HAPPILY HORMONAL | hormone balance for moms, PMS, painful periods, natural birth control, low energy, pro-metabolic

E62: The Root Cause of PMS/PMDD and What to Do About It

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Hey friends, today I’m talking about PMS and PMDD.

This is something that I get a lot of questions about and that I help my clients with really often. I want to explain what each of these conditions are, how to know the difference between them, what is essentially acceptable or normal within a cycle, what is a sign that something is off in your body, and then of course, what do you do about it? Let's dive in

In this episode:

  • [01:41] What to do if you’re struggling with PMS
  • [05:30] The difference between PMS and PMDD
  • [09:13] Bandaid solutions to PMS
  • [11:22] Understanding the root cause of PMS
  • [21:28] Looking at the whole system to get you out of PMS
  • [22:47] Lifestyle changes to alleviate symptoms of PMS


Resources
- Find my mini course on blood sugar balance HERE
- Nourish Your Hormones Course: use the code HHPODCAST for $50 OFF Nourish Your Hormones!
- 3 secrets to balance your hormones workshop
- Free hormone balance guide

Connect with Leisha
Instagram: @leishadrews
Website: www.leishadrews.com
Apply to work 1:1 with Leisha HERE


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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back. I am going to be talking about EMS and PMDD today. This is something that I get a lot of questions about and that I help my clients with really often, and I want to just kind of go into what each of these conditions are. How do you know the difference between EMS and PMDD, and what is actually essentially acceptable or normal within a cycle, and what is a sign that something is off in your body? And then, of course, what do you do about it? So let's dive in.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Happily Hormonal podcast. Now, if you're a little iffy on whether or not the word hormonal is a good one, you're in the right place. My name is Leisha Drews, registered nurse and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, turned holistic hormone coach, and, after going through my own hormone journey and having my three babies, I actually believe that our hormones are one of the greatest gifts that we've been given as women and that, no matter what you've been told, it's possible for you to have thriving energy, good periods and the stable mood all month long, and I am here to show you the way. I think it's time to change the narrative around words like hormones and hormonal and start to reclaim the power that we truly have as women, which is a power to change not only our own health, but the health of all of our family for generations to come. Hormone balance doesn't have to feel hard. It can actually feel simple and fun when we do it in a way that aligns with how our bodies were made. If you're ready to start trusting your body again and feeling really good in that beautiful body that you've been given, then grab yourself a yummy drink and maybe a snack and let's do this All right, pms.

Speaker 1:

So I will start by saying that PMS is something that I see over and over again, is normalized in our world and we are led to think through sitcoms and Instagram posts. I saw a reel a couple days ago that was like something about like just started my period and found out that everyone doesn't hate me and I don't hate them, and I saw comments and comments and comments on this influencers post. Oh my gosh, I feel so heard and everyone must feel this way. A thing, and while I am obviously so incredibly in support of women finding common ground and supporting each other, it does make me sad to see that this is essentially just thought of as normal and when you're having these thoughts that everyone hates you or that everything is terrible and that you hate everyone prior to your period.

Speaker 1:

There is something going on in your body. This is a sign of detox issues, this is a sign of hormone imbalances, and so, with that being said, can we laugh at a funny reel? Absolutely, have we all felt that way sometimes? Absolutely, and there is just so much more going on under the surface that can be addressed so that you don't feel like that every single month, and I have worked with clients who have had no PMS to start with. I've also worked with clients who have weeks of PMS every single cycle, and this is going to be more on the PMDD spectrum, which I am going to talk about. The difference today and really, truly, though, the underlying issues are the same and there's just kind of like an extreme version of this PMS that can cause more extreme symptoms, but really, when we're looking at the body as a whole, there are reasons that you are feeling this way with your mood, and it is absolutely possible that you don't have to feel crazy half the month, that you don't have to think your family hates you, that you don't have to be like ready to move to Mexico one whole week before your cycle because you just can't handle your life. All of these things, while funny in hindsight, are not exactly the way that we want to show up as women and as moms, and so I'm going to dive into that today and I want to just encourage you if you're here listening to this because you have PMS, there is so much that we can do about it, and my signature method nourish your hormones is the place to start.

