The Mindful Soul Center Podcast: Episode No. 22 & No. 23

Our first podcast interview of the season is with Rachel Eyre Dutton and wow! it’s so loaded with information that it is going to be distributed in two parts. In part one we discuss period and womb health, hormone balancing, estrogen dominance, puberty, postpartum body changes, the fourth trimester and so much more.

In part two we speak about charting from the basics to more involved charting and how knowing your body can change your life. Rachel is clearly passionate about her work. There is so much information for both men and women. Women, you can get to know your body better and men, you can gain some insights into women’s cycles and both partners fertility. 

You can listen or watch the episode on this page below and you can also read the transcript on this page. 

Listen to Part One: Episode No. 22

Listen to Part Two: Episode No. 23

Mentioned in this podcast interview:

Music in this episode includes:

• ​​​God Fury by Anno Dominii Beats

• Birds by Silent Partner

• Cast of Pods by Doug Maxwell

Transcript​s

​The period whisperer - Rachel Dutton (Eyre) and womb health​ Part One

​00:05          [music].

00:09          Welcome to the mindful soul center podcast. My name is Amy Adams. I'm your host and the broadcaster of this podcast. In this episode of the mindful soul center podcast, I interview Rachel Eyre. She is a wellness experts, a woman expert, a women's health expert, and her knowledge is so extensive. She answered so many questions that this interview has been broken into two episodes. In part one we discuss Estrogen dominance, resetting hormonal patterns, emotions, cravings, postpartum depression and much more. The second part digs deep into charting and how it can empower you and really how you can use this information to change your life. So before we get started, I just want to ask you to please check our website, the mindful soul center.com where you can read our magazine a new bi-monthly. It's loaded with information, we have some regular features and we will be supplementing our podcast episodes with some focused articles as well. So I hope you'll check that out and

01:31          let's get started. Rachel, who is also known as the period whisperer. Hi Rachel, welcome to the podcast.

01:43          Hi, thank you. Thank you for having me here.

01:46          And she focuses on women's health and she is a menstrual health expert. Let's just get down to it. The whole thing about periods, we love them and we hate them. I asked Rachel why women come to her in general, is it pain, infertility or something else?

02:13          It's all of that. So a lot of people come to me because they've got period pain or bad PMs or maybe they're trying to conceive and it's not working. Some of them will know they've got a diagnosis of something, but when I have a treatment path that going down just isn't working for them. It doesn't feel right. It's not having any expected effects. Others have been put on the pill and they feel it's not working well for them and their bodies.

02:41          Other people are like, I know there's something wrong. I know this is something really important. Period pain and PMs is not normal. It's the symptom. So they know that which is wonderful, but they just don't know how to go about it. Well, what could be the possible root causes and what they could do to make that better? And then other people will come to me because they've been trying to conceive for a long time. They've gone through a battery of tests but nothing necessarily has come up or things have come up, but they've only been given a few treatment options and they don't realize that there's this whole other world of things such as nutrition and abdominal massage and all these other yummy things that can really, really help. I guess in families genetically we probably have some of the same kind of experiences as our moms do.

03:34          So like for me, I thought that PMs was normal. I thought that pain was normal. Society makes jokes about women being ratty at a certain time of month and people like the current president, I'm saying to a journalist, Oh you must go on your period because she said something he doesn't like. It's become part of our normal way of treating periods and that's the really frustrating thing because that kind of normalizes something that could be fixed. Actually. We'll wait a little bit of effort, but it's not, you know, something that's really difficult to fix. It's completely achievable for most people. Is it like the level of hormones that cause that is that depression cause yeah, so that all period problems have the same sort of root causes. And the wonderful thing about hormonal imbalances is that there's actually a sort of set pattern in which to reset things and it resets all the hormones cause they all interact with one another.

04:37          One of the main causes of PMS is something called Estrogen dominance. Some people say low progesterone. It's kind of a bit of a weird one. So what happens is afer we ovulate, we produce progesterone and that's kind of like the calming, soothing hormone, but it also ramps up thyroid activity and heats up our body a little bit because theoretically we could be pregnant and it's trying to make a warm nest for the eggs nestleing in the lining until a placenta grows. But there's all these other wonderful things that progesterone does for us. So not just the thyroid, it helps, um, with bone density. It helps with heart health, it helps with breast health. It does a number of other things. And we designed that way for progesterone to help us, at that point in our cycle, but we do also get this estrogen and when we're estrogen dominant.

05:31          What happens is our estrogen is too high in comparison to the level of progesterone, but that could be that you're, progesterone is too low and your estrogen could also be too low, but it's still too high in this ratio. Or progesterone could be normal and estrogen is too high or both could be too high according to that test that the estrogen is still too high ratio wise. And some people will say that's like progesterone, but we usually call it estrogen dominance and that's probably the most common cause of PMS. But it's also a factor for heavy periods, painful periods, endromitriosis, painful breasts, a whole slew of things as well. So, but that is one of the biggest underlying causes. And the other thing with PMS as well, bear in mind is it's not always, it could be that you have a gripe that is a perfectly realistic gripe.

06:37          For example, you shouldn't be picking up your partners socks or laundry or whatever or be expected to do everything after them. And it really bugs you but that's the time of month that it come kind of comes out and explains and sometimes happens. So I do say to people, is it, is it really PMS or do you have something legitimate? I mean obviously if you feel like you want a divorce for two days a month and you find that that's been a mess, but you know, if you don't normally have it but you're really finding that you're getting a bit angry about something. Do you listen to that anger?

