WEBVTT - Period Brain: Rethinking Hormones, Cycles, and Everything In Between - Lab111 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:09.920 I'm t T and I'm Zakiyah and this is Dope Labs. 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:14.600 Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.639 science with pop culture and a healthy dose of friendship. 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:22.720 Okay, t T. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.280 Think back, how many times have you heard somebody say, Oh, 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:28.760 she's probably just on her period? 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.440 Like that explains everything. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.879 Too many times? And I hate it. I really hate it, because, yeah, periods. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.040 People use periods as an excuse for every mood, every craving, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.080 and every decision. And folks say things like, oh, a 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.800 woman shouldn't be president because she has the nuclear codes 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:47.440 and she was star war and all. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.920 These things like that. It's very annoying to me. Hey 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:51.240 not on my watch. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.639 What's wild about all of that is that a lot 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.280 of people never really learned the full picture. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:00:59.000 You know. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:01.720 I think probably middle school is when we get the basics. 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:06.040 You know, bleeding cramps, paths, and champs. That's it, that's it, period. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.640 But what we don't learn is how cycles affect your 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.560 energy and your focus and even sometimes the way your 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:14.199 brain works. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.880 I mean, so, whether you have a cycle, or you 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.720 know someone that does, or just want to understand the 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.959 science behind it all, this episode is for you. 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.200 So let's jump into the recitation. What do we know? 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.920 Well, I know that most people with the uterus have periods, 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.440 and I don't care what you say, periods. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:34.760 Yes, amen, amen, amen. 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.880 And we know that there's a cycle that is about 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:42.000 a month and that our hormone levels fluctuate. We also 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.760 know that a lot of people don't know what's going 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.120 on at the chemical level or molecular lesson. 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:53.360 This is with I am people. I have no clue. Okay, well, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:54.360 then what do we want to know? 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.280 I want to know a lot of things. I want 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.720 to know one why it's so hard for folks to 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.200 talk about periods. You would think that with so many 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.760 people who have periods every single month, that this would 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.200 be something that we would all feel comfortable with. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:11.920 Yeah, but we still had in tampons. That's the problem. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.760 And I don't know why. 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.200 You know, it's like one end of the extreme or 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.000 the other we don't talk about periods at all, or 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:21.160 people like free bleeding, let it be all over your pants. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.720 No, I think there's something. Okay, there is a middle ground. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.760 Okay, Yeah, I want to see more there, more clustering there. 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.520 I want to know the hormones that are at play 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.560 the key. I know you know bodily things are your wheelhouse, 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.280 but we've talked about it, so I won't say I 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:40.840 don't understand at all, because you have trained me up, friend, 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.080 But I just want to understand more about the fluctuations 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.519 and like how all of this works. 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.600 And I think even just knowing generally what the hormones 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:54.639 are doesn't answer the question about how they are regulated 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.320 and how that's linked to like PMS and other menstrual conditions. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.160 So I I want to know. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.960 See all of those puzzle pieces together, yes, and I 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:05.720 want to know if there's anything that we can do 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.799 to have these periods go go easy on us, go. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.639 Is sinking? Where's the deal? So we don't have any 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.440 more of that, let's jump into the recitation. 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.560 We brought in doctor Sarah Hill. She's a researcher who 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.680 spent years studying the science of periods and hormones, and 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:32.119 she's here to give us the real story. 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.440 I'm doctor Sarah Hill, and I'm a research psychologist and 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.760 author of This is Your Brain on birth control and 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:39.480 my new book, The Period Brain. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.160 I loved the way the books started, and so that's 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.160 where I want our conversation is start with addressing the 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.560 elephant in the room and asking you, why does talking 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.240 about our periods make us so uncomfortable. 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.840 I think that for a really long time, women were 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.280 made to feel like lesser, like sort of inferior versions 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.680 of men because we have hormone cycle. And so I 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.960 think it makes everybody get a little bit queasy if 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.720 we start talking too much about the way that women's 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.240 hormones can affect the way that they experience the world, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.720 just because it feels like something that could be used 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:13.720 against us. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:15.840 And you know, and there's and I understand that fear. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.200 I mean, it's like, this is a history of women, right, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.680 It's like anytime we talk about anything that makes us 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.440 different from men, that can be turned on its head. 