Transcription of video:

Hi! This week is for the ladies, so if you're not interested in learning about the links between lines have them flare-ups and menstrual cycles then this video is not for you. Go ahead and skip this one. But if you aren't gonna stick around, a short disclaimer: I'm not a medical doctor this work has not been reviewed by a medical doctor and this should not be taken in lieu of medical advice. I am simply sharing my research and experiences with you.

First, just kind of a cliff notes version of what I was dealing with before I got Lyme and then what I'm dealing with after Lyme, and then we're gonna dive into some of the research and interesting things I found out.

My very first cycle was around 13 or 14 years old and it was extremely painful. I remember vomiting from the pain, not being able to stand upright, and missing days of school. Around age 15, I was told I had endometriosis and put me on birth control pills, which were supposed to give me a more regular period and help me manage those cramps. However, I never really experienced any relief, and for whatever reason, I just continued taking the birth control pills.

At age 19. I had menopause induced, my doctor thought that it would give my uterus time to heal?… I don't know, I didn't ask nearly enough questions being 19 years old. She gave me a shot in my arm to stop my period for six months to a year. However, it never really stopped my period, and I continued to have spotting and severe cramps. It took me really like two years to get recovered from that and actually have a normal period again. So, despite not having much relief I continued taking the birth control pills until I was almost 30 years old.

Once I started learning a little bit more about what these hormone pills do to us, I decided to get off of them. Ironically, around the same time, age 29, I got infected with Lyme disease. However, I was misdiagnosed with arthritis, and that's a whole nother video in itself, which I'll link because I have a video about it! Anyway, I didn't know I had Lyme, I thought I had arthritis, and that getting off the birth control was causing me problems, so you know all that weirdness that was going on at the beginning of my Lyme infection I just wrote it off as if it just was nothing… like I'm turning 30 whatever.

So, my period started getting a lot worse, I started getting a lot more fatigue. Which in my mind, I was thinking okay my body's just recalibrating from getting off these hormones for 15 years, but looking back I'm like, Oh, you know, Lyme could have been messing up all those cycles as well.

So, about two years ago, around like age 36, I started experiencing very heavy bleeding, like, filling my Diva Cup in 20 minutes, heavy bleeding, and just didn't know what was going on. I went to get an ultrasound and all that jazz… Oh, and I forgot you know at the age of 19 when I got that shot my arm I was dealing with a cyst that was popping on my right ovary so it's filling up and then popping pretty much every cycle. And I think that was another reason why this doctor was wanting to stop my period. I believe that the cyst on my right ovary has just burst and refilled pretty much every cycle. So, about two years ago. It started just being really really heavy bleeding and through these ultrasounds, they tell me it's now a hemorrhagic cyst, which they didn't really tell me what kind of system was before could have been a hemorrhagic cyst and just bleeding inside of my body, but now it's put for whatever reason like coming out.

So pretty much every period now I feel like I am bleeding to death. It’s so difficult to even leave the house or anything because I am changing my Diva Cup every 20 minutes. During my sleep, I bleed through absolutely everything, through pads, through bleed proof underwear, through my sheets, my mattress cover into the mattress like everything. The first three days or so it's like crazy bleeding. I also have been dealing with low iron now so it just I feel completely drained by my period every single month.

On top of that my Lyme symptoms will flare up so I deal with arthritis type symptoms, especially in my knee. So that's flaring up a few days before my period, I feel like I get more fatigue I get brain fog, I get headaches, other swollen painful joints and digestion upset as well.

I have pretty much been just tracking my cycle and schedule around it because I know that I'm gonna need like three or four days off to just rest. I prep my food and everything for those days, because I have to just stay in bed for those every month.

I have been learning what I can about hormones and all that stuff, and I got the Dutch test done thinking that it must be like a hormonal thing because most of the month, my Lyme type symptoms are very mild. I'm like, pretty functional during the month until just a few days before my period and then I’m laid out for basically a whole week. So I was thinking, it's got to be my hormones! So I get this expensive Dutch test done, and every doctor I've had a look at that is like, WOW your hormones are great, and I'm like, really?!

Okay, so it's not that… But no one took the time to explain to me, what your cycle does to your immune system.

