Seed cycling my hormones back in balance

I’ve been having a bit of bother with my mood lately. Well, to be brutally honest it’s been a lot longer than “lately”. I have been one of the lucky ones in my family not to have been plagued with woman problems. My cycle has been as regular as big ben chiming at the allotted hour and so I never really paid attention to the small changes in my body. Well, they absolutely can’t be ignored any longer. For the past 3 years or so I have started to experience the blessings of menopause, or so I thought. After a bit of research and talking with friends and my doctor I have discovered that I am in early peri-menopause. This phase is not to be confused with menopause as I had done. This phase is the warm up act to menopause. How utterly delightful to be a woman.

I will not bore you with the details of what this means for me right now, rather take a look at Dr Kathleen Mahannah and what she has to say on the subject. There is a wealth of knowledge out there and more and more people are sharing their experiences.

I have recently started using Anara products that have really helped me manage this next phase. They are manufactured here in South Africa and are available online. I am resisting, kicking and screaming not to go on HRT. So many women find these helpful, I am not one of them. I want to explore as may alternative and natural therapies as possible. Brian, my husband has been exceptionally gently and nurturing mostly. On days when I’m unplayable, he gives me a wider berth. I am very grateful for his understanding because most of the time I don’t know what I’m actually going through myself. This morning he assured me we will work through this together.

I have exercised all my life and love the health benefits both physically and psychologically. I noticed I was experiencing anxiety. I have never been an anxious person. This was completely foreign to my personality. I also noticed my exercise was not working anymore. I was doing it, but to less effect. I had also taken a liking to cakes and biscuits. This could definitely be the reason why the exercise wasn’t as effective. Something had to change. I needed a boot up the arse!

Jump to Recipe

When I am about to make radical changes to my lifestyle, I go through a strange phase of denial where I resist the inevitable change. I make very poor choices about food where I eat with abandon. I know a famine is on the horizon and I start to eat burgers and chips and crave processed foods and anything fried. It’s as if I can’t help myself. I know the consequences are dire and yet I can’t stop myself. What I’m actually doing is forcing my body into such a tight corner that the only choice left is to STOP the destructive behaviour.

This morning I woke up KNOWING I was going to stop the runaway train.

This morning I woke up feeling disappointed and depressed with myself. Today was the day! I brushed my teeth and went for my run with Kenzi, our dog and Brian. I was impatient and snappy with Kenzi when she wanted to stop for a wee. I had zero patience with Brian too. I decided to decline coffee and went upstairs to meditate. I haven’t meditated for a very long time and this is such a healthy practice for calming my mind. Slowly but surely I was able to pull myself out of the negative thinking and gently bring myself back to peace. I am here. I have to accept this is what I feel right now. I can wallow here or I can move away from this pain. I am not rooted in this place of pain. If I could do something, just one thing today what would I do to move away from this pain.

Food is what I love and know. Food can give me such joy and can bring me pain too. I needed food to be my medicine today. I practice IF (Intermittent Fasting ) and TRF (Time restricted Feeding). I had been loosely following this practice and flouting excuses of holidays and weekends as a reason to be flexible. I had stopped pushing the start button on my app that helps me stay focussed and on track. I rationed that I can keep track of the 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours window of eating. What I was essentially doing was relinquishing my responsibility and accountability to myself. I was pretending that I was practicing , but I was lying to myself.

Grateful for stumbling on a phrase I have never heard before, “Seed Cycling” galvanised me into taking control of my eating. This gave me a sense of peace knowing that food has always be my source of comfort. Today this comfort came from knowing that food would be my medicine. I needed to get back to basics. This was the reboot I was looking for to at least stay on the train but slow it down to a manageable pace. I read that seed cycling helps with the side effects of peri-menopause as well as with fertility. Just when I was grateful that the night sweats and hot flushes had abated , I had to deal with crying for no reason, bloating, headaches, anxiety, sore breasts, weight gain and loss of confidence. This is early days and I have no idea if this is going to work, but I will be damned if I sit in depression and ignore what is happening in my body. My body is trying to rebalance itself in preparation for the next phase in my lifecycle. Apparently this will take about 3 months to recalibrate. I have nothing to lose but give it a try. So here goes!

