The Wellness Scoop - Understanding Your Period & Female Health

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

Maisie Hill talks about the importance of understanding your cycle and all the stages women go through from the very first period through pre-menopause (all of our reproductive years), peri-menopause, menopause and post-menopause, and most importantly why having knowledge early on can make all the difference to how we feel later on. We talk contraception, hormones, fluctuations in mood, fertility awareness, tracking our cycle, the impact of stress and how what we eat can affect our periods.   Books: Period Power, Peri-menopausal Power, Read your body, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, The Fifth Vital Sign  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, hi there! I'm Norma, the unofficial mayor of the Town of Destiny. Speaking of, FanDuel's Kick of Destiny 3 is happening live Super Bowl Sunday. You should watch. It's gonna be a hoot! While you're at it, download FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook. You can bet on touchdowns, turnovers, heck, even total kicker points, don't you know? Anywho, enjoy your podcast or whatnot. Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca.

Hi, and welcome to the Delicious Yellow podcast, delicious ways to feel better with me, Ella Mills. I am sadly missing my co-host and husband, Matthew Mills, today, but welcome to the show. Our podcast, Delicious Ways to Feel Better, is a weekly show that's focused on absolutely everything that matters to us at Delicious Cielo. We really believe that feeling good is a holistic 360-degree approach to our lifestyles and that wellness is about so much more than just what we eat or how we exercise. It's also about our relationships both with ourselves and with other people, our mindset, our sleep patterns, our stress levels and just how we look after ourselves on a day-to-day basis. On this podcast we'll be breaking down all these topics looking at absolutely

everything that impacts on all aspects of our mental and our physical health and sharing the small simple changes that will hopefully inspire you to feel better. So before we get into this week's questions I had lots of listener feedback on people wanting more podcast recommendations. I definitely feel that once you get hooked on podcasts which I certainly am, I love them when I'm walking, used to love them when I was commuting, hopefully we can commute again soon but really love them when I'm cooking as a way to unwind and find once you start listening to them, you just need more and more and more because you always need something new to listen to, but it's not always that easy to find. So I will keep sharing what I'm listening to.

And if there's things that you're listening to that you think other people here would like, please do email us, just podcast at deliciousyellow.com and share your recommendations so that we can keep sharing together so the first one that I wanted to recommend today actually taps into our conversation last week with Grace Lorden from the LSE the behavioral psychologist that we spoke to about making your future your reality and actually getting to where you want and she actually mentioned it in there which is is Squiggly Careers. And it's about navigating the highs and lows of any career, which I can certainly relate to. My

career has definitely been squiggly and a bit unconventional. So Squiggly Careers is a weekly podcast hosted by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis. And every single week, they just take on a different work topic and share very practical tools and tips to help you with development to get to where you want to be. I think there's over 200 episodes now. And through those, they've covered literally everything you can think of from building brilliant relationships to preparing for interviews. All of Helen and Sarah's advice is very, very practical. And they share lots of their own experiences too. So there's a nice kind of relatability angle in there. So if you're looking at that aspect of your wellbeing, then I think Squiggly Careers will be a really nice one for you. And then the other one that I've been listening to, which is very, very different, literally the other end of the spectrum, but

I am finding that podcasts are a little bit like books in the way that they can really help you totally switch off and take you to a different dimension if you're listening to something a bit different. And one of the things things I've been really enjoying recently is actually True Crime podcast. Red Handed is actually a British true crime podcast. And every week they delve into a brand new case. And then they also look at all the psychological motivations that drive that really extreme end of human behaviour, which as someone that loves psychology, I just find it absolutely fascinating, slightly terrifying, but completely fascinating. They really specialise in analysing the real world political, social, cultural aspects of any true crime case. They're very well informed, the hosts, Hannah and Saruti, but they make it sound like

they're your friends. So it's just very nice and easy to listen to a good one to cook along with. So that's Red Handed and the other one was Squiggly Careers for those looking for something new to listen to this week. So the first question that we had aside from that is how do you get into the habit of going to bed early and waking up early as well and so that you can work out in the morning? And this listener is saying getting into the rhythm and that self-discipline has been quite challenging and all I can say is I hear you. What we share on the podcast and through Delicious Yellow is all what we really aim for. What we share on the podcast and through Delicious Yellow is all what we really aim for

and what we feel is really important and what we know from the science is really important for our wellbeing. And that is moving our bodies, getting that 150 minutes of exercise each week, trying to get that seven to nine hours, the five pillars of health that we have on our app. But it's not always easy

and I certainly have struggled with it this week, finding the motivation to go to bed early. I just seem to be scrolling Instagram for far too long in the evening and as a result you can be quite tired in the morning and it's hard to get up the one thing I would say though is I feel those weeks where you don't necessarily feel as motivated at the times where I know I feel I need that the most and And I think at that point, it's just about focusing on the simple things. So this week, I haven't had time to cook big meals with loads and loads of delicious ingredients. But what I have had time to do is make things like very simple smoothies that have allowed me to still get loads of fruit and veg and fiber into my life. So I'll

