Hormone ambassadors needed!

I bang on to anyone who will listen about reframing how we think, and talk, about females and their hormones. In sport, you won’t have to look for very long to find a headline about an athlete not competing well and then revealing they had just started their period, or were in their pre-menstrual phase. Eilidh McColgan spoke on Instagram this year about having to drop out in the middle of an important race in The USA because the symptoms she gets on the first day of her period – heavy legs, fatigue and bloating – meant she couldn’t keep pace. And Jasmin Sawyers has spoken openly about crippling period pain that leaves her unable to walk upright, let alone sprint along the runway for her long-jump at the Rio Olympics. And whilst I don’t want to skirt over the fact that this alone isn’t right. It’s not acceptable that we haven’t found solutions for these women to be the best version of themselves on any day of their cycle. That society has made it so embarrassing, or considers it a weakness to talk about menstrual symptoms, or just hasn’t done enough research into effective symptom management, that these women haven’t been able to fully explore the strategies and solutions they need to combat these challenging effects of their hormones. That important matter aside, I have never, ever seen a headline that reads ‘Annie Athlete smashes PB in what is heralded as ride of her life to take home cycle road race championships’ followed by ‘when asked about her outstanding performance Annie said ‘I think we got the training plan and race fueling just right today, and combined with the fact that I’m ovulating, made me feel like I could just push through, really dig deep and smash it’…… That’s right, it’s literally my dream that an athlete somewhere, someday, will be so well tuned into her cycle and how she feels at different points, that not only will she be able to find solutions for when its challenging, but she’ll also be able to tap into, and openly recognise, when her hormones are working for her, and can help her fulfill her wildest ambition. The more athletes and coaches I speak to, the more I hope I increase the chances of some journalist being the first to write the report which hails the female hormones, rather than blames them. 

Every human being is hormonal – hormones are the chemical messengers that keep us functioning – that allow our bodies and brains to function in an integrated and coordinated way. There is nothing that we do, from basic functions like sleeping, eating, keeping our internal temperature stable to more complex functions like finding a mate, having a difficult conversation or looking after our offspring, that aren’t ruled and regulated by hormones. But the weird thing is, even though females aren’t unique in being both positively and negatively influenced by their hormones, you don’t hear of a man being labelled ‘hormonal’ when he shows traits that are a typical effect of his reproductive hormones. The dominant reproductive hormones in women are oestrogen and progesterone, and in men, testosterone. Testosterone plays a role in certain behaviours like aggression, dominance, confidence and self esteem. But when have you read a report about a rugby player who lost it on the pitch being ‘hormonal’ ? At best it might say ‘his passion for winning this game spilled over’ or at worst ‘his ill discipline cost his team the game’. The notion that women’s reproductive hormones make them any more irrational and emotional than men is utter rubbish. In fact, fluctuations of oestrogen and progesterone are much more predictable over a woman’s 28 day cycle, throughout her reproductive years, than testosterone’s peaks and troughs in men. In sport we are quite used to the daily fluctuations of testosterone in male athletes (higher in the morning) and often trying to manipulate testosterone level through ‘priming’ activities before a game or race to aid performance (testosterone increases if a male see’s someone attractive, watches their team win, watches or participates in something competitive or aggressive). But men’s testosterone levels change more chronically too. The body dials back testosterone when a man gets married and when they have kids. It’s an evolutionary thing to enhance the chances of pair-bonding with a partner and caring for a child (the times when high testosterone, which drives interest in new sexual opportunities, might be counter productive to promoting the survival of their offspring).

So, both men and women have ever-changing hormones, and it’s a good thing! Our hormones are part of making us who we are, and how we behave and react to literally everything. It’s time we stopped making ‘being hormonal’ a female thing, and started accepting that the more we can tune into our hormones, and how they ebb and flow or even peak and plummet, the more we can tap in to when this is helpful for the things we want to do and achieve. And when it’s not, we can explore and find effective, natural strategies to help us work with our hormones rather than against them.   

So ladies, if you are feeling brilliant today, it obviously because you are totally amazing, but maybe also give a nod to the hormones that are helping you on your way. They need a re-brand! And by tuning in to how our hormones effect our physical and emotional selves, throughout our cycle, its likely that we could be their biggest ambassador. And I’ll see that headline after all.