Your 5th Vital Sign

Lovelies, we all know how important our heart rate, body temp, respiratory rate and blood pressure for keeping us alive and checking on the status of our health.

But did you know your menstrual cycle is your 5th vital sign, here’s why.

Ovulation is the main event to pay attention to in your cycle, if you do not ovulate any bleeding you have is not considered a true menstrual bleed. It could be as a result of a number of factors including a pill bleed, an anovulatory cycle (meaning no ovulation) or other aspects that also require further investigation.

Regular ovulation is only possible when your endocrine (chemical messenger system not just sex hormones but also includes hormones such as insulin and cortisol, our stress hormone) and reproductive systems are functionally normal, so an irregular/abnormal cycle could be an early warning of an underling health problem.

Progesterone is SO important for not just our reproductive health but for our brain health, sleep, balanced mood and to avoid the dreaded PMS symptoms. Progesterone is only produced in significant quantities after ovulation. See my previous blog here for other progesterone benefits

Your menstrual cycle and ovulation is a sign of health and is crucial for maintaining optimal health during your reproductive years. Not just for getting pregnant but to ensure we feel energised, focused, have stable mood, can feel calm and confident and not irritable and the constant loom of dreaded PMS

So key take aways: 

-          In order to be healthy we need to know what our cycle is doing ( a great way is to use an app like Clue which allows you to update daily as you track your cycle)

-          If we aren’t ovulating we are missing out on some key hormones which impact all aspects of our health

-          Our menstrual cycle is pretty amazing and is a vital sign. Although we are often made it feel it, our cycle isn’t something to loathe, fear or try to prevent and by digging down deeper by using state of the art testing and by tracking and monitoring our cycle it is something we can get to work with us and for us and not against us.

If you want to find out more then download your free copy of 6 steps to PMS Free Periods.