07:16          Uh huh. My former partner, actually, he would say to me that he always knew when I was just about to have my period because I was more agitated I guess. And I guess it was a little more obvious so he was used to it. After years and years and years. I actually have like a kind of weird, maybe, maybe it's not a weird question, but every month I would crave salt and sweet on like the first day of my cycle. And I, and I know that I am not the only person that's had that experience at least. So I was just wondering, is there a reason for that? Is that something common? Maybe it's not common.

08:00          Yeah, it's so different. There are lots of different reasons for cravings. So one, it can be as hormones shift, we start metabolizing different nutrients that can be like a, a nutrient deficiency. So it could be that. And that's a very common one. Another cause for cravings is unmet emotional needs, um, other causes for cravings are the changes going on with the bacteria? In our gut, most people call it the microbiome, but we call it microbiota. Especially if your changing what you eat and is actually really interesting. Like that's so much we don't know about what goes on in that, but there's actually a part with microbiome called the estrobolome that actually supplies estrogen. Um, and we know things such as say for example, you've been eating lots of ice cream and sugary stuff. You start feeding and therefore populating your gut, um, with more bacteria that eats that. But when you cut that out and you try and eat more healthier stuff, those bacteria will literally send out hunger signals to your brain because they don't want it to die out. So they are going to kick off this craving for something sweet again. So there's a whole number of different reasons for cravings. Um, some specific deficiencies and yeah, they can happen throughout your cycle, but the actual root cause of cravings, it's different from person to person.

09:33          Right. But that totally makes sense though. When you said that, you know, that there is that link in that there is something happening in your gut with the estrogen. That's really fascinating to me because it was just, and this is another kind of weird thing and maybe I'm being like weird and personal on my podcast or whatever. I had this theory and it was so, you know, when I was younger I was thinner and um, I mean not that I'm very heavy now, but I don't, I used to have this day that it was like I could eat everything that I wanted on the first day of my period and I had like no guilt. I never gained weight. I mean I could really, and I was hungry, I was really hungry. Is that also something that's common? Is it or people hungrier? Uh, oftentimes

10:22          It's varied, but it is interesting, um, how we metabolize different phase throughout our cycle. Um, so the first half of our cycle, which we do when we chart, we usually start with day one being first day of our period. And that's actually when our hormones are at our lowest. But our brain is starting to ramp up to the next ovulation. But when, um, we start developing follicles in that part of the cycle, um, we produce more estrogren, and estrogren helps us burn fat. So in that first half of our cycle, um, if there's only glucose available, we will metabolize that first. But after that's used up we start burning fat reserves and the other part of the cycle is progesterone based and once we've burned up glucose we start burning through protein instead not muscles on protein. So if you didn't have enough adequate protein, we can start burning through muscles. So it is really interesting how our hormones affects what we eat and yeah, they, the hunger can, can vary from person to person. You are at a point where your hormones are at your lowest so you're probably at your most tired. Um, and some people will find that drives them to eat cause they want to push up there blood sugar levels. Other people, it is genuinely, they just need a of a Oop bit

11:54          of oomph at that time and they want to feel and sort of nurtured and more cared for. And they do that through eating. But I have had more people, I'm getting hungry around ovulation. It seems to change from person to person. Ah, that's so fascinating actually. I mean I never really, I have to tell you the truth. I probably, of course, you know, when you're young you learn about, uh, menstruation and school and your parents hopefully will speak to you about it, hopefully. And my mom was a nurse, so, and a health teacher, so that was pretty positive, but we didn't have like in depth discussions about hormones or anything. So it's just fascinating to me actually to learn much that we were not taught at school. And I think it's such a shame because there are so many women that don't know about their bodies. Yeah. And I considered myself lucky because I don't know if you know about this book and it's, it was pretty, um, my, I had an older sister and she had, I dunno about you, but like, you know, I would, my older sister had a book, so of course I wanted to learn, uh, you know, whatever I could. And it was called our bodies ourselves. And it was a really great book because it actually talked about a lot more stuff than just the little pamphlet that you get that teaches about menstruation.

13:17          I mean, it was definitely like more expansive. And I think through the years it, you know, expanded even more. And now I think it's a pretty fat book. But, um, there's also another doctor, Christiane Northrup -

13:29          Northrup Yes - Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom,

13:30          Yes.

13:30          I recommend that book to everyone. I think it should be compulsory reading for anyone who's going through periods, everything from her, um, MD gynecologist perspective, right through to the psychospiritual shamanic perspective. So whatever way, whatever lens you want to look at your body from she covers it

13:52          Rachel recommends dr Christiane Northrup's book, women's bodies, women's wisdom. And I mentioned our bodies, our selves written by several different authors. Links will be in the show notes. Now let's get back to the interview.

14:14          I don't really know about many people that had their period after me. Like most of my peers had it already when they were younger than me. I was a little bit late. Um, and so I'm wondering, is there like kind of like an extreme time where somebody could have it very too young or, or maybe too old, not too old, but much older than other people? Um, so there is something called precocious puberty which is girl starting their periods really young and it can happen like around four or five, even up through the age of nine, used to be within that bracket, but now that seems to be more and more young girls starting quite early. And I started at the age of nine. I was very tall for my age so I was mistaken for 13 or 14 by 13 and 14 year old boys. Unfortunately I didn't understand why they were following me.

15:08          Right. Yeah, that's kind of traumatizing when you're nine.