blend a banana with a big handful of spinach, some oats, some almond butter, some hemp seeds, some chia seeds and some coconut milk or almond milk. It takes literally three minutes. The bananas are frozen, the spinach is frozen. Everything else is a kitchen cupboard ingredient. So you don't even need that level of organization. And it just it gives you the greens. And as I said, it gives you omega threes and it gives you protein and fiber and all the things that we really need need all the macronutrients and micronutrients and makes such a big difference to my energy levels so really that's that's what I focus on at the moment it's just very very very simple things

and and with exercise it's the same it's just getting out the door for a walk even if that's for 20 minutes I certainly don't feel I necessarily have the motivation for like a big sweaty workout but that's not a problem it's all about working with your body and what actually works on a day-to-day basis just being kind to yourself but also making that little bit of effort to do those easy things that really do change your mood and I think it's all of those collectively that really do add up to maintaining your health over the long term even when you have those periods where you're feeling a bit burnt out, a bit overwhelmed, a bit stressed, really lacking in time. I think if you're able to just do those small things throughout that, that's what I noticed in me at least makes a

really big difference overall. And the second question that I had today is on the course I was doing. So I've mentioned on here before, and I shared on our social media as well, that all the way back right on day one of Delicious Yellow, when I started our website back in 2012, and I discovered this absolute love and passion for nutrition and plant-based lifestyle and a natural lifestyle. What I wanted to do with my career was to share that information and to share that learning with a wider audience. And initially my thought was that I would do that by becoming a nutritional therapist. And so I signed up and I started my degree in that in 2013 and I got 18 months into that.

And I was doing that alongside the early activities of Delicious Cielo. So the initial cooking classes and workshops and events. And then I totally honestly have to admit, I paused the course to follow my then boyfriend to LA for a few months he subsequently broke up with me and moved back to London but I'd already missed that year of the course and then by the time I could start again Delicious Ciela had just completely taken off and finding the time for what they said was part-time but really was semi-full-time was just

impossible and I haven't had the chance to start again. And at the start of lockdown last year, I just decided enough was enough. I've been putting this off for so long. There was just this clear example of the fact, you never know what's going to happen in life and I wasn't going to wait any longer. And so I decided to sign up last year because I'd waited so long I had to go back and do a science access course before I could start the actual degree so that was effectively catching up on kind of A-level chemistry and biochemistry. The chemistry part I admittedly found really quite challenging but really enjoyed it. I finished that very proudly with a distinction considering how hard

I found the chemistry. It was like one of the proudest moments of my life in December. And yesterday, so this is the end of Feb that we're recording this, I started the actual nutritional degree. So it's going to be four years. So it's a long time, but I am over the moon to have started. And for those asking where I'm doing it, it's with ION, the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London, but it's online at the moment. Just been watching my lectures on what functional medicine is, and it really just speaks to everything that we're passionate about at Delicious Yellow. So on a personal level, I'm really excited about it. Same on a professional level about being able to bring an increased understanding and awareness into everything that we do at Delicious Yellow.

And that's what we're going to be talking about today on some level, which is getting to know our bodies more. I think this is, I'm totally honest, an episode that's probably more relevant for our female audience than our male audience. But we're going to be talking about female health and actually really quite how removed so many of us as women are from what's really going on in our bodies every single day. So to do that, I'm welcoming on our guest today, Maisie Hill. So Maisie, welcome to the podcast today. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to have you on. I think it's very interesting, your work, and I'm sure lots of our listeners are familiar with it with Period Power. But I think what you speak about and what I first read about in Period Power,

I don't know if it's just the type of content that I'm engaging with, but I feel I'm seeing it more and more and more, which is that as women, we are so out of tune to some extent with our bodies. And maybe it's not even that we're out of tune, it's just we're so unfamiliar with and so ill-equipped with the knowledge about what's really going on in our bodies and how it's therefore impacting us and understanding why we may feel mentally or physically the way we feel and I know you address that very much in your first book Period Power looking specifically in periods and now you've got perimenopausal power which is looking at the second phase of that and I think what was really startling to me reading perimenopausal power was just the misunderstanding and myself

very much included in that, which is that the menopause, for example, is only one day. And yet it's something we talk about as this huge event in our lives. And we're even just labeling the event so wrongly in the mainstream conversation that's happening. But also that, as you say, which is really what I want to talk about today is this very quick for people to say, oh, that's not relevant for me yet. But as you rightly say, the more you know your cycle, the more you understand your body, the more you can see when something's shifting and the more interventions you can bring in. So I just, I found that really powerful about showing the importance of understanding your body from day one and how that equips you for decades of your life. Yeah and I love that language you chose there that it equips you for what's about to happen and for the rest of our lives because

so many of us whether we've just started menstruating or we're in our 20s and just having difficulties with our cycle or wanting to understand our hormones or whether we're talking about perimenopause and we can kind of get back to the definitions of that in a moment, because it's probably going to be a helpful baseline for everyone listening. But it's this knowledge, it makes such a difference, whether it's just understanding what's going on or knowing strategies that you can actually use, that knowledge is so powerful. And what I wish for everyone, whether they just have a menstrual cycle or they're tiptoeing or fully in the thick of perimenopause, is that they have that information so that they are equipped. Because that's been such a gift to me with actually writing the book is that I've

