The luteal phase might be the reason you feel so awful before your period. Ahead, an ob-gyn explains what the luteal phase is, and how it may affect you.
Have you ever felt personally victimized by your TikTok feed and its content around the luteal phase? Well, you're not alone. Videos describing the horrors of this point in the menstrual cycle have been particularly popular on FYPs lately."I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror and saw an 85-year-old woman that grew up in trenches," said— the back half before your period starts — makes us virtually unrecognizable.
"You'll see a rise in the hormone called progesterone, which basically is the hormone that prepares the uterine lining for pregnancy," says Dr. Krychman. Progesterone thickens the uterine lining for an embryo to potentially latch onto and grow. However, if you do not get pregnant, the area where your egg came from shrinks up and stops making progesterone. Your progesterone and estrogen levels plummet, causing your uterine lining to thin and shed.
All this in mind, Dr. Krychman notes that both mental and physical health are pretty complex; how you're feeling on any given day can't be attributed to just one hormone, and the luteal phase isn't the only factor."There are other things that influence hormones," Dr. Krychman says .
There's also a lot of individual variation when it comes to how people experience their luteal phase . Some people are ultra-sensitive to hormonal changes, and others"sail through the fluctuations," Dr. Krychman says. It's unclear why some people are so vulnerable to these changes while others don't feel much at all, but Dr. Krychman attributes it to"individual physiology and genetic predisposition.
Dr. Krychman says you can also alleviate symptoms by engaging in calming activities to lower cortisol. These might include meditation, yoga, or other mindfulness practices. He also recommends regular exercise to manage stress and support your mood. While these won't work as a quick fix for more serious conditions like PMDD, they may make the luteal phase a bit more bearable over time.
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