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audio transcription
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast, where we choose to become empowered patients and take our health into our own hands. Hi, I'm Shannon Hansen, a Christian entrepreneur, a mom of three. And after dealing with my own health mysteries, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about the thyroid. I soon became certified as a holistic wellness practitioner, a functional nutrition practitioner, and a functional diagnostic practitioner. And so much more after that, I founded the Revolutionary Thyroid Program, the method. As a health professional and a mom, I fully understand the importance of having a fun, simple, and sustainable plan for achieving a responsive thyroid. So I share actionable and practical strategies for developing a responsive thyroid so that the ambitious moms and women can gain freedom from fatigue and lose the thyroid weight once and for all. Each week, I will be here for you, along with my guest experts. We will be sharing simple and tangible tips that work for not only your thyroid, your hormones, your family, and your mindset, so that you can get back to living the life that you envisioned for yourself. Welcome to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast.
(01:22):
All right, you guys. Welcome back to the Thriving Thyroid Podcast with your host Shannon Hanson. I Let's talk about <laugh>, all of the things. So we are gonna be talking about your menstrual cycle, specifically the follicular phase of your menstrual cycle. And this is a phase that I was never taught about, I was never educated on in high school, elementary school, whatever, right? Like when, whenever that process was of people teaching us about taking charge of our hormones. It was, and again, depending on the area, and I know times have changed depending on your education growing up about your menstrual cycle. If it was anything like mine, it was, boys have sperm, girls have eggs, they go together, they make a baby <laugh>. And it, I mean, it was very high level information. And in addition to that, I was taught more abstinence, abstinence from my parents abstinence, because I grew up in a, you know, a little bit more conservative area.
(02:42):
More or less, it wasn't until I did move to Colorado for a little, a short period of time in high school, and I didn't do their sexual education program, but I heard it was like more than I had ever experienced <laugh> any other time. So, and you know, all of that is okay, and all of that is fine and whatever, and you know, you guys, you do, you and the area that you do is, you know, is great, whatever your beliefs are on that. Like I said, for me and my kids, we are a little bit more conservative. I waited until I was married for those things. But I also grew up in a home that was very open about conversations. Like I never had to be fearful of going to my mom and asking, Hey, I heard this thing at school.
(03:39):
What is this? You know? And I would get <laugh> the nice clean version of, of things, right? And my parents did a, my mom, it was really my mom. My mom did a great job talking to me about the body, what is normal, what is not normal? And I had my first yeast infection in high school, and I have a really funny story. I won't share that <laugh>, like publicly on the podcast. Actually, maybe I will. Let's do it. Okay. So I, if you guys know, you know, right? Yeast infections, they're very itchy. You're uncomfortable. I'm, I like, it's like, it felt like it came on all the sudden. I've only ever had one yeast infection. So I don't know if this is how all of them are, but it was like, I just could not, like, I would scratch and it would be fine.
(04:36):
And then it was like right back. And so I went to the bathroom and I was like, whoa, things are <laugh>, not what they're supposed to be down there. And I was trying to get out my mom's attention. I was like, mom, mom, mom. And my mom's on the phone and she's giving me the finger and like, you know, telling me, not the finger, not the middle finger, but like the one minute finger, okay, go away. Like one minute I'm busy, you know, kind of deal. And I was like, mom, I yelled at her and she turns around probably a little annoyed, and I just pulled down my pants and I was like, I don't know what's wrong, <laugh>. And she was like, oh, okay. And sh she was talking to her sister and she was like Denise, I need to go <laugh>. And then we were able to take care of it, and it was all fine, but it was one of those situations, looking back, I laugh about it because I felt comfortable enough <laugh> to like pull down my pants and get, I don't know, maybe a shock and awe from my mom.
(05:37):
Like, something is wrong, right? And my mom was super great. We were able to take care of it. It was like, it was not a big deal after that. And so, as I've become a practitioner, as I've learned more and more, I'm like, people just don't know this information about their body. And even though I feel like I grew up in a conservative place, I was still taught and educated about my body, and I, I really strive to do the same thing for my kids. My sex talk was very, I don't wanna say like scientific, but it was like, kind of like what I said at the beginning of the podcast. Girls have eggs, boys have sperm, you know, they come together and whatever. And, and I knew enough <laugh> that I could put some pieces together, right? And I don't know if my mom went into detail, I was just sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, what is this conversation?
