Ep. 16: PMS 101
Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast as we talk about one of the most common reproductive health issues among women - PMS - or, premenstrual syndrome.
Whether you think you have it personally or not, you’re probably already familiar with it. My guess is that it’s one of the most culturally referenced reproductive health issues, but not in an helpful, educational way - but in a “let’s make this into a joke about how all women are before their periods start” way. Which, isn’t very helpful - or funny, really.
But - it does show how common this issue is, that we’re hearing it casually mentioned on tv shows and in books and magazines, and everything else. It means that you’re probably already familiar with a lot of the symptoms of PMS:
breast tenderness
bloating
weight gain
headaches
fatigue
insomnia
and the often most joked about ones - increased irritability, crying, and more likely to feel depressed
Any of these, within the days leading up to your period, qualify as PMS, which is a legitimate medical condition.
It’s one of those issues that’s so common, that we assume that it’s normal and so we have to suffer through.
That’s why I screen every single client for PMS in our first one on one meeting together. Some women come in confident that they have it, and others are sure that they don’t, but still they check off one after another of those symptoms I just listed.
And some women have a really severe form of PMS called PMDD, or premenstural dysphoric disorder.
This is when the mental/emotional symptoms are especially severe and significantly hinder a woman’s quality of life and ability to function, specifically in those days leading up to her period. If you’ve ever noticed that you feel utterly hopeless and low and you’re just significantly struggling and you’re wondering why - why do I all of a sudden feel like this? And then your period starts and Boom! you’re feeling so much better! That’s a sign of PMS and possibly PMDD.
So women suffer through these symptoms for years. If you talk with previous generations, you may hear them talk about how they dealt with these symptoms their entire reproductive lives! You may have had encouraging aunts, grandmothers, mothers, friends, sisters who told you that these symptoms are common and that they’ll pass when your period arrives.
And, that’s really not wrong - these are common and they do get better when your period starts and you can very likely get through them each month.
But, friends, I have really good news - you don’t have to. PMS is often treatable. Treatable! And I want every woman to know it. Okay?
There are a few things that can cause PMS, but the most common is low progesterone.
If you remember back to our BASIC series (which you can listen to as the first 4 episodes of our podcast), there are two primary reproductive hormones in each menstrual cycle. Estrogen is dominant in the first part of your cycle when your follicles are growing and nourishing the teeny tiny little egg that will eventually ovulate. After ovulation, estrogen decreases and progesterone becomes dominant. We need progesterone. It helps balance all that estrogen does, which is important. It also nourishes the lining of the uterus for possible implantation. And it helps signals to your body when it’s time to lose that lining in a period, at the end of the cycle.
So when you don’t have proper levels of progesterone, your body will show you signs of that. Charting your cycle with a method like Creighton can reveal some big time signs really quickly. But if you’re experiencing PMS each month, then it’s already a strong possibility.
And let me say - I love that about our bodies. Human bodies are incredible things. We focus so often on what they don’t do right (when we wish our cycles were better or our ovulation stronger or our periods milder), but they are doing so much amazing stuff day in and day out that we often don’t even realize. The fact that your body will give you a heads up that it is running low on a necessary hormone is incredible.
So if you think that you’re suffering from PMS, here are our 3 next steps to feeling better.
The first is to start charting your cycles.
I just mentioned how our bodies will often tell us when there’s something not quite right. Imagine having all of that data in front of you, and working with a trained practitioner who knows how to interpret that information and can help you as you use that to focus on a restorative approach to your reproductive health. Your body is telling you so much - and using a detailed, standardized system like the Creighton method gives you incredible insight into what it’s saying.
Charting your cycles with creighton helps you really pinpoint when your symptoms begin each cycle and what patterns can be assessed, the severity of symptoms - both in number and length, the other signs your body may be giving you to support a diagnosis of low progesterone, and the important timing needed for supplementing each month. Practically, it’s extremely helpful.
I dont want this to be intimidating to you, either. Charting with Creighton may seem daunting before you actually learn it, but remember: you’re learning one on one with a trained practitioner. I’m gonna make sure you feel confident and you feel comfortable. You’re not out there on your own trying to figure everything out.
Once you have that information and can start seeing symptoms and identifying patterns with your practitioner, you have a wealth of data to bring to whatever medical professional you’d like to work with.
Which leads to our second step - choose your medical professional.
You want to make sure you’re working with someone who has a restorative approach to reproductive health, meaning they value what your body does and they want to honor that and get you as healthy as possible by restoring that natural function, not suppressing anything or forcing anything.
Here, you can go a few routes. Mainly, you could work with a napro doctor (which we’ve talked about in that BASICS series as well) or you could work with a registered dietician who has specific training in women’s reproductive health and hormone health.
Their approaches will both be restorative, but they’ll be using a different treatment plan. A napro doctor will likely test your progesterone at very specific points your cycle (based on your charting!) and then supplement that progesterone as needed, if that’s the cause. There are 5 different types of progesterone deficiencies (known as luteal phase defects) and treatment will be adjusted according to which one you have. If it’s not the cause, they’ll look into the other main possibilities. But they’re approaching from a medical standpoint. The registered dietician is going to, of course, approach from a diet and lifestyle change philosophy. Both are good - you may even want to work with both. But you have options.
If you need some resources as to who may be in your area or who is trained in this approach, please reach out to me at caitlin@wovenfertility.com and I’d be happy to point you to someone who may be a good fit. But I do recommend working with a professional to diagnose and treat. It’s probably not going to be a long process to get that dealt with, but what I can’t recommend is trying to treat yourself with over the counter progesterone options. The data matters. When you supplement, how much you supplement, and what form of progesterone you use all matter.
So to review, our next steps are:
Chart your cycles
Work with a restorative approach medical professional
And finally, feel better.
You can suffer through the PMS. You can handle it. You’ve likely been handling it.
The point is, you don’t have to. No one is asking you to. It doesn’t prove anything to anyone. Go on and improve your quality of life. Life a little happier. It’s a good thing.
Now, we want to spread this message. We want every woman to know that while this is common, it’s not normal. And she doesn’t have to live with this each month throughout our life. So please, tell your friends! Educate those you love! If you would like to send them something to read over, we’ll have a digital download available on our website called PMS 101 - you can find it at wovenfertility.com/resources.
You can also send this podcast link to them, if you think this episode may be helpful.
Or maybe just let your friends know, the next time you’re talking about the annoying breast tenderness or mood swings or cravings you get before your period, “did you know there’s a treatment for that?”
As always, thank you so much for listening today and every week, as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.