15:13          It was especially when they were jumping on me in the swimming pool. I couldn't figure that one out. So yeah, that can happen. Especially if your body is physically more mature or has grown faster than you know your peers in your same age group. And there are several different theories at the moment because it seems to be more and more common that the age which menstruation starts is reducing. Um, some people are saying it's because we're a bit fatter and once you get puppy fat you stop producing hormones cause fat is estrogenic. Other people are saying it's due to the pill being and water, although there's, there is some dispute as to whether the amount, Oh, that is in our water supplies enough to have an effect on our bodies.

16:05          There's, other - such as various different plastics that we come into contact with that have an estrogenic effect on our bodies. So all these different things could be feeding in. And then there, um, I've heard some people talk about what young women are being forced to grow up very quickly. Like maybe their fathers died or their parents have divorced and that's kind of triggered their body's like, yes, I have to grow up and become more mature, so I'm gonna push myself through puberty. Um, so there's all these different theories as to what's happening. And I think it probably is different from person to person, right. But most girls do seem to still start within the sort of 11 to 15 age group. And then if you're sort of hitting 16 or 17 and we're not cutting any signs of that happening, um, it is worth seeing your doctor, and it's also worth, you know, just seeing is other stuff happening as well, are you getting breasts developing or is it complete? Completely static. Yeah.

17:07          It's interesting though because when you, when you explain this now I kind of understand too because I did have a growth spurt from one year to, uh, when I was in like the 13 years old to 14 years old. I grew a lot like very quickly in one year and then I got my period. So.

17:29          I hear that a lot.

17:30          And actually, you know, it's really fast. I just love this conversation because um, I mean even like some of the other girls that I knew to like actually one of them, she developed very young, probably one of the first out of our class and her father wasn't around. He was, uh, so that's just, I mean, that may not be why, but it's still fascinating because there's like all these different things that we don't even think about regularly. So, wow. I'm like, I'm floored by all of this stuff I think.

18:04          I know so much affects us in so many ways and we don't really think about it. It's incredible.

18:09          Yeah. I mean there's just so many things in school that I think we really need to add in. I mean, about our bodies and I don't know, I'm just so amazed by this, but not even just our bodies. Even just some like simple stuff that we need to know about how to live our lives. I don't think it's really taught in schools.

18:23          financial literacy. Understand that.

18:31          It's true.

18:33          I commented to Rachel that I thought it was interesting that many girls are starting puberty, uh, very early and at the same time, many women choose to have families and babies later in life. Now here's what she said.

18:53          Usually both partners go to work. So it costs more to buy a house and to settle and to become established in a job. Um, I know that was a study on my generation versus previous generation. It'll take the average person my age and extra 19 years to save up the first deposit compared to that parents.

19:13          Wow. Wow.

19:14          So I don't think it's kind of that surprising that people are delaying starting families and things and also a lot of people are being a lot more sort of mindful and choosing when to start a, especially with the availability of IVF and other fertility technologies as well.

19:34          Now, I don't know if this is true or not, so just tell me if it's not so, but I also had, uh, heard and I kind of think that it might be true that the fertility, um, levels are like going down decreasing. So yes. Um, I don't know the statistics of how they've changed. I know the world's health organization, it was one in five or one in six couples have fertility issues. Um, and that's really important to remember. It's couples because fertility issues are 30% female, 30% male, 30% combined, it's not just the woman who is infertile.

20:17          And the same with miscarriages as well. A lot of the causes of miscarriages could be a sperm problem or a combined issue, but everyone is, seems the, if she could get pregnant it must be the women who has an issue if she miscarried.

20:30          Yeah, that's interesting to look at it that way. Cause I was actually kind of just thinking like 50, 50, you know, like the guy or the girl - one third and one third and one third -that's really an interesting perspective. I think men probably are probably not as aware of that as women are

20:47          No and a lot of them do take it really personally if it is there initially an issue that they're having. Um, and then a lot of them do say to me, I feel quite demasculated that, I'm not providing what I need to for my partner. Um, and I think those are the more open men. There are obviously a lot of men who do not want it to be a problem with them because they feel it's, you know, their masculinity being affected.

21:15          Yeah, that's a shame actually, that it's, it's so personal to someone. I did have, uh, no, quite a few people who actually were adopting children from other countries or adopting within their own country, even if, because they couldn't have children on their own. A lot of women and me included, um, I chose not to have children. This idea of not having children and there was so much pressure from the outside, uh, forces including a mother-in-law and other relatives and things to, to, to kind of conform to have this. But do you think that by not having children that, um, that can effect your cycle?

22:03          There are changes that happen in your body from having children. So equally, if you don't have them, those changes don't occur. So, um, first of all, when you do have children, you're using up a lot of nutrients within your body and you do end up depleted afterwards if you're not, eating the right things to nourish yourself. Um, which is why, you know, people at the world health organization recommend spacing children so that the womb and the soft tissues have time to recover. But also, you know, you, you have time to recover all the nutrients that you lost, et cetera. Well, other really interesting things that happen as well are things such as, um, I'm guessing you know what your cervix is. Yes. Within the cervix, there are lots of little crypts that um, produce cervical fluids, which a lot of women call discharge, and you should have discharge at certain times of the month.

