Your Menstrual Cycle Is More Than Just Your Period

Discussing your period shouldn’t be taboo—your entire menstrual cycle provides key health insights about your body. So let’s dive into exactly how it works.

(then hit the little 🔔 icon and select "all.")

The period goes by many names: that time of the month, the Crimson Tide, and Shark week, just to name a few. It gets a lot of attention in health class, and it must be said, the period has gotten a pretty bad rap—but these days, more people are cluing into the entire menstrual cycle, rather than just the most visible part of it. Because as it turns out, there’s a LOT about it to discover and celebrate.

You know, periods may often be seen as an inconvenience. Like we discussed in our last episode, those without a menstrual cycle have long been considered the health ‘norm’, while those with a menstrual cycle have to compensate for it, like it’s a weakness we have to work around. But that’s changing.

But before we can talk about how you might be able to ‘hack’ your menstrual cycle...what is it, exactly?

#womenshealth #menstrualcycle #health #wellness #seeker

Read More:

Everything You Need to Know About Period Tracking
“While recognizing monthly fluctuations can be useful, period tracking isn’t a silver bullet. There isn’t enough high-quality research to create evidence-based guidelines, especially given women’s highly variable experiences with their period.”

Pandemic periods: why women's menstrual cycles have gone haywire
"Persistent stress leaves us suspended in fight-or-flight mode. In threatening situations, a hormonal pathway in the body called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which links the brain with the adrenal glands, encourages the release of the stress hormone cortisol – preparing us to respond to the threat.

However, if the brain is telling the body it needs to “respond” all the time (to anxious thoughts, changing circumstances, the stress of home schooling, the impact of loneliness, illness or bereavement), unregulated cortisol can suppress the normal levels of reproductive hormones in the body. This can lead to abnormal ovulation, which will disrupt the cycle – or even pause it altogether."

Covid vaccine: Period changes could be a short-term side effect
“And, though the link is unproven, there are logical reasons the vaccine could be causing changes to periods - but these changes are not anything to worry about, reproductive specialists say. While painful or unexpected periods can be distressing, they're not a sign of any long-term harm.”

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Editor's Note: At Seeker, we recognized that people of many genders and identities have vaginas and uteruses, and are affected by the topics that fall into women’s health.

Series Description:
Body Language is Seeker’s latest series diving into the world of women’s health, and their bodies. For so long, the medical field only used men to conduct research, creating a gap in terms of what we know about women’s bodies. So in this series, we'll be talking to experts to get a better understanding of some of these issues, and what we actually know about them. So join us as we discover how incredibly cool the female body is and how much more we still have to learn about it.

[duckdodgers]

Speaking as the spouse of someone who just went through menopause, you should do a video on menopause. It is something thar just isn't talked about enough to not seem really wierd.

[arnabkarmakar]

Female body is way more dynamic for sure ...

many men even don't know what menstruation is, let alone understand women with their all sorts of pre-menstrual syndromes like cramps, nausea, mood swings and many more.
I mean from the perspective of a guy, just imagine bleeding for days, again and again in each cycle. 🥺🥺

Women are inherently more powerful and brave. Cheers to all the women out there.🤗🤗

[nikmariealex]

The part where your mind does a lot to try to convince you to find someone to get you pregnant is also not fun lol

[AdorableAcushla]

I wish they had talked about things that can mess with the cycle more, like PCOS or Endometriosis

[rachelle]

I'm 9 weeks pregnant, so I traded periods for extreme exhaustion.

[AlexAzureOtaku]

Me writhing in agony from menstrual cramps: nice, more immersion

[solomonsam]

When talking about the menstrual cycle we’re not just talking about women... WHAT??

[phionella]

This was really interesting. I took a women's health class in college about 18 yrs ago and I didn't learn this much.

[dfjulesful]

Love that's she's wearing a red top. That's commitment!

[yay-cat]

I was reading up on this 2 days ago. Like estrogen has an effect on how much dopamine you produce and has either helpful or hindering cognitive effects depending on what your baseline dopamine level is. So I have ADHD and my meds just don’t work consistently. before my period I have brain fog and I just procrastinate more (worse executive functions). I did not realize that there are two peaks of estradiol (part of estrogen) in a cycle so thanks for the 6:43 graph! I hope we get some better sensors, trackers, predicting software, and medication in the future!

[madjamjar]

Apart from chromasomal disorders you are either XX or XY and will either menstruate or not depending on which one you are regardless of your gender identity.

[OmicronVega]

I'm a dude and I actually learned some new things about "shark week", lol. I was raised in a state that actually taught us a "load" about sex education. Unfortunately, the boys in my class didn't get to learn much about menstrual cycles because they separated us by sex to teach us different topics... I'm all for some federal laws forcing states to teach kids about all the topics covered in this video + so much more I had to learn on my own!

[filipaboucanova]

Thanks for the great episode. Could you cover hormonal birth control and how it influences these steps of the menstrual cycle?

[madnesss]

Menstrual cycle happens because of the uterus and only women have uteruses .. so “ No uterus no opinion ! “ you are being rude rather than respectful

[quiksilverj]

only women menstrate ... If you menstrate you ARE a women. its science not a choice

[EverSoJoe]

Thank you for doing this series! I'm learning a lot and I really hope research, public and social acceptance develops and grows more quickly than it currently is!

[claireadekanye]

Girl you lost me on that first line BYE

[quintecence]

The thing I find weird about menstrual cycles is how similar they can be to people who are related to you.. in my family, there are 2 distinct groups, the lighter, longer overall cycle with shorter periods and less intense pms symptoms and the heavier, more consistent overall cycles with more intense pms symptoms. Me and a number of my cousins have basically identical cycles with very few differences in symptoms (eg: our food intolerances become more severe but we have different intolerances). The other group is also very similar to each other. My friends have also noted this sort of thing in their families and they're different to the 2 groups in my family.. biology is weird, that's why I stick to chemistry 😂

[despairia]

For flair, I like referring to periods as "the Blood Moon" and "making blood sacrifices". But mostly I just say period (well - my native tongue's equivalent).

[marziasadat]

Well as a science student in an Iranian high school I should say I knew more than enough about this topic.( For instance we had to memorize the hormone demographics shown in the video)
After watching this video this is the first time I'm happy about what I had to learn rather than a feeling of never ending frustration.