Overcoming Birth Control Side Effects Naturally (Episode 318)

Full Transcript: Episode 318

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Welcome to the fertility Friday podcast your source for information about the fertility awareness method and all things fertility I’m your host Lisa Hendrickson-Jack I’m the author of the fifth vital sign and the fertility awareness mastery charting Journal I’m a certified fertility awareness educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience teaching women to connect to their fifth vital sign through menstrual cycle charting balancing hormonal health and optimizing the menstrual cycle without hormones I’m outspoken about hormonal birth control and its impact on fertility.

And overall health because you have the right to know how your body works and how artificial hormones disrupt that natural process I host live coaching programs to help you achieve optimal fertility and health because it’s important to have healthy menstrual cycles regardless of whether or not you want to have babies I’m also a wife and mother of two beautiful boys I know I know I’m a busy girl but I managed to fit it all in this podcast is designed to empower you to take full control of your cycles your fertility.

And your overall health and I’m so excited that you’re here with us today today I’m sharing a new episode in my fertility awareness reality series and I love sharing these episodes with you these conversations with real women so that you can get a sense of what it’s really like to use fertility awareness what it’s like to work one-on-one with an educator and also to know that it’s possible to make that transition to using a fertility awareness base method whether you’re using it for birth control or for pregnancy it’s a time sex correctly or whatever the case is I want you to know that it’s possible.

And one of the things that I’ve noticed quite a bit especially within you know the last couple of years in this field is that it seems to me that there’s a growing number of women who really doubt their ability to chart their cycles and be successful at it doubt their ability to be able to prevent pregnancy without hormones and you know I really believe that this is evidence of a successful marketing campaign by the drug companies who manufacture and sell birth controls.

So you know I was looking it up the other day and you know the market for birth control is in the billions like 20-something billion dollars annually is is what drug manufacturers make from birth control so it’s very profitable to discourage women from using non hormonal methods it’s very profitable to you know make women feel like hormonal non hormonal methods aren’t reliable or effective or couldn’t possibly work and.

So what surprises me is just how the landscape has changed how many women doubt their ability to successfully avoid pregnancy with non hormonal methods of birth control even though there are literally hundreds of thousands of women if not more using this method successfully you know all the time so that’s my intention with the fertility awareness reality series episodes and the pill reality series just to share the real stories of women who are really doing this and who are taking the plunge.

And opting out of some of the hormonal methods in favour of fertility awareness so without further ado let’s jump into my conversation with Lauren and I’m excited to be here today with Lauren Lauren is a member of my current eight-week fertility awareness mastery group program and we’re at session five or six so we’ve we’re about halfway through the program and I’m really excited to have you on the show today so welcome to the show Lauren.

Lauren: Yeah thank you for having me I’m excited to be here.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well I’m excited to have you and I would love to start by giving the audience essentially just to let them know a little bit about you and your history so that they have a sense of where you’re at with charting and everything so would you be able to just share with us when you got your first period and how you’re managing your fertility and kind of what brought you to this point now that you are really serious about charting we’ve been charting for a while so maybe we could share a little bit about that.

Lauren: Yeah I have so I got my first I’ve got my first period I think I was like 13 and my period wasn’t too bad in in high school and into college you know some cramps some pain nothing that I couldn’t manage with with a little bit of Advil honestly I it really it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older in terms of pain and symptoms and just noticing kind of like whole body symptoms even in high school I remember girls that was like call off school.

And not that I didn’t believe them but I was just like wow really this isn’t wow that’s intense you know I don’t know like so and now I totally get it I’m like yes like ooh and my period pain is bad I don’t want to go anywhere so yeah I’d say moderate to heavy flow in high school and into college I in terms of managing like my like reproductive health I mean as I got into college.

And I became sexually active I I wasn’t on birth control I wasn’t on birth control in high school I just used condoms and I did start taking birth control once I was out of college probably when I was around 26 ish was the first time I’d ever taken it and I was put on the pill I wouldn’t say it was for a specific health reason I know some people are recommended the pill for a hormonal contraceptive for for period pain for acne for everything.

So it wasn’t for that I think I was just in a more serious relationship and it just seemed like okay now’s the time for me to do this and I so I got on it I at the time I didn’t notice any drastic symptoms or anything like that I was on it for I’d say about a year if I was even a little bit less than a year maybe like nine ten eleven months something like that.

And now looking back I think it was a contributor to some health problems that I then had around that time around when I was like 27 28 years old had some health problems with my thyroid hypothyroidism I was diagnosed with so I think that was a contributing factor because all this that kind of happened around that time along with some other lifestyle factor things so I I went off of it and I just started researching I was like well there’s got to be another way something more natural.

And especially with my health problems I was wanting to treat those symptoms more naturally and holistically so that’s when I discovered fertility awareness I got taking charge of your fertility the book just read you know different articles and things online I didn’t take any kind of course or anything until now and so I started charting I think I was using I think I was using like Kindara the app you know at first and so I’ve been charting for like seven or eight years ish now.

So it’s been a while I always wanted to take a class but I just didn’t just one of those things you’re like well I’m doing fine I mean I honestly felt really confident with the method I felt good about the method but I did always wanted to take a class and so now now’s the time I guess you know I I yeah I mean I’m familiar with charting but I’ve learned so much more in the class.