been able to make decisions ahead of time rather than waiting till I'm experiencing symptoms that are perhaps quite severe and challenging. And it just means that I know what I want to do. And now it's just kind of waiting for things to unfold. But to return to your point about the difference between menopause and perimenopause, you're spot on with the fact that menopause only lasts for one day. So the average age in the UK for menopause to take place is 51. But that day just simply marks the one year anniversary from your final menstrual period, and then 12 months passes, you go through menopause that takes place on one day, and then your postmenopausal for the decades that follow. Perimenopause, on the other hand, is what takes place in the years

or even the decade or so before your periods actually stop. So hormonal shifts can actually start to take place in the mid to late 30s. Once we're in our 40s, then certainly that's when we see bigger changes taking place. Yeah, I guess to me, all your work was really summed up by the fact that we keep talking about something that's only one day long, and we're missing all of the rest. And I think there's no better sum up of how far we are removed as women from what's happening in our bodies. So I wondered if we could start with the basics, because I think one of the other things I was almost surprised about, but probably shouldn't be surprised about, is the fact that actually everything pre that is called premenopausal. And I don't think, again, you think you see all these words and you don't think they're relevant to you, but actually that would be relevant to a huge swathe of our readers. And these cycles are also intricately linked. So could you just talk us through all the cycles and stages as women that we'll go through in our lives. Sure. So when we first start menstruating, that's referred to as menarche. So that can be

maybe you're 12, 13, 14, maybe even nine. And then you are basically from that moment on pre-menopausal and you're just going through your cycling years. So we spend the bulk of our reproductive years, i.e. when it's possible for us to reproduce because we have a menstrual cycle, we spend the bulk of our time in pre-menopause. And then at some point we start going into perimenopause. And what's interesting is that there is a growing body of researchers and actual research being done on what has been termed very early menopause or very early perimenopause which is different to premature menopause which is say if you go through menopause before the age of 40 which one percent of us do but very early perimenopause

like refers to this time period that I would consider myself in, where perhaps in your late 30s and in your early 40s, you start to experience symptoms or changes to your cycle, but you might not fully recognize that it's because you're starting to do the dance of perimenopause. And this is what I suspect probably lots of people that listen to your podcast might actually be in that zone without realizing it. So this is when we start to see variation in cycle length. So let's just say you had a 28 day cycle. Now we talk about that as being average. It's not the average.

Most of us don't have a 28 day cycle, but let's go with that timing anyway. So 28 days, maybe your cycle starts to shorten a bit by maybe two to three days. But then maybe you also start to get symptoms like around the time your period is due, trouble sleeping or night sweats or anxiety, mood changes, things like that. And that would actually suggest that one thing that could be going on, there's lots of reasons, but one of them could be that you're starting to tiptoe into perimenopause and seeing those hormonal shifts. So that would be like very early perimenopause. Then your cycle might shorten a bit. You might start to get other symptoms. Then eventually there's a different hormonal shift that takes place and your cycles start to lengthen and become further and further apart. And then eventually they stop. And that's when we

go through menopause and then we're postmenopausal. So there's so much to pick up on there, but Maisie, I guess going back to the beginning, and as we said, is obviously there's so many reasons, and this is such a kind of key part of them to understand our cycle and as you said actually this sort of conventional view of a 28-day cycle is actually incorrect could you just let us know a little bit more about what is correct and for people who are starting to think about this how do you start to get to know what is going on in your cycle oh such a great question yeah so I can't remember the exact number but it's only something like 12.4 12.7 percent of us have a 28 day cycle but it's you know usually spoken about as what's normal but you know you can have a cycle that's a bit shorter a bit longer than that and it's

not necessarily a problem so the best way to start working with your cycle and paying attention to these things is of course course, by tracking it. And people can get a free tracker through my website if they want to get going with this. And it's the kind of thing, it doesn't take much time. So like really, none of us, we have no excuses. You're just writing down a word or two a day, sometimes more, to encapsulate how you're feeling in terms of your mood, energy and behaviour. And it's just so important for us to be doing this at any stage of life, because first of all, I like to see cycle tracking as collecting data.

And that's data that we can use, but it's also data that we can share with medical professionals should they be involved in our care. And that can make a massive difference to getting a diagnosis quickly or getting an appropriate treatment strategy in place. involved in our care. And that can make a massive difference to getting a diagnosis quickly or getting an appropriate treatment strategy in place. But it's really important when we start looking at perimenopause because that's how you know things are shifting. And I was just speaking to someone the other day who actually had no idea that they were in perimenopause until we started having that conversation. And then they were like, I think I'm'm already there I had no idea that's what was going

on and you know perhaps if this person had been tracking their cycle and was able to pay more attention to what was going on they might have noticed that but that also requires us to have a level of education where we know that that's what's going on. And I certainly didn't receive that education until I started educating myself. So we all come to this with our own histories and, you know, certainly menstrual health education, education around reproductive health, conception, postpartum, you know, literally the whole way through perimenopause, postmenopause there's just lack of education lack of funding uh lack of strategies across the board so you know there's no judgment if you don't know any of this that we're talking about or that you're unsure where to start with things I could not agree with you more I think it's it's so sad there's not really

