Speaker 1: Wind Down with Janet Kramer and I'm Heart Radio podcast.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: On this week's Adult Education, I got KB here with
Speaker 3: me and we're going to talk periods.
Speaker 1: Girl off five days ly.
Speaker 4: I don't know about d I could be ambushed any moment,
Speaker 4: and that's the season of life we're in.
Speaker 3: Oh, but I cannot wait to talk about I need.
Speaker 3: I actually have something really embarrassing I'm going to admit.
Speaker 3: And we have doctor Hazel Wallace here, so let's just
Speaker 3: get her on and I'll just go right ahead and
Speaker 3: embarrass myself.
Speaker 1: Sisters in cycle. Ohway we go. Hi doctor, how are
Speaker 1: you going?
Speaker 3: Doctor Hazel Wallace? We have a lot of questions for
Speaker 3: you. You're wearing such an appropriate color. I'm feeling pastive, Yes exactly,
Speaker 3: she's wearing red. You're feeling got a book, not just
Speaker 3: a period. So this this is good?
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for coming on the show. We're just
Speaker 3: going to jump right into it. Is that cool?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Perfect?
Speaker 1: Great?
Speaker 3: So I think I'm I'm honestly embarrassed to admit this,
Speaker 3: but I still don't know and I should, as a
Speaker 3: forty almost two year old woman, know what my phases
Speaker 3: of my periods are and I don't like when I
Speaker 3: go do my blood work, Nate's like, oh, you're in
Speaker 3: your loop. Couldn't even pronounce it face, And I'm like,
Speaker 3: I should know. How does a man know this more
Speaker 3: than I like? But I don't think i've ever I
Speaker 3: don't ever remember being taught the phases of our periods.
Speaker 1: Never ever.
Speaker 3: I just was like, you started your period, you're done
Speaker 3: with your period. And then it wasn't until I started
Speaker 3: following Tanya rad and like getting to know her because
Speaker 3: she talks a lot about her you know, the whatever phases.
Speaker 1: But I just I still don't know. I don't understand it.
Speaker 3: And she's like, hey, you shouldn't work out in this
Speaker 3: phase and that, and I'm like what huh?
Speaker 4: And there's no where we're not supposed to make decisions.
Speaker 4: Did you know this?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I know nothing, So can you just educate my forty
Speaker 3: two years of And I mean, this is so embarrassing, Like,
Speaker 3: am I the only woman that doesn't know this?
Speaker 1: Or do other women? Like I don't help me understand?
Speaker 2: No, I mean it's so common when we learn about periods.
Speaker 2: We learn just about the bleeding phase, maybe a little
Speaker 2: bit about what to do when you bleed, tampons, things
Speaker 2: like that, but nothing about the twenty three or so
Speaker 2: days of the.
Speaker 5: Entire menstrual cycle.
Speaker 2: And during that entire cycle, your hormones are fluctuating, so
Speaker 2: you don't feel the same on any single day. So
Speaker 2: it's just wild that we are not told anything about
Speaker 2: this when we go through puberty, and again, like up
Speaker 2: to your thirties or forty, some women are only figuring
Speaker 2: out what's happening to their bodies now. I think there's
Speaker 2: a big movement to learn more and be more autonomous
Speaker 2: when it comes to our bodies.
Speaker 5: So I love that. I love that we're having this conversation, but.
Speaker 2: I think just so we're all on the same page
Speaker 2: when it comes to the menstrual cycle. We're talking about
Speaker 2: a textbook twenty eight day cycle, but it's normal if
Speaker 2: your cycle length is anywhere between twenty one to thirty
Speaker 2: five days, and in that time, the key hormones that
Speaker 2: are fluctuating are estrogen and progesterone, and yes, they in
Speaker 2: fluence when we have our bleed, which is typically one
Speaker 2: to five days the first five days of your cycle,
Speaker 2: but they also influence everything from your skin health, your mood,
Speaker 2: your gut health, even your cravings. So it's really important
Speaker 2: we learn what's happening. So that first part of your
Speaker 2: cycle is your bleeding phase, and after that we know.