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:25.919 But the truth of the matter is that there's no 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.480 truth to that being a sign of weakness or problematic. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.320 So even though all of us have been led to 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.279 believe that the fact that women have two primary sex hormones, 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.320 estrogen and progesterone instead of one like testosterone, that there's 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.520 something wrong with that, right, and that that means that 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.720 you're flaky and you can't be depended on because you know, 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.159 you're just whimsical and capricious. That's just simply not true. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.560 It's like our hormones cycle, and so they're cyclical, but 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.440 they're not unpredictable. And one thing that I always tell 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.080 people is like, if you tell me a woman's age, 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:00.760 and you tell me I made the first day of 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.920 her last menstrual cycle, I can tell you with an 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.840 alarming degree of certainty what's happening with her sex hormones, right, 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.560 And the same isn't true for men because men's hormone, 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.760 their primary sex hormone, testosterone, is actually a little bit capricious, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.640 and it responds to anything like if a man sees 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.160 a beautiful woman, his testosterone goes up. If he loses 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.799 an argument with a friend, or he loses a competition, 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.520 his testosterone goes down. If his favorite sports team wins. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:26.840 It goes up. 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.000 If his favorite sports team loses, it goes down. And 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.920 there's even been research showing that men's testosterone changes if 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.360 they see a gun, right, So if men see a gun, 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.760 their tesosterone goes up. I mean, so it's like, whose 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.560 hormone is flighty and capricious? 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:41.039 Now? 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:43.880 And so I think that there's a tendency to get 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:45.839 a little uncomfortable about these things. But I think that 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:50.000 we need to stop stigmatizing these conversations because so many 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.360 women aren't ever taught anything about what they're you know, 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:54.960 they're like, oh, okay, you can get a period, and 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.440 you know, here's some you know, menstrual products, and then 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.200 it's just like right, you know, that's the end of 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.240 the conversation. But there's no larger conversation about, Okay, like 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.520 why is it that we have these cycles? What do 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.279 the changes in hormones do in terms of changing the 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.960 way that we think and feel, experience the world our 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.200 sexual desire or appetites or calorie needs, Like we're not 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:16.560 taught at any of that. Like I had to get 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.279 a PhD To learn that stuff, you know, and it 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.080 was just crazy. You know, you shouldn't have to go 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.720 to grad school to learn your body. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.440 Doctor Hill, I want to pause and just stop for 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.960 a moment to talk about that complexity right now. What 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.360 you just said is recyclical, and that's been used against 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.960 us in mainstream media and in conversation around women, because 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.400 when I was thinking about it as you were talking, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.400 everything we rely on is cyclical, the day and night 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.240 cyclical cyclical, all the calendar cyclical. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:49.719 Okay, also cyclical. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.239 Okay, Yeah, that's not reacting, like right, So I'm just saying, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.719 let's all pay attention and reading is fundamental when we 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:03.039 think about the complexity in how the sexes are different. 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.560 I think in science and research, sometimes that's been flatten 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.800 and like people don't look at those differences. I want 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.320 you to talk a little bit about how different industries, 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.360 particularly the medical industry, feed into that or why they 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:16.720 may even want it to be that way. 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.440 Yeah, there is this tendency and people kind of talk 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.280 about it with medicine. You know, you hear about this 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.480 term like bikini medicine, which is just this idea that 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.600 doctors assume that men and women are essentially interchangeable except 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.320 for the parts of the body that can be covered 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:33.720 by a bikini. Right, And so it's this idea that 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.440 women's hearts and men's hearts are the same, women's lungs 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.440 and men's lungs are the same, women's brains and men's 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.120 brains are the same, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.680 But there's a growing body of research in all of 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.600 these different fields of science that support the idea that 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.120 this is not true, right, and that there's sex differentiation 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.800 in everything is you know, even these little tiny details 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:54.840 of our body, like the way that our bodies like 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:56.160 to deal with bacteria. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:56.800 Right. 