swim all the way from the cervix, like up into the flopian tubes, it would take them days.

But they actually, some of your viewers may know this, we make something called cervical fluid or fertile mucus. It's like a little sperm escalator. It brings the sperm straight up to where they're supposed to be like in just minutes. Right. So that needs to be, and that type of mucus or fertile fluid, cervical fluid, is made under the influence of estrogen. So as, and progesterone dries that up.

So as soon as progesterone's on the scene, there's no more fertile mucus. and the door is closed for sperm. So yeah, so this is conversely, so if you're trying for pregnancy, you want to have sex before your temperatures go up. If you're using fertility awareness method to avoid pregnancy, which a lot of people do, which it's a great method because it's natural, it doesn't suppress ovulation, it doesn't harm the body in any way, it's just tracking what your body is doing, then after temperatures go up and you're confident they've gone.

up. So most methods would say they need to be up for a few days just to you really know that's what's happening and not just like a little, you know, quirky high temperature day. Once temperatures go up, there's literally no chance of conception again for that cycle. Because pregnancy is, yeah, it totally makes sense to me. Pregnancy is possible on the ovulation day, but also if you have sex, the few days before your actual ovulation, conception, is also possible because of that cervical fluid, which keeps the sperm alive long enough for the start of the show to show up, which is that released egg. It's not that you're ovulating all of those days.

It's just that the cervical fluid is making it possible for that sperm to stay alive. After that, you said, the progesterone shows up that, you know, shuts off the cervical fluid. The egg is already gone. If you have sex after that, there's just no way that you'll get pregnant. Exactly. Yeah, no, you've just, you've summed it up beautifully. Yeah. And one thing, just one thing, again, is sort of men are quirky in that they're fertile every day, whereas women are only fertile,

they work such about five or six days of fertility. It's really, it's technically only one day, but, but it's five or six because as exactly, as you said, the cervical fluid keeps sperm alive. Sperm sits kind of, it's good thing, it's quite hardy, you know, sits there for a little while, waiting. So that effectively makes it five or six days of fertility every cycle, which when you think about it historically, if you just really think, I mean, through my lens, I'm like, you know, the medications, the concept of medications, you know, why target women? We're not even fertile every day. I feel like from the beginning, and they should have been kind of aimed at men who are fertile every day. But yeah, you know, that's a different. Yeah. All right, y'all. We've got new merch coming

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Yeah, and it's a delight talking to you. You know so much about this already, but it's, um, I don't know. You're teaching me a lot, so I appreciate it. Yeah. So as I said earlier, the medications in hormonal birth control are not our own hormones. They're not what's called body identical. They're not, like, they have different molecular structures. And they're quite obviously different. And as the body was, we said, the body is smart. The body can tell the difference. It's expecting a hormone of a particular configuration. And when it gets a molecule that's a little bit the same, but actually quite.

different. Logically, that's going to have different effects in the body. And we know that now. I think it was wishful thinking 60, 60 years ago when they thought, oh, this will be, it was kind of like this wishful thinking, oh, this will be good enough for women. I mean, they knew they were shutting off women's own hormones. It's like, we're just going to give them back these molecules and we're just going to hope for the best, basically. And that is turning out to have not been a good idea. So the synthetic estrogen is also, is also different from our own estrogen, but less so. So the synthetic estrogen in hormonal birth control is a little more similar to our own estrogen. So we get some of the same benefits, but not all.

For estrogen, a really classic example is our own estrogen is so powerful for building bones, and synthetic estrogen just doesn't do the job. And this is why we have studies now showing that if girls are putting on hormonal birth control young, which ever a lot are now, they do not reach what's called peak bone density. So they don't, we're supposed to have the healthy, the strongest bones we're ever going to have by about age 25. And hormonal birth control stops that from happening, which is concerning because that's going to then play out, you know, in another 30 years when they go through menopause

and they're going to potentially be at higher risk of osteoporosis. But in answer to your question, the progestins in hormonal birth control, of which there are like a dozen at least different types, they are, they're all different from each other and they're all very different from progesterone. Like they don't share, the only similarity they share is that they thin the uterine lining. Like they kind of act on the uterine lining to prevent its thickening.

But that's about it. That's where the difference stops. And yeah, that can have a big difference in the brain because none of the progestions convert, to that kind of calming neurosteroid that I mentioned before. None of them do that.