And I have been transitioning from charting internally to or to checking internally to sucking externally now with the Justisse Method so that’s been a little bit of a transition but I do I do like it you know kind of as you stated it it does provide a little bit more clarification so.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well thanks for taking us through that I probably say this a lot I think I do say this a lot but it’s really interesting to be on this end of the conversation because you essentially took us through like fifteen to twenty years of your life in the last couple of minutes but just a couple things your story that are slightly different to a lot of the women that I have in this in my reality series you didn’t get on hormonal birth control at a young age you were basically managing your fertility in other ways.

And then you went on it but only for a brief time in your mid-20s so you had already been cycling for a long time a short stint and unfortunately in your case it seemed to coincide with a lot of these health issues so it’s kind of like well never know for sure if it caused it but it seems to coincide with some things that happened at that time and then you had actually already been charting for many many years before you jumped in to the course.

And so I mean I love having women of all stages so it’s really helpful in the class to have experienced writers it’s also helpful in the class to have women who have no charting experience and so what I think it’s nice is that wherever you’re at there’s always more to learn and more to add to it and to kind of speak to your experience so when I started charting I did the same thing I bought taking charge of your fertility and I was charting in internally.

And so I’ve gotten to the point where I like to just share that you know I’m not trying to say that there’s one way to chart because there obviously isn’t there’s multiple different fertility awareness based methods and there’s positives and negatives to doing things in different ways and so in many cases like if you’re checking cervix you’re still gonna check internally and so we talked about you know what to do if you see mucus in that case and how it’s different to charting.

So I you know any mean like just so that the listeners aren’t thinking like oh you’re doing it wrong you’re not doing it wrong there’s positives or negatives to doing in different ways and it really boils down to like which fertility awareness base method are you following and then if you’re aware of multiple methods you can actually kind of pick different pieces from different things and kind of make sure that it’s the best fit for you so just wanted to throw that there.

Lauren: Yeah definitely.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: So let’s jump into the session part of our call in our in our last call I think we were talking about a lot of kind of method specific things I have your chart here so let us pull it up what were you I was kind of at the top of your mind today what were you most hoping to jump into today.

Lauren: I think some of my my biggest concern or concerns I guess is just like trying to note everything trying to really understand what I’m seeing trying to kind of grasp the you know the mucus that that I am seeing I’m concerned about my I mean one of the the big reasons why I’m even taking the the mastery course is because of I mean yes for natural birth control because I’m trying to avoid pregnancy right now but also just by as other markers in my health just because I do have some you know underlying issues I know.

And so I have like some lower temperatures and I am just concerned about maybe my cervical health concerned about nutrients and and possibly not getting enough so you know I have some period pain and things like that and I definitely know that listening to you like that’s not right like there’s something wrong my pain is normal but it’s not normal it’s normal but it’s not normal so that is that’s one of the big reasons why I’m taking the class and.

So that’s I guess some of the stuff that I want to talk about in terms of my charts like I have ovulated now it so it appears I’ve had a temperature shift and my mucus has pretty much dried up since that time and although I have been seeing a little bit of just kind of like sticky like it is like I can actually finger test it but it’s definitely not like peak mucus it’s just like maybe a little bit of like not stretchy just kind of like a sticky pasty like off-white mucus a bit I noticed it a couple days ago.

And then I noticed a little this morning like when I woke up so I guess you know like is that normal or anything.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: My gosh I hate it even that word normal cuz it’s hard to but well you’re talking about the kind of sticky pasty me because that you’re seeing now that you’re in the post ovulatory phase.

Lauren: Yeah just so like just a little like it’ll pretty much me like the whole day will be like dry won’t see anything nothing to finger test and then like a couple days ago like I noticed a little bit more towards the evening so just something like that is that something to be expected.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I mean if if you’re seeing non-peak after like your temperature shift would that be that wouldn’t be like a double Peaks situation wouldn’t know so it’s not it’s it’s fairly common for some women to see some like creamy pasty type cervical fluid after ovulation and you you know in your chart we have confirmed ovulation we can confirm ovulation with both your mucus and your temperature because your mucus you had some clear stretchy mucus that stopped and that coincided with your temperature rise and so your temperature rose.

And stayed high so in this case we can be confident that ovulation did take place and so when you’re seeing like that lotiony cloudy sticky type cervical fluid post ovulation it’s not a sign that you’re fertile again it’s it can be related to a few different things and it’s just for let me just take a peek at your previous chart so in your previous chart you didn’t really know a whole lot of that yeah so do you have a sense from kind of previous charting is it pretty typical for you to see some kind of lotion mucus post off or was this kind of like a specific like oh this is different I.

Lauren: Might my I would say no it’s not necessary well when I was checking internally yes cuz like you always see me peak mucus on your checking internally you know and like even when you’re checking internally I think you can very much tell the difference between like peek where it’s like egg white and stretchy and you can you know stretch it like an inch I mean like you can very much tell the difference and that and then you know just like vaginal cells a lot just kind of like tissue.

And like it is more that sticky kind of feel I mean so that’s why I think even checking internal ease like it’s possible to work I mean obviously I used it for a long time so it like works but so I would say no it’s not necessarily super common but I’ve been but like now I’m charting so much more specifically and just like really noticing like noting down trying to note down everything and really make a note of every single time I go to the restroom you know before shower after I’m like all the different times throughout the day.

