Understanding Menstruation

Introduction

The moon has hidden her bright face and the days of darkness are upon the land, bringing with them a stillness in body and spirit; welcome to Menstruation, your inner winter, a time of deep rest, replenishment, and healing. In this post we will dive into the physiology and hormones behind Menstruation, we will look at the gift and lessons of the menstrual phase, herbal support for hormonal balance, how to begin living in greater alignment with your cycle, and resources for taking the next step.

Menstruation is a time of great release both physically and emotionally. Due to the hormonal fluctuations before menstruation this is often a time of softness, vulnerability, emotionality, and clarity (which we will unpack more in the Hormones section), and represents both the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one.

Note: If you haven’t read the introductory post on the four phases of the menstrual cycle, I suggest orienting yourself with that first; you can read it here.

Addressing Shame

It would be amiss to dive into the beauty of menstruation without first acknowledging the shame that most women experience around their bleed, for while menstruation can be an initiation into womanhood and is itself a natural process, it also carries with it a weight of shame, embarrassment, confusion, and discomfort for many women. The topic of menstruation is still considered taboo, and though all human life begins inside of the female body, we as women hold a lot of shame around bodies and our bleeds.

Wherever you are beginning this journey and however you feel about your body at this time is valid; we all hold stories that live inside our bodies and we’ve all lived through experiences that have shaped how we relate to ourselves, and our bleeds. You are welcome here, no matter where you are in this journey.

An Inquiry Into Experience

Before we begin here are a few questions to consider:

What was your experience of your very first bleed (Menarche)? Where were you, how did you feel, and did you tell anyone when it happened?

Did anyone talk with you about menstruation, and if so, did they leave a positive or negative impression about it?

What products have you used and are there any you’ve avoided? Why? (pads, tampons, cups, re-usable pads, menstrual underwear etc)

How do you feel toward your body when you are bleeding?

No shame dear one, these questions are to give you insight into your own experience and where you are at currently; I invite you to hold the answers to these questions without condemnation as you read on, and simply observe how you feel.

Physiology

During the ovulatory phase a single follicle was released in your body and embarked on an epic journey from your ovary to your uterus, where it waited to be fertilized. When fertilization didn’t occur your hormones began to plummet, and that follicle (called the Corpus Luteum) got reabsorbed into the wall of your uterus.

The reabsorption of the follicle tells your brain to cease progesterone production and trigger your bleed; your bleed is the shedding of the endometrial lining, or the cushy lining that developed in your uterus during the other phases of your cycle. Most women bleed anywhere from 3-7 days depending on their unique cycle.

During the menstrual phase your hormones decrease to their lowest concentration, and this increases the connectivity between the right (feeling side) and left (analytical side) of your brain, giving you an increased ability to sense how you feel about situations and determine the best course of action. Because of this the menstrual phase is a great time to review what happened during your last cycle and make changes as you move into your next.

Although your hormones dip during this phase your estrogen levels will actually spike and then plummet right before your bleed, this tells your hypothalamus to get ready for another beautiful cycle! This is why the menstrual phase marks both the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

The Dark Sub-phase

In The Phases of the Menstrual Cycle we talked about how the four physical seasons are a great tool for understanding the four hormonal phases of the cycle, with Winter being a picture of menstruation, Spring a picture of the follicular phase, Summer a picture of ovulation, and Autumn a picture of the luteal phase.

The whole of your menstrual phase is akin to Winter but the dark sub-phase (a term I learned from the ladies of the Four Phase Cycle podcast), occurs during the first 2-3 days of your bleed when your body is doing the heaviest work of menstruation, and can be thought of as akin to the deepest point of Winter (right before the Solstice).

The dark sub-phase is the heaviest part of your bleed, the lowest energy, the most inward, and the least social point of your entire cycle. This is a beautiful time of surrender and rest as your cycle comes to a close. During the first days of your bleed take extra time to care for yourself, sleep more, watch movies, read a book, spend time alone, journal and reflect, eat mineral rich foods, and nourish your body.

Connecting to your menstrual cycle and to menstruation itself is an opportunity to reconnect to the breath and depth of your uniquely feminine experience. We as women who bleed have an opportunity to relearn the wisdom of the dark season, both internally and externally, even in the midst of a culture obsessed with production, high externally-focused energy, and output.

