Is the hustle impacting your menstrual health?
Interview with Menstrual well-being coach Katherine, from Katherine Irene Coaching
Katherine is a mental well-being coach, and she spoke to the anti-hustle club podcast in October about menstrual well-being. Listen to the podcast in full here.
Menstrual well-being is quite a hot topic at the moment. People are FINALLY starting to feel more comfortable talking about periods, and we're breaking down the taboos around our periods, putting us in the driver's seat.
Katherine works with clients who have menstrual health conditions like endometriosis and PCOS, plus people who are perimenopausal and menopausal and want to understand their menstrual well-being better.
It took her 17 years to get diagnosed with endometriosis, and she now wants to make sure that everybody had the information and the support to live their best lives and thrive regardless of their menstrual health.
After her diagnosis, she went to therapy. She said, "Obviously, I needed to. I want to talk to somebody. I wanted to talk about it and learn therapy and stay past focused. And I needed it. It had its place, and it shaped me. But then I wanted to look forward. How can I survive and achieve my goals? How can we do everything I want to do with this?"
Once she'd worked with a coach, she realised that maybe this was something she could see herself doing. The 9-5 was never just those hours, she worked hard, and the lack of flexibility was not helpful when struggling with her endometriosis. However, it wasn't until her role in the theatre industry was made redundant in the first lockdown of the pandemic in 2020 that she considered this a viable option.
Fast forward to today, and this is her reaction, "I talk about periods all day long. Amazing. And it's nice to be able to turn my story into something positive and to do something valuable with it. So that's kind of where it all came from pure lived experience and creating what I needed."
Talking about her experience with hustle, Katherine felt like she was always on the back foot because of her health condition. Because it took her so long to get diagnosed, "Often if you go to the doctors, the doctor is very much like, well, have a baby or go away, lose weight, or this is just what women have to deal with all of this."
Irrespective of her medical history, she felt there was still a lot of pressure to be doing things at a certain age. "You need to buy a house, get married, and do all this stuff. And there's such a culture of being at the very top of your game."
Coupled with the fact that chronic health conditions can be costly, Katherine got swept up in this negative side of the hustle culture, which made it exhausting.
When she needed it, she didn't take time off, "When I had surgery, I went back to work two weeks to the day later, all wrapped up and tried to just power through. When I was at school, I had a lot of time off school, and I was known as the sick note, and I didn't ever want to be known as that. I wanted to be and never wanted it to hold me back."
How can hustle culture impact our menstrual health?
Katherine explains that "periods and the menstrual cycle are like the fifth vital sign of your body that everything's OK and going well."
But what happens? A little bit of stress on the body can be a good thing. Thinking like exercise and movement, but, to a safe level, burnout and chronic stress can significantly impact your general well-being and, therefore, your menstrual cycle and your body can't tell the difference between good stress and bad stress.
So you could be working two jobs working on whatever you're doing, working way too many hours. On the other hand, you could be loving it, but the stress will be on your body; your body can't tell the difference.
And essentially, what happens? Your body goes into that kind of fight or flight mode. And within that fight or flight mode, your brain might turn around and guide you. Your body's not up to pregnancy right now because, essentially, periods are for pregnancy. That's what their purpose is. There's no health benefit to having a period other than to create procreate. So your brain might go, 'we can't handle this right now,' so it may cause ovulation delay.
You do want to be having regular periods also that also you're the ideal kind of period is sort of 25 to 31 days, the average type of cycle, the average day is still 28-day cycles. So anything kind of more or less than that can be a red flag for stress. But you want to keep your cortisol level, which is your stress hormone, down because your cortisol level can suppress your reproductive hormones and then control your menstrual cycle. And then again, that kind of spiral. So how do you manage all of that? I mean, I'm also guilty of going. Oh, I didn't get my period this month.
And it's those basic needs of "am I hydrated? Have I eaten an adequate amount each day? Am I getting enough rest?"
It's essential to keep that cortisol level to the right level for you and manage those stress hormones. It's not about getting the best balance but understanding what works best for you.
Resources to consider:
Speak to a health care practitioner is the first place to go if you spot any red flags
Maisy Hill, is a menstrual health coach, who has written some FAB books! One is called Period Power. The other is called Perimenopause Power.
Look at working with a menstrual wellbeing coach
Be confident in the fact that you know your body best. No one can experience what you're experiencing. So if you feel like you're in a lot of pain, you are in a lot of pain. Don't ever let anybody tell you that this is worth it.
I would also say read as much as you can. Share if there's something you see on social media that may impact somebody else; share it. Start talking about it. Social media was where I started speaking about what was going on for me.
There are some incredible people on social media. There are some fantastic groups of people raising awareness and supporting others. If somebody offers you one size fits, run away, go to the accredited places, and look for the blue ticks on Instagram - it’s usually the way forward. Even if you've reached out to Endometriosis UK, even if you reach out to me, whatever you need to do, get the support you need to.
Connect with Katherine Irene on Instagram or check out her website.
