I struggled with hormonal issues throughout my 20s. Every month I wondered whether this one would be just difficult or a truly grueling ordeal. All too often, I felt like an alien had taken up residence inside me, bringing with it bloating, nausea, ravenous appetite, low energy, and terrible cramping. Usually I enjoyed life but not when this other entity paid its monthly visits.
When I became a nurse-practitioner, I discovered that I was far from alone. Many of my patients struggled with difficult PMS, painful periods, or challenging perimenopause, the transition into menopause that typically begins in the early or mid-40s and continues until menopause finally takes over. My patients were also dealing with endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and premature ovarian failure (POF) and other fertility issues. Many women felt, as I did, that hormonal issues were playing far too big a role in their lives. We all longed for a straightforward solution.
As I continued my practice and began reading the literature in the field, I learned a great deal about healing both my patients and myself. To my amazement, I discovered that the right foods could keep our hormones in harmony, especially when aided by deep, restful sleep, energizing exercise, the right herbs and nutritional supplements, and, if necessary, some gentle bioidentical hormones. I found out the best ways to avoid environmental toxins that mimic the effects of estrogen and disrupt our hormonal balance. I learned how psychological stressors of all kinds—from everyday challenges to our family histories—affect our adrenal glands, and how our adrenals, in turn, are one of the keys to hormonal balance. (I even wrote a book on the topic: Is It Me or My Adrenals?: Your Proven 30-Day Program for Overcoming Adrenal Fatigue and Feeling Fantastic Again.) Having grown up with a father who was a psychologist and a mother who was a social worker, I was very much aware that psychological issues affect us, but I never fully appreciated their physical implications until I started working with women and their hormones. Most important, I learned how crucial it was to listen to our bodies—hormones and all—and to respect the messages they give us.
Eventually, my partner and I joined Christiane Northrup, M.D., and her partner to start a new practice. We kept the name I had first chosen, Women to Women, which I’m proud to say has become a national leader in the field of women’s health. Drawing on the new perspectives we were all discovering together, Chris went on to write a landmark book, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, which has helped transform the way women’s health issues are regarded in this country and around the world.
Our groundbreaking work crystallized around the two key ideas I’ve mentioned: first, that our hormones are deeply affected by diet, lifestyle, and environmental influences—including the many toxins and pollutants in our food, air, and water—and second, that our understanding of the world and our place in it plays a hugely important role. A woman who rarely exercises and eats a diet high in sugar and the wrong kinds of fats is far more likely to have a challenging menstrual cycle than a woman who gets the right kind of exercise and eats a healthy balance of protein, carbs, healthy fats, and fiber. Similarly, a woman who has learned from her earliest childhood that her own needs must take a backseat to the needs of others is likely to experience an additional barrage of daily stress in her life—stress that has a powerful effect on her body chemistry, including her hormones.
The exciting news was that we could do a great deal to help these women, which became a lifelong passion for me. We could treat our patients’ hormonal issues naturally, safely, and effectively, with near-miraculous effects on their overall health. It was amazing to see a woman whose month had been shadowed by mood swings, bloating, and cravings come into my office glowing, happy, and peaceful after just a few weeks of treatment. It was incredibly gratifying to hear our patients tell us, “Finally, I have periods without cramping” or “For the first time in a long time, I feel sexy and sensual again.”
Many of the approaches we took were truly pioneering. We could see from our own experience the huge impact that nutrients had on physiology, even before there was widespread scientific evidence to back up that perception. Now, several decades later, such scientific support abounds. For example, the Harvard scientist Walter Willett, M.D., has shown clearly how deeply our bodies are affected by what we eat. Articles in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine attest to the biochemical effects of stress upon our bodies and to the medical importance of relieving stress and/or transforming our responses to it. This cutting-edge work is wonderful validation for the medical approaches we developed and the exciting results we’ve achieved.
And so, finally, I began to make friends with my monthly cycle. I ate foods that were right for my body, slept a refreshing eight hours a night, and got moderate but vigorous exercise. I took herbs and nutritional supplements that were helpful for my particular biology. I explored the psychological issues that were adding unnecessary stress to my life and found new ways to get the support I needed. To my surprise, I discovered that my menstrual cycle was hormonally designed to include a creative, fruitful time in midcycle and then a quiet, peaceful, inward-turning time as my cycle reached its end. After balancing my hormones, I could finally enjoy the ebb and flow of my monthly cycle, appreciating its rhythms and shifts as women have done for generations.
My own experience brought home the huge role hormones play in how we feel. Now when I see women every day with concerns, questions, and frustrations about their hormones, I really get it. And when I hear women tell me that their hormonal struggles shape their lives—that they plan their months around mood swings and cramps, or that perimenopause is making them feel old before their time—I get that, too.
This suffering is simply not necessary. That’s why I have written this book: to provide you with a simple, clear, accessible, 28-day program that can help you balance your hormones and make you feel like yourself again. We all deserve no less.
Wow! eBook