Speaker 1: What isn't it technically called there's a term for it.
Speaker 5: So that's your follicular phase volicular phase.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, I do know that. I do know that one,
Speaker 3: but the other, like the lunar is there a lunear
Speaker 3: or something with an.
Speaker 5: L louteal phase?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So, and an easy way to think about
Speaker 2: it is this is how I learned it in med
Speaker 2: school is follicular comes first, louteal comes last, and so
Speaker 2: the follicular phase lasts the first fourteen days on average.
Speaker 2: It includes the bleeding phase, but it also includes the
Speaker 2: days afterwards when your estrogen rises and you feel usually
Speaker 2: a lot better than ovulation happens, which is right in
Speaker 2: the middle of your cycle. And then you move into
Speaker 2: the lutel phase, which is when progesterone, the other hormone,
Speaker 2: starts to rise. That's usually when women don't feel great
Speaker 2: because you're getting symptoms like tender boobs, You're maybe feeling
Speaker 2: a bit bloated, sleep might be disrupted. There's quite a
Speaker 2: few things that could happen during that time, and for
Speaker 2: some women they sail through it, but for ninety percent
Speaker 2: of us we get some sort of pre menstrual symptom
Speaker 2: during that time.
Speaker 4: I am not sailing. I am just not sailing. It's
Speaker 4: getting worse.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll say that there's something in the forties where
Speaker 3: I always kind of knew when my period was coming,
Speaker 3: usually the week before. I get a little agitated, I
Speaker 3: get a little you know, annoyed with things quicker than normal.
Speaker 3: But now in my forties, I'm like, it's extra like.
Speaker 3: I'm extra annoyed, I'm extra angry, I'm extra like likable,
Speaker 3: and I'm.
Speaker 4: Extra pad tie, extra pad time.
Speaker 1: And I want some really bad yeah. Yeah, and carbs.
Speaker 3: Last night, I'm five days late for my period, which
Speaker 3: is not which is very typical for being forty two.
Speaker 3: I think, and the changes of the period, but I
Speaker 3: always know when I down a bag of chips and
Speaker 3: I'm like, wow, she's gamming.
Speaker 4: And when you're as you're eating it, you're wondering what
Speaker 4: you'll eat next.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So is it common for hormones to I mean, obviously
Speaker 3: the commons, yes, to change when you get older, but
Speaker 3: this the mood swings is that a typical difference when
Speaker 3: you get older.
Speaker 5: Really common.
Speaker 2: It's common for your cycle length to change as well
Speaker 2: as like through time, it never usually stays the same.
Speaker 2: Some women say also after pregnancy they find that their
Speaker 2: cycles are completely different to what they were.
Speaker 5: Like prior to that.
Speaker 2: And then as we approach like late thirties forties, cycle
Speaker 2: length can change again. It can become longer or shorter.
Speaker 2: Symptoms can be a bit more disruptive because when we
Speaker 2: think about like approaching the perimenopause and the menopause, it's
Speaker 2: not like your hormones just garadually decline in this really lovely,
Speaker 2: you know, easy to manage fashion.
Speaker 5: It's really erratic. It's up and down, and.
Speaker 2: So it's really hot to track that and for some
Speaker 2: women that can be quite an emotional roller coaster, and
Speaker 2: also physically the symptoms can be intense. But your experience
Speaker 2: of having like cravings, especially for like salty foods, is
Speaker 2: very common for all women. And one of the things
Speaker 2: I find fascinating is there is a biological reason for this.
Speaker 2: So in that luteal phase, when progesterone's high, you're resting
Speaker 2: metabolic rates, so that's how many calories you burn at
Speaker 2: rest actually increases, so some studies report that you're burning
Speaker 2: three hundred extra calories than normal during that time, so
Speaker 2: in the week before your period, and our bodies are
Speaker 2: very smart, so they just we just naturally eat more.