Speaker 1:

If you are struggling with PMS, if you have period symptoms as well, if your energy is low, any of those things, the method that I have created has worked over and over again for hundreds of women, because when we're looking at the body as a whole, we are looking at the causes, and with PMS, so much of the time there is estrogen dominance, there is low progesterone and, most importantly, there's just a lot of stress on the body. The body doesn't have the signals that it feels safe. Detox pathways are not open, and this is what I teach you inside of. Nourish your hormones is exactly the step-by-step that you need so you can eat the right foods, you can support your stress in the right ways, you can take the right supplements. That is definitely the last thing that we work on, but you can do these things to be able to start feeling a difference within the first month or two months that you have been working on your hormones, and so it doesn't have to be a long process. My clients see results really quickly. Most of the time, within a month or two, they start to see things moving in the right direction, and so I just want to encourage you that, as you listen to this episode, if you identify with any of these things and you're really ready for those next steps, then it's time to join our share hormones. We'd love to see you in there. I'd love to support you and just cheer you on, give you a virtual hug so that I can help you have better periods. That is my passion, and I cannot wait to see you inside.

Speaker 1:

Okay, pms, pmdb what's the difference? Let's talk about it. So PMS actually affects up to 85% of women, and I think that this is a crazy statistic. I did get that off Google, so who knows how accurate that is? But according to my influencer reel that I just watched yesterday, it might be really accurate, and I would say, with the statistics that I see, with the amount of women talking about PMS and with my clients, I would say a lot of women do have PMS, even though 85% does seem really high.

Speaker 1:

And so some of the signs and symptoms are, of course, the kind of like typical ones where we're like I feel really irritable, I am grumpy, I'm crying, I'm angry, I'm sad, maybe I'm depressed those emotional symptoms of PMS. But there can also be emotional symptoms like anxiety. There can be appetite changes or food cravings, trouble falling asleep. So insomnia prior to your period is a PMS symptom. Sometimes social withdrawal is this PMS symptom? That also can be to a certain extent, something that's just natural in that part of your cycle. So we'll talk about that too. Core concentration is a PMS symptom. Change in libido, usually a lowering in libido. But there can be physical signs and symptoms too, like joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, migraines, fatigue, weight gain, like more, like bloating, kind of fluid retention, weight gain, breast tenderness, acne flare ups, all of these things.

Speaker 1:

Anything that happens within the week or two prior to your cycle is in that category of premenstrual syndrome, just clearly because it comes before your period. And so when we're looking at this as a syndrome, there is a lot going on. There can be a lot of different things that show up in your body in this PMS period. Now, what's the difference between PMS, like I just mentioned, which is this whole broad syndrome in PMDD? Now, pmdd is premenstrual dysphoric disorder and that affects more like 5% of women, and this is just essentially the extreme version of PMS In my experience. In opinion, it actually has the same root causes. It's just gone further or, for whatever reason, is affecting someone more because they are more sensitive, essentially, but symptoms can be much more severe.

Speaker 1:

Up to it is nothing to laugh about. It's not something that you can make funny Instagram reels about when you get to the point of PMDD, because it truly is like full depression, sometimes crippling anxiety and sometimes even suicidal ideation and so or even homicidal ideation when you start to research PMDD and even start to research. This is very interesting and also sobering. But the homicide or suicide rates in women if you are to look at the most common time in a menstrual cycle where a woman would commit suicide or homicide, it is that week prior to their period, and so there is a lot there that again like to a certain extent, this can be actually very, very serious in a small percentage of women, but it goes. It just goes to show that as we're looking at this as a syndrome, there is a huge difference in the effects that can come up essentially. So mostly what I'm going to be talking about today is more of the typical PMS, because it does affect so many more women. If you have more of the severe PMDD symptoms, you can be all the way to that like far end of the spectrum with like very, very severe mood symptoms or even just more severe than typical PMS sometimes is categorized as PMDD.

Speaker 1:

And so when we're talking about PMS, it really is important to understand the root cause and it really is important to understand that the conventional approach is not actually doing much for that root cause. And so the conventional approach to treatment for PMS and or PMDD is generally birth control for PMS, and that is, of course, our favorite Band-Aid solution to fix literally anything when you're a woman. If your toe is hurting, they're like maybe it's because you need birth control, and that's a pet peeve of mine, obviously. But birth control does change your hormones and so it does actually sometimes help with symptoms of PMS. Because if you have PMS, because you're having these hormonal fluctuations, if you take birth control, take a low level of those hormones at all times, then you can turn off that system and maybe you won't have the symptoms. That's not always the case, though, because unfortunately, a lot of the time, birth control pills or IUD or any form of hormonal birth control actually can cause quite a few mood symptoms in and of itself. So it doesn't always make a difference for PMS, and I have spoken to many women, as well as myself, who actually had mood changes on birth control, and so it's not a quick fix or not a sure thing for sure.