23:06          That drives me bonkers and people say, Oh no, I didn't have any discharge. It's disgusting. It's like, no, it's essential for fertility and number of things too. But also have who crypts regenerate. So we're actually slightly more fertile in terms of what's going on with us. Cervical fluid and also our hormones will change. So if you are predisposed to thyroid issues, so you, you might have been told you for borderline thyroid or other kinds of issues which are more auto-immune, they may trigger during pregnancy or during postpartum and you will, thyroid affects your menstrual cycle. The menstrual cycle affects your thyroid. So estrogen in the first half the cycle suppresses thyroid progesterone nourishes. But equally, if your thyroid is underactive, it's not going to be those little subtle little cycle feedback cycle with progesterone and thyroid. So that second half of your cycle you're going to get more estrogen dominance.

24:06          Um, and if you, if you've got one, which I mean issue, you're likely to have more inflammation in your body, which could cause more period pain when you are pregnant or even when you're just in the second half of your cycle. This is obviously what pregnancy is. It's like an extended second phase in a way. Um, we become more insulin resistant and when we become insulin resistant the excess insulin stimulates our ovaries produce testosterone. And this is when we have things like polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can result in really long cycles, heavy periods. Yep. Period pain. Some people say that that period pain is the estrogen dominance and inflammation and not the PCOS itself, but always things tend to happen at the same time. So, um, for some women having children can help with symptoms. I've certainly heard of women with endometriosis saying that it improved after they had children.

25:04          Some people tell me it's made that symptoms much worse. So it does vary. So actually I just wanted to ask about postpartum depression because I've read also that, um, the, we don't, I think it's like the, I'm not sure if it's amino acids or fatty acids or some kind of acids in our brain that we need that they get depleted from carrying a child and that so after you give birth that it's something that doesn't like restore automatically. And that was like one kind of theory of why people have postpartum is that they're lacking nutrients. There's so many theories behind depression and a lot of them do have merit. Um, when we go through the postpartum phase, they need immediate sort of childbirth. And Peter is, after all, who am I levels plummet from being inequality in some cases to all means nothing. But if you think about all of the near eye transmitters, the oral, so hormones such as serotonin, dopamine, et cetera, they're all going to be effected by that sudden shift.

26:14          Um, how they're affected the, there's so many who say the evidence shows this and the evidence shows that. And And they'll argue with one another. Um, also there is one person called Kelly Brogan who talks about, um, depression being inflammatory mediate. So if you've got an autoimmune condition that triggers straight off to giving birth or around that time, that could trigger it as well. Our bio-chemistry changes in so many ways. So, and again, it could also be nutrient deficiencies, meaning we're not making it enough. Um, hormones are made from cholesterol and other fats, so not eating enough could be causing it. There's a number of things that could be involved. Um, there's a number of people that say it's due to lack of community support. So back in the day it literally was a village to raise a child and people would help them through the fourth trimester, which is, you know, the first three months after birth and she would work on recovery cause she's just like changed everything down stairs and has a new one to look after.

27:19          But equally they would help her around the house and do the, the other stuff that she's not doing so she can just rest and recuperate, which we don't do anymore. And, you know, in the most connected societies that've ever been in terms of, you know, these phones and everything, but how many people know the next door neighbor, how many people feel they've got a support network that they can actually ask for help when they need it. How many people, um, still have people that pop around with like, a hot meal when they need it.

27:53          So there's a lot of talk about last as well as all the possible sort of almost scientific explanations as well. Yeah, I think community's really important. There's so many people who have become mobile, like they living in different places that are not living by their parents or I mean even some parents who aren't even able to retire younger, but in the past that, you know, they would be there to support people. I know like a couple that I know that lives near me, the husband's, um, mother moved to the city so that, um, she could help out just even to pick up the child from school or bring him to school, just to spend some time. And that I think is so important to have a community and yeah, you're right. I mean we are so connected right now, but virtually it's, it's not the same.

28:48          You know, you don't have somebody to help out when you need to sleep or something. As sleep deprivation seems to be a very popular problem right after childbirth is actually one of the biggest needle movers on health is getting enough sleep. That's so much that happens when we're asleep. It's incredible. But I've seen sperm count tests improved dramatically just from someone gets enough asleep. Really? No at the lifestyle changes that I'm aware. Wow. So you don't just work with women, you work with couples too, which is I do some, yeah. It's mostly women. Sometimes the guys interested as well sometimes because he wants to support his other half. Sometimes they're both, you know, they're both open to looking at what's going on. So yeah, if the woman is doing, you know, making these changes that I think we're probably about 90% of them, their partners making the same change as well.

29:45          And luckily a lot of the stuff that works with female fertility works for males with fertility as well. So what could be some of the kinds of things that you would change with your diet? Like, so a lot of it, it sounds really, really obvious. Um, but sound eating real food, making sure your eating enough fiber. Plenty of vegetables. How many people eat enough vegetables? They know they should. They just don't. You eat two portions of leafy vegetables each day. Eat plenty of other vegetables. Are you eating, you know, a good variety of fruits and nuts and seeds. Um, and if you're eating seeds, are you soaking them overnight to make them antiinflammatory - they're often inflammatory. Um, are you eating foods that have been processed and therefore it's a more inflammatory profile because it's going slightly more rancid every day. Um, are you getting enough good quality protein?

30:46          And you mentioned about amino acids. Most people are not eating enough collagen and there's loads of people go, I wouldn't eat that its gelatin. That's all the bits boiled up. But actually you need gelatin for soft tissue growth and support for our uterus. So you know, making sure you're eating literally all the different amino acids that go into proteins and making sure you're eating enough healthy fat so that you can make hormones as so many people on high carb, low fat diets. But actually they're not getting enough fat to be able to make an a hormone, getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep and you know, getting rid of excess stress and we seem to got to, I don't know if you've noticed this, so tell me if I've gone up a tree, but I've noticed certainly amongst friends and acquaintances and it's almost like a competition for who's the most stressed or who's the most busy.