So it’s just like the level of what I’m noting is so much better than before so it’s kind of hard to even you know it would be yeah you cycles like turning this way then I think I’ll have a better idea cuz even like in like preovulatory phase like I kind of thought like oh I wonder if my mucus productions even like that great like I don’t even know if I’ll see that much based on my class cycle but really I do I mean I like if you if you’re really looking closely.

And really paying attention and checking every single time based on this turn it’s like yeah I did see things oh yeah before like just around ovulation I mean I definitely saw things even like right at the end of my period when my period was really really light so it’s it’s um it’s it’s kind of eye-opening a bit just because like I kind of have these assumptions I’m like oh I don’t think I have that much media so I think I’ll probably you know just based on past stuff but it’s like I don’t know not really actually.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Um well in try to answer your question so it’s it’s pretty common it’s not necessarily something you have to worry about if you see one or two days of you mentioned you’re checking throughout the day and you might have saw a little bit of the lotiony once in a day so for example if this is just an occasional thing it’s not like consistent it’s not every single day post ovulatory it’s not every single cycle I feel like it’s always good to put that into context when there’s something we should look at it’ll you’ll see a pattern you’ll see something that continues to happen cycle after cycle a few things that it can indicate.

So from that hormonal perspective which is always a foundation of you know how we talk about the cycle around here when you ovulate your progesterone level rises and that suppresses you make its production so for women that are seeing quite a bit of mucus post ovulation so like a lot of lotiony mucus several times a day every day type of thing that can be an indication that the estrogen is higher than it should be or the progesterone isn’t as high as it should be because it’s not adequately suppressing the production of the mucus.

So it can be related to hormones and that could be an issue with hormone clearance like are you clearing your estrogen liver function it can be related to if your progesterone levels are where they’re supposed to be so some of the things that you can do in general to support your progesterone production luteal phase are to I mean all of the the practices that we’ve spoken about throughout the class the lifestyle things.

So there’s it comes down to the general things sleep are you getting enough free sleeping in the dark are you eating enough are you getting your three meals a day you know what’s your exercise routine looks like that type of things so kind of on the basic level things that could disrupt your hormone levels and let me see if I just take a quick peek at my notes here did I ask you about your sleep so do you sleep in the dark.

Lauren: Yeah yes I said in the dark I’m sure I’m not sleeping enough so I its I’m sure I’m not sleeping enough I I would like to sleep more so I’m a good sleeper so I sleep solidly I don’t not typically you know I don’t wake up in the middle of the night I don’t like I go to sleep pretty quickly it doesn’t take me a long time to fall asleep so it’s I’m getting quality six to seven hours.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well what time do you typically go to bed.

Lauren: Usually like 10:30 11:00.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: That’s not bad it’s not bad.

Lauren: I just but yeah I just wish it was I mean I wish it was more it’s just one of those things.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Are you having to get up early type of thing.

Lauren: Yeah for work so I have a longer commute that I have to do and just I mean obviously just get up and get ready to go to work so that’s I I wish that was a little different in terms of that I wish I could get a little bit more time into sleep and and I try to come when I can but I guess I’m not doing as well as well.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: I wouldn’t beat yourself up yeah I mean it seems like you’re going to bed at a decent time and I mean if you’re having to get up extra early then you know that makes it challenging and that’s one factor so I like to check in on on that and so it’s when you think of the luteal phase.

So some of the signs that your progesterone up be in the exact place that you wanted to be include if it’s the luteal phase days a number of days is a bit shorter or if you have any premenstrual spotting or you know those types of things if you if you do start to see non peak mucus show up a bit more before your period starts those are some signs that it could possibly be related to that and I would say the biggest cause of lower progesterone it’s a big topic.

But it’s something that’s causing you stress whether that’s direct or indirect whether it’s an event or a choice dietary inflammation like whatever the case is so yeah so at this point I don’t know that we have enough information to say okay this the problem or okay you know it’s not because what we have in front of us is a pretty healthy looking cycle you had peak mucus leading up to ovulation and your mucus did stop.

And one of the things that I’ll say is that you know even though you’re seeing a little bit of creamy mucus it’s completely different than what you were seeing in your fertile window so I suppose when we check in in our next hot seat or a next call then we’ll be able to have a look and see okay how many days of mucus did you really have after ovulation and how many times a day did you really see it and so if it’s just a little bit it’s not necessarily an issue.

And if you’re concerned about it we just have to think of ways to support progesterone production support stress and if you in your I’m sure you have all the time in the world your given that you have this busy schedule with the commuting but some of the things you can do in the post dilatory phase do some Epsom salt baths that gives you lots of great magnesium it helps to you know relax you and magnesium boosts progesterone production in the luteal phase and in general.

And we’re a lot of us are deficient one of the topics that we’ll try to get to today is the period peeling you were talking about and so magnesium is also part of that conversation as well so thinking about ways to support that we can see if that makes a difference in terms of how much mucus you’re seeing so ideally you would be mostly dry post-ops ideally you wouldn’t really see any but I wouldn’t say that seeing a little bit is necessarily a problem I think you get what I mean.

Lauren: Yeah so in your preovulatory.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Phase you did have two three four or five six days and weeks leading up to it it looks like you were seeing several days of peak mucus a couple times each day so is that pretty typical for what you usually see.

