What to do when your cycle suddenly changes
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If you have a regular-ish and predictable menstrual cycle, it can feel like having the rug pulled from under your feet when it changes. Periods that were once relatively pain free now leave you doubled over, or premenstrual phases that felt powerful now make your blood boil with rage. If you’re suddenly struggling with your cycle, you’re not alone. And, most importantly, it’s not your fault. So what the heck is going on?
First things first, it’s worth remembering that your menstrual cycle doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It spans your entire life cycle, from the moment of Menarche, when you first bleed, to beyond menopause. That’s a long time! And so much can happen in those years. Pregnancy, miscarriages, childbirth, illness, surgeries, stresses, grief, ageing and basically, life. All of which will have an effect on your cycle.
As you move through your different life stages, your affinity to (the ease in which you relate to your cycle) will change. If you’re in your early 20’s, enjoying life without thinking much about your cycle, you’ll likely have a very different connection to it than if you’re in your early 40’s, embarking on a fertility journey.
On top of that, there are also factors like biology. The older you get, the more cycles you’ll have where ovulation doesn’t happen at all as your cycle winds down towards perimenopause. And if you’re post-partum, your fluctuating hormones might make your cycle feel all over the place with new symptoms you never experienced before.
Menstrual Cycle Awareness is all about being aware of what’s happening. Observing your lived experience and overlaying it with what’s happening in your life to see where things might be out of kilter. As a woman, your cycle is like a feedback loop as it reflects everything from what you feed yourself, to how you move your body, who you live your life with and how you choose to live it.
A lot of Eastern Philosophies work on the premise that the body wants to be in homeostasis - a state of balance, and because of this, their medicinal systems work on getting to the root of the issue, instead of focussing just on the symptom. Our way of doing things here in the west, is more about treating the symptom. If you’ve got period pains, your doctor is more likely to prescribe you painkillers or the pill to stop bleeding altogether, instead of investigating why there’s pain in the first place. It’s great at sticking a plaster over a crack, until the crack gets so big that it can no longer be held.
Practicing MCA helps you to look past the symptoms your cycle is showing you, and get to the root cause of why they’re happening in the first place. Without doing this, you’ll likely spend a lot of unnecessary time, money and energy trying to throw solutions at it. So what should you be doing instead?
First, if you’re not tracking your cycle already, start doing it now. Even if you’ve been tracking for ages and are taking a break, pick it up again. It is impossible to be accurate and objective about what’s happening without this empirical evidence. I’ve got a free tracker for you here if you need one. Try to track in a way that makes it easy to analyse or see patterns. If you prefer to journal, spend some time reading what you’ve written and highlight any sections that jump out at you.
After a couple of cycles, look for patterns. Do also bear in mind your own intuitive knowing here. Notice not only how stressed you are, or how angry you feel at certain times, but also how you feel and move through the cycle itself. Try to use descriptive words, the more the better!
Consider whether you’ve had any big changes in your life over the last 6 months to a year. Have you had a baby, moved house, got married, divorced, emigrated, lost a loved one, been attacked, had money issues, had exams or anything else that’s taken up a considerable chunk of your time, energy or money. So often, we go through these big things without remembering that life may demand we keep on going, our bodies often need time to catch up.
If you haven’t made any of those changes, but are considering doing so, then take that into account too. Don’t underestimate the sheer brain power that goes into making huge life decisions.
Are you at one of the big archetypal transiitons? Becoming a mother (from considering conceiving to becming pregnant and birthing), entering into perimenopause and being confirmed as post-menopause are big, big life events that directly relate to the cycle and ask different things of us.
And of course, there are the usual things. Are you getting enough sleep, are you eating a varied (mostly healthy) diet, are you getting enough sunlight and drinking enough water. You’d be surprised how the very simplest of things can make a big change too.
Of course, what you do with this information will depend on what the circumstance might be. If you’ve just had a baby and you’re experiencing rage in the days after your period, it might be a call from your Inner Maiden and a need to do some archetypal work to guide her into motherhood - a baby shower isn’t enough to do this! If you’ve just bought a house and your life feels chaotic, you might benefit more from bringing some order and discipline in with a plan on how to get yourself settled.
The beauty of working with your cycle, is that it will always try to communicate with you. You just have to learn how to understand what it’s saying and course correct.
If you’re struggling with your cycle, check out my Cycle Syncing Consultation service where I’ll decode your cycle and give you a roadmap of how to get back on track.