Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working For You

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Immediate DNF after the introduction and reading the disclaimer, “Not everyone who is a woman has a menstrual cycle or womb, and not everyone who has a menstrual cycle and a womb is a woman”. I’m sorry, but my trust in the reliability of your science ends there. The menstrual cycle and womb are literally THE primary biological markers of womanhood. If you’re going to deny that basic fact just so you don’t offend some people, you don’t have the credibility it takes to write a book on the menstrual cycle. I am a woman, not a “menstruator”, not a “person with a period”, and I will save my time for a book that appreciates the God-given uniqueness of my female biology/physiology. I’ve had some clients go six months and think that was it. And then their period starts, or even 11 months, really close to that 12 month mark and then have a period. And as we get closer to menopause we do have more anovulatory cycles, meaning ones where you don’t ovulate but there’s enough hormonal activity to instigate a bleeding episode. It’s not technically a period, although you would experience it like a period. But you do have some cycles where you will still be ovulating so contraception is necessary, assuming that’s what you want. Period Power is the handbook to periods and hormones that will leave you wondering why the hell nobody told you this sooner.

This is the first non-fiction book I've ever voluntarily read from cover to cover and it has definitely awoken a thirst for knowledge in me. If they can all be this engaging, relevant and interesting then sign me up. And this might be stating the obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway. It’s not that you can’t or won’t experience these, let’s call them states of being, at other times in your cycle. Though for some of you this may be the one time, or one of the times in your cycle when you feel and act this way. There are also other ways that these behaviors can be harnessed that have nothing to do with procreation. But today we’re keeping our focus on reproduction. The different stages of your menstrual cycle are like the seasons of the year; each brings with it a different set of strengths and challenges. Your period, during which you withdraw from the world and rest, is like winter. After that comes spring, when your body and mind begin anew. Around ovulation you’re in summer, when you feel light and energetic. Finally, before your period, you move into fall to slow down and get ready for another winter.Have you ever wondered what perimenopause is and how to know if you're experiencing it? If so, today's episode is for you.

Thank GOODNESS for Maisie Hill! Flipping open the lid on a vital conversation. It's about time we claimed the power of our periods! Great...teaches a great irony: the more we embrace our hormones, instead of trying to rule them, the less they rule us. * Bryony Gordon, The Daily Telegraph * Maisie Hill has written a bloody brilliant book (pun intended). Everything you need to know about periods and how they affect you and your life is here. It's revolutionary. But also we’re often already in perimenopause without realising it. Menopause can also happen earlier. So 1% of us will go through menopause before we are 40 years old. So although it’s true that most of you will go through menopause in your 50s, perimenopause is going to start in your 40s, for some of you the hormonal shifts will start before then. I absolutely loved it. Really informative but also super easy to read. Totally riveting. Would recommend! * Anniki Sommerville *In the same way as right now we're experiencing such horrific weather in the UK, you could describe your cycle in the same way; so in your winter, the time of menstruation when you're bleeding, you may be more inclined to want to stay indoors, hibernate a bit, prioritise your own needs rather than being out there in the world serving others which we are often doing. Whereas in the summer you are more extroverted, more likely to want to be outside being social. Hormones are very low at the start of the cycle and then they peak mid-cycle around ovulation. Everyone’s experience will vary and it's about your levels of hormones, your response to those hormones and the context of your life.

There are portions of this book, like the first section, which provide a genuinely helpful insight into how our cycles work from a biological perspective. I did learn a lot about my body. This fantastic guide to menstruation is the perfect way to learn more about the human body and how periods impact far more than we realize. Striking the perfect balance between research and accessibility, this book will have you saying, 'Wow, I had no idea!' at least once per chapter. * BookRiot * It’s well researched (for as far as I can tell), an easy read, very informative, dense, useful, funny at (many) times and inclusive in its language. It’s easy to understand despite the many biology lessons. Number seven, there’s no benefit to the menopause transition. What do you think, true or false? This is an important one and especially after everything I’ve mentioned so far it can sound like this is all going to be pretty shit, there’s going to be no positives to this. And for sure this one is very much down to opinion. But for me this is false. Do bear in mind that I’m on this side of it, not the other side of it.

Maisie Hill’s toolkit for peri- and postmenopause

When you have this knowledge of the cycle you can make sense of what your cycle is like. Yes, you can also make adjustments where possible to your schedule. But even without taking that kind of action this information will change your experience of your cycle because, let’s say you’re close to ovulating and you can’t concentrate on your work. Now, colloquially, some people will say that they are cycling when they are bleeding. But technically a cycle is not a period. Whenever I refer to a cycle, I mean the whole damn thing. The length of time from one period to the next.

Along the way I also became a highly-qualified practitioner and spent over a decade helping clients with period problems, fertility challenges, and pregnancy and menopausal symptoms. I want you to go from hormone hell to harmony Welcome to the Period Power podcast, I’m thrilled to be here with you! If you’ve read my book Period Power, then you’ll know that I have a lotto say about the menstrual cycle and how it impacts your life. I wanted to start this podcast so we can really explore this further because apparently, a book of 124,000 words wasn’t enough for me to explore these things. maximise your natural superpowers each month while making adjustments for the darker days, and use Maisie's favourite tips to improve them This week, I show you how to get curious in your life about what feels complete and how you feel about it, and how to work with the energy of autumn to process those feelings. Learn more about the identity shift that might come up for you around this time of year, and how to gently and lovingly harness the power and energy of autumn to let go of what is complete and provide nourishment for what is about to begin. Gosh, I can’t believe it’s been that long. And now I’m bringing all of that personal and professional experience to this podcast so that you can use it to great effect in your life.

Reviews

Whether you are in further study or not, don’t miss this episode where we share some insight into the world of academia and the impact that undertaking further education can have on our overall health. Discover the power of learning to manage your mind, the importance of celebrating yourself, your results, and your successes, and how to do the work you love without feeling drained. So it wants you to move. It wants you out walking around, strutting your stuff, looking for someone to hook up with. Perhaps you’re also more talkative because usually we talk to humans before we mate with them. Although, I mean, it’s been a while since I went out on the town, but I’d say that isn’t always the case. Day one is the first day of your cycle, and it’s also the first day of your period. Now, I get a lot of messages from people asking me what counts as day one. So, in case you’re wondering that, here you go. It’s the first day that you experience significant blood loss. It doesn’t matter what time of day. Okay? I don't know if this was mainly because I'd already fairly recently read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler (which was a phenomenally helpful and insightful text, almost like the bible of fertility really), but I didn't really find much in Maisie Hill's book that I didn't already know, at least from a biological perspective. The first few chapters are fairly comprehensive in terms of the female reproductive system and understanding how your body works, and Hill writes in a way that makes the topic very accessible. So there are definitely some positives to this book, especially if you haven't read much on the subject before and are fairly new to it. Join me this week as I share some facts and resources about the menopause transition and how it might affect you. I’m busting some myths and sharing some truths about perimenopause, premenopause and menopause, and explaining how your hormones affect you during these times.