Lauren: Yeah I’d say yeah I think in terms of that my cycles fairly you know fairly normal consistent in terms of number of days it’s usually right at right around the same where the day that I ovulate is you know right around the same I mean obviously recycle is a little different but you know in terms of that I think it’s a it’s pretty consistent nothing to you know no to like major surprises or anything so and I think the mucus patterns are similar.

Yeah I’d say it’s nothing it’s just more I guess I maybe thought I had some more like dry days in the preovulatory cycle between my period and like my Fertile window and maybe that’s just this particular cycle I’m like my stress levels have been pretty high this last like month or so with with work so that is you know something that I just kind of want to note with with these cycles as well and just see as I go especially just charting with so much more detail now I think that’ll be but so you know always something to note down kind of the stress levels that I have.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Mm-hmm one actually now that I’m looking at you noted your sleep so I see what you mean so but kind of like the average amount of sleep that you get is probably somewhere between 6 hours 6 & 7 on that part so in a perfect altered alternate universe where you get to go to work when you want how many hours like do you do you know how many hours your body naturally sleeps like how long it takes you to wake up without an alarm clock.

Lauren: My my body is on a fairly good like um natural alarm clock like even on the weekends I usually like I’ll get up kind of around the same times just because it’s it’s just kind of programmed wake up fairly I mean I’ve always woken up like fairly easily there’s like I wake up before my alarm clock goes off I mean like mornings aren’t too bad for me and haven’t been but would you say that like I’d like more like I could sleep for like I think like I don’t know like I could sleep for more.

But I don’t know if it’s just like a mental thing or I just like okay you got to wake up now.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well yeah I mean that’s it’s kind of a tricky question because there when you are in the your circadian rhythm is a real thing and so when you’re used to waking up a certain time certainly your body will wake up at that time and it’s kind of hard to answer that question when you’ve been in a rhythm for a really long time yeah the question of if you were fully rested how many hours would you actually sleep so and it’s not the same for everybody.

So there’s no like everybody needs to have eight hours so there’s some people who would say I need eight hours or any day and a half there’s some people who would say I need a solid seven or some people that would say like I need a seven and a half but that’s certainly a factor one of the things that you mentioned was your temperatures and so when I look at the charts your your temperatures are hovering just under what we would consider ideal.

So ideally the temperatures are would be above about 70 ninety 7.4 Fahrenheit so with your chart it would be like ideally we would actually like to pick it up yeah put it up about point four or point three point two or three degrees and it’s the thing we talked about this a little bit as well but with the temperature when you’re taking your basal body temperature your body reaches a state of rest after you’ve had about five hours of uninterrupted sleep.

And then the longer that you sleep the higher your temperature kind of gradually goes up a little bit so I’m sure that this sleep part isn’t the only or entire explanation but if you’re getting less than you need ideally then your temperatures would be a little bit lower so that’s something to think about I mean if you have the ability to because I’m a fellow I’m like a recovering night owl so like my vices in life it’s like my recovering sugar holic night owl hi my name is Lisa.

And I didn’t have a bedtime security up for some because I got but I’ve been working on it it’s hilarious if you talk to my husband he’d be like there’s something wrong with her it’s getting better but I guess what I’m saying is I have a lot of empathy for how difficult it is to switch that especially when you’re working all day and then you just have this tiny little bit of time to yourself and you just want to you know do the things that you want to do.

So if you have the wherewithal you know depending on what’s going on to commit for a week or something like that it’s like if you had if you were like okay let me do one week somewhere like in the pre-op of the Troy phase like that’s super convenient probably not where you actually went to bed earlier or something like that for a full week that could give you a sense of whether or not that’s playing a role other factors we spoke about a little bit for the temperatures could be related to nutrient deficiencies so you just want to look into yeah like think and iodine and a few other specific things.

Lauren: Yeah I I’d say that’s that you know is a bit of a factor I’m work I mean I I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism I take Armour Thyroid everyday you know it’s a smaller dose but I do take it every day so so even taking it my temperatures are lower I think I am kind of working on essentially like an underlying issue either SIBO or Candida I believe based on symptoms that I have so I think that I think my based on testing that I’ve done in the past I think my liver.

And gallbladder maybe aren’t always functioning optimally and I have taken I worked with a nutritionist or a little earlier this year and actually did kind of go on a really really because like liver cleanses can be like super harsh sometimes so it was like a really really mild late liver cleanse and it actually did seem to help in a lot of ways with various symptoms as but as well as my as well as my cycle I noticed you know Wes less period pain and you know just less things.

And stuff like that that would which I’ve kind of been struggling with so throughout my cycle so it that has helped so I think there’s definitely an issue with that too and if my liver and gallbladder aren’t functioning optimally I think that can be part of the that’s tied into like the nutrient issue and I eat really good quality food not that I I mean you can always do better any less sugar but COVID isn’t exactly the best time to engage all our health right now.

But uh COVID and protests and everything I can’t have the world maybe not the best time with everyone’s stress levels but it’s you know I think that is my gut health is is definitely I would say affecting then you know the nutrients that I’m getting or lack thereof and also my hormone you know how am i my hormone production and something like that I would imagine is very affecting it so mm-hmm.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well yeah I mean in terms of the temperatures certainly there’s a lot of different factors that could be playing a role and from that nutrient perspective iodine is often highly overlooked and so if you have the ability to do testing we talked about the iodine loading test a lot of people really quick to say things about iodine like if you have a thyroid issue never take it and that is not a thing you can say because a person can have a thyroid issue and a deficiency.