So none of them, this is why we see women on hormonal breast control have altered brain structures compared to women who have natural menstrual cycles. But an answer to your question about breast cancer, yeah, it's obviously the science is still working it out. So what I'll say is, what I can confidently say is

what the evidence currently shows is that all progestants slightly increase, the risk of breast cancer, not dramatically. Like, so most women who take progestions will not get breast cancer, which is good, but they slightly increase the risk from baseline. Whereas progesterone, as far as we know, does, well, it makes sense, right? Our body's own hormone does not increase the risk of, progesterone does not increase the risk

of breast cancer as far as we can tell. And take, also, it is possible to take progesterone as natural progesterone or body identical progesterone. And as far as we know, that does also not increase the risk of breast cancer. And that's, that's really good. That's why natural progesterone is now used as part of menopausal hormone therapy, because it's safer for the breasts than progestins. Right.

That makes sense. Okay, gosh, there's so many things that I want to ask you just in like the little time that we have left. So in your book about repairing your period, a lot of women, they're either coming off the birth control and their birth control pill and they're trying to figure out what their natural cycle even looks like, or maybe some women have endometriosis, some women have PCOS, or some women, they don't know what they have. But I definitely have friends who say, I just have horrible periods.

They're really heavy. I have horrible debilitating cramps. And, you know, as we said in the beginning, a lot of doctors will say the only remedy is birth control. But you have a natural approach to that. So where should women start if they're in any of those boats? Yeah. And it's really good to finish the interview on this point because obviously, right from the beginning when I wrote my first book, Period of Paramaniel, I, and it grew out of my work with

women. So, I mean, you can't really, I can't, you know, criticize hormonal birth control without being able to offer some kind of alternative. Because as I said at the beginning, yeah, it is true that hormonal birth control can relieve period symptoms. It doesn't always work, to be fair. It's not like it fixes everything. But it can relieve pain and certainly it can relieve heavy bleeding. But there are other ways to do that. And the actual approach, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear, you know, there's not one-size-fits-all recipe for a perfect period. It really involves troubleshooting as to what the problem is, whether it's irregular periods, that could be caused by different mechanisms. You have to sort of have to consider what's going on with that woman, what the

explanation is, you know, pain and heavy bleeding. Depending on what it is, you sort of, it is, it It's not complicated. I mean, my book, as you, my book is a manual. It's like a troubleshooting manual to figure what is your symptom. What did the doctor say? What is the likely cause? Then this is, you know, what you would take. But I'll give you an example, which is not a one size fits all, but it's just kind of,

I'll give you two examples, which are kind of my favorite ones, because they can really move the needle on symptoms, especially I'll add for teenagers, young women's bodies just respond, well, young people's in general, bodies respond quite quickly. which is just because they're young, I think. So, you know, the super, you know, if young women or teenagers are having very heavy periods, painful periods, one of the things I learned early on and then I've just seen in practice again and again is that it can improve by switching the kind of dairy, cows dairy, they're eating. So normal, anyway, without getting too deep into it.

But like this, there's something called A1 casein. It's a particular dairy protein that seems to be quite inflammatory for some people, not everyone. And part of that inflammation can manifest as heavier flow or more painful flow or premenstrual mood symptoms. So just switching to, it's really about switching to Jersey cow or, I don't know if you have it in the States, but like we call it A2 milk here. So they're the cows that don't have the A1 casein. So it's becoming more and more accessible. Also goat and cheap dairy do not have that inflammatory casein protein. So that's just quite of a simple change.

A lot of my patients are able to do that. And it's still nutritious dairy. It's just not the inflammatory kind. So that can make, that can really make a big difference. And the great thing about it is it can happen quite quickly. So usually within two or three cycles, a woman can see if that's going to make a difference or not. And then another just really simple one. A lot, as you know from my book, a lot of the treatments are, I tried to keep them simple

and easy to access and inexpensive because I didn't want this to become, it shouldn't have to be a complicated thing to treat periods. So another example is the nutrient zinc, a zinc supplement can relieve period pain. And to the point that there's a citation in the book, there's been at least one clinical trial where they tested zinc in direct comparison to the pill for period pain. And they found that zinc worked as well. and as the pill. And then they make this funny comment in this in the study. I just never forget what I read this where they're like, but the advantage of zinc is it less, you know, it's cheaper than the pill.