So I've been doing some digging and wanted to share some stuff I learned. I'm definitely not an expert in hormones, but when I do my best to explain that these flares are actually pretty in line with what our bodies are doing!

Forever I have thought that when you're on your cycle the immune system is weakened like your hormones bottom out, you're just like depleted. I thought of it as your inner winter hibernating zone, but come to find out, it's actually not the case. They have linked high inflammation and high immune response during our menstrual cycle. So there are two phases to our menstrual cycle, the follicular phase, and the luteal phase. The follicular phase is day one of your period through day 14-ish when you begin ovulating The luteal phase is day 15 to 28 or 30 however long your cycle is.

So, essentially during the follicular phase day one through 14, your hormones are very low and your estrogen starts pumping up in preparation for ovulation. Right at ovulation time. It starts to dip back down. There are links to estrogen with higher amounts of inflammation and immune response. So theoretically this could be, you know, nature's way of protecting the body so that it can get pregnant.

So our immune response is like on fire during our, our menstrual cycle it dampens down at the time of ovulation so that the body can, you know, allow that foreign invader into the egg to fertilize and have a baby.

So, our immune response is actually lowest around ovulation time. Usually, in a healthy person having that high inflammation during our menstrual cycle may protect people from getting a cold or a flu. But if you've got chronic illness chronic disease, chronic inflammation, you could actually experience a worsening of symptoms during that follicular phase.

During the luteal phase day 15 to 28 or 30 of your cycle. You are actually having a less immune response. This is actually like the opposite of what I thought was going on, it's pretty interesting that you know we're not really taught a lot about how our cycles work, and in fact, we need a lot more research on how the female reproductive system works.

Something else I found really interesting is that we actually metabolize drugs differently depending on which phase of our cycle we're in!

So it's kind of almost a double whammy here because, as you're menstruating you know your inflammation is high, you're probably experiencing more symptoms, and then you're metabolizing your medications differently, which I had never, ever heard before I started digging into this and that was pretty fascinating.

So, let me know in the comments how your menstrual cycle impacts your line symptoms.

This is something definitely needs a lot more research, and I'm going to share a couple of ways that I have been managing mine, and let me know in the comments if there's anything that's helping you as well.

So a few ways that I have been kind of managing this is definitely by tracking my cycle and just keeping a journal. Day one of your cycle, write down a little paragraph about how you're feeling emotionally and physically, and keep track, and you know around like four or five months I really started getting in click with the patterns that I have, and our energy our emotions, everything is cyclical so if you are tracking your cycle, you're going to start to pick up some of the patterns that you have and it's gonna help so many areas of your life.

I highly recommend this book, The Blood Book, this was such an eye-opener for me. I really love how the authors tie our cycles, with the seasons. During the menstrual cycle, during the bleed is considered your inner winter that's kind of like your hibernating time, and then your ovulation is innerspring, next, you have inner summer, and inner fall.

It really helps explain some of the waxes and wanes and your energy and your moods, your emotions, your likes and dislikes, all of that. It also has some really incredible food and supplement suggestions included.

I'm a big proponent of pranayama breathwork for pain management. I'll go ahead and link a video that I use often, I also use essential oils, herbal supplements, an anti-inflammatory diet, heating pads, and just being really really kind to yourself. Starting to track your cycle will also help you schedule yourself and let your spouse and loved ones know what's going on how they can support you because this is going to come around every 28 to 30 ish days.

So it's so helpful to know and plan it out ahead of time. Alright, so that's pretty much all I have for you today I wanted to just kind of explain a little bit without having to try to pronounce the names of the hormones or like, you know, trying to explain what these hormones do exactly I hope that was helpful to you.

I have more information I'm gonna put some links below from the like the sources that I used for this. If you want to dive in yourself and learn more, and I'll probably do another video on this in the future. Let me know in the comments of what you like to learn more about! I’m trying to make a video each and every week. So, again, please hit that thumbs up if you enjoyed and hit subscribe. Thanks, see you soon, and keep healing!

VIDEO RESOURCES:

The blood book: https://amzn.to/3bHeMpT

Article: The Immune System and the Menstrual Cycle: https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-...

Dr. Laura Briden's blog: https://www.larabriden.com/blog/