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:59.720 Women's immune systems tend to deal with bacterial threats using 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.040 ones of mechanisms. Men's bodies tend to deal with bacterial 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.920 threats using a different set of mechanisms, right. And the 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.800 reason that this is the case is just that women's 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.400 bodies are wired for pregnancy and reproduction. And this is 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:14.360 true whether we want to have babies or not. It's 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.480 like our bodies were built for that. And what that 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:18.120 means is that our body had to come up with 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.360 a whole bunch of workarounds from everything from our circulatory 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.720 system tor metabolism to our immune system to be able 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.560 to support another human being living inside of our body, 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.640 you know, alien type form, you know, where it's like 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.200 we had to our body had to figure out what 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.959 to do with all that, and that's created for all 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.800 of these different systems workarounds that they've had to do. 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.680 And part of the sort of legacy of all of 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.240 that is that you get sex differentiation in all of 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:48.280 these different types of systems. And unfortunately this is inconvenient 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.040 for science, right because scientists would like to just be 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.719 able to collect data on a handful of people, right, 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.559 Men a little bit, some men's and women no different 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.800 and not have to worry about testing for sex different right, 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:02.560 because that means that they have to if they're going 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.760 to test for sex differences, they have to collect twice 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.679 as much data. And then with women, because they have 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.520 cycling hormones, they've got to deal with that. I think 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.360 it was like nineteen ninety three when the National Institutes 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.120 of Health required science researchers to include women in biomedical research. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.160 And the way that researchers handled that wasn't by this 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.800 is wonderful opportunity to learn about women. Like let's collect 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.840 data on equal numbers of men and women and look 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.760 for sex differentiation. And since women have these cycling hormones, 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.040 let's measure them at different cycle phases to see whether 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.800 they respond to treatment differently depending on what's going on 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:44.240 with their hormones. No, Instead, what scientists said, like, oh, shoot, okay, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.520 we have to include women in research, and they've got 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.360 these pesky hormones that cycle. So here's an idea. Let's 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.200 just include some women in our research, right, not enough 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.320 to actually test for sex differences. And for studying humans, 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.320 let's only study them when hormones are really low, so 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.280 in the early phases of the menstrual cycle. So that 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.840 way we don't have to worry about their hormones interfering 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:09.839 with the results. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.719 Which is so crazy, because it's crazy, it's. 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.199 Crazy, I know, it's so a few days. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.800 So they study women in this period of five days, 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.560 you know, and in non human animals. At anytime there's 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.280 a like a medical intervention that's new, like a new 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.920 drug or a new therapy or new treatment, it always 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.680 has to go through this pre clinical process first, where 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.040 it's tested usually on mice and rats. And the way 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.280 that they do this pre clinical work to include females, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:39.360 what they do to manage their hormonal variation is that 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.520 they just pull their ovaries out, and so they're testing 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.320 on females with no sex hormones. And so they're like, 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.199 look at us, we're including females and research without recognizing 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:54.840 the fact that women are inherently hormonal, right, It's like 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.000 we are, like our hormones are part of who we are, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.760 and as a hormone cycle that changes the way that 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.480 every thing acts in the body, and then then just 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.800 ignoring it, removing that is the source of things. 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:05.120 Wow. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.360 So it allows us to include women as research subjects 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.559 in science, but it doesn't teach us anything about women 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:13.480 because we're studying them in this. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.199 Little tiny corner of their. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.400 Cycle when hormones are low, and we know very little 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:35.960 about them when they're in states when hormones are high. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.839 Let's talk about hormones because that is that is the 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.640 piaced resistance, and this whole thing is our hormones. Can 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:50.200 you explain the period cycle from start to finish because 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.000 I feel like I just learned what the lutele phase 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.560 was like six months ago on TikTok, right, and somebody 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.280 told me about it, and I was like, do we 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:57.800 all have that? 0:11:58.160 --> 0:11:59.959 Yeah? That's so funny, Like is it a just. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.959 I was like, I've never heard of this, So can 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.680 you tell us what's happening hormonally through those different stages 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.880 and talk about estrogen versus progestion. 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.920 Absolutely, absolutely the menstrual cycle, Like the day you get 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.800 your period is the first day of your cycle, and 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.559 when you get your period, hormone levels are at their 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.720 lowest in the cycle. So even though women are oftentimes 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.400 given a hard time about being. 