31:39          So, so busy. And I was like, yes I am too. And everyone this stuff. And it's almost like a competition for who that is a recurring theme actually that has come up though and like all these different conversations that I've been having with on different topics. The first episode I had a talk with Heidi who is a yoga instructor and she's a health and wellness teacher. She was saying too, I mean the whole point of yoga is kind of like get out of that and like stop being so stressed, take some time and have some perspective on life. Stress sets up a whole load of other chemical reaction. You bloody increases inflammation. The base material needed to make stress hormones. That means you've got less available to make your sex hormones. Yeah. It's that type a personality. Like we got to go, we gotta run, we gotta do it. It's like a kind of false reward maybe or that, um, if you can be that busy and that stress that you're achieving more, but that's not really the

32:40          truth. I mean you're probably achieving less because you're so freaked out all the time. I agreee completely and I've caught myself saying it because I'm sorry I'm really busy cause I've got ... Nope, not helping. Right. We're all busy. I mean I do kind of understand too, like the information overload, everything is going kind of faster and maybe our brains are kind of evolving to try to catch up into that kind of cycle. But there is also, I think this kind of like a ego reward of, you know, I'm achieving a lot because I'm stressed out and I'm doing that and it just seems to be a competition that the key thing is the, so many things that we do doing we can get rid of. So you don't have to be that stressed and like what are you doing to offset that stress? What nurturing practices are you doing to

33:34          offset that You know, it's that that, so it might be, yes you're really busy at work but you have your yoga for like half an hour every night. Or even like deep slow breathing like 10 minutes before you go to bed or using like a meditation app. All of those things can really help offset the impact of stress and yeah, and then with less stress then you're going to have a higher rate, a rate of fertility. Right. So and do you think that less stress too, do you think that a PMs, I mean, I know you said there's tons of theories why? And I think they're all valid it. Yeah. The part of my job is to help work out. I have a quite a few questionnaires. All my clients have to do tests and you can kind of pinpoint which one is likely to be right because each person is unique, right? So they all have, depending on how their kind of their belief systems and how they

34:31          move through the world. Stay tuned for part two. That'll be released in just a few more hours. And I'm so glad that you joined me today and Rachel, she can be found at thehealthywomb.com you can work with her in person, you can find tons of resources on her website and you can take classes with her online. There's so much, and we'll cover more of that again too in part two of the interview. Definitely check that out because it just jam packed with so much information. Thank you for joining me today on the mindful soul centers podcast. And I hope that you'll leave a review, subscribe to the podcast, and uh, find us on Facebook and Instagram the mindful. So center until next time.

35:36          [music].

​The power of charting and tracking your menstrual cycle with Rachel Dutton (Eyre)

​00:09          [music].

00:09          Welcome to the mindful soul center podcast. My name is Amy Adams. I'm your host and the broadcaster. In this episode of the mindful soul center podcast, I interviewed wellness experts. Rachel Eyre Dutton in today's episode is part two of the interview. If you haven't listened to part one, be sure to bookmark it or download it and listen to it later. Today's episode digs deep into charting and how it can empower you and really how you can use this information to change your life. We also discussed deppression, choosing a doctor and working with someone that's appropriate for you.

01:05          [music]

01:06          let's get started. We begin this part of the interview discussing stress and the direct impact that it has on the menstrual cycle.

01:17          What happens depends on whether you've ovulated or not in that cycle, so well, we'll start with if you have ovulated, because that's the quick ones. If you have ovulated during your luteal phase, that's the phase between ovulation and your next period, or the phase in which you might be pregnant. If you get stressed and it has to be said. It's either a long period of stress or significant events. So it might be you've got a really big exam that impacts your job in some way. Um, it happened to me a few years ago, unfortunately when my mom rang me up at five o'clock in the morning in tears, absolutely distraught because her cat had just been hit by a car, um, and she was about a hundred miles away from me. There was nothing I could do to get right get to. Um, and when this happens, you're, I personally think, you know, you brought, your body hasn't, well, it's recognized as not safe, keep you pregnant, so it just finishes off cycle.

02:19          Um, there's also, when you're stressed, your cortisol ramps up so there's less base hormone pregnanilone available to make progesterone, which can also sort of terminate that cycle. So if soft ovulation, you tend to get a very short luteal phase. If it's more chronic, it's more of an acute event. Intense. Your Period starts. Um, and you won't start cycling until your body feels as safe and can reset itself. Oh, that's really interesting. If you haven't yet ovulated. And your body's trying to ovulate. It tends to sort of knock that off. And I see it a lot in people's charts. Um, when your body's preparing to ovulate you start seeing an increase of production cervical fluid in When you feel a bit more moist downstairs, um, and this should be like a peak around ovulation, then it sort of cuts up and then your cuts off from your dry and some women will get this peek and then it'll drop off and then they'll get another peak again. You'll say, Oh, what happened then? And they're like, Oh, I had sit an exam or I got, I got some bad news, or I had stay a few really late days at work because it's year end and this is happening. Or being at some of the stressful event in that life.

03:34          Do we sync up with other people's cycles? Is the lunar cycle something we dig into all of these different topics.