(06:38):
I don't wanna have it. And you know, as I've grown up, I'm like, I'm so grateful for that. I really like looking at this situation now. I'm so grateful for that. And my kids have had <laugh> a very similar conversation, but they, my kids have also grown up with animals. And so some of that, that conversation has been taken care of. Anyways, that's a long <laugh>, a long introduction. We are gonna be talking about the follicular phase because I think it's really important that we begin to understand what our body is doing and begin to understand how we can take charge of our menstrual cycle and fertility and hormones and all of these different things. So as a reminder, even if you are postpartum, not postpartum, oh my goodness, well, I guess postpartum them too. But if you have gone through menopause or you're going through menopause, you still have the same hormonal fluctuations.
(07:37):
The result of having a menstrual cycle is what changes, right? But you still have the rise and fall of hormones and, and everything just like if you were having a menstrual cycle, okay? And this is something that I don't think I even realized as a practitioner for a while, that it's the same <laugh>. Everybody is like, well, you know, when you go through menopause, what happens? Well, I don't have a period anymore. Yay, that's wonderful. But I, anyways so I really try to drive that home with my ladies is I'm like, you still have hormonal fluctuations. Just because <laugh>, you're not having a menstrual cycle, doesn't mean that there's not changes to your hormones. You were biologically designed to have these hormonal changes. So after you have your menstrual cycle, you complete your menstrual cycle, you go into what is called the follicular phase, which is technically the first phase of the menstrual cycle.
(08:40):
This period of time approximately lasts 10 to 14 days. And during this time, the body is preparing for pregnancy by increasing the production of hormones that are helping to develop the ovarian molecules which contain the eggs. So if you are trying to prepare for baby, this is a great time to nourish your body in helping this process along. Okay? We'll get into some food here later, <laugh> towards the end. But at the beginning of the follicular phase, levels of follicular stimulating hormone, fs h rises, FSH is produced by the pituitary gland, is a cri and is a critical part in development of the molecules in the ovaries. So I want to point this out, you guys, the pituitary gland is the same gland in the body that makes thyroid hormone. So if you're having issues with T s h, you're also most likely having issues with F S h, which is why so many people struggle with fertility when they also have thyroid.
(10:05):
Okay? So the, the follicular, the follicles <laugh> contain mature eggs and the FSH levels increase, and the molecules, molecules, that sounds so weird when I say that, begin to grow and mature, okay? And as the molecules mature, they produce estrogen in the body. And that is a hormone that is responsible for thickening the lining of the uterus. And this is essential for the implantation of the fertilized egg, right? And the estrogen levels rise, they signal the pituitary, okay? So that, again, that gland in the bra or at the base of the brain, that makes ts h to it, the, the pituitary gland signals for it to decrease the production of F S H F S H, which helps to prevent multiple eggs from maturing at once. Okay? So I wanna pause here for just a quick second. So many of the women that I work with have what is called estrogen dominance.
(11:21):
Estrogen dominance causes heavy menstrual cycles. It causes breast tenderness, it causes a lot of cramping the mood swings or the irritability before your cycle, before your cycle and things. So if that, there's two different kinds of estrogen dominance. One being estrogen is really high. So it's like true estrogen dominance, or, or, and this is where everybody's like, oh, look at the panels. Oh, everything's normal, you're fine. When we look at the estrogen to progesterone ratio, so estrogen could be quote unquote normal progesterone could be quote unquote normal. However, if the ratio, if you're on the high end of estrogen and the low end of progesterone, you have estrogen dominance, this is going to make it difficult for fertility. This is going to make it difficult around your menstrual cycle. Your husband's gonna wanna move out <laugh> during that ti during that time.
(12:31):
And so it's really, really important that we are supporting hormones. So that, and, and as a result, your pituitary glands, so that not only are, do you have good fertility, but you also have good, strong relationships, and you're also helping with T s h production for your thyroid. Okay? So the dominant molecule that like has grown, continues to grow, and it approaches that maturity, okay? During that 10 to 14 day window, and it produces even more estrogen. And the high levels of estrogen trigger this surge in lutin hormone called lh, which causes a mature molecule to release the egg. And, and this process is known as ovulation. And we're gonna dive into ovulation a little bit later in some of the future episodes. But we're gonna, we're gonna touch on it because how do you talk about the cycle without talking about other parts of it, right?