Menstruation is a gift because it’s a time to receive what you need, take a deep breath, and gather strength and vision for the cycle to come.

Hormones

As women our hormones fluctuate over the course of our month, as we move through each of the four hormonal phases of the menstrual cycle. From the end of menstruation until ovulation your estrogen levels are rising, leading to elevated connections within the hippocampus, which can increase creativity, communication, and mental sharpness. This is why the first half of your cycle holds a more externally-focused energy.

After ovulation, your estrogen levels begin to fall throughout the second half of your cycle until they spike and plummet right before menstruation. As your estrogen levels fall so will your serotonin, this creates a cognitive shift from a more externally-focused (summer) energy to an internally-focused (winter) energy.

These fluctuations in your hormones occur in predictable patterns when you are healthy and create a roadmap you can use to help understand your month, and your life. You are not crazy dear one, these changes in your hormones are actually a superpower that can be harnessed like wind in a ship sail, and used to move you forward in every area of your life.

Your hormones have a massive affect on your brain (and thus your emotions) but thats not the only system they affect, your hormones deeply affect your immune system, metabolism, microbiome, and stress response, making the health and balance of your hormones a big player in your overall health. For details on how your hormones affect each of these areas, as well as fascinating differences between the male and female brain, check out the book In The FLO by Alisa Vitti (link at the bottom).

Because of their impact it's important to check-in with your hormonal balance and see where it's at, and a powerful indicator of your hormone health is your menstrual blood. Menstrual blood essentially holds a record of your hormone levels over your menstrual month, and everything from the color, consistency, smell, and duration of your bleed can tell you lots about the state of your body. For this reason I strongly suggest trying out a menstrual cup in-place of tampons if you’re able.

If you are someone who gets symptoms during your bleed such as headaches, breast tenderness, ache breakouts, severe cramping, severe mood swings, and anemic reactions, pay attention to those, they are indicators of hormonal imbalance and are your body's way of telling you it needs support.

Chaste Berries for Menstrual Support and Hormonal Balance

There’s a lot that can be done in way of supporting your body and resetting your hormones, and one of my favorite ways to do that is through the use of herbs. The following information is abbreviated from the National Geographic’s Guide to Medicinal Herbs by Steven Foster, Tieraona Low Dog, and Rebeca Johnson.

Chaste (vitex) Berries: Have been used for more than 2,500 years and today are prescribed (in dried form) by European gynecologists and Western herbalist to manage menstrual disorders, relieve menopausal symptoms, and increase fertility; Chaste berries, also known as Vitex berries, have been shown in clinical trials to restore progesterone levels and reset your hormonal balance, if taken daily for three months.

Tincture: take 2 to 3 ml of tincture daily in the morning (links at the bottom under Resources)

Tea: steep 1/2 teaspoon of dried chaste tree berries in 1 cup each morning. note: chaste berries have a spicy and bitter taste

Safety: Many clinical trials have been done on Chaste Berries and show they appear to be very well tolerated, however you should still consult a health care practitioner before taking during pregnancy.

I have personally worked with Chaste Berries in both tincture and tea form, and found them to be a powerful ally in my own hormonal balance. I like to buy the dried berries from a nearby Herbarium and make them into a tea, but I also enjoy them in tincture form which I order online from Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene Oregon, and I’ve put the link at the bottom of the page.

Other herbs to consider: Black Haw, Black Cohosh, Dong Quai, Cranberry, Rose, and Red Raspberry Leaves.

Inflammation + Foods

Menstruation is essentially a localized inflammatory response (one that is natural), and can also be supported with the use of ani-inflammatory herbs and spices such as ginger, turmeric, cardamon, and rosemary. You may also consider tart red cherries either in fruit form or as a juice concentrate to mix into water.

The menstrual phase is a great time to increase iron and magnesium, which you can get through foods like red meat, dark chocolate, black beans, avocado, and cooked spinach; also consider an epsom salt bath with magnesium flakes or a magnesium foot spray, as magnesium is better absorbed through the skin.