Speaker 2: And because we are looking for foods that are high
Speaker 2: in energy, it's typically foods that are salty, sweety, sweet,
Speaker 2: and fatty. So chocolate is like reported to be the
Speaker 2: most commonly reported craving during that time. But I find
Speaker 2: it's quite interesting that this is happening for a biological reason.
Speaker 2: It's not us going crazy and actually having a bit
Speaker 2: more compassion towards ourselves. And you know, my body's working
Speaker 2: hard right now, so it's not about just living off
Speaker 2: chocolate for that two weeks prior to your period coming,
Speaker 2: but maybe giving yourself a bit more grace and and
Speaker 2: also thinking about right, I should be having regular meal times.
Speaker 2: We're not skipping meals during this time. We're not, you know,
Speaker 2: having unbalanced meals. We're making sure we're getting our protein
Speaker 2: in our complex carbs are fats, so we're supporting our
Speaker 2: energy as well.
Speaker 3: I would personally like for you to speak to the
Speaker 3: husbands for a second, because I would like the segment
Speaker 3: to have the wives press play Right at this moment,
Speaker 3: what would you like husbands to know about that week
Speaker 3: before and during the period, Like if you could just
Speaker 3: be like, here is a gift that I'm going to
Speaker 3: give to every husband about your wife's period, what would
Speaker 3: that be?
Speaker 2: This is such a great question, And I think first
Speaker 2: and foremost, don't just assume it's hormones. We do this
Speaker 2: to ourselves. We're like, oh, you know, I'm really moody
Speaker 2: or I'm really forgetful. It must be my period coming.
Speaker 2: But there's so many other things. So first of all,
Speaker 2: don't assume, but be supportive. So something that's really interesting
Speaker 2: is when we look at the research around PMS or
Speaker 2: pre menstrual syndrome. There's research where they looked at a
Speaker 2: woman having couples therapy or therapy on our own, and
Speaker 2: it actually shows that having couples therapy is more effective
Speaker 2: at reducing your PMS symptoms.
Speaker 5: And there's a lot of other research showing.
Speaker 2: How how much our partner actually influences our experience of
Speaker 2: our cycle.
Speaker 5: So if they can be.
Speaker 2: More supportive the week before our period, we're actually going
Speaker 2: to have a better time.
Speaker 5: So they're going to have a better time, So.
Speaker 2: It's an everyone's best interest for you know, if it
Speaker 2: means taking the bins out or you know, picking the
Speaker 2: kids up, or choosing to make dinner that week, that's
Speaker 2: going to be really helpful for everyone.
Speaker 4: Okay, there's a lot that goes into what's wild is obviously,
Speaker 4: I mean, I'll be forty four soon, so I've been
Speaker 4: doing emi late. Bloomer didn't get my cycle. It didn't
Speaker 4: start till I was sixteen, so that's pretty late. But
Speaker 4: I feel so naive when it comes to just how
Speaker 4: to well nurture myself over those weeks. Like I know
Speaker 4: that there's certain times we shouldn't be exercising, or maybe
Speaker 4: exercising less. You know, obviously, I think movement just for
Speaker 4: anxiety and overall mood is probably a necessity for any woman,
Speaker 4: any person, but particularly women. But I know there's certain
Speaker 4: times we shouldn't be making big decisions. There's because I've noticed,
Speaker 4: even more recently, there's this huge push for me to
Speaker 4: not I feel so wildly and decisive and that's not
Speaker 4: my character and it's driving me nuts. I feel like
Speaker 4: I'm stuck in my own body, and then you know,
Speaker 4: I shame and judge myself or like, why can't you
Speaker 4: just make a decision Kristin, This shouldn't be so difficult,
Speaker 4: but I'm so it's so foreign feeling to me. So
Speaker 4: walk us through, like how do we best support just say,
Speaker 4: you have a typical twenty eight day cycle, how can
Speaker 4: we be eating or moving or what feels most beneficial
Speaker 4: in which phase?