And so in order to identify if there’s a deficiency the most scientific way to do that is to test it as opposed to being dogmatic about it and just saying people who have this condition should never take this and the temperatures are the real-time information so your temperatures are low I’ve seen lower that way but they are not the worst definitely not they are in that kind of suboptimal but they’re not like the whole time but with that said certainly you can do some tech like you could test your zinc levels.

But it’s interesting the same nutrients that support overall temperature regulation which can be one of the factors of course also affect the thyroid so you know iron iodine zinc selenium ashwagandha is a supportive thyroid nutrient so you just want to take a look at those things and ensure that you’re getting enough as well as magnesium and this also leads to the conversation about period pain did you want to switch it up and talk about period pain for a minute.

Lauren: Yeah that’s fine also just really quick I’ll throw in that since I have been charting for a while I really should just this kind of just came to me I really should try to pull up some of my old charge cuz I know at times in the past I’ve gone into like the 98 like maybe post ovulatory you know maybe you know pre-operational restarting the 97 s but then being a little higher and then going into the 98 so I should try to review those.

And see just kind of okay what time in my life was that obviously my charts definitely weren’t as detailed as they are now so it’s not like I’m gonna be able to pinpoint exactly but you can kind of get in a general idea of like okay well my stress levels were less than or this I was doing this kind of lifestyle thing that I was exercising more I was eating this way I was you know just something to maybe give me an idea so that kind of just came to me so I should I should pull those up and take a look.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: So yeah we can we can talk about period pain Lea in that vein it’s it’s not just one thing you know yeah and also it’s kind of like if it’s related to nutrients which i think is important to look at when you do have a thyroid issue because if you have a thyroid issue it often it does help overall to make sure that you’re getting enough of those thyroid supporting nutrients what that said I’ve had clients who have really low temps because they skip meals because they aren’t getting enough sleep because they’re really stressed or because you know.

So there’s a lot of different things that you want to look at it so it’s yeah so I think that yeah if you’ve got those previous charts it might be like oh yeah that was the summer that I was like on vacation and spent half the time by the lake and everything like you know a ditto but you know what I mean sometimes it’s like oh yeah all right well I mean baby I was just like putting out there maybe that’ll be that’s coming up well.

Yeah so you mentioned that you’ve had period pain so a couple questions just want to ask you because it sounds like you’ve had it pretty good has this just been a consistent thing for you like since day one or did was there a time when it kind of ramped up.

Lauren: Like I said it started like it wasn’t when I first started my period it definitely wasn’t that bad at all it got worse I’d say after college so you know mid 2020s to to now mid you know almost mid-30s so it’s it’s gotten worse it’s bad you know on the first two days typically I take Advil the first two days I’ve even noticed some cycles or I’m even taking I might take a little bit of Advil even before my period starts because I know it’s coming.

And I can just heal it in my body and I can feel it in like my hips and in my like thighs like just kind of my whole like torso area like is is a key and sore and so it’s it’s definitely gotten worse in the last ten years than it was in the first you know ten years but even throughout the last ten years there’s been times where it’s you know it’s I mean it does fluctuate each cycle a bit some cycles aren’t quite as bad.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: When was the last time you had a cycle that you didn’t have to take Advil.

Lauren: Oh I don’t know well in the cycle within I’d say maybe at least within the last two years I want to say there was a cycle or two where I was able to not take Advil but I think I kind of managed it with I do like CBD tincture and stuff like that so it’s still a pain you know it’s not like I’m not taking anything so okay so it’s like a consistent yeah it’s enough yeah like yeah.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: And then generally speaking so on a scale of zero to ten so zero be no pain you’re on that beach everything’s wonderful and do ten is like someone’s stabbing in the abdomen where on average is your pain level and then where is it like on the worst right.

Lauren: I’d say on average it’s maybe like a five six and that’s like managing it with with Advil with you know it pain medication if like there’s been times when I haven’t taken like maybe I’m working I’m busy or whatever and I can feel like the pain starting but I’m like okay whatever I need it like I’m in the middle of this like I’ll get to that and or if I haven’t had access to like Advil or something in my purse or whatever.

And it’s like gotten like to this point where the pain is like so bad and then like it takes like forever I feel like to get out of that like pain yes something I call it the window yeah you don’t take the Advil in the window it’s like all bets are off yes it’s so far off it seems like forever words like if you start sooner then it’s like okay like this is like it doesn’t ever get like it never could train like if you don’t get it before it leaves.

Yeah it’s horrible yeah yeah so like when at times when I’ve like missed that opportunity and it’s not really bad that I would say like I’m not gonna say ten cuz I’m sure could be worse but like eight nine you know like high and then just take so long to get it like back down to like manageable I mean like definitely moments or I’ve been like riling and pain you know like on my bed or something so but you know like high eight nine.

But I mean typically I am able to to take pain meds before that starts and I mean most every cycle I’m okay with that I have I mean I carry Advil with me like in my purse underwear I go so it’s like you’re prepared so it’s like a five six I think it’s a good average.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Okay ah well thank you for sharing that with me it’s not actually like you were me in terms of this that was me I had Advil in my car I had it at work I had it my bed like I had it all the times always and I literally get like anxiety if I like don’t have stuff like that with me.

