Cycles & hormones
When your periods stop and you are not pregnant
Amenorrhoea is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Here are the common causes, in roughly the order a good clinician works through them.
The Naked Journal
Women’s health, explained clearly.
Hormones, cycles, sleep, mood, fertility, perimenopause — and the patterns that connect them. Written to be read, not to be scrolled past.
Cycles & hormones
Endometriosis and the seven-year wait
The average delay from first symptom to diagnosis is measured in years. Here is why it happens, and what actually shortens it.
Cycles & hormones
How stress actually interrupts your cycle
"It's just stress" is usually said dismissively. It shouldn't be — the pathway from stress to a missing period is specific, physical and well described.
Cycles & hormones
What actually happens when you come off hormonal birth control
There is no detox and nothing to flush out. But your own cycle has to restart from scratch, and that takes longer than most people expect.
Cycles & hormones
PCOS is a metabolic condition that happens to involve the ovaries
The cysts are the least important part of the name. Insulin resistance and androgen excess are what actually drive it, and what treatment should target.
Cycles & hormones
PMS and PMDD are not the same thing
The line between them is not severity of bloating. It is whether the mood symptoms take a functioning week out of your life, every month, predictably.
Cycles & hormones
Period pain that isn't normal, and how to tell the difference
Cramps that respond to ibuprofen and let you get on with your day are ordinary. Pain that runs your life is a symptom, and it usually has a name.
Cycles & hormones
How heavy is too heavy, and what to do about it
Most people have no reference point for their own flow. Here are the practical markers clinicians use, and the causes worth ruling out.
Cycles & hormones
How to tell when you ovulate, and what each sign is worth
Cervical mucus, temperature, ovulation tests and mid-cycle pain all tell you something different. Only some of them tell you in time to be useful.
Cycles & hormones
The luteal phase, and why the two weeks before your period feel different
Progesterone raises your body temperature, changes your sleep architecture, shifts your appetite and alters your mood. None of that is in your head.
Cycles & hormones
Why your cycle length changes from month to month
A late period usually means a late ovulation, not a late period. Here is what pushes ovulation around, and when variation stops being ordinary.
Cycles & hormones
What a normal menstrual cycle actually looks like
The 28-day cycle is an average, not a standard. Here is the real range of normal, and the specific things that are worth a doctor's attention.