Cycle Synching 101: Understanding Your Menstrual Cycle with Samantha Denäe

In this week's episode, Tanya is joined by Samantha Denäe. Known as the “Endo Educator”, Samantha Denäe, CHHP, is a certified holistic feminine wellness practitioner & counselor, Endometriosis advocate, survivor, and educator.

Join us as we unravel the secrets of cycle synching, a practice that invites us to tune into the ebbs and flows of our menstrual cycles to optimize every aspect of our lives. Whether you're seeking hormonal balance, increased energy, or enhanced creativity, understanding your body's inner clock is key.

We'll explore the four phases of the menstrual cycle – menstruation, follicular, ovulation, and luteal – and how each phase presents unique opportunities for self-care, productivity, and personal growth. Cycle synching offers a roadmap for living in harmony with our bodies, from honoring rest during menstruation to embracing heightened communication skills during ovulation.

Want to learn more about cycle synching? Learn more by listening to this episode. 

As the owner of Samantha Denäe, LLC, Samantha creates holistic herbal products such as womb detox capsules and provides services to aid in healing reproductive disorders and to assist with balancing of the sacral chakra. Check it out here. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Currently, Samantha serves as an Advisory Board member with The Endometriosis Foundation of America and assists with educating students through The ENPOWR Project, and as a feminine health motivational speaker, Samantha provides her audience with a real life look at trauma and how it plays a role in your health and physical ailments, and how to begin the healing.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tea with Tanya. I'm your host, tanya Ambrose, an average millennial navigating life as a maternal health professional, non-profit founder and wet student. Join me in the tea tasting mode, where we spill the tea and find imbalance, and promoting positive living while doing it all. Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of Tea with Tanya. I am happy to have you here with me. I'm happy for us to meet once again so that we can continue to work on ourselves and try to promote positive living while balancing it all.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Today's episode is one that I'm looking forward to because it's all about cycle-sinking, and I'm joined today by Samantha Dene, our holistic health practitioner, the womb healer, or the womb whisperer as she refers to herself, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about cycle-sinking. That's something that I've been doing on and off and something that I want you, my friend, to try so that we can be in tune with our bodies as we're on this health and wellness journey. This week, I think I'm in week three of my second semester of my MPH program and so far, I think that I am getting the hang of it.

Speaker 1: 1:21

To be honest, I will say run this whole online because I do have one class that's in person that I got to be there physically. And then there's another class that I got to be online on Zoom every Thursday afternoon from like four twenty-five to about seven pm and my attention span is, you know it's getting there, but if you know me, you know my attention span is like a child, Sometimes after five, ten minutes. If you're not pulling me in, I'm going to be zoning out, but so far I've been doing pretty good.

Speaker 1: 1:47

This class that I meet every Thursday from four thirty to seven, it's a health economics class and I'm going to be honest, I can already tell and I hear it like, essentially speaking, like negative negativity over my life but this class. I don't think it's negative though, but this class is going to be one of my challenging class this semester. Last semester it was quantitative practice one. You know I'm taking the second part. I got the gist of it, but this health economics class is just destroying me for a loop. Honey and I posted a story on my Instagram and some of my public health brothers and sisters can attest that there is the same thing with them as well. So I don't feel too bad, but what I've been doing is really making the effort to work on my time management.

Speaker 1: 2:33

I finally got my passion planner, so I've been using that to help me still flow, keep me informed so I can know what's going on in my week. I usually like to sit down on a Sunday, of course, decorate, because I'm not one of those planner people who's going to write and keep it moving. I got to get my wash sheet, my different color pens, all that jazz, sit down behind my table with a nice cup of tea, whatever that choice may be and I'm going to start writing out my week, and of course I try to go from my top priorities to not so much of a priority. If it doesn't get done that day, I'm not going to like lose my mind, and then the other part of my task is there. If you can, or if I can get to them, then I get to them, but definitely want to list it out with your priorities. So that's what I've been up to so far.

Speaker 1: 3:20

I'm loving my maternal and child health class, which is, I wanted to talk by my academic mentor, or my life mentor. At this point I told I say you're not going to get the rid of me, even when I graduate, because you're just like, I love you. You are an amazing woman and I want to be like you at this point in time. So I'm going to give a shout out to my professor, dr Billings. But definitely that's what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks trying to get back into the swing of things, making sure that I'm going for my goals, locking in, focusing on the goals for my nonprofit and even for this podcast as well.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So I'm happy, happy, hearing the tea tasting one. But I already gave you a little tea of my life, so today's tea, let me give you the other tea that we're going to be sipping on. It's going to be cinnamon tea. Let me just tell you this is the first time I've tried this. I'm not going to lie to you. I have I put cinnamon in any of my teas before yes but actual cinnamon tea.

Speaker 1: 4:10

A friend of mine put me on to it because I was just talking about being too bloated and I just don't like it. And apparently cinnamon tea helps with when bloating. It's very, very easy to make. So it's really what you're doing, because I'm sure you have cinnamon in your pantry at least you probably do have. If you're not, then you can go get it. If not, I'll tell you. But it's literally very, very easy to make, um, so, so homemade cinnamon tea is for bloating, so help release bloating. And all you got to do, all you need, is just some simple hot water and you mix it with some gone cinnamon, or you can use cinnamon sticks as well if you want, and you want to steam that for 10 to 15 minutes and there you go.

Speaker 1: 4:47

For me I did add a little honey, because the idea of me drinking cinnamon water just my brain was not registering. So I did add a little bit of honey to give it some taste and, um, yeah, I might try. I might try to incorporate it into my nightly or morning tea routine. So I will see. Definitely, but it's helps. It helps with bloating and that's, um, what I'm primarily doing for that this week. Because, let me tell you, I am super bloated. I have no business being this bloating. I don't know what's going on, but that's why we go and get checked to see what's happening or what's causing that, but nevertheless. So that's today's tea of the week. It's cinnamon. If you ever heard about it, give it a try. It's literally hot water and cinnamon. Let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes and then you drink it.

Speaker 1: 5:31

But for me I did add a little honey for taste and for our affirmation of the week, because, if you can tell by the title, we're talking about psychosinking. We even got into how we even hold traumas in our womb as well. So I did like that part of the conversation as well. Samantha was a joy to talk to, but today's affirmation is I live in harmony with my cycle and I chose that because essentially, sometimes some of us who menstruate, we look at our periods as the worst thing to happen. We'll be all dramatic, all he goes, my period again, oh, I'm not pregnant. So many different things. But I want first affirm that, um, all periods is a normal way if you menstruate periods a normal way of life. So I definitely today's affirmation for you is I live in harmony with my cycle.

Speaker 1: 6:21

Now let's get into today's episode, all right? Well, welcome to the tea tasting room to a very special person, and I know, yes, I said this about all my guests, but, like I always tell you, whenever someone can take the time to give me their time, it's always a blessing and they're gonna always be special to me. So I'm happy to have Samantha, who I met on social media. You guys, I guess my now, can tell that all my guests come from social media. So for me, I like to say that social media can be good and bad. You know, it has its ups and downs, but for the most part, for me it's always up and I