Speaker 1:

So that's the most common treatment for PMS conventionally is birth control, and then sometimes providers will also prescribe an antidepressant that is supposed to be taken those two weeks prior to the period, and the thing about antidepressants is that they actually take about four to six weeks to take full effect, and so taking an antidepressant for two weeks is not going to be nearly as effective as it would be taking it long term, and so I would also see that, generally, women would end up taking an anti-depressant more long term, even though their depression or their anxiety is only for a couple weeks of their cycle. So, again, this is kind of like I don't know, I would say throwing the baby out with the bathwater, or trying to cover a specific problem with a general solution, and this isn't going to really serve anyone long term in my opinion. So that is the most common conventional treatment, but let's really dive into what the root cause of these issues is, and there is always so much going on in the body, so this is not specific medical advice. If you have PMS, I'm not diagnosing you with anything, but this is what I see most commonly with PMS clients who I have done testing on and who we've done, like, all of the deep dive research on. And so often when there are PMS symptoms, it is because there is an imbalance in estrogen and progesterone. And just to give you a quick refresh, if you're new to the podcast, welcome. So glad you're here.

Speaker 1:

Estrogen is the hormone that is dominant in the first half of your cycle and needs to rise sharply to trigger other hormones called LH and FSH for your body to ovulate. And then, once you ovulate, somewhere around mid-cycle, progesterone is created by the little sac that holds the egg that you ovulated. It becomes a temporary organ and produces progesterone for the rest of your cycle, and so progesterone should be dominant the second half of your cycle and when your body is working that way, when it's working really well and you have a great spike in estrogen, and then that estrogen drops off and is detoxified. Well, this is a very key so we're going to come back to this later and then you make enough progesterone that it lasts about two weeks, so about 14 days of alludial phase, and it helps move that estrogen out. You have really stable period symptoms for the most part, when those estrogen and progesterone levels are balanced and you have half of the cycle where estrogen is dominant and half of the cycle where progesterone is dominant.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, so much of the time there is a mismatch in these hormones and that's why you're here most likely, and what I see in PMS and PMDD most often, is that estrogen is working over time, essentially, and so either your body is making too much estrogen we'll talk about why in a minute or your body is not detoxifying estrogen. Well, when you have taken birth control in the past, you've gotten this low level of estrogen over and over and over and over every single day, and birth control pills most often come with a dose of iron as well, and that estrogen and that iron can actually be stored in your tissues long term. And so if you've taken birth control in the past or you're still taking birth control, that estrogen can build up in your body and it can help you have higher levels of estrogen present, whether you're producing higher levels or not, but it definitely can slow down detoxification because it's just more for your body to detoxify and when you are taking birth control pills it also can slow down your liver detoxification because, like I said, there's more to detoxify but it also can deplete your minerals and minerals are really important for liver detoxification and then it also can change the way your gut bacteria are functioning and the amount of gut bacteria and things like that, and so you have, essentially, you could have more inflammation in your gut and less detox capability in your gut just because of that birth control, whether you've. If you've taken birth control, then that applies to you. If you've never taken birth control, you can still have estrogen dominance and when you have estrogen dominance you're making too much or you're not getting rid of it.

Speaker 1:

That first half of the cycle you have that estrogen rise but it might rise too early because you have too much of it. It might cause more symptoms when it rises and you might not be detoxifying it as well for multiple different reasons, even outside of the birth control. So what happens if you have estrogen dysfunction in the first half of your cycle is you likely will have a rollover effect, that you will actually stay estrogen dominant your whole cycle. And so if you ovulate and produce progesterone, you are less likely to make enough progesterone when estrogen is dominant and you also are less likely to have progesterone be dominant if estrogen is extra in that second half of the cycle. And so if we see that your body is not detoxing estrogen well and estrogen and progesterone are imbalanced in that second half, this is where we see PMS symptoms come up most often, and it's because the body is trying to regulate those hormones. They are not regulated. You don't have the positive effects of enough progesterone in the second half of your cycle, which actually gives your body a calming effect, it increases thyroid function, it increases metabolism, it helps with sleep, it helps with mood and it helps with detoxification. And when you do not have enough progesterone in the second half, or when estrogen is essentially overcoming progesterone and you don't have a balance of those two hormones, this is where we see PMS come up most often.

