The more time you give to something, the more complex that area of your life becomes. It's so with dreams, and I find it to be true for my health, also. The more I read, the more complex and winding a topic it becomes.
The Journey Up to Here
Over the years, I've written here a fair bit about my struggles with hormonal imbalance. It's a subject I've been meaning to return to and inspired by @lizelle's brilliant post here, now I am. I first started thinking seriously in terms of "this needs addressing" about 3-4 years ago when, thanks to a dermatologist's recommendation, I ended up on the Pill. I say "thanks", though it's a decision I ended up regretting soon after, and got off the damn thing after about 9-10 months. A disastrous decision, I know, but then again, at the time, I was young, flighty and didn't know better.
The "fix" vanished, but the question remained. How do we fix this?
After some research, I decided to embark on a primarily carnivore diet that I also documented here in the past and that, for a time, proved quite successful. My periods for the first time ever became a regular occurrence, my skin improved, and I felt quite good overall. However, after an initial impressive rush, I gradually reeled into a slump. My skin started breaking out, my periods once more started keeping their own hours. I thought okay, so that didn't work.
Not only did it not work, things actually started getting worse.
For the first time in my life, I started suffering painful menses and my digestive system was shot to - if you'll pardon the pun - shot to shit. That was by far the worst. I started suspecting issues like IBD/IBS, Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. I tried addressing it with diet, avoiding irritating foods, eating clean, on top of my already quite healthy, active lifestyle. Nothing helped. And yet, I was wary self-diagnosing especially with such a big, major name.
Something didn't quite fit, and while I understood it was normal for guts issues to be linked with the menstrual cycle, something remained at the back of my head saying "it's more than just adjacent, these two bastards are linked".
The Here
"Why don't you just go see a doctor?"
Has been a question received many times.
Personally, I've lost trust in the medical system, and after due dilligence, none of the potential allopathic fixes appeal to me. I don't want to take hormone-regulating medicine of any kind. Besides, it seems to me doctors have a very skewed, one-sided approach to medicine. I don't need a symptom treated, I need the whole thing.
I started looking more into the links between reproductive system - digestive system - psychology. I started looking into trauma and stress, and the effects these have on the body. I saw a wild health crash last year after a hectic period in my life. I started watching myself in terms of a complex human being, keeping an eye on my yang, on my difficulty with embracing my own femininity.
I do believe these things are linked. And if I look around myself, all the women that I know that suffer hormonal difficulties are in one way or another deeply uncomfortable in their position as women. I struggle often with letting go, with staying still, with having patience and receiving. It can't be random.
I also started looking beyond diet, more closely at the different phases of the menstrual cycle, understanding how there isn't a one-size-fits-all for the entirety of the cycle (or at least, this is the theory I'm working with now). I also started examining diet more closely in terms of where in my cycle am I - I wanted to understand why a restrictive initially successful diet crashed.
In some ways, social media helped. I used it as a tool to get in touch with people who, for the first time, suggested to me women's bodies need to be treated differently than men's in terms of diet, carbohydrate intake, workouts, sleep, everything.
I'm trying now to address my body as a wounded female body, not just as a carrier of illness.
I also started reading up on particular hormones, and after some deep diving, concluded I might be suffering a form of estrogen dominance. I found a podcast, the Arc Woman Podcast, which opened my eyes to a bunch of different issues relating to women's health.
I'm still learning.
While still focusing on clean eating, I'm also understanding that's not enough, and have started following a homeopathic/herbal support system tailored to different phases of my cycle. It goes like:
- Turmeric, magnesium glycinate, Cramp Bark, and ginger tea during my menstrual phase - since for me, now, cramps and discomfort have also become problems around this time, I've also got Belladonna and Magnesia Phosphorica (both 30C) to treat cramps and bleeding;
- Zinc, dandelion root tea, Chaste tree berry, and milk thistle for the follicular phase between bleeding and ovulation;
- Maca, mainly, to support me during ovulation;
- Ashwagandha, evening primrose oil ,and chamomile tea for the luteal.
I'm also looking into using Sepia 30C and Pulsatilla 30C to treat hormonal irregularity, except I'm not quite sure how yet.
Maybe I am doing too much.
Or too little.
Or at the wrong time.
I have, in the past, had a bit of success using just ashwagandha, so I'm hopeful. I have faith in teas and plants, and natural forms of healing. Hardest of all for me has been atuning to the rhythm of my cycle in other ways - resting when it's called for, prioritizing sleep and sun. Going slowly.
At least, I'm trying.
Do you have experience in the homeopathic/natural medicine field? If so, I would love a second (third and fourth) opinion or suggestion. I'm taking the liberty to tag @owasco here specifically, as I know she is studying this and would appreciate her input.
Or do you have experience addressing hormonal imbalance, estrogen dominance, menstrual cramps and so on through natural pathways? Would love to hear about it :) Thanks.
And though I've gone off topic today, I can't overlook the fact that today is Tuesday and some tunes are expected. Hiya, @ablaze!
<3