Speaker 3: And I just to add on to this, I don't
Speaker 3: know if I read this right or wrong, but I've
Speaker 3: been doing this because Glamour told me when I was
Speaker 3: twenty that you lose more calories when you're on your period.
Speaker 3: So I've been like hustling my butt off on my periods.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm gonna lose more galories because Glamor told
Speaker 3: me that back in the day.
Speaker 4: Is that a myth or not? And I think that
Speaker 4: sponsored by hydroxy cup and let's go to the good doctor.
Speaker 2: It's a really good question when it comes to like
Speaker 2: how should you live across your cycle? And the thing
Speaker 2: is like, I really don't think that we should be
Speaker 2: telling women what they canta can do, So I don't
Speaker 2: believe in telling women they shouldn't exercise when it comes
Speaker 2: to different phases of their cycle. Now the caveat to
Speaker 2: that is you may feel like your performance drops in
Speaker 2: certain parts of your cycle. Typically that's during your period,
Speaker 2: and you might find things feel harder in the gym, So.
Speaker 5: We talk about that like your perceived efforts.
Speaker 2: So maybe last week you were able to lift this
Speaker 2: particular weight ten times, you can only get to eight
Speaker 2: reps this week.
Speaker 5: That's completely normal. But exercise has an.
Speaker 2: Antioxidant effect and it's anti inflammatory, so it can help
Speaker 2: with symptoms. So my approach to it is I think
Speaker 2: we should support women moving, but it's very individual on
Speaker 2: what your ability is. Now, we all know women who
Speaker 2: have really awful periods and they just can't get off
Speaker 2: the floor during their cycles. But we know other women who, yes,
Speaker 2: they may have some cramping, but actually they can get
Speaker 2: up and they can keep going. And for those women,
Speaker 2: I think it's really beneficial to keep moving, even if
Speaker 2: that's something like lower intensity, because that feels better for
Speaker 2: you right now. Maybe it's you're swapping like a barrier's
Speaker 2: boot camp for a yoga class because you don't really
Speaker 2: want to be putting yourself through that intensity during that time,
Speaker 2: and that's absolutely fine. The risk of telling women not
Speaker 2: to exercise during one or two weeks of the month
Speaker 2: means that we're going to become undertrained. And as we
Speaker 2: know women are, we tend to be less active than
Speaker 2: men as well. Our bones are a bit more brittle,
Speaker 2: so we need to keep them strong. So my message
Speaker 2: is track your cycle, learn about what weeks for you
Speaker 2: you feel maybe less strong, you feel less energetic, and
Speaker 2: try to be try to keep moving, but maybe plan
Speaker 2: more low intensity activities because we.
Speaker 5: Want to keep that up.
Speaker 2: And then the weeks that you feel stronger and for
Speaker 2: women that's typically the week after your period. As estrogen rises,
Speaker 2: you know, you might feel more energetic, your motivation's up.
Speaker 2: We even talk about this thing like an ovulation glow
Speaker 2: because estrogen really helps with like making your skin look
Speaker 2: you know, more glowy. It boosts collagen production. So that's
Speaker 2: a really great time to do a lot of things.
Speaker 2: Make big decision is like, you know, go into the workplace,
Speaker 2: decide to take on that project. But it's important that
Speaker 2: we try to support women and cross the entire cycles
Speaker 2: so that we're not having this stop start effect to life.
Speaker 3: Remind me again, the dip in for the moods? Is
Speaker 3: it the dip in progesterone that gives us the that anxiety,
Speaker 3: annoyance feeling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so progesterone and estrogen are both high in that
Speaker 2: lately teal phase, so like the week before you appeared,
Speaker 2: and then they both drop, and it's that drop that
Speaker 2: we think the thing is. The drop or the level
Speaker 2: of hormones is very similar in all women, but some
Speaker 2: women are very sensitive to the drop, so that it's
Speaker 2: kind of.
Speaker 5: Like falling off a clip.