Lauren: Yeah yeah yeah that’s like well my anxiety has a whole nother but yeah like I literally get if I day fighting like not prepared with things like that it like like yeah.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Okay well so there’s I want you to know that there’s hope because that I was you this like it’s this is interesting because I’ve spoken to a lot of clients just the way that you’re describing it sounds a lot like my experience to some extent so we talked a little bit about pain period pain in the class but I’ll just kind of reiterate that yeah super common near experience and any other situation where a person is writhing in pain on the floor is considered to be a problem.

So there’s something wrong with our society also another to be continued so a few facts that I think are really really helpful because I feel like if someone I think to some degree some of this was explained to me when I was younger in my charting days when I was taking my charting classes but not to the extent that I was able to fix it like in my early early 20s but women who have moderate to high pain have higher levels of specific inflammatory markers.

And one of those markers is prostaglandin levels and prostaglandins are a group of lipids that are involved in your body’s response to inflammation so what a period actually is is a normal inflammatory process so some degree of inflammation is required it’s normal it’s part of it so inflammation and tissue damage your tissue is literally dying and then it is being shed and in order for that to happen the prostaglandins their roles is to cause smooth muscle contractions so that it can actually remove the tissue.

So when things are going well you would have an appropriate amount of prostaglandins and you would have sufficient smooth muscle contractions to remove the tissue but you wouldn’t be in writhing pain so in women who have the moderate to high pain they’ve been shown to have upwards of four times the prostaglandin levels so essentially it’s just way too much inflammation moreso than you need to just shed your lining and that’s what’s causing the pain so there’s other explanations and concerning factors of course.

And for women who have endometriosis in addition to that inflammatory kind of over-reactive inflammatory response you also have lesions that are also doing all kinds of stuff to cause a lot of pain so what do you do about it you’ve already discovered that ibuprofen for so ibuprofen works not for everybody and there’s limits of it so to be clear I’m anti pain and if like when you have when you’re in this stage that you are now you have to take what you have to take.

So I’ve spoken to a number of women who will say like well I try not to take Advil and it’s like well I don’t know what to tell you like if you’re in a lot of pain you got to do what you need to do obviously the limitation to the Advil is that if you don’t take it in the window you’re screwed for lack of a better word and also it’s like the bots like I don’t know what it is.

But the bottle if the bottle says it asks for six hours it’s like like six hours to the dot then you gotta take an x1 so it’s it’s it’s obviously a temporary kind of thing and long-term you said just abandoned like obviously it’s not it’s not like solving anything it’s not like making your pain go away like it’s giving you yeah but giving you but I want to acknowledge right like for sure it gets you through the day the challenge because you mentioned that you have some gut issues.

So the challenge is that long-term use is associated then with some of these GI issues okay so what do we do everyone wants the quick fix supplement and anyone who’s had heavy or high pain has tried a lot of things and so it’s really important to consider an approach that involves reducing the sources of inflammation and that being just as important as supplements that can directly reduce the inflammation so because what I want for every woman alive is a way to reduce and eliminate the pain.

So if I were to ask you like well what if we could get the pain down to like two or three who isn’t gonna raise their hand maybe like well yeah what if we could get the pain down to zero but the thing is that as you would anticipate and expect it may not just be one cycle it’s done it’s typically a process that takes a bit of time but I just want to know that I want you to know that yeah we can do this.

So a couple things that can from the position of like reducing inflammation and you are already eating really clean so some of these things you have likely already done so some of the common sources of inflammation would include regular conventional meat and dairy products so I’m not anti meat it’s just that when the cows are eating corn and soy the meat is highly inflammatory so the composition of omega-3 omega-6 right yeah so if you’re able to get grass-fed it doesn’t necessarily have to be organic but if the cows eating grass you’re you know or whatever the cases that are do you do you consume dairy or can you not consume dairy.

Lauren: I’m not I haven’t had dairy in a few years so it’s something that I I eliminated a lot of things from my diet to for inflammatory purposes and so that’s that’s one of them and I just haven’t brought it back.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Would you say that there’s like our do you have any dietary sources of inflammatory like sugar processed foods.

Lauren: I don’t have any processed foods I pretty much cook all my own food it’s all organic its grass-fed it’s like I don’t have use any of the vegetable oils I’m gonna haven’t done that for years now.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: And when you made those shifts did it make any difference.

Lauren: Oh yeah I mean I’m sure yeah I mean I’m trying to think about the shifts I noticed in my period I mean I in my health huge chefs you know like I was having really very like kind of typical thyroid issues like I had no energy like I would sleep for like 10 hours and wake up and like have to go back to bed I had like massive brain fog were like we probably didn’t be able to this conversation coherently you was.

So bad like I was like 27 years old now I couldn’t read like I look like a page of a bucket and comprehend what I just write like it was bad so when I and I don’t even before that I had been gluten-free I’d but I’ve been gluten-free for quite like ten years there’s not like a long time so then then I eliminated even more stuff and yeah I you know so when I’m like a paleo diet basically.

So I like even sugar that I have not to make it better I’m not having like processed sugar I’m not having like high fructose corn syrup I have like maple syrup or you know honey or I mean so it’s in its natural forms I still consume too much at times and that’s something that I am it’s just like you can have you can be eating like a healthier diet but you can still find the unhealthy things to eat in that diet.