Speaker 1:

Now I don't want you to get too invested in the idea that estrogen and protrusorone are the only issue in PMS, because there is so much more to that picture. Now, those two hormones generally are imbalanced when we see PMS and or PMDD, but there's always a reason for it, and so chronic stress or even acute stress on the body is always going to affect your hormones. And so when we look at emotional stress, physical stress, there is a specific way that it impacts your hormones and causes these specific hormone imbalances, like increased estrogen or estrogen dominance and low protrusorone. And the reason for that is because your brain talks to your adrenal glands every single second of every single day and it tells your body how things are going with stress. And so if you have consistent stressors on your body, like physical stressors, like imbalanced gut bacteria that's causing inflammation and nutrient deficiencies, if you have blood sugar imbalances because your liver is not working appropriately or you're not eating enough food, or you're not eating you're not even nourishing foods consistently and in a balanced way, those are stressors on the body.

Speaker 1:

If you have toxins in your environment, if you have lots of electronics around you, if you have emotional stressors, all of these things interpret the same way in your body. They interpret as a stressor and your body needs to deal with it. And so the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in your brain interpret the stress that you have coming in in all of those areas and they talk to your adrenal glands and they tell your adrenal glands how much stress hormones have pumped out and when your body is in that process and it's doing that and you're in a loop really consistently it doesn't have to be constantly, but consistently that your body is telling your adrenal glands things are stressful, things are not safe, pump out cortisol so that we can stay safe, stay alive, balance blood sugar, whatever that looks like. You are only going to be prioritizing these essential functions in that part of your brain and your body are only going to be prioritizing those essential functions when it is interpreting that there is not safety and that there is stress. And what that does is it prioritizes things like basic brain function, your heart beating, making sure you're getting enough oxygen to your muscles so that you can run away in a stressed state Like those are the things that your body is prioritizing is like immediate survival.

Speaker 1:

What it is not prioritizing is adequate digestion. Your digestion is slowed right away when you're in stress all the time. So even if you have no other reason for your digestion to be off, if your digestion is slowed a lot often because of stress, you're going to have bacterial imbalances, you're going to have overgrowth, you're going to have inflammation in your gut and that causes more stress and just continues this feedback loop. But also when you have blood sugar imbalances, that tells your body really quickly that there's an emergency. So you have these cortisol spikes and when your body is prioritizing actually surviving, it is definitely not prioritizing reproduction, because in the moment of running away from a bear, there's absolutely no reason to prioritize reproduction.

Speaker 1:

So there's another axis, the hypothalamus pituitary in adrenals, that I talked about. There's another axis called the HPG axis, which is the hypothalamus pituitary in gonads. So in women this is the ovaries. Those same two organs in the brain are talking to the ovaries and letting the ovaries know what hormones to be producing. Is it safe to ovulate and is it safe to prioritize progesterone production. For those healthy moods and good periods and a healthy reproduction, progesterone is the hormone that keeps you pregnant, by the way. So if we are not in a stress state that we can prioritize progesterone production, your body will actually take that progesterone that your body made and turn it into more stress hormone, because you need that stress hormone to stay alive when you're in a cutely or chronically stressed state. So that is a beautiful system and it was created really, really well.

Speaker 1:

And it doesn't always make the most sense for our bodies right now, when we are in this chronic stress state where we're having blood sugar imbalances and then the car breaks down, and then the kids do this or that, and then we haven't eaten, and then we're not sleeping, and then we have all of this toxic input, whether it's emotional or physical, and our bodies don't switch out of that stress state nearly often enough. And so when we have those signals of stress happening over and over and over again, we are not prioritizing reproduction, and this is one of the big ways that I see so often we get into these hormone imbalances. And so I just want to recap here that when we're looking at PMS, when we're looking at PMDD, and honestly this estrogen progesterone imbalance is what we also see with bad periods, with endometriosis, with PCOS. There's so many. There's different ways that that manifests. There's some different variances to what is happening in the body, but this overall picture of stress in physical and emotional ways, and telling your signaling from your brain to your ovaries to produce hormones, when your body is saying this is not safe, we are not prioritizing these hormones. This is the biggest thing that we always look at with my clients and with my students, and this is why the step-by-step method is so important and it's not just going to be a supplement to get you out of PMS, like we've got to look at the whole system. We've got to make sure that your body is truly nourished, that you have the building blocks to make hormones effectively as well as detox hormones effectively. And then we also need to be able to look at those stressors and bring some stressors down just a little bit enough that your body can start to switch into more of a safety mode out of that stress mode. And so when we look at it as a big picture, we can see that there is so much more to it, and that's why happy flow supplements don't necessarily work for PMS. That is why birth control doesn't work, that is why antidepressants are not an effective long-term strategy, because there's something going on under the surface where your precious body is telling you with these symptoms. And so when we're ready to look at the whole picture, that's when we can really see progress forward.