Speaker 2: And then it happens again when you go through postpartum
Speaker 2: and then through the menopause, just on varying different levels,
Speaker 2: and so you can be feeling just like incredibly flat
Speaker 2: from one day to the next. And I think again
Speaker 2: thinking about how we can support women during that time,
Speaker 2: or I support yourself so that you don't really feel
Speaker 2: like you have to press palls on everything again, trying
Speaker 2: to get moving, doubling down on sleep. Sleep is often
Speaker 2: really disrupted during that time, and so if it means
Speaker 2: getting into bed a little bit earlier, cracking the window
Speaker 2: open and making sure your room is nice and cool,
Speaker 2: dark and quiet, even swapping to pajamas that are really breathable,
Speaker 2: like cotton pajamas as opposed to silk and just giving
Speaker 2: yourself those extra little boosts so that that time is
Speaker 2: a little bit easier, and again thinking about your cravings.
Speaker 2: Maybe during that time you are meal prepping a bit more.
Speaker 2: You're thinking more about having those balanced meals. We're not
Speaker 2: skipping meals, and we also are chatting to our partners
Speaker 2: about what's coming up and how they can support.
Speaker 5: Us as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so tired right before my period. It's wild.
Speaker 4: I'll take a nap every it is clockwork, and I
Speaker 4: won't know right now. I'm in the phase of not
Speaker 4: knowing when the period's coming, a little bit of an
Speaker 4: ambush situation happening. But I can tell the day before
Speaker 4: because I ravenously eat and I'm not eating for like sport.
Speaker 4: I'm just I like literally can't get full.
Speaker 3: It's wild. And then I always want to take a nap,
Speaker 3: and that's not like me. What I do notice that
Speaker 3: changes is want I don't usually want to have sex
Speaker 3: leading up to my period, but on my period. I
Speaker 3: think it's common that women have more higher sex drive.
Speaker 3: So is it healthy and okay to have sex on
Speaker 3: a period or what is your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's completely healthy and safe to have sex junior period,
Speaker 2: and there's actually some kind of hypothetically some research that
Speaker 2: it may help with pain reduction, so if you have
Speaker 2: like a lot of crams, because the impact of an
Speaker 2: orgasm basically releases a lot of pain relieving chemicals, so
Speaker 2: it can help theoretically.
Speaker 4: I believe that I do. I think it does help.
Speaker 4: You don't feel sexy, but you do it anyways.
Speaker 2: You know that's it, and you know if you are
Speaker 2: feeling like that's something that you want to do. It
Speaker 2: may be from an evolutionary perspective. After your period, you
Speaker 2: approach opulation, so it's almost like your body's priming. Now
Speaker 2: some women have the opposite effect and they do not
Speaker 2: want to think about sex or being near like a
Speaker 2: partner or anything during that time. And again it's like
Speaker 2: a difference in like symptoms, it's a difference in hormone profiles.
Speaker 2: And I guess the take home messages like, no two
Speaker 2: women are the same and.
Speaker 5: No two menstrual cycles are the same.
Speaker 2: So it's like it's such an individual thing on how
Speaker 2: we can guide women when it comes to their menstrual cycle.
Speaker 1: What is the biggest red flag with a period.
Speaker 2: If it starts to become a regular. Now, that could
Speaker 2: mean a few things. As we talked about, it can
Speaker 2: become longer your cycle and can come longer as you
Speaker 2: approach your forties. But if it starts becoming a regular
Speaker 2: or more ratic and then suddenly disappears and you're not
Speaker 2: approaching menopause age, that could be a sign that a
Speaker 2: you're incredibly stressed. Sometimes that can happen if you go
Speaker 2: through a big life event, like when we went through
Speaker 2: the COVID pandemic, a lot of women found their cycles
Speaker 2: just went all over the place because our cycles are
Speaker 2: very tightly linked to like cortisol.
Speaker 5: Production, stress in our body.
Speaker 2: But also if you're over exercising, under fueling, that can
Speaker 2: cause your cycles to disappear. It's very common in women
Speaker 2: that I see in my clinic. Other really like big
Speaker 2: red flag symptoms for me would be extremely painful periods.