a better word for it to be honest how out of touch we are with our bodies and our cycles and understanding what's happening and why we're feeling certain ways on the day that we're feeling and there's you know there's this whole kind of stigma around periods and oh you're on your period you're going to be moody and sure lots of us might be but if we start to understand why that's happening we have such a better appreciation and understanding and flexibility and compassion with ourselves as a result. You know, I found the kind of postpartum period with both girls absolutely fascinating, how your cycle changes, how your hormones change. It's just so many things you, as a woman, I think you're not prepared for,

your hair falling out. You know, it's quite extraordinary, really, all the things that happen and all these hormonal shifts that we are privy to as women and yet are so far removed from and I think that's why your work's obviously so important it's why I think these conversations are so important and especially the perimenopausal part I found so interesting because I think so many people would say it's not relevant for them and yet it's so relevant for them even several decades before they even get to that point because if you don't know your cycle before that how would you start to know that something's changing so what I wanted to just quickly talk about are the different hormones involved because

as far as I understand it's changes in hormones throughout all these different stages in your life that are going to create the different symptoms you're feeling and so I wondered if you could talk us through those key hormones the oestrogenrogen, the progesterone, and how those change at different points in our lives and different points in our cycles, and why therefore we possibly feel the way that we do both physically and also emotionally. Yeah, oh, such an interesting question. So, you know, perhaps for some of your listeners who are parents and they have teens who have just started to get their cycle, they might notice that there's a similar experience going on. And that's because in our teen years, you know, we're just kind of getting going with ovulating and having a cycle. And so our bodies are quite sensitive to the hormone changes that are going on.

I think that will be a story that's familiar to all of us when we look back. But we're also kind of getting more practice to actually ovulating and producing progesterone, which is the hormone that's produced by ovulation. So what can be happening in those early years of first having a cycle is that we produce lots of oestrogen and we're kind of getting used to producing progesterone. So there can be a hormonal imbalance that just takes a while to kind of even itself out in most cases of having plenty of oestrogen and not enough progesterone to balance it out. So if you think about oestrogen and progesterone being two hormones that are equally beneficial, but they balance each other out. So it's a bit like a seesaw. So, you know,

if oestrogen goes up, then progesterone is down. It doesn't really work the other way around, but hopefully the visual image will help you. And because of that, you can have symptoms like heavy bleeding with your period because of high levels of oestrogen. There can be other reasons for that too, but like we could loosely call it moodiness, irritability, breast tenderness, headaches, things like that. And then hopefully once we kind of head out of our teen years and we maybe have a more regular cycle and we're producing progesterone in sufficient amounts. Hopefully that then continues throughout our 20s and into our 30s. And should we conceive, we've got enough progesterone to support pregnancy.

But then what happens once we're heading towards the end of our 30s and in our 40s is that we don't produce progesterone in the way that we used to. So this is why, you know, some women who are in their 40s will be having a similar experience to their teenage daughter, perhaps, in that they might be having heavy bleeding because progesterone has like a lightening effect on periods. And they might notice other symptoms of excess oestrogen like breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, irritability, brain fog, that collection of symptoms. And it's fascinating because when we talk about perimenopause and menopause, we often think of it as a time of hormone deficiency. And actually, initially, it can be a sign of very high levels of hormones when we're talking about

oestrogen. Eventually, it then starts to lower and that's when we get other symptoms like vaginal dryness, joint pain, changes to cognition and mood. So I've made it sound like quite a neat transition process. It can be more up and down like that. But basically, all these hormones are important. They all serve a purpose, but we want them to be in balance with each other as much as possible. And when you're having your more regular cycle between the start and the end of your experience with the cycle, is that why you're, for example, get more colloquially called hormonal, but maybe more bloated, breakouts, irritability at different points between your periods. Yeah, that can be one reason for it. There can be other things going on

as well, like inflammation in the body and also thinking about other hormones like stress hormones, thyroid function. But all of these things kind of interplay and intertwine together, which is why it's important to look at everything rather than just one thing. It's not just looking at when your period starts and when your period stops and counting days it's also as you said it's looking at everything so it's looking at physical and mental symptoms throughout the entire month. Yeah absolutely so just before I got on the call with you today I was coaching one of my clients and she had noticed that she's starting to experience some low level anxiety. And we were talking about really paying attention to where in the cycle that is appearing and

also tracking it in subsequent cycles to see if it's improving, to see it's becoming more frequent. Is it becoming more intense? Really so that that can guide her decision making about what she wants to start doing in order to reduce that anxiety, whether we're talking about supplements, the use of hormones or looking at know and if we look back at the past year and what living in a pandemic has done to cycles and people's experience and their mental health we know that what's going on in our lives matters but there are times in life when perhaps our hormonal resilience isn't there so postpartum would be one good example of that or maybe just before your period is due and your hormone levels drop particularly these times and certainly in perimenopause our resilience can go down. You mentioned there about

the stress of the last year and you'd also mentioned I think in your previous answer about inflammation within the body and I wanted to pick up on these because again it seems very much that the same sorts of contributing factors like stress, like inflammation, like poor sleep, the way we're exercising or not exercising, our diets, have an impact again across all moments and aspects of our cycle, whatever stage we're in. Yes. I mean, and it's just been proved so much this past year. I mean, I've heard from so many people and worked with so many clients who have had this issue where their cycles become irregular or like really shortened or

really lengthened, or they're going from one cycle that's short to one that's long and maybe noticing an increase in period pain or in other cycle related symptoms. And I just want to say like for all of you listening, if that's what's going on, you're not the only one. It's really important to know that even me as an expert has had this experience. So, you know, the impact of stress, and I think often in life, we're just existing in an incompleted stress response. And, you know, that does lots of things for what's going on with our hormones and our reproductive function as well.