(13:42):
So after ovulation, the molecule, the follicular phase ends, and that's when the ltil phase begins. And if the egg isn't fertilized or if the egg is fertilized, it will implant in the thickened uterine lining and then pregnancy starts. And if the egg isn't fertilized, then we all know what happens. We start having our menstrual cycle, and then we start this <laugh>, we start the cycle all over again. So I wanna give you a couple examples of some women that I've worked with. Not only do they have thyroid issues, one of 'em has P C O S, and one of them has endometriosis. So when it comes to, so the first story that I'm gonna share with you, her name was Stephanie. Stephanie had been struggling with irregular cycles and fertility issues for years, and she was diagnosed with P C O S or polycystic ovarian syndrome and Hashimotos.
(14:40):
So after working with my team, we were really focusing on the thyroid, nourishing her body, and just supporting her body for a possibility of becoming pregnant. Okay? And what we did is we really focused on lifestyle changes. So things like her food, her nutrition making sure that she was exercising and that her, her cycles started to regulate, and it did take some time. But one of the things that we, or a couple of the things that we addressed with her is vitamin and mineral deficiencies. So there are a ton of women and men too that are deficient in minerals, and this can impact the body's ability to produce hormones and develop quality egg and sperm for the con the conception of babies. So we really worked on addressing that. The second component of this was balancing blood sugar. You guys, this is huge.
(15:46):
This is a really big issue when it comes to P C O S. So when our blood sugar is off, it can drastically increase inflammation and downgrade or deregulate the ovulation hormone and sperm, sperm and egg quality. So it's really important that you are working closely with someone to help understand how your body reacts to certain kinds of foods and what they do. And we really, for her, for Stephanie, we focus on individualized nutrition plans that were specific to her nutritional needs, okay? Balancing her blood glucose levels, things like that. Then we also looked at those toxic, toxic burden or harmful chemicals and pollutants and things that she was being exposed to on a daily basis, because this can also increase oxidative stress that is damaging our mitochondria and reduces egg quality. So we really wanted to also focus on proper antioxidants for her and healthy, making sure that she had a healthy detoxification system in order to address this.
(17:04):
And then, of course, last but not least, how do you, how do you do all this without talking about gut health, right? So not eating the right foods for your body or inflammatory foods can cause that chronic immune reaction and an inflamed gut lining. And so we, we really made sure that her digestive system was working super optimally during that time. And you wanna know what happened after changing her diet, eating a little bit better, regulating her cycle, she eventually was able to become pregnant and gave birth to a little boy. So I'm not telling you that this is like, oh, this is gonna happen in three months. No, this was a long-term game for her. She came to us after she had already done and made a lot of changes, but with the testing that we do and some coaching and things, we were able to just hone it in a little bit more.
(18:02):
And she did work with me for a little over a year <laugh> before getting, getting that little baby boy. So just so you guys know, if this is something that you're struggling with, it's not an overnight thing. And there are, we have a lot of fertility people on the podcast, so if you want go, go back and check out some of their episodes. I know crystal Melanson, I think I'm saying it right, crystal with a c crystal, Melenson dot, cnn, or ccn, that's what it is on Instagram. She is a natural fertility practitioner. You guys can go check her out. She's phenomenal. She's been on the podcast in one of the, the early episodes. And so if that's something that you are looking for, go check her out. Okay? So another woman that I was working with she was experiencing hormonal issues, right?
(19:03):
She had been having heavy periods painful periods for years, and was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, along with her thyroid. And actually, I think she was like maybe diagnosed a week or two after starting with us, or like right before, I can't, I can't remember the timeline. But after implementing the changes that we talked about with Stephanie, then she also started, things started to improve for her. So after making the changes, reducing stress, eliminating certain foods from her diet, and using some herbal teas, some herbal remedies supplements and things like that, we were able to reduce her symptoms and improve her menstrual cycle. And she also saw improvements with her fertility. She didn't get pregnant, but when she was, you know, testing her ovulation on the little stickies, they were doing much better. And you know, I'm, unfortunately, I don't know what happened if they got pregnant or not, but her cycles definitely did start to clear up.