03:46          I've got a few friends that live like out in the wild, no electricity. Um, couple of them live on boats. They don't live near each other. But a lot of them, because they have no artificial light or dark near them, they, Oh, swear that they've synced up with the moon. There is no evidence that shows that happens nowadays. There's Lunarception, which, um, is a way of trying to sort of regulate your cycle and in some cases trying to make yourself ovulate around the full moon. I have had clients that swear it works, whether it's a placebo, Oh no, I don't know. But you know, having a nightlight on is way less harmful than pumping your body full of drugs and things, um, with, with the whole women's syncing up their cycles. You know, studies have shown that that doesn't happen. But again, I've got lots of people that will say to me, um, I'm seeing that with my housemates.

04:49          I think that with my mum when I was living with her so well, there's no sort of data to back it up. I think it can happen. I think what is more, um, likely to be going on is that if you think about how we go in and out a phase, I mean to sync up with the moon, we'd have to have the perfect 29.5 day cycle. That's stays exactly 29.5 days to think about with your friends, you'd have to have the exact same, you know, 28 day cycle, 26 days I feel tied to two days. Um, I think we probably go through phases where backs of lines up a bit more and then someone else goes slightly out of phase and then a year later maybe going back in and maybe three years later and it could be that we're looking for that coincidence. But yeah, the key thing is regardless of all that there is no, you should be cycling with the following.

05:44          There is no, you should be. I see people talking about white moon periods and ovulation and red moon periods and ovulation. Yes. If you're using lunarception as ways to try and regulate your cycle, you might want to be focusing on ovulation related activities around the full moon. But it's not, that's the case, what it should be. Your body is its own innate being it's doing its own thing. You have a healthy cycle. If you know you, you're following what's going on. So, in your ovulatory phase, you're being more open, you're more creative, you're more sociable during your luteal phase. You're not getting PMS, you're more focused, you're more analytical, you're very intuitive. If your body's doing the right things at the right time. So you will cycle and you're working with what your body is telling you that is far more important than the moon, your friend or whatever else is going on.

06:39          I do want to talk about menopause a little bit, but before we even talk about that, I want to talk about something about after menopause with the, after menopause. Um, like my body. I mean this is my own experience and I dunno if I'm crazy or if this is real. I seem to have, even though I don't go through the full periods cycles anymore, I still do feel like I go through like a cycle. I mean I don't have the same like PMs symptoms and I don't have the actual flow of a period, but my body seems to kind of swell up a few days and then it kind of gets back to normal. Or is that common do you think? Or have you ever heard of that? So I'm gonna stop. I'm not I menopause postmenopause expert that I have heard of that happening.

07:31          It seems to happen to most people you do still have estrogen happening in your body and cells in particular produce a type of estrogen. Um, I've come across so many women saying they're still experiencing cycles after menopause. So whether it's some, uh, mechanisms in- built and it stays, or maybe it is the influence of the moon or the body - a lot of people talk about muscle memory. You know, your body still has memory of your lymphatic system swelling up at certain times. I'm like it used to, I'm not sure what, which of those, but I have had so many women say, and of course we still do have hormonal imbalances during that time that just a lot easier to deal with when you're still cycling because you can see what's happening with them. It's hard to, to sort of look at them and find them post-menopause. So you know, those are still happening then it totally makes sense that a woman will still go through cycles.

08:32          What their cycles look like could vary from woman to woman. That's interesting for me. I mean menopause was like a nightmare but it was quick. It was just a couple of years. You know, like some people I've heard go through like very long periods of time where they really, some women have 10, 15 years of perimenopause and then the menopause itself is actually only a day. But yeah, I've heard, yeah. It's because why it's important to fix things whilst you're cycling if you can. So I think yoga saved me actually. It was, I think my hormones were really messed up and I think, um, well I know they were messed up, but I think I'm not a scientist or anything but uh, and the way the like nervous system that's just linked with everything and it has something to do with our hormones to like regulating them. And that I think is like fascinating because, um, I didn't even really learn about that until after I started practicing yoga again.

09:32          I'd practice like years and years before and then I quit it. And then, um, and then after like menopause was just such a nightmare. I was like, I have to do something. And I started it and it was really, it took a long, it took a while, but I used to have like headaches and terrible symptoms and very bad things. And then once I started doing yoga regularly, even though it would like knock me out and I'd be tired for a while, I started to not have headaches anymore and things just started to get better. No more like crazy swings or anything. And it kinda just now it just felt like a normal person. Again that just didn't have a period....I'm glad to hear that

10:14          I think if we always have some kind of physical activity and do, whether it's yoga or even something else, I think it's definitely going to help and make our transitions to whatever going from childbirth to you know, menopause, all of it I think is gonna make a big difference in our wellbeing, it definitely has an effect on on that. And we are designed to move not to sit in a chair for eight hours solid each day. Right? Yeah. It's not what our bodies were designed to do. Charting though for people who would like how would somebody go about doing that? Could they go on your website and find something? that'll teach them? There are hundreds of resources. So it depends what level of charting you want to do. So I've got a free cycle chart tool kit on my website. You can go on download and that's like most basic level, which is making note of what day you are in your cycle being the first day of your period is day one.

11:17          And then you can just start with the real basics. Do you have a period or not? And how do you feel each day? Okay. And even at this, it sounds really basic, but the number of people who didn't know they have PMs until they look at four of those basic charts, Oh, Oh I hate my partner at the same time each month. It's always three days. before my period starts, maybe I have PMS um, or start noticing when they have their energy spikes. Or libido spikes then They're like, is that in relation and I'm like yeah, yes, that's the whole point of ovulation. That's great. And usually even at the basic level, they start connecting what's happening with their body and it's really wonderful to see that sort of relationship they have with themselves. So by that thing. And then you can start adding things in more and more.