So it's no wonder that lots of people are suddenly experiencing struggles with their cycle. I mean, some people's cycles have improved. You know, you're not having to do a stressful commute anymore and you have more time to exercise and to eat breakfast in the morning than perhaps yours has improved. You're a podcast listener and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. eat breakfast in the morning, then perhaps yours has improved. to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-s-y-n dot com. And so how does the stress response actually impact on the hormones? Well, here's how I like to think about it. Reproduction is essential to human life, okay? It's how we survive as a species, but it's like an extra thing that we do when it comes to surviving. What's most important is that we can run away from danger or stay and have a fight.

So when we are stressed, maybe you've had an email from your boss, or maybe you're just looking at your emails in the morning and that in itself is a stressful experience for you, then your body is perceiving that as a threat that has to be dealt with. So your nervous system is triggered and we go into one of a few options. We either kind of gear up for a fight, which might look like, you know, how dare they send me that email? Who do they think they are? And kind of, we get into fight mode or flight, like, oh, I'm just going to close my email and go away from this and not have to deal with it. Or freeze of like, just what the fuck do I do here? And now going into a stress response, whether it's because of an actual stress, like if someone were to burst into my room right now, that would be stressful. That would be a real source of stress. But we can also have a perceived idea of stress. You know, I could think about

something happening and so many people this past year will have been thinking, I've coached so many people on this, of just thinking about stressful things happening and that moves them into a stress cycle. So something stressful hasn't actually happened, but they're worrying about it and they're anxious and concerned about things happening. So we go into a stress cycle. That in itself is not a problem. That's what the body is meant to do. But what happens is we get stuck in it and we don't do anything to resolve it. And when you see a wild animal being chased by a predator and they manage to get away, they do this amazing thing where they shake their bodies. Have you ever seen that?

Where like just an animal would just shake itself out. And it does that because it recalibrates the nervous system and it helps that animal to kind of recalibrate itself. And that's what we should be doing as well. Like we could literally be shaking off by dancing around, or we could go for a run or do some kind of physical movement just to let the body know, hey, we're safe. And we can do that in other ways as well. But, you know, when all this is going on, then the body's in survival mode. And reproduction isn't so important because what your body's concerned with doing is getting blood flow to your heart and to your lungs and you know releasing energy in the body so that you can fight something or flee from it so all this is normal but it comes at a consequence when we're

talking about hormones and the cycle because that blood flow going to those parts of the body means that it's being redirected from non-essential parts like your digestive tract and your reproductive system so we see the impact there but it also affects production of hormones too and it it sucks it doesn't feel good does it when we're just going on like that but so many of my clients that I speak to are going through these issues in just a regular working day, let alone a regular working day in a pandemic with additional things layered on top of that. So it's just, it's really helpful, I think, to know this and to know that there are simple strategies that don't cost anything that can help you move out of a stress response and to regulate your body and basically remind your ovaries, hey, we're safe. It's okay. You can ovulate. It's a safe time to conceive. Whether that's

something you want to do or not, that's how the body works. Yeah. It's so interesting you say that I, you know, like anyone, obviously the last year has been stressful and I'm finding working at home at the moment just extraordinarily stressful trying to actually get anything done with a screaming 19 month old and a four and a half month old who wants to breastfeed like every 10 minutes and anytime you're trying to concentrate you can just hear them reverberating around your brain and it's just it's just really hard to separate and focus and concentrate and as a result it feels like I'm always behind on absolutely everything. And yesterday morning, I just said, okay, I just need half an hour.

And I tuned into a friend of mine, Steffi's yoga class. And she did the beginning, the shaking off. Yeah. And I'd never really done it to such an extent before. And it was about five minutes and my curtains were open and I'm facing kind of two roads. And I see all these people staring in at me like what is this woman doing and I I can't tell you how much better I felt after that it was really extraordinary and I actually wasn't I'd never heard that about

animals before but it absolutely resonates hearing that and actually my mum is like our number one fan and she'll be listening and her dog and my dog are literally best friends and they play fight but they play fight quite intensely and then when they feel it's getting too much they stop and they shake it off so now you both know what they're doing it's fascinating but so Maisie you said there about the fact that actually for all these things that are so normal to experience you know I think thinking that you could live a stress-free life these days is, you know, probably quite unlikely. And so actually, it's just much more about incorporating the tools into your life to deal with things. And as you said, there's so many tools that we can bring into our lives that are free, that are accessible,

that will genuinely shift the way we feel. What do you feel from a female perspective are the most important tools to be looking at to support your well-being, whatever stage you're at with your cycle, but also are there different things you should be thinking about depending on whether or not you are pre-menopausal or perimenopausal or post-menopausal? Yeah, well, I think the good news is that there's so much that you can do. And there's so many strategies in both period power and perimenopause power. But, you know, it comes down to basics, especially when we're talking about reminding the hormonal glands in our bodies that life is okay. And it's the simple things like having a regular sleep-wake cycle, going to sleep at the same time, eating your meals around the same time, eating a varied diet, getting exposure to daylight, remembering to breathe, not eating your lunch in front of your computer, all of like these kinds of things, moving your body in ways that feels good to you. Simple things like this can make a