The Gifts of Menstruation

One of the great lessons of the menstrual time is Less doing and more being. This is a very valuable lesson especially for us modern women who live in non-stop summer-energy culture where taking time for rest is considered lazy or invaluable. To begin to tap into the power of your infradian rhythm, or second clock of your cycle, is a powerful reclamation of your time, your personhood, your energy, focus, creativity, and desire.

The menstrual cycle isn’t just a process its also a teacher, and If you allow it to, your cycle will teach you how to live differently, rest, replenish, sit in seasons of darkness, and ride seasons of joy. It will teach you how to surrender, how to grieve, how to dream, how to take action, and how to move into seasons of rebirth. How? By taking you, physically, hormonally, and neurologically through the four phases of your cycle every single month for many years of your life.

Ladies, our cycle isn’t a curse, it’s a blueprint for living.

Lessons from Menstruation:

being
Surrender
Rest
Separation
Visoning
Vulnerability
Intimacy
Trust

How to Live Intentionally with Your Cycle

If at this point you are interested in living more deeply in sync with your cycle but don’t know where to begin, I have a few thoughts to offer you, beginning with the different stages I noticed myself passing through as I first sought to live cycle-synced.

Learn
Observe
Participate
Integrate

In the learning phase I did just that, I took-in information from podcasts and books and steeped myself in understanding the menstrual cycle and the hormonal phases. After a few months of steeping in knowledge I began to practice observation of my own cycle in simple ways, noting things like when I got my period, how I felt, how many days I bled, etc. and began noticing patterns I hadn’t before. The stage of participation came next when I bought a journal and began writing down my observations and tracking my cycle.

The stage of integration has come gradually over the years as head-knowledge moved into lived-knowledge. As I continued to learn, observe, and participate, integration happened naturally and I began to feel an intimate connection to the rise and fall of my cycle, a felt-knowledge of my own body and her rhythms. This understanding of myself has been an integral part of my overall health and wellbeing these last years, and a source of abundance, joy, and wonder.

I continue to integrate all that I’ve learned and lean into the unique way my body moves through the phases of the cycle. My hope is that the information and thoughts I provide here will help you to take your own journey of learning, observing, participating, and integrating, so that we may all become women who are deeply grounded in our bodies and fully alive to our lives.

Next Steps

I invite you to begin by getting a journal. It’s as simple as that. Reserve it solely as your Menstrual Cycle Journal and begin by writing down the date of the first day of your last period, and labeling it Day One of your current cycle. If you don’t have a bleed at this moment, you can track with the moon phases. Find the date of the most recent New Moon, write it down and label it Day One.

Begin to observe your cycle in simple ways, jot down notes as you do, and remember to keep track of the dates and what day of your cycle you're on.

A few suggestions: note your emotional states, physical symptoms, the date of your bleed and how many days it lasts, color of blood, any days of spotting in-between, and days when you think you might be ovulating (look for increased sexual desire, “super woman” energy, and thicker vaginal mucus with a vinegary scent).

Tracking Your Cycle

When beginning to track your cycle remember that the length of each phase has a general timeline but will vary based on your unique body. The first goal is to get to know the unique timeline of your cycle.

If you can’t recall the date of your last bleed or if you have skipped a bleed, you can begin by tracking with the moon as well, again making the most recent New Moon count as Day One of your cycle. Here’s a refresher on the general lengths of each phase:

Menstruation: 3-7 days

Follicular: 7-10 days

Ovulation: 3-5 days

Luteal: 10-14 days

Note: the day you get your bleed will count as the last day of your cycle, and the first full-day of your bleed will count as Day One of your next cycle.

Bodies are fascinating and you might find that yours follows a different rhythm than you expected; for me the length of my cycle fluctuates but steadily follows the moon phases, and I have gotten my bleed within two days of the New Moon for the entirety of 2024. For this reason I would suggest that you also pay attention to the moon phases.

In up-coming blogs we will continue to dive deeper into the cycle and how to harness its power for creating systems of ease in your life. If you are are someone who is really suffering from painful menstruation, irregular cycles, or severe hormonal imbalance please consider seeing a professional women’s health or hormone specialist near you. Until next time, I hope you found something helpful here and remember to check out the links below for more resources!