12:11          So you can start charting wether you have cervical fluid, but it shows when your body's trying to ovulate. You can add in basal body temperature, which shows that you have definitely ovulated or if you're ill you can, some people like to add in the moon phase to see where they are in comparison to the moon phase. You can also try cervical position. This is not what we recommend people do on their own if they using it too. Avoid pregnancy. Um, but you can track what the cervix is doing, whether it's open, closed, hard, soft up or down. Um, women who do track that can feel for cysts and things. And um, I've had quite a few people now say to me once they started charting their cervical fluids and they, they knew what was normal for them. Cause we, we each have our own pattern.

13:00          I know a lot of textbooks say is the set that we will have all our normal and what's, what's the more for us. Um, and they've had things happen, sort of look a bit weird or it smells different or it looks different or is different texts are and they can feel certain textures when they, they feel that their cervix they've gone to their doctor and they've discovered abnormal cells, really early, but they've managed to get rid of those abnormal cells with lifestyle interventions like destress and looking after themselves eating properly, um, gone back and had to repeat and the abnormal cells have gone. So it's really amazing. And then the full symptothermal method, which is when you track your cervical fluids and whether you're spotting, whether you have a period when you put some basal body temperature that is very evidence based and the studies show that if you're dealing with a teacher such as myself or anyone else, whose qualified.

13:52          In that method. It's, I do see some movement in the numbers but it's 99.2% Effective to 99.8% effective when done properly. If you compare that to the pill, which is 98% effective if taken properly and condoms, which is 97% effective and you can use it to choose to avoid pregnancy or to get pregnant because the number of people who are trying the wrong point in their cycle is quite surprising. And also, and this is what I really love about it, you can tell so much that is going on with hormones, with information, with stress, without having to time blood tests or pay for expensive tests or you know, trying to get to the doctors, get the tests, you can start seeing things in the cyc..., In the cycle charts and they can start working on the things that could be causing that and every few months you start seeing improvements.

14:49          So it might be that the temperatures are improved at a certain phase or phases lengthening to or shortened to the length that looks right for them. [inaudible] that's amazing though. Really just being in touch with your body and knowing about it to be like a preventative, not just for pregnancy but for like the whole, with the abnormal cells and everything. I find that completely fascinating. Amazing what you can see from them and even if you're just doing like the high level, how am I feeling? The number people have said it's improved their relationships cause they know they're more combative or argumentative at certain times. So they're going to make an effort not to go down that route and wait until they're in this sort of clear period. And they can express themselves more clearly and there are times when we do communicate better and you can actually optimize your life around your cycles.

15:44          Like if you've got a presentation to do or you've got a first date, you want to do that and you're follicular phase phase leading up to ovulation. If you want to negotiate a pay raise, you're going to be much better communicator when you're ovulating. That's when you want to ask, wow, that's a, that's amazing. This, gosh, I wish I knew all this stuff back then. I know it's just, Oh, I think we're so lucky to have cycles. I know people, I hate having menstrual cycle, but there are so many, we've got a window into what's happening it with our health with our fertility um, what's ha, you know, what we can work with to achieve so much more. And yet it feels like people are blind to it. Yeah. I just think it kind lost somewhere along the way.

16:39          [music].

16:39          There's no avoiding getting personal when you're talking about periods and womb health

16:48          uh, every single month when I would have my cycle, I actually would like feel like the exact precise, like second when it would start. The only way I can kind of describe it, it's almost like when something goes like pop, is that common? Is that, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Your whole mindset suddenly dropped off in particular progesterone. So some, some women suddenly feel literally like the energy levels literally plummet and within minutes that, Oh, I need to go. Yeah, totally. Some people, yeah, they feel physically, Oh yeah. My period's about to start and it does. Um, I also know people as well who just know that they're pregnant. It'll just hit them like, Oh I'm pregnant and they're right. And I've had loads of clients who, well tell me, I know I'm operating right now and we can be a 15 minute process, but you can, there is actually a lymph node that's all up in the leg so you can sort of feel to happen.

17:51          It's not bang on a hundred percent of the time. You feel that lymph node come up by definitely ovulating. But you'd need to ultrasound it to be sure but you know, matches up with the, the child that they're not yet. I'm ovulating, I know I am. It might be that their libido suddenly kicks in. Yeah. But there are definitely a large number of women that are really aware. Um, I tend to know like a day ahead. I'm like, okay, I can feel things changing. It's going to start with today or tomorrow. That's the wonderful thing about charting as well cause you can, if you got regular cycle we can can kind of guess when you're gonna start.

18:32          Right. I used to do that sometimes, but then I would get lazy when I was doing it. Like back in the day I didn't have an app or I didn't have any like downloads. I don't use an app. I still use paper charts. Oh, do you? Okay. Yeah, I prefer it because I can use my own descriptions. I don't know. I think it's really amazing. I think it's so great. I would encourage everyone now and whoever is listening to this to chart chart away. I love it. If it's basic level, it's just mind blowing how much information you can get. I think really being in touch with your body is so important. I had phases in my life where sometimes I was really aware of things, especially I think around the time where I was deciding whether or not I was going to have kids or not.