Speaker 2: For a long time, we've normalized painful periods, and periods
Speaker 2: should not be so painful that they stop you from
Speaker 2: what you're doing. They should not stop you from going
Speaker 2: to work. You should not be using annually for or
Speaker 2: holidays because your periods are that bad. But unfortunately a
Speaker 2: lot of women do because they're afraid of the stigma
Speaker 2: to speak up to their employer and say, hey, I'm
Speaker 2: really struggling about my periods. But if we don't investigate
Speaker 2: why that's painful, you could be experiencing something like endometriosis,
Speaker 2: which is in packs one in ten women, and it
Speaker 2: takes so long to get diagnosed because we don't take women.
Speaker 5: Seriously when it comes to their pain.
Speaker 2: So painful periods are regular periods, very heavy bleeding where
Speaker 2: you're maybe flooding through a lot, you're waking up at
Speaker 2: not because of it, you're having to use two period
Speaker 2: products at a time. And then the final thing as
Speaker 2: well would be bleeding when you're not supposed to be bleeding.
Speaker 2: So in between your cycle, after sex and after the
Speaker 2: menopause is there.
Speaker 4: And I have a really beautiful, wonderful women's group. My
Speaker 4: OB's office is incredible, But I know that a lot
Speaker 4: of women struggle with going to their OBS or you know,
Speaker 4: the no bgui N office and kind of getting dismissed
Speaker 4: and saying what you're saying, which is like we always
Speaker 4: thought it was so common, and so that's just that
Speaker 4: is what's the best way for them to advocate? What
Speaker 4: are what's the best way for us to advocate for
Speaker 4: ourselves when we're in a doctor's office and going like,
Speaker 4: I think something's wrong here, you know, And a lot
Speaker 4: of women have like heavy clotting at the beginning, and
Speaker 4: a lot of that is not normal, even if it's typical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's key what you said, Like, even if it's common,
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean it's normal. One thing I love, and
Speaker 2: one thing that's really helpful for doctors is if you
Speaker 2: come in with a symptom diary. Now this doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be like you don't have to keep a notepad,
Speaker 2: but if you're tracking your cycle, and like some of
Speaker 2: the cycle tracking apps are really clever now and you
Speaker 2: can track a lot of things you can track like
Speaker 2: mood symptoms, how have your bleeding was, any other symptoms.
Speaker 5: Having that to.
Speaker 2: Hand so you can show a pattern of like when
Speaker 2: it's been happening, how severe it is, is really helpful
Speaker 2: as a first hand going in with what you're concerned with.
Speaker 2: I like when a patient would say to me, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm really concerned it might VX or why, because then
Speaker 2: we can really cut to the chase quickly and I
Speaker 2: can reassure you, or we can go down that route
Speaker 2: of exploring why it might or might not be that
Speaker 2: thing the other thing. That's really helpful, and I hate
Speaker 2: that we kind of are at this point where I
Speaker 2: have to suggest this, but it's bringing to with you
Speaker 2: just so you have a bit more confidence with speaking
Speaker 2: up for yourself, or if you don't have anyone who
Speaker 2: can come with you, having someone at the end of
Speaker 2: the phone. I've had Patience do that so many times
Speaker 2: where they've said, like, you know, my partner cup be here,
Speaker 2: but they're just listening in. And sometimes it just gives
Speaker 2: you the confidence to say, you know what, I don't
Speaker 2: feel like you're listening to me. I'm feeling a bit
Speaker 2: dismissed and having someone to back you up. And if
Speaker 2: all of that fails, you can also ask to see
Speaker 2: another doctor if you feel like the doctor that you're
Speaker 2: with is just not taking you seriously.
Speaker 3: Well, Doctor Hazel Wallace, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 3: You have a book that came out in September. It's
Speaker 3: called not Just a Period, Reclaim your Cycle, Harness your hormones,
Speaker 3: and take control of your health. We so appreciate you
Speaker 3: having this conversation with us.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you, No we know our phases. I know so
Speaker 1: excited