Update after 24 days

Well it’s been a surprising success so far. The mind is a powerful tool for negativity and positivity. That was the first immediate change I noticed. I think because I decided to make the change and take back control of my thinking that was my first step to recovering. Accepting where I’m at and moving from there is my choice of direction. I got back on track with my eating, by sticking to my intermittent fasting and my exercise regime. I have logged in my weight every week to keep a visual reminder and a goal I want to achieve steadily and slowly. I have lost 2.3kg. I am proud of myself. I don’t feel so bloated anymore and my moods are not swinging like a 60’s dancer. I definitely feel a sense of balance returning. What I struggled with a little was eating the seeds every day. I was religious for 2 weeks and then I had perimenopausal bleeding unexpectedly and that threw me off what seeds I should be taking. I was supposed to start the luteal phase, but now I was confused about where I was in my cycle. So for me I will start the seed cycling by following the phases of the moon. The moon controls the waves of the ocean so it makes sense that it would influence me too. For the follicular phase, I will start at new moon and eat 1Tbls spoon each of flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. The luteal phase I will start at full moon and eat 1 Tbls each of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. If you are experiencing a regular cycle then I suggest you follow as I originally posted.

Update August 2024

So I am still going through this wonderful change, but it has been a brutal and emotional struggle. At the start of my journey I refused HRT. By December 2022 and after experiencing a hot flush every 45 minutes, my husband looked at me helplessly and said Jax you’ve got to explore alternatives. I was absolutely desperate. I spoke with a friend who had good results with Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. She gave me the name of 2 doctors. I called the one, we had a zoom appointment and after a round of extensive blood tests he mixed up a batch of compounded hormones E2 0.3mg/ml and 200mg capsules of progesterone. He supplemented my vitamins with natural cortisol 5mg, DHEA 15mg Slow release, NAC plus and free amino powder. I continued with this regime until April 2024. During this time my hot flushes definitely improved but I did still experience them. I decided to try a new doctor that visited East London in April and he sent a prescription to FAGRON a company that compounds bioidentical hormones into specific doses for each patient. I was hopeful that it would work. It appeared to be so much more professional than the previous compound mix. The previous tubs that I received were inconsistent from month to month. The texture changed as well and I thought there wasn’t a standardised mixture. It felt like a different person had mixed up a batch in their kitchen every time. With FAGRON the dose was regulated with a click of a dial that administered a specific amount. I was instructed to use 2 clicks. I went through two months of this and felt my dosages were not quite right as I was continuing to experience hot flushes. I sent an email explaining my symptoms. I needed a repeat perscription but with a few tweaks. I heard nothing back so I followed up with an SMS to the doctor. Apparently my email landed in his junk mail. He would send the updated request for the BHRT to FAGRON with the tweaks. Silence. I was frustrated and felt like I was being ignored. From the beginning of July 2024 when I sent out my email, to 31 July when I had my last communication I had still not been sent my repeat BHRT from FAGRON. I made an appointment with a new gyneacologist in town, I spent and hour and a half in her rooms undergoing a thorough examination. I immediately filled my prescription for HRT and have been on them for a month. I am still experiencing hot flushes, but I will give it 3 months for my body to adjust.

FROM this entire ordeal I have listened to many different podcasts. I have read The New Menopause which I think every woman going through menopause should read. This is a subject that has been completely ignored for too long. Our mother’s did not talk about it for fear of being labelled the nagging woman and the medical profession dedicated about 3 hours to it in the entire 7 years it takes to become a doctor. This is a huge part of the population that have been kicked to the curb. Just like going through adolescence, we are all very different. My needs as a teenager were completely different to my 2 sister’s and my friends. I had radical acne they had 1 pimple a month. So too is menopause different for each woman. Our range of symptoms is different and there are hundreds of them. Pay attention to YOUR body. Talk to your friends. listen to Dr Carrie Jones and Mel Robbins on these subjects. Tune into Zoe Science and Nutrition for another view point on your hormones and nutrition. The trick here is to wade through all the detritus to get to the nitty gritty information specific for YOU. These are my best finds so far on this subject. I hope you don’t ever experience this transition as badly as I have. If you are prepared for it you may be able to glide through it all like a swan on a lake unlike me like a pig on a spit on a sweltering summer’s day.

PS I am still enjoying various versions of this smoothie below. I have made a batch of miracle seed mix that I blend to a powder in my high speed blender and add 2 tbls of that to my smoothies. I keep it in the fridge and blend enough for a week or two. Blending the seeds to a powder helps with absorption and they are easier to suck up the straw without getting stuck.

Again, I want to re-iterate this is my story not medical advice that I want you to take. Please consult with your doctor on the subject. Do it sooner rather than later. Go armed with questions. If you are not listened to or treated with dignity and respect find someone else who will be a better fit for you and your needs.

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