Speaker 1:

And when you're looking for more of the like quick fixes in the short term, there's always little things that might make a little bit of a difference. But if you get discouraged and think, man, this really isn't working overall, this really isn't working long-term, it's because you've got to look at the whole picture. And so with PMS, with PMDD, there are some specific lifestyle things that you can do to make some changes. And even outside of the basics that I always talk about but I would always start with the basics make sure that your blood sugar is balanced, that you are nourished. Well, I have a mini course on blood sugar balance. I'll link in the show notes here. If you haven't grabbed that and you think that blood sugar might be an issue for you, definitely recommend that.

Speaker 1:

And then we need to look at your emotional stressors, and especially just looking at where you usually notice those in your cycle and where you can give yourself a little bit of extra space. You can give yourself a little bit of extra grace that week, as your body is healing, you may need to give yourself more space and more grace than you actually want to, but it is possible to be able to see these things change and to be able to move forward out of these pathways of estrogen dominance and stress and really move into your body, starting to have that safety. And so really, when you're looking at Next steps and action plans, I would just encourage you to really try not to get distracted by shiny object syndrome and the happy flow supplements and like this device or that thing that is going to fix all the problems, and really look at your lifestyle, really look at your baseline and Think about what things are actually just causing me to be stressed the heck out. Is it my food? Is it my environment? Is it my Trying to do 100 million things at a time at all times Like where do I need to be able to step back, take a rest and actually step into a little bit more peace so that my body can feel Safety and I can start to improve how I'm feeling? And it's really truly amazing how much you know and how much if you take that space to just stop and pray about it and listen to the answer and do some Journaling and ask yourself what needs to change in my life. Why do I have this overwhelming sense of doom right before my period? And Just knowing that it's about so much more than just ha ha mom, it's in a bad mood before her period. I think that really gives us that Permission to look at the big picture and start to work on figuring that out for yourself. And if it's something that you want help figuring out, reach out to me.

Speaker 1:

I love doing this with my 101 clients. I have a couple of 101 spots opening up for fall, and so I would love to support you if you want to Really dive deep, if you want someone to look at this from the outside, to coach you through it, and if you want to do Functional testing. That is where I love to do that is with my 101 clients, and we can look at the all of the stress factors for you. We can look at your minerals, we can look at your gut, we can look at your hormones. We can see what's happening on a very tangible level so that we can make steps forward without guessing or without Feeling like you're just grasping at straws, but we can get some really tangible answers and help you move forward in a way that is Actually sustainable for you and your lifestyle, and that's one of my favorite things, too, about 101 clients is that I can personalize everything so that you Are getting a plan that is really truly based on you but also that fits your lifestyle, because knowing what your lifestyle is like and knowing what works for you and what doesn't Really makes it so much more easy to customize that plan. So hopefully this was encouraging to you. If you do struggle with PMS, just Take this episode as some encouragement. Take some of the simple action steps and just know that you are number one You're not alone, and number two, you're not stuck there and I'm here to help.

Speaker 1:

Any information shared on this podcast is solely for educational purposes, is not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or a treatment plan for any medical condition. I'm sharing my educated opinions and experience, but nothing shared here can be taken on a one-size-fits-all basis. We always recommend that you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and take full, informed Responsibility for any health and medical choices that you make. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today, for listening, and I hope that you were encouraged and learned something new. If you enjoyed this podcast, would you be willing to share it with a friend and to leave us a review?

Speaker 1:

I believe that every woman deserves to understand her body and feel great in it, and you can help me in this mission by sharing the podcast If you're also feeling like you're ready for the next step and you're really ready to dive in in your hormone journey. My course nourish your hormones is created specifically for you. It's a step-by-step blueprint to increase your metabolism, restore energy and have better periods and mood Every single month. I would love to connect with you, so come over and join me on my Instagram page at lesha druze and send me a message if you have questions or just want to tell me something that you enjoyed about this episode. I can't wait to meet you. I.