19:20          That was kind of like a more important part for me to kind of like know what was going on and think about it and if I was going to do it, if I wasn't going to do it. There were chunks of time on either side of that. It wasn't really like aware of all of the nuances that you can know from doing that. I think that's amazing. Like I can do that talk to you all night. So much information and you're so interesting. Like it's just so fascinating to me. I love talking about periods. That's why you're the period whisperer.

19:56          In the next segment of the interview we discuss natural health and finding the appropriate person to work with in the medical field. I embrace all of the, like oils and herbs and things like that. For me. That's how I've been living my life for many years. Like I, when something is wrong with me, I go to, you know what we call like the naturist here. And um, I go there and I'm like, Hey, I have this problem. And they're like, Oh, drink this tea or you know, and I mean, and if I go to the pharmacy and I said, I have a headache, they'll give me, you know, ibuprofen or something. Right. But so, but they're the same way. So, even though they're not like pharmacies can go there. And I've learned a about that usually almost always my rem... The remedies work I guess. So I was saying is do you feel like that some of the kind of more standard health system type of doctors that they're open to that or is there still kind of like a closed viewpoint of like it's just this way? It really varies from

21:08          doctor, doctor, I, I, I've come across some that they're right. Everyone else is wrong. They won't even listen to another doctor. I've got clients who have said the same thing. It's their way or the highway. You've got a problem, you have to go on pill or whatever medication. That's it. Full stop. You don't have any further discussion rights or anything. Um, I've also come across doctors who, are, open minded and I've come across these in my personal experiences as well. Um, I've even had nurses, midwives and doctors contact me to ask me, you know, what is this charting thing? Can you point me to resources? Can you point me to the evidence that shows it works? Which is great. I've even had, yeah, I turned up my own doctor what worked well for women's checks I have PTOS is my underlying condition, but it's been symptom free since I learned everything.

22:04          I've been in PO, um, for having met in my life and you know, she was like, how do you know it's under control? I was like, well I've got my blood sugar level charts here. This is my chart. And she'd not seen a symptothermal chart, she was really interested and she was like, talk me through this. So I was explaining, you know, the basics. And so as you can see here, I ovulate regularly. I have regular 29 day cycles. I have a good length luteal phase is consistently 13, 14 days long. My blood sugar levels are stable. I don't have acne anymore. Um, you know, I'm not losing anymore or up here or gaining down here. So I could show her that cause I massage externally as well. I know where mine sits. So when I had to have my, um, smear tests, or papsmear you call them over there.

22:48          And because of the body literacy, it was so much less painful cause I was like, okay, I know I've got high cervix that you need the external speculum. By the way, I'm slightly retroverted and she's to the left and she was in and out including putting in the speculum and taking out and I think between six and eight seconds and she got the sample. I didn't feel it. Wow. I was in no pain afterwards. That was a really open doctor. She said, this is amazing. I did not know that. You know, I've never had anyone connect all the dots, but it's obvious when you think about it and if anyone's listening who's thinking, well it's not my doctor. You can shop around for best doctor in the UK, you still have the right for a second opinion. You might have to travel to a different surgery, you might have to ask to see another doctor, but it really is worth going round and finding one who will listen to you, who will give you the time. I know some people have to travel in the States because they can't find one within the network or whatever. I think

23:46          it's the time for us all to advocate for better health care for us, and I'm find a doctor that will listen to you because eventually the ones who don't listen to people, and the more we listen to our bodies and we're like, okay, they're giving me something and it's, it's not working, so I'm going to see someone else. They're going to find people avoid seeing them unless it's really really urgent. And so, yeah, but there's also like this kind of weird thing going on in the United States with women's healthcare and they're trying to not allow people to have contraception and they're attacking planned Parenthood and

24:21          all of these as politicians in the UK saying the same thing here as well. Yeah. I just don't get it. Why can't everybody just be happy and take care of themselves? I'm like basic rights! Yeah. I thought it was rather telling. There was something like, uh, there's, there was a picture that went viral. I can't remember how many. It was like a group of white men. Ah, Oh, older men. More my senior signing legislation or women's health, reproductive health. I just had seen something like that. There was not one woman present and not even anybody from other ethnicities or anything. How would they representative of the people that signing the bill on the part of? Yeah. Yeah. That's a whole, well, gosh, the whole politics is, but I don't even understand why women's health is,

25:16          is part of politics that I can't even, I can't even wrap my head around that one.

25:20          Politics are another discussion and too much of a heated topic, but I will re iterate that. I don't think a bunch of old men who don't have wombs should be worried about our wombs.

25:42          Thank you so much for joining me today. I know that everybody who's listening is going to learn so much. I learned so much. I feel so much more informed now and I wish I would have known this 20 years ago or 30 years ago.

25:57          I wish someone would've told you thirty years ago

26:01          Yeah. But the work that you're doing I think is just amazing. So thank you so much for really spending time and talking to me and the whole, and everyone who's listening about all of these issues. So do you want to just, uh, leave your, uh, tell everyone your website or anywhere else that they can find you?

26:20          Yeah, it's pretty easy. Everything's the healthy womb.com or my social media handles are at the healthy womb. Um, I've got a Facebook group. I've got a ton of free resources in the group and on my website. All, linked with women's health. Um, I've got a very extensive blog which answers my people's questions, so yeah, feel free to dig in.

26:44          Okay. And so I will put all of that information in the show notes and thank you so much, Rachel. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

26:56          [music]

27:04          thank you for joining me today in the second part of the interview with Rachel, also known as the period whisperer. If you liked this episode, please share it with your friends and please leave a review until next time.

27:59          [music].

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