(20:16):
So the follicular phase is really a essential component to our fertility because it is the time when the body is preparing to release the egg from the fertilization. So for couples that are trying to conceive, understanding this follicular phase and tracking ovulation is really a critical part in increasing your chances of ovulation. So ovulation occurs during the follicular phase, okay? And typically around day 14 of your 28 day cycle. So however, the time can vary from woman to woman. And there is a window <laugh> a couple days before and a couple days after that you could potentially get pregnant. So for this reason, tracking ovulation is really essential in knowing when the best time to conceive is. And you can do this, you guys, one of my favorite apps is flow. I track my cycle on there every time. And then there was a period of time where I was also tracking my basil temperature every morning.
(21:26):
That did get really difficult <laugh> for me for a while, just because you ha, i I just wake up and I like hit the ground running, right? <Laugh>, and you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to like take your temperature before you even get out of bed. Anyways. So that can be really important for you guys. So there are various ways of tracking ovulation, iCLU, including using ovulation predictor kits or tracking your basal temperature, which we talked about monitoring cervical fluid changes and charting your menstrual cycle. So by charting ovulation, couples can really identify that fertile window, which is the time during which they're most likely deceive conceive, okay? So that fertile window typically lasts around six days, right? Couple days before, couple days after starting five days before ovulation and ending on the day of ovulation. So timing, intercourse during that window can also increase the chances of the sperm, meaning the egg and fertilizing.
(22:33):
So in many ways, tracking ovulation is like planning a trip. You guys, just as one needs to plan a trip and prepare for the trip to ensure it's successful and enjoyable, tracking ovulation requires preparation and timing to increase the likelihood of conception. So, for example, just as one would research the best time to travel to the destination to avoid bad weather or crowds or couples or, you know, not couples, <laugh> couples can research and track their ovulation to help support that, that conception of things. So we also wanna be making sure that we're packing the right gear for that trip, okay? And how do we do that? We do that by eating a nutrient dense diet, supporting our stress levels and supporting in supporting our fertility. So I want to just quickly talk about some of the things that I recommend for my clients to do.
(23:40):
So during this follicular phase. Number one, we need to understand that our hormones are beginning to rise, okay? The second thing, you're gonna notice that you have more energy during this time. So the movement that you're doing, the exercises that you're doing should be like, upbeat. So things like Zumba or cardio or dancing or like movement, like it should be so fun, <laugh>. Okay? The second part of this is fresh fruit or fresh food that is fresh food that is very colorful and vibrant and light. Things like fermented food and lean protein and beans, sprouts and seeds and things. Because think about it this way too. You are preparing your body, you're preparing your seeds, okay? Even if you're not trying to have a baby <laugh>, I know we talked a lot about having a baby, but even if you're not trying to have a baby, you want to support your body in such a way that those seeds are developing optimally.
(24:46):
And we do that through other seeds, okay? So pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds sunflower seeds, all of those seeds, <laugh>, okay? S sprouted seeds, right? Like yeah, s sprouted seeds like broccoli sprouts or alfalfa sprouts or microgreens or, or things like that. Just like think of those things that are starting new life <laugh>. I don't know how else to say that. And just very vibrant and fresh in their color and in their texture and, and all of those things to help with the follicular phase. All right, you guys, I talked to you for a long time today, <laugh>. I hope you got a lot of value out of today's episode. And if you did, I would love for you to share this on Instagram or come and say hello. And I want to also invite you before getting off to our masterclass that I'm having on Friday, it is totally free.
(25:57):
If you register, I will send the replay link or you can attend live. It is, I'm not gonna do all of the math <laugh>. It is 1230 on Friday, May 12th, we will be going over three overlooked secrets that is blocking your thyroid from working. We're gonna be talking about food, we're gonna be talking about medication. It is honestly packed. I have so many clients who have said, I learned more in this 60 minutes about my hormones and my thyroid than I have in 10 years working with my doctor. So the class is very, very valuable. Head over to the show notes, get registered, and I will see you guys on the next way
(26:43):
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