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.800 Hormonal, you know when they're on their period. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.640 This is actually when we release hormonal and when the 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.640 brain notices that hormone levels are low, it will stimulate 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.319 the ovaries through the pituitary land. So it'll tell the 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:37.480 pituitary gland, stimulate the ovaries and let's start some egg development, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.880 because it knows that if hormone levels are low, it 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.240 means that they're not pregnant and it's time to start 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.800 maturing egg follicles, so that way they can prepare for ovulation. 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.240 And the ovaries then will start maturing egg follicles. And 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:54.560 as these follicles begin to develop, they actually start releasing estrogen, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:56.880 and so this is one of the primary ways that 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:01.200 the female body produces estrogen or estrodile from egg development. 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.480 So after a few days of these egg follicles starting 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.520 to mature, one will take over. It becomes it's known 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.240 as the dominant follicle, which ever one is like growing 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.640 the fastest and most robust. It's sort of the chosen one, 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.920 and then it continues to grow. The others dissolve back 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.000 into the body. And this is going to be the 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.240 egg that's going to be released at ovulation. Right now, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.199 this egg is maturing and maturing and maturing. Estrogen levels 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.000 are rising and rising and rising, and then you're getting 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.840 to the period of ovulation. And ovulation is of course 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.680 when an egg is released, and during this time estrogen 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.080 levels are super high. So estrogen levels peak and you ovulate, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.880 and the period about five days prior to ovulation and 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.640 then within twenty four hours of ovulation itself, this is 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.640 the period in the cycle that's known as the fertile window, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.120 and this is when sex can lead to conception. And 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.400 so this is a time when women's bodies are very 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:03.480 much oriented towards all things attraction and sex. Right, so, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:05.960 estrogen we can think about these first fourteen days of 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.480 the cycle as being all about getting all of the 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.280 pieces in place for sex to lead to conception. I mean, 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.240 it's all oriented toward attraction and sex. And so women 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.520 tend to feel sexier in this estrogenic phase of the cycle. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.280 They tend to have more sex, they sound sexier, they 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.920 smell sexier, they move sexier. They're better able to discriminate 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.320 between high and low quality mates because their sensory neurons 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.360 are super sensitive to these fine tune differences between men. 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.240 Okay, so the first day of your period is day one, 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.320 and your hormones are at their lowest. Then your body 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.680 starts prepping for possible pregnancy, whether you want it or not, 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.760 and things start to get a little sexy. That's the 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.800 first fourteen days. What about the rest of the month. 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:53.160 Now, that empty egg follicle actually becomes a temporary endocrine 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.640 structure that lasts about two weeks, and it releases women's 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.720 second primary sex hormone, which is progesterone. This is that 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.880 luteal phase, right, that so few people know about. And 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.640 this is the last two weeks of your cycle before 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.240 your next period begins, And this is your body is 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.600 actually shifting during this time from a state where you 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.880 were optimized for sex and attraction, and it's shifting you 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.200 into a state that is optimized for implantation of an 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.440 embryo and pregnancy. 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:23.080 Right. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.000 And so these are two totally different sets of activities. 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.960 The things that your body needs to do to attract 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.200 a mate are very different than the things that your 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.840 body needs to do to maintain a pregnancy. And that's 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.400 why we have two primary sex hormones instead of one 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.200 is that our bodies have to do two things to reproduce, 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.400 and the result of these hormonal changes there again, they're 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.360 sort of orienting you toward this goal that has to 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.120 do with the reproductive process. And so it's generally instead 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.320 of being a time when women experience increase sexual desire 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.320 and they're feeling really sexy, instead women feel not sexy. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.440 Their libido tends to decrease, and any sex they have 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.320 is less about and that they desire tends to be 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.720 less about a need to like scratch a sexual itch, 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.120 and tends to be more about like the need to connect. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.080 So the meaning of sex changes because this is a 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.440 period in the cycle when sex cannot lead to conception. 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:17.440 I mean, you can't get pregnant from sex you have 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.880 during the last two weeks of the cycle, and so 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.560 it serves a totally different function during that time than 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.960 it does during the first. And it's also a time 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.200 when our because our body is remodeling itself and getting 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.520 ready for the possibility of pregnancy, our metabolism increases, our 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.800 calorie needs increase during the second two weeks of the cycle, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.120 and of course we aren't ever told about that, and 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.080 so women feel really hungry. No, no, So we feel 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.760 hungry and then we're like, why am I so hungry? 