And then, but in my brain, I'm like, oh, and the other advantage is it doesn't shut down the menstrual cycle. Like it lets women, you know, it doesn't shut down hormones to relieve period pain. If people are going to try zinc, though, I always have to make sure I say this. Don't let a girl, don't take it or don't let your daughter take it on an empty stomach, because zinc on an empty stomach can make you feel sick, like nausea. But if you take it with food and around the 30 milligram dose, it's quite safe. So obviously, I wouldn't want to recommend things today that are not safe to try.

But it's one of the sort of safer, highly effective ones, inexpensive. So it sounds like there are a lot of potential natural remedies for the menstrual issues that people have that aren't suppressing someone's very necessary ovulatory cycle because like you said, all of the different hormones and how they're produced and when they're produced, how much is produced during the cycle, it's not just affecting ovulation. It's affecting our brain. It's affecting our moods. It's affecting our decision making so many different things that we're completely shutting down

when we just have these artificial hormones that we're pumping in our bodies. I know. So well put. An analogy I sometimes give, it's one of these things, again, from a historical perspective, it's kind of a head scratching. Like, what were, what just happened here over the last, you know, 60 to 70 years? You know, what's happened to young, to women would be like saying to men, you know, we're going to give you this medication that switches off your testicular function. And it's going to switch off your own testosterone. And instead of testosterone, you're going to have this other molecule that's kind of like testosterone, but not really. And it's going to affect your brain.

and it's, you know, going to affect your metabolism. But don't worry because that's what we do. You know, that's what all the other men are doing. Like, it just, if you see it through that lens, it's actually crazy. I mean, I, so I obviously, I feel I'm quite passionate about it. I mean, I think I'm confident they're going to be better options coming for, we haven't even really talked about that, but there's other options coming for avoiding pregnancy.

Like, it's 2025. We don't have to shut down women's entire hormonal systems just to avoid pregnancy like those other ways. Last sponsor, one of my all-time faves, and that is Adele Natural Cosmetics. First of all, I'm just grateful to Adele for supporting this show for so long. They really are a great partner. Arlene and her family are the real deal. They are unapologetically Christian, pro-life.

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Use code Alley for 25% off your first time purchase. Adele Natural Cosmetics.com code Alley. I know that we have to close out soon, but just a couple other quick things I wanted to ask you about that I have written down. another possible side effect of these hormonal contraceptives is a possible increase in visceral fat and a reduction of insulin sensitivity. So it sounds like it could actually affect our metabolism. When I've heard in the past, people say, no, birth control can just kind of like, I don't know, make you more tired and so you don't want to work out.

But it sounds like it does actually affect our metabolism. Is that right? Absolutely. depending on the type. That will very much depend on which progestin. So this is where we have to get into the kind of which we won't today. But like, you know, get into the details of like nutting out like which progestin, because some progestions probably are fine.

Some promote metabolic dysfunction, as you've said, visceral fat, insulin resistance. And, you know, the, and my third book is actually all around metabolic health and insulin resistance. So I have a whole chapter called the female hormone side of things and looking looking at all the different effects of our own hormones versus hormonal birth control on metabolism. But one thing I just want to sort of end by saying is almost from the beginning of hormonal birth control, women were saying, oh, it's affecting my mood, it's, I gained weight, you know, it's affected my sex drive.

Like, you know, these observations were coming and even more serious ones. Like there was, you know, the blood clots that were the fatal blood clots that can happen on hormonal birth control, those were at first dismissed. It's like, oh, that's not a thing. You know, that's not a thing where you're imagining that link. And then, but over the, you know, decades now we are getting, yeah, as you say, there's been this old narrative, oh, no, it's just that you're, you just need to, you know, eat less. And it's, it's, you're imagining this effect, metabolic effect. But it's now, yeah, the research is sort of proving that that, that is there. And it's changed a lot because, so I've been, as I've been practicing,

a long time. I've been trying to talk about this for literally decades. Even 10 years ago, especially around mood, especially around the possibility of negative mood effects from hormonal birth control, even 10 years ago, it was not really possible in social media. I was on Twitter at that time. Like I would occasionally say, you know, I think the pill, well, any clinician would tell you that the pill or hormonal birth control can, can, not in everyone, but can cause anxiety and depression. And there was this immediate, like, slas. down is like, no, you know, that's not been proven. It's been proven that that's not true. It's like, but then in 2016 was a watershed moment. Actually, there was a huge Danish study in 2016 that

pretty much definitively proved that there is a link with negative mood side effects. And from that point on, the conversation has changed. And now, even on social media, certainly speaking with other doctors, more mainstream doctors, it's like, yeah, you know, I have heard about that. They're now, like after decades of saying to women you're imagining it, they're not like, yeah, that's, that's a thing. It could affect your mood. So you should, you know, potentially consider that. Yes.