So occasionally I thought you know it’s like you can be vegan but you can still eat crappy as you know or you can be paleo and still maybe not eating the best so there’s definitely times where probably I consume a little bit too much sugar a little bit too much you know even starchy or things like sweet potato or starchy or veggies and stuff so that’s those vices and my diet I guess I mean it like it overall I know my diets pretty good but there’s still like work that can be done I guess.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well it sounds like yeah it sounds like you’ve though taken care of it like it sounds like your diet isn’t on this massive source yeah I think I just wanted to check in with that cuz I mean we gotta live our lives so I don’t even think there’s such a thing as a perfect diet because everyone requires different stuff so it doesn’t sound like the diet is like necessarily a huge source so a few things it’s what I call the period pain trifecta a few things that can be really helpful in terms of reducing inflammation in the body.

So three key nutrients to look at we already talked about magnesium and with the way that you’re charting now you would very quickly see so if you did it for one full cycle whether or not that makes a difference in the degree of your period paying the following stark of a cycle zinc in addition to that and so the reason it’s not just kind of like this generally because it’s magnesium there’s research that has been done and I found a couple interesting studies where they can measure these prostaglandin levels.

And the study group who is taking the magnesium throughout their cycle in this example the magnesium group experienced a 45 percent reduction in prostaglandins so when you understand the inflammatory process that’s happening and you understand that these particular nutrients have been shown to reduce those specific markers then it makes sense okay that’s why it’s working that’s why the pain is less similarly zinc is a really potent anti-inflammatory nutrient and apparently a lot of us are deficient in as.

Well there was a study here that found that when the participants were given zinc during specifically during the days leading up to menstruation it decreased the severity of the pain and it’s different to Advil because you would take the zinc and you could also do this with magnesium I also have here listed fish oil but you can take these nutrients specifically during the week before your period starts.

So if you’re not comfortable doing supplements all the time you could actually target I mean magnesium I’m on about all the time because most of us are deficient otherwise you could specifically target the week before your period and what’s different to the Advil is that it’s kind of like it lowers the whole pain for the duration of time as opposed to with Advil it kind of like temporarily reduces it and then it pops back to exactly where it was.

Yeah like it takes the whole pain down a threshold because it’s actually targeting those inflammatory markers and so that’s something to consider and yeah so that brings us pretty much to the end today did you have any other questions before we call.

Lauren: No I think I think that’s good gives me a lot of good stuff to work on so cool.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well so for the listener who is thinking to herself like wow Lauren had years of charting and she jumped into the class like what would you want the listener to know who’s actually thinking about jumping into the next slide program what would you want her to know about it.

Lauren: I mean definitely that it’s it’s worth it I’ve gotten such a better understanding of what I’m seeing how to chart just even some really basic things like like you kind of go over I mean some of these basic anatomy things basic you know this is how the female body and male body work I mean just even some of that stuff which like first of all we all should be learning probably in high school but you know once again that’s a whole other podcast episode.

So it’s just I mean just stuff like that I mean it’s totally worth it I think just to know that and I it’s just like all women should know this stuff about their bodies so that factor alone I think is really valuable but just a huge proponent of just trying to understand your body as best as possible and really listen to it and that and be and learn how to be in tune with it and I’ve I’ve gotten better you know over the years myself.

And I want to get I still want to work on that and I think just really taking your cycle as you know just like your books called the fifth vital sign I mean it is this really key sign to health and it is I mean it is eye-opening even just in in discussions with women since I’ve started taking this class even like a co-worker you know she was mentioning and she’s she’s older than me she’s probably early forties.

And she you know saying like oh I didn’t have a period for years you know I didn’t have a period for years and she did I mean she just like she just said it so matter-of-factly like it’s just like yeah I didn’t you know probably kind of liked it maybe you know like people the period and but then it’s like she definitely had some fertility issues I mean she has a daughter now but I mean she definitely struggle they think to get pregnant and.

And that was really hard for her it sounds like a number of years and it’s just even in that conversation I’m just like wow I mean you’re just like this is so normalized these experiences that women are having so and it’s it’s really saying so much and you know someone should have just like you wish you could go back and say okay someone should have told you that not having your period is like not normal like that’s a big deal like you need to look into that.

And that is where I think the class is also very very much worth it let alone whether you’re trying to conceive or not try to even see it’s just that kind of that fifth vital sign knowledge and tapping into that I think it’s really the critical thing.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Yeah yeah it’s interesting because once you see things from that perspective then all of like so much of what is commonly said sounds just like yeah so one last question for you for the woman who’s listening who’s on the pill one of the things that I’ve found where I am three years older than you so we’re similar age range so when I was in that age just finishing high school.

And for me that was first couple years of university was when I became sexually active at that time there wasn’t this idea that like if you’re not on the pill it’s just a time a matter of time until you get pregnant I feel like back then it was still presented as a choice and so there were women who weren’t on the pill who didn’t want to get pregnant and managed in other ways and like that was pretty not like it wasn’t this big deal.

But now it seems different so I’m seeing a lot of women who have been on the pill for a long time and are just petrified at the idea of coming off when they’re not trying so do you have anything that you’d want to add and share for women who are in that position.

Lauren: I you know I was I was really motivated to to I did go on it I mean obviously I wasn’t motivated to get on it right from the from the get-go I mean I I was fine and comfortable not being on it so that’s a little bit of a different experience do I think some some people maybe start out at a younger age feeling like they need to go on it and you know I think that’s definitely kind of something that’s sort of societal pressure on young girls.