massive difference. It's like been really incredible when I run the hormone reset months inside my membership, the Flow Collective, to see the things that people pick to do to reset their hormones. And they're always so resistant to constraining and just picking one or two things a week. And they always want to come up with like this convoluted plan of all the things they're going to do. But actually, it's been amazing just to see what the impact that they've had when they've decided to just leave their phone out of their bedroom and turn it off at seven o'clock or eight o'clock at night. And, you know, the results that people have got from just doing that. So it's important to know that a lot of the simple things that we probably disregard as being too simple, it's those simple things that are actually

highly effective. So I think that's really helpful and empowering information for people to know. The other thing that I'm becoming more and more of a fan of and using more in my work with clients is thought work and exploring mindset because even I couldn't help but notice what you mentioned about feeling like you're behind like I coach my clients on this all the time and you know I think it's really good to challenge this idea of can you actually be behind and I don't think you can we can tell ourselves that we are but if we're just doing the stuff that we can do then we're not actually behind we're just doing the stuff that we can do and what I see the more and more that I do this work and go deeper with it is that it's things like people pleasing saying

yes when we actually meant no having a lack of boundaries and perfectionist tendencies that are actually driving a lot of the stress responses in my clients. So as well as, yes, we can talk about nutritional support and eating a great diet and supplementing with magnesium and doing acupuncture and all of these things. But, you know, all the magnesium in the world isn't going to help if we don't look at the actual root cause of what's going on. So I'm becoming more and more interested in my work in dealing with those things, because if we don't deal with them, then they just show up in the next reproductive phase of life and cause issues all over again. I absolutely love what you said there. We were actually speaking a couple of weeks ago on the podcast of Fern Cotton about exactly this. And I think you can't look at one thing without looking at everything. As you said,

you can look at your diet, but it's no good looking at your diet if you don't look at all the amount of stress in your life. You know, broccoli isn't going to solve everything. Sash, it can only solve a small amount in reality. It's everything together. And I would be really interested, obviously, since food's so interesting to us as a topic at Delicious Yellow and to our listeners about the role of food in your well-being as a woman and why it is important. I would say most people I work with aren't eating enough. And I think that's like often like surprising and challenging for people to hear because our society is so based on eat less. Like if you're being socialized as female, that is the messaging that you will have heard throughout your life. So I think first of all, eating enough and eating enough protein because protein basically ensures that we have enough energy. We can actually make things in our bodies and we can get through our days without going through crazy blood sugar dips. So blood sugar

instability has an impact on hormones. So we can think about that. It's also really important to get enough fat in your diet. And we've all been, again, trained to think that fat is the enemy. And actually, you make hormones from fat. You need to get dietary fat so that hormones can be made from the cholesterol there. So, you know, there's a lot of retraining here and kind of, again, just looking at like all the crap we've been fed. And I don't just mean like the food we've been fed, but the education that we've been given often is incorrect and not helpful when it comes to hormonal health. So a lot of clients I've worked with over the years have done things like gone on weight loss diets, which we can absolutely question that. And I love getting

into that with people, but they've done that and maybe they've like lost some weight, but they're suddenly got like really bad PMS or other symptoms have started to come in because their body's not getting the nourishment it needs to support a cycle and one that is a positive experience. There's things like having enough fiber, regular bowel movements, that's really crucial because oestrogen is one of those hormones that is fantastic for the body but we want to get rid of it once we have used it and staying hydrated, having regular bowel movements, eating lots of cruciferous vegetables. So you mentioned broccoli earlier, cauliflower, kale, rocket, things like that are really great for the liver to do its job to get rid of estrogen.

So they are just like some of the things there that I feel are really key. But again, it's, I think, important for people to work with their experience of the cycle there that I feel are really key. But again, it's, I think, important for people to work with their experience of the cycle and their experience of eating. And I just think it's just so important to enjoy food, the actual process of making it, the process of eating it, but really ensuring that we're getting enough nutrients in to support ovulation and to support a cycle. Tosi, I mean, I couldn't agree with you more on education. I think it's really the reason behind everything that I do and everything that I want to do in my career

is I just feel so strongly that unless you understand why something matters and what the links are between things, why are you going to do it? Yeah. And that's what I just feel is so important. And so, you know, as you go and make your dinner, you think, okay, well actually putting together a proper meal that actually has proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and it actually has loads of nutrients and it has all the things I need. This is why like it will genuinely impact and change my health. I think

there's such a education piece that's missing around food in general. But also, you know, I'm sure there's so many people listening that even again, on a basic level, who are listening to what you're saying and thinking, wait, there's so much I don't know about my body and about what's going on in my body. And even what is a hormone, these things that are totally changing the way that we're feeling on a minute by minute basis. And yet we don't necessarily even know what they are. Yeah. And that's the thing. There's so much and hormones influence everything. And that's why I wanted to write both of my books is because I know that information can make a difference because suddenly when you're going through your cycle and you're experiencing whatever it is that you're experiencing you can talk to yourself with compassion right and there's so much shame that comes up when we're

