A short fuse when you have your period is normal. So you better keep that in mind. In this file you can read everything about the trend to divide your life according to the different phases in your cycle.
You probably remember the day you first got your period. Chances are it was somewhere between your 12th and 16th birthday. A moment that often evokes mixed feelings:shame, but also pride. Your hormone balance has been set in motion in such a way that you are fertile, but should you be happy with that or not? “Every cycle starts with your period, which can last for about a week,” says gynecologist and menstrual specialist Marlies Bongers. “During your period, the lining of your uterus is shed, which is accompanied by bleeding. Shortly after your period, the mucous membrane starts to grow again. Halfway through the cycle, that process is completed, after which ovulation takes place. Some women experience this as a pain in their stomach, others feel a violent sting, but there are also women who do not feel ovulation.”
There are about four days around ovulation on which you can be fertilized. Bongers:“In the following days, the mucous membrane continues to thicken with nutrients, in case a fertilized egg wants to implant. If there is no pregnancy after two weeks, the house of cards collapses and the mucous membrane is repelled again:you have your period. That's how it happens again and again.”
Read also: 'This is what your life according to your cycle looks like'
Many women feel most comfortable in the first week after their period. They are energetic, cheerful and fit. Then ovulation follows and their mood slowly changes. As menstruation approaches, they become grumpier and less comfortable in their own skin. Then they get their period and they think:damn, that's it! And they are resurrected. “Of course this does not apply to everyone, but it does apply to many women,” says Bongers. "We think this has to do with the production of hormones."
Hormones are produced in your brain by the pituitary gland, a spherical organ. Close to the pituitary gland is the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure that is involved in controlling and processing your emotions. Because the pituitary gland and amygdala are neighbors, cross-pollination occurs between the two. This ensures that you can sometimes suddenly feel bad or happy for no apparent reason.
The hormones that have the most influence during your cycle are estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. “After you have had your period, the amount of estrogen in your body gradually increases,” explains hormone therapist Francisca van den Berg. “Halfway through your cycle, there is a peak in the amount of estrogen, which causes ovulation. The level of testosterone also rises sharply during this period, which lasts as long as your fertile period lasts. After that, both the testosterone level and the amount of estrogen drop, while the progesterone level increases. In the fourth week, the estrogen level drops even further and the progesterone shoots down.”
Every woman reacts differently to hormones, but in general estrogen has a reputation for making you feel positive. In the weeks when your estrogen levels rise, you will have more energy, you are optimistic and you can cope better with stress. You feel like you can take on the whole world. The hormone testosterone, which briefly shoots up around ovulation, makes you want to have sex. Progesterone, the hormone that comes into play next, is actually the opposite of estrogen. It makes you more languid, homey and irritable, which may explain why you may feel less comfortable in the week after ovulation.
Your mood usually hits rock bottom the week before your period. This is partly due to the hormones in your body, or rather:the lack of them. In the fourth week of your cycle, both the estrogen and progesterone levels in your body have dropped to an ultimate low. “That can make you feel grumpy, depressed, tired and annoying,” says body therapist and cycle coach Anke Verhagen. In other words:you have the well-known short fuse. But it's not just the fluctuating hormones that play tricks on us.
Gynecologist and author Christiane Northrup writes in her book The Menopause as a Force that women during their fertile period often unconsciously pretend to be preferable, more approachable, more affectionate and nicer than they are, because this increases the chance of reproduction. If the chance of a pregnancy is lost, you no longer have to stage a play and you can just be yourself again. According to her, this also explains why women are often a bit brighter and more assertive during pregnancy than those around them are used to.
Read also: 'Tips about your cycle'
For a long time menstruation was seen as a part of life. Don't whine, just keep going. “There was little attention for the impact that menstruation and everything that goes with it can have on your life,” says Marlies-Bongers. “Women have never really talked about that either. That is changing. You can see that in recent years there has been an increasing focus on the load on the cycle and what that does to women's daily lives.”
Bongers thinks it is very positive that the menstrual cycle is being removed from the taboo sphere, because too many women are still worrying on their own. “Women only know their own periods, so they don't know what's normal and what's not. If you have a lot of pain, it is good to talk about it. With friends or with a professional. Who knows, there may be a relatively simple solution to feeling better from now on. Menstruation is the most natural thing in the world, so we should talk about it more often.”
The growing attention to the menstrual cycle also provides new insights. One of the new trends is living according to your cycle. Marlies Bongers:“That means that you see for yourself what your 'good' and your 'bad' weeks are. If you know that you have significantly less energy in the third week of your cycle than in your first week, it might be useful to not schedule important work projects for a while. Accept that things sometimes go less well in the third or fourth week than in the first two weeks. Otherwise you will continue to fight against something that you have little control over.”
If you want to live more according to your cycle, it can help to write down for yourself when you feel happy and when you don't. When do you feel energetic, at which times of the month are you happy, in which week things are sometimes less smooth? “Once you know the impact of your cycle on your life, you can make adjustments to make things a little easier,” says Bongers. “In one week you simply do a little easier work, in the other week you just want to meet up with friends, in another week you prefer to lie on the couch with a blanket. If you take that into account, you make your life a lot more fun for yourself.”
The cycle strategy of acupuncturist Maisie Hill. She believes that you should work with your hormones instead of seeing them as a 'women's problem'. In her book, she explains how to get the best out of yourself at each stage of your cycle and what to do if you experience hormonal imbalance.
Source:Santé January 2020, text:Fleur Baxmeier