But I was motivated to come off of it for for health reasons so I think when you do have problems like that that can be this like big factor of like okay I’m gonna change anything and my you know to make myself feel better like I feel so bad that I’m like I’m willing to do whatever it is to not feel like this anymore so for me that was a really big motivator so some people I think feel fine maybe or don’t or they normalize some of the symptoms that they have.

But but in my opinion kind of with with so many health issues and is like these are just band-aids like these are just like masking these symptoms and masking your cycle and just kind of you know like even some of the colors you know like you’re not even having a period for years or what I mean it’s just like it’s I don’t know like putting it just like our emotional problems or things like that in live I mean just like setting it aside.

And not addressing the problem it doesn’t go away it’s not going anywhere it’s still there and it’s to me I think everyone should start thinking more about long-term health and not just immediate health so for me that was a big factor of like I just don’t want to be like I don’t really want to be on any medication for super long periods of time if I don’t have to I want to live a long healthy life I want to live a long health like a long life where I feel really good in it to not just like oh I live a long life.

But I have like all kinds of health conditions so to me that’s you know kind of thinking that long term and not just in the immediate of like oh this is convenient for me right now I think every woman should have all the information and it should be presented to them and then they can make that decision and that’s how you make a good decision is by having all the information so if if people are given that info.

And then they make the decision to still go on the on some type of hormonal contraceptive just based on their life situation I mean that’s everyone’s got to do that you know and make that decision but I think I’d say it’s not that scary it’s very doable I think it’s you know I don’t know our bodies aren’t like this scary unknown thing that you can’t navigate or can’t figure out I think that’s I mean it the charting it can be a little bit overwhelming at first.

And there can be a lot of like rules and you’re like oh my like if I don’t get them alright or whatever but I mean really it’s not that hard and it’s like all the other processes that you go through in your day like you can definitely do this too so it’s and it really does become a routine fairly quickly I think so it’s like it’s it’s not I just say it’s it’s not scary it’s very doable and I think just trying to think in in you know long-term health and not just in the immediate future is really important that’s that’s kind of the advice I had for myself and for all of you.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Well thank you for sharing that Lauren thank you for being on the show I know the there’s a lot of women who needed to hear this episode today so I really appreciate it and I will see you soon actually.

Lauren: Yeah like an hour yeah I know thank you so much I appreciate your your time and yeah everything you’re working on very much.

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack: Thank you for listening if you enjoyed today’s show please share with a friend you’ll find the show notes page for today’s episode over at FertilityFriday.com/318 I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Lauren today it was such a treat to be able to talk with her to go through her charts and to just go through some of the challenges that she’s been experiencing with her periods.

And if you can relate to having painful periods whether it just kind of started at some point or whether they were always painful I always take every opportunity to you know basically shout for the rooftops although it’s very common for women to experience pain and many women do it’s not normal and outside of say childbirth pain there’s no real example of when we would think that pain is completely okay and acceptable and so you know outside of periods when you think of pain it’s related to inflammation tissue damage.

And it’s generally a sign that there’s something we should be paying attention to and although I refer to the menstrual cycle as the fifth vital sign there are a number of professionals that actually refer to pain and suggest that that should be the fifth vital sign so anyways in this case it kind of amounts to the same thing right because we’re talking about the menstrual cycle and pain together but what it boils down to from another perspective in my personal belief system I just don’t believe that we should have to suffer especially when there are proven evidence-based ways to target.

And address the root cause the root issues that cause pain which is typically related to inflammation and in cases of endometriosis a combination of inflammation and tissue growing and developing in areas that it shouldn’t be so you know immune system dysregulation but either way we can there’s something that can be done about that so I hope you enjoyed that aspect of the conversation as well as the overall message which is that if you are kind of on that fence or leaning towards non hormonal methods I just want you to know that it’s possible to do this.

And for me when I was at that stage I was trying to figure out how I was gonna manage my fertility and what method of birth control I was gonna choose I just wanted to know what was possible I wanted to know what all of my options were so I could decide what was best for me and so ultimately that’s what this is all about that’s what the reality series is all about because most women aren’t even aware that the fertility awareness method exists let alone that it’s an option a legitimate non hormonal birth control option that is up to ninety nine point four percent effective when used correctly.

So putting it on par with other hormonal methods provided that you take the time necessary to learn how to use it so that is is ultimately the message you can do this if you have gravitated to this method method for one reason or another you found yourself listening to this podcast how did I get here again what did I search how did I find this podcast but either way you’re here so that’s the takeaway if you really gravitate to this and if it resonates with you.

And if you are feeling that desire like you know what I I really want to know what my cycles are like I haven’t had the best experience on on birth on hormonal birth control or I didn’t know this existed and I really want to give this a try either way you’re here for a reason and I want you to know that you can do it so if you’re new to the podcast certainly head over to FertilityFriday.com/FAMreality.

And that’s where you’ll see the list of all of the fertility awareness reality series episodes I should really count them how many there are right now but there’s quite a few and so it’s a great series to listen to to just gain additional nuggets and tidbits about fertility we’re gonna starting and also help to build that confidence that looks there are tons of women actually doing this and I can do it too so with that said thank you.

So much for tuning in today thank you for helping spread the word about fertility awareness in general and of course fertility Friday in the podcast thank you for sharing the podcast episodes with your friends and of course as always until next time be well and happy charting.