talking about the cycle not necessarily of the experience of bleeding because I think that is something that has shifted in recent years certainly it's still there though but shame around like maybe you're someone who because of your health conditions or mental health conditions there's part of the cycle that you struggle to like quote unquote function in and then you perhaps feel great shame because of that and then you're like living with all the kind of self-judgment and the shame and the criticism about just being someone who has a health condition that you know means it has an impact on your life and even with a kind of perfectly healthy cycle you might still experience changes like that and feel shame because one day you feel a bit tired

because your hormone levels are low so I think it's important to be having this conversation so that we can reduce those things and I've actually done some recent podcast episodes around this about productivity and things like that and how we tend to beat ourselves with a stick if we're not being productive and I think that's a really great thing to question and to look at. Yeah so again on the premise that there'll be times in a given month where you will naturally be more productive because of what's going on your body versus other times where you will naturally be less energized and be a little slower again because of what's going on in your body yeah absolutely but I think it's also you

know the kind of the other element of this conversation is looking at like why do we want to be more productive and you know often this comes down to like wanting to prove our worth in the world or feel that we're worthy of something. And again, that causes lots of stress and that's what causes us to say yes to things or yes, I'm going to do this project because then, you know, people will think this about me and I'll feel safe. But, you know, that never goes away. You have to keep saying yes to projects in order to feel safe and you know it just perpetuates the cycle and this is why you know looking at sources of stress and really questioning things like really looking at why is it I want to be more productive because often

we're valuing productivity over rest and of course we all need to be productive we need to do things in our lives but like really looking at why and where that is coming from, like, is it coming from a place that feels good to you? Or is it coming from a place where like you're hustling and feel like you're kind of trying to control what other people think of you through the actions you're taking? And it all comes down to worthiness in the end. What you just said, it all comes down to worthiness in the end. I feel that so many topics that we explore here, no matter what they're on, whether it's this today, whether it's the one about setting boundaries the other week, before that it was an episode on relationships with a couples therapist. I mean, really different topics. And yet I keep feeling that every episode

comes back in some dimension to the same thing, which is that the more we can improve our sense of self-worth, our sense of self-esteem, our stability and groundedness in ourselves, regardless of every single person around us, the more we're able to really get a grip on all the other aspects of our life that impact on our mental and our physical health, because we're doing it from a place of understanding, compassion, strength, and truthfulness, really. I've got 700 more questions. And I know that from our listeners, we'll have 1000 more. But I know that there's a question that everyone has. And it's almost one of the most common questions I certainly get. And again, it's interesting, you know, as you said, there's sometimes a bit of shame and stigma around attached to female health in general. And I definitely think that's

true. People often write the email with a bit of like, oh, I hope it's not too much personal information. I hope you don't mind me asking about this. But it's about contraception. It's just a conversation that I think is really coming to the forefront at the moment. I was put on the pill by a doctor when I was 14, because I said my periods were really heavy. And they said, you know, that's the answer. And I had so many friends that were the same my sisters were the same clearly it's really quite normal to have heavy periods when you start your period anyway my mum didn't know that I didn't know that my friends didn't know that their mums didn't know that either and hopefully we can all collectively

start to change that but and that's not to say you should or shouldn't be against the pill I think it's just about having the information to start with. And how do those synthetic hormones impact on the cycle? And what are other options that people can start to look at? Are there other good options? So when it comes to hormonal contraception, like some people will take it as a contraceptive method. Other people will take it as symptom management. But the thing is, it's often presented as something beyond symptom management and as like a treatment, not a treatment strategy, like it's going to cure things. I mean, people don't actually use those words, but often my clients will tell me that they started taking the pill because they were told it would regulate their cycle. And the pill can't regulate your cycle. It can

cause you to have a regular bleeding episode. It's not actually a period because you're not ovulating when you're on the pill, but you can have a bleeding episode, which is good for your body and what's going on with your uterus and that's important to have regular menstruation but it's also important to have regular ovulation so really if someone for instance isn't ovulating then we want to be supporting ovulation not suppressing it which is what hormonal contraception can do. The other big one you know people can take hormonal contraception because they have painful periods or heavy periods, conditions like endometriosis and adenomyosis. The pill,

for example, is commonly prescribed for those issues. And I get it. That's why I took it. You know, I had horrifically painful periods. I was also starting to have sex, so I did want it for contraceptive reasons as well. But when I came off the pill, I still had the painful periods. I was also starting to have sex. So I did want it for contraceptive reasons as well. But when I came off the pill, I still had the painful periods. It didn't go away and it's not addressing the root cause of the issue. So although I completely get taking it for symptom management and I certainly don't judge people for doing that. As I said, I did it myself. You know, I think if you really want to address things and not everyone is able to like in the ways I'd want I mean if I could just write a prescription for everyone with cycle issues to be like see a nutritional therapist see an acupuncturist you know maybe consult with a

specialist who might give you a specialist surgery if you it, then that would change so much. But that's just not going to happen. So I think we also have to look at the fact that taking something like the pill is a treatment strategy that's available to most people. And so that may be the only option available to them, either because it's accessible or because they just don't know that there are other things that can be done. But as I mentioned mentioned in both my books there's so many things that can be done either whilst you are using hormonal contraception or if you're not. And so what are other avenues for people to explore if people are feeling the pill isn't working for them I think there's definitely a whole generation of people if I think about everyone I know I feel like everyone started the pill in their teens yeah I definitely anecdotally feel that very much from my friends and and from people

