Eating and Exercise for Hormone/ Menstrual Regulation?

Is your doctor checking you for PCOS? Might be worth looking into.

Personally I went from being obese to a healthy weight and being sedentary to exercising regularly and didn’t see any changes whatsoever to my hormonal imbalances or period issues (and I’ve maintained an active lifestyle for the past 5 years) so I guess it depends on what is causing the troubles. In my case I have a mild form of PCOS and fibroids (although I just had a procedure for the fibroids so that should improve over the next few months) the PCOS causes me acne and occasional abdominal pain but not enough yet to want to take meds for it. I’ve overcome most of the effects of insulin resistance by exercising regularly. Also I’m 44 so not worried about fertility though so your situation may vary of course. I’d advise you to work closely with your doctors and get referred to specialists if necessary. Don’t let them brush you off, you need to be your best health advocate! (not saying this is your situation but just in case) Running has indeed helped with my anxiety so definitely keep exercising, good luck to you on your journey

No need to "feel" if you are getting more regular - track that along with your food and weight stats and see what you see. I recommend the app Clue.

I have become more regular and seen a decrease in PMS symptoms since upping my physical activity. I mainly credit core workouts for it, but weight loss might well be playing a role, too.

estherdragonbat wrote: »

I have become more regular and seen a decrease in PMS symptoms since upping my physical activity. I mainly credit core workouts for it, but weight loss might well be playing a role, too.

I credit exercise the most as well, although I only did walking. It seemed to get a little better with weight loss, but got a lot better when I introduced exercise, especially the physical symptoms (as opposed to the emotional ones). Haven't had a period sneak up on me in a while - I've always gotten warning cramps a few hours before they start. Not so much anymore, can't be lazy with tracking my cycle anymore.

I haven’t been in your situation, so no words of personal experience on weight loss and cycle regulation.

However, I second charting your cycles via an app like Kindara (what I use) or something similar. Not just a period tracker but one that lets you put in other signs (sorry for any TMI, but cervical mucus and position, and basal body temp on waking will tell you if and when you ovulate pretty accurately).

If you haven’t any familiarity with these signs, I would recommend a book like “Taking Charge of Your Fertility “ or an online course like Couple to Couple League (this is more geared toward couples seeking to use these signs to naturally achieve or avoid pregnancy, but it will teach you how to read your signs and chart).

If you truly think there’s something hormonal out of whack, my definite recommendation would be to start charting and find a physician trained in NaPro technology to go over your charts with you and run a full hormone profile. This is blood tests run at various points of your cycle (pre ovulation, at ovulation, ovulation +3 days, +5 days, +12 days).

This is far more accurate than a one time blood draw bc your hormone levels obviously rise and fall over the course of your cycle. I was having some wonky cycle things going on, and my NaPro doc was able to diagnose me with lower than normal estrogen (rather less common than low progesterone, which he sees more of). He was able to target my issue with the least amount of hormonal intervention (instead of me going on bc to “regulate” my period, which wouldn’t really have told me what the problem was, and I don’t like the idea of throwing more hormones at my already weird cycle).

Best of luck!