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.800 And then we develop this bad relationship with ourselves where 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.200 we think that we have no self control because you know, 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.480 look at me, and you know eating all my sons 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:58.880 Halloween candy and just a hypothetical example gives me, James, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:05.840 it's me, it was me. And as we have these 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.760 changes where our calorie needs increase, our respiration rate increases, 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:15.240 our heart rate increases, we become more sensitive to threat detection. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.600 So any sign that there might be something wrong with 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.080 the relationship that we have, either with our extended village 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:25.480 or with our partners become more noticeable and salient to us, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.320 because again, we're all about trying to protect ourselves and 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.639 protect the possibility of an embryo, and so we're vulnerable 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.200 to threats, and our the threat detection areas of our 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.639 brain become more interconnected with other areas of our brain 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.240 and make it more aware of threats. We tend to 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.040 be more inward facing. We don't want as much stimulation 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:46.440 because our body is doing a lot of work and 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:51.000 it's metabolically expensive. We're sleepier, and so there's this whole shift. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.640 You know, this whole shift is our bodies preparing for 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.439 the possibility of implantation and pregnancy. And the reason that 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.560 so many women feel so terrible during the last two 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.480 weeks of the cycle is because a we're never told 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.920 about any of this, right, so we have no idea 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.160 what's going on, and it's like, I just feel really sensitive, 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.320 and then we blow up at our partner, right because 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.879 we're feeling like everything is a problem because it seems 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.720 like a threat because we're not told, like, hey, your 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.160 brain is literally more interconnected with the threat areas, and 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.520 just so you know, you'd be alarm bells might be 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.919 sounding more easily than they do in different parts of 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.359 the cycle, and having awareness of that is like so 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.040 helpful in terms of communicating within a relationship. 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.840 We've been grading ourselves against the wrong rubric. 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:34.320 You said it perfectly, and. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.920 So then we're constantly like, why am I failing? Why 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.399 am I failing? I'm curious if you could talk a 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.600 little bit more about when there are differences in how 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.120 your cycle and hormones behave, particularly like with PCOS. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.280 If you're somebody who has things like PCOS, it means 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.680 so generally women with pcos have high levels of androgens, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.560 so they have higher levels of testosterone than women who 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.320 do not, and this can interfere with the obvia and so 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:05.240 if you're not ovulating again, ovulation is the primary way 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.360 that our body produces hormones, and so that generally can 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.320 lead to erratic hormonal patterns. And so, for example, some 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.800 women with PCOS, their body will start to stimulate egg 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.960 follicles like preparing, and I think that's part of how 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.920 the name PCOS right, it's the polycystic ovarian, So it's 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.040 like you're creating these little egg follicles that are starting 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.880 to simulate. Nothing ever, really in these contexts comes out 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.399 to fruition, and so you get estrogen. But then because 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.840 an egg never matures and is released, you don't get progesterone. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.880 And having an imbalance of your hormones in this way 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.800 can lead people to feel kind of awful because even 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.080 though estrogen is a lot of fun and short little 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.720 bursts and it makes women feel sexy and alive and yes, 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.320 Lara Bryden, who's a naturopathic doctor, she described it best 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:56.760 where she said, it's like that eccentric friend of yours 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.480 who's like so much fun for like two days or 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:02.960 like a week, but then afterward you're just like, enough. 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.000 Yes, we don't want to keep the party going, we 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:06.880 need to take a nap. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:09.640 It's like that's enough. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.040 No, I don't want to watch the sun rise. No, 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:13.960 I don't want to lay in the grass. Can we please? 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.159 That's because I asked TT to stay up late and 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.040 watch the sun rise so we couldn't see it. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:20.840 Oh there was a building glow. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.600 No. No, oh, my gosh, that's so funny. 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.280 You touched on PMS a little bit, which you know 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.400 occurs in the two weeks before we start our period. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.480 But not all PMS is created equal. I feel like, 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.560 as I age, it's agent Okay, my PMS is. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:39.440 An old, older, angry lady. 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.920 Now can you talk to us about pre menstrual syndrome 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:44.919