Okay. Can I ask you one last question? Because there are women out there who are going through parimenopause and menopause, who feel very alone, who feel like no one understands their symptoms and there's no help for their symptoms. You mentioned at the beginning bioidentical hormone therapy. And I've heard women talk about that when it, in relation to paramedopause and menopause. And I don't know very much about it.

But what would you tell the woman who is about to go through or is going through some of these menopausal symptoms? How can they seek helpful, natural relief? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great question. So my second book, hormone or paramountial, is all about paramedopause. I didn't put the title, perimenopause.

I didn't put the word perimenopause in the title because even just three or four years ago when I wrote that book, parimenopause wasn't in the common. this conversation, but now, I mean, a lot of women have heard that word and know that it's the years leading up to menopause. So paramedopause happens while you're still having regular periods, potentially. If a woman's in her 40s, she almost, by definition, is in parimenopause. It's not a bad thing. It's not a medical condition. It's, I call it second puberty. It's the transition. So we have the transition into our ovarian hormones, and then we have the transition out of them, and it's a natural life event. One thing I just want to say at the outset is menopause or the cessation of the stopping of periods

is not an accident of living too long. Our body, I'm very confident in this. Like we are adapted. We are meant to live two or three decades past the end of periods. So our body knows how to do that. So it's not a, it's not a medical condition that needs treating. That said, a lot of women can experience symptoms. and some women can get benefit from hormone therapy.

There's, and I'm not against hormone therapy at all. But there are, not everyone needs it to be fair. Like, so my second book has all the different natural strategies that can improve night sweats and hot flashes and mood, you know, sleep. Actually, the number one complaint is usually sleep disturbance. So there's lots of strategies for that. And then just briefly on the bioidentical thing. So as I mentioned, at the moment, in 20,

25, thank goodness, we are finally at the point where body identical or hormones, hormone therapy that is exactly identical to human hormones is pretty much the standard. It's not, you have to still read the label and see what your doctor gave you, but unlike hormonal birth control, which is not body identical at all, which is a totally different thing. Most menopausal hormone therapy is natural. These days, it is natural estrogen and progesterone, which is great. In the U.S. natural progesterone is called one of the main brands is Prometrium. So that might have been prescribed to some of your listeners. So just they, I mean, I have, I've written about this in my book and on my, again,

on my site, people can find like a list of, they actually list the medications and whether they're the hormonal therapy type brands and whether they're body identical or not. So it's great. But like the history of it is over the last few decades, like when I started my career in the 90s, with my women in perimenopause or menopause you were coming to me, one of the main things I was doing at that time was taking them off the old school type of HRT and switching them to the natural, like body identical type because mainly because of what we said right at the outset that natural or body identical, it just means identical to the body. Progesterone does not increase

the risk of breast cancer the way progestin's do. So that was, the writing was on the wall for that decades ago. So that's why naturopathic doctors were a lot of our job at that time was switching people to a better type of hormone therapy, which has now finally become mainstream, which is great. Yes. Well, thank you so much for that information. That was super helpful in clarifying. And we'll have to have you back. I know it's, you know, difficult. The time differences between New Zealand and here, but I appreciate you making the time and we'll make it work hopefully to do a part two because there's so much that we didn't get to cover. Dr. Laura Brighton, where can people find you if they want to find your stuff and learn

more from you? Yeah, great. And thanks again so much for having me, Ellie. It was really great talking with you. I'm easy to find. So everything is at Lara Braden.com. From there, all my social media is at Laura Briden. I have a newsletter as well. I just share tidbits of research on women's periods. And I'm a writer. So actually, my newsletter is kind of one of my favorite offerings to the world. but yeah, so everything is there. And my books, of course, period of paramountial, hormone or paramountial. And my latest book is Metabolism Repair for Women, which is all about, it's kind of about weight loss, but it's more broadly, like deeper. It's about metabolic health and insulin resistance and quite an important topic.

Yes, very much so. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Brighton. I really appreciate it.