Sweatiness, sudden crying spells, losing your temper, suddenly becoming irritated by someone's behavior, having a short fuse, feeling gloomy for a while.. Almost every woman can probably identify with one of these traits at least once. This can suddenly appear and be over the next day, or you can suffer from it for a few days. All of this is largely influenced by your HORMONES.
Here we discuss how much influence hormones have on our functioning and survival. In the following blogs I will elaborate further on hormones in relation to a desire for pregnancy and then hormones in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Hormones
What exactly are your hormones? You know they can influence a lot. But what exactly do they influence and can we still have some control over them?
Hormones are small substances in our body that control and regulate everything in our body. They are a kind of communication substances between all organs. Compare it to a large orchestra like that of Andre Rieu. Andre Rieu (the conductor) controls all the musicians, so that they can play together in harmony. A great orchestra as a result. This is also how our body is controlled. A small organ in our head (hypothalamus) controls all organs through hormones, so that our body (hopefully!) can play together in harmony. Is this disturbed? Then physical and mental complaints can arise or even diseases can develop.
The dozens of hormones that are continuously working in your body influence all functions and organs. Think of your breathing, metabolism, movement, reaction time, addiction, thoughts, feeling happy, happy, sad, angry, jealous, anxious and so on. For your own happiness, it is therefore important that your body is in complete homeostasis, that is to say in complete balance.
Our body is designed exactly for HAPPINESS! Our body contains many 'feel-good' substances, which can give you the feeling of happiness. It is our art to utilize these hormones as optimally as possible.
Hormones during the menstrual cycle
As we all know, women in their fertile period (from the first menstruation until menopause) have to deal with monthly hormone fluctuations. At the beginning of the cycle, the hormone estrogen is particularly high and from ovulation (midway through the cycle) also the progesterone increases in the body. To be able to gain insight into your own cycle and complaints around your cycle, it is important to understand what happens in your body every month.
A monthly cycle is intended to prepare your body every month for fertilization. Of course we do not want to make use of it every month, so often the female egg is not fertilized, disappears and the hormones will recover to create a new chance for the next month.
FSH and LH
In the first two weeks of a new cycle, the hormone FSH ensures that a next egg develops for the new ovulation. In these weeks, the hormone Estrogen is high in its levels. You can then often feel very good, stable and comfortable in your skin. After 2 weeks, FSH and Estrogen are at their peak and ovulation takes place under the guidance of LH. The egg is released so that it can be fertilized. The consequence of this is that now the hormone progesterone will also rise in the body.
Progesterone and Estrogen
Did you know that progesterone also has an influence on the production of your thyroid hormones? This mechanism is one of the reasons your temperature rises by 0.5 degrees after ovulation.
If you are not fertilized a week after ovulation, the estrogen and progesterone levels will start to drop and the uterine lining will prepare itself to come loose and
cleanse (which later will be the menstruation). This is a signal for the body to turn the immune system a little more 'on'. After all, a small wound has formed in the uterus. If your immune system does not work optimally, this has a direct influence on your cycle. Through this change in hormones and the sharpening of the immune system, various complaints can arise every month again, think of: depression, mood swings, fatigue, painful breasts, muscle complaints etc. These complaints will therefore mainly arise a few days/ up to a week before your menstruation, also known as premenstrual complaints.
In addition, the fluctuations in hormone levels differ for every woman individually. For one, the estrogen levels will be much higher than for another, so too the progesterone levels can be much lower in one than in another fertile woman.
The more stable your estrogen and progesterone levels are during every monthly cycle and the more they play together like an organized orchestra, the fewer complaints you will experience. If these monthly levels of estrogen and progesterone do not proceed stably and in balance, you can experience complaints such as heavy bleeding, a short or long menstruation, abdominal pain, depression, acne, bloated feeling and even a miscarriage if the egg has been fertilized.
How do you influence your menstrual cycle?
There are a number of factors that have an influence on the course of your monthly cycle and thus on the stability of your hormones. On many factors you yourself even have influence. Factors that have an influence on your cycle and thus can also cause disturbances and complaints are:
- Genes (which genes did you get from your parents and how were you 'programmed' during your birth)
- Metabolism (how well does your insulin work)
- Stress
- Nutrition
- Lifestyle
- Functioning of the other hormones in your body
Apart from point 1, it is possible to address all other factors. If you become aware of this and improve these factors, you will immediately start to notice a difference in your monthly cycle. Premenstrual complaints can then be reduced or even disappear.