that reach out through Delicious Yellow yeah so I think the thing is if you're starting to recognize that maybe this isn't for you and it's not working for you in the way that it first was or maybe you've just reached a time in your life where you're ready to come off it. You know, perhaps you just want to start understanding your body and working with your hormones, or maybe you're preparing to conceive. Then, you know, they are common times when people decide that they would like to come off something like the pill. So I think, you know, a good starting place, if that's where you're at, then to respect that in yourself. And to maybe, if you do have cycle-based symptoms that you're concerned about, to start getting things in place before you actually transition off the pill, for example. But let's say maybe you're coming off hormonal contraception, but you don't want to conceive either at all or

just yet because certainly you know I would recommend waiting a while until you are stocked up on all the essential nutrients in your body that are important for conception and supporting a pregnancy because the pill is notorious there's lots of research around this for depleting lots of these essential nutrients so it's good to come off it and have time to eat a nutrient-dense diet and perhaps use supplements in order to be replete in these nutrients. But people moan about them, condoms. I know it's like they're the forgotten about form of contraception. But there are some great brands out there now that are certainly far more pleasant. I mean, you know, the ones that I came across in my teens and my 20s, they smell awful. You know, they were like full of additives and flavors, which are not good for

vaginal health at all. And actually, there are brands out there that are much more, I would say, female friendly rather than what a male perceives a woman to want in a condom. So that's one option. Another option that's become more popular in recent years is the fertility awareness method, which you can use as a method of contraception. You can also use it when you do want to conceive. This is what I use personally. I've been doing it since I was like 21, so almost 20 years of doing it completely successfully. But that is the kind of thing that I would say, you know, rather than just trust an app to tell you that you need to get to know your own body. And there's a great app called Read Your Body that helps people to do this and ideally you

would read at least a dedicated book about how to do it and even better work with a practitioner one-on-one to be able to identify and interpret your charts correctly that's something I would really recommend particularly if you're keen to avoid pregnancy then it's really important to be schooled up but But it's a very effective form of contraception when the rules are followed. And, you know, the research backs that up. But don't just trust an app to tell you. Is there a book that you'd recommend? So Taking Charge of Your Fertility is the classic. It's a tome, I would say. It's quite a chunky read. There's also a book called The Fifth Vital Sign by Lisa

Hendricks Jack, I think her name is. But yeah, there's more and more information like this out there. So, you know, if you just go on Instagram and look for fertility awareness method, there's going to be a lot of stuff there that helps you. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think it's so interesting and it's incredibly empowering to know your body. As I said, I still have 700 questions, but I will leave it there. But Maisie, I wondered if you could just leave us with one, two, whatever you feel is appropriate. Just final thoughts. I know you say at the beginning of your book, and I really hear it and I totally resonate with it, that there's a frustration that so many of us women have no idea what's happening in our bodies, even though they're just this unbelievably complicated systems where so much is happening

every day and everything we do is really impacting on the end results. And we're so often just looking at the symptoms without looking at the causes. And if there was something you wish we all knew, or a few things you wish we all knew or a few things you wish we all knew about our bodies and about our female health and our cycles, what would those things be? Well, if you want the longer version of this, then listen to episode one of my podcast, because I go through a cycle and the events of the cycle. But I think, yes, hormones can feel very complicated. For me, they felt very complicated. Like when I was doing my GCSEs, my A-levels, like it felt like a lot. But actually, I think about

them in a very simple way. So in the first half of your cycle, oestrogen is getting going and it just wants you to go out and find a mate, have sex and conceive. Like that's its plan. So your skin tends to look better, you kind of appear more attractive basically, you might be more talkative, a bit flirty, have an increase in sexual desire because really hormones are there to drive our behaviour for lots of reasons. But this is the big one when it comes to the cycle is oestrogen wants you to find a mate, have sex and conceive. So we tend to be maybe a bit more outgoing, more interested in going out and chatting, that kind of thing. In the second half of the cycle,

progesterone just wants to keep you safe because potentially you've conceived. So things slow down, we're maybe more interested in staying in, less talkative, maybe craving simpler foods. And just progesterone's whole goal there is just to keep us safe and secure in case pregnancy has occurred. And I think that in itself changes the game for everyone, just knowing that we all have our own unique experience of the cycle. So it may not be as clear cut as that for you. But if you use my cycle tracker, read my books, and you can start working with your cycle in a really powerful way. And instead of feeling ruled by your hormones, you can actually develop a relationship with them and they can actually really help you in life. I love that. We did an episode with Maisie a while ago now, and it went through exactly

what really happens in a cycle. So I will link to that, to Maisie's podcast of both her book, Period Power and Perimenopausal Power. And I'm definitely going to be buying some of the books you recommended as well. Maisie, thank you so much for your time today. It's honestly, it's invaluable. I think this episode will resonate with so many women, I'm sure. Thank you guys so much for listening. Please, please do share this episode with all the women in your life that you think would benefit from it. And we will be back again next week. Thanks so much.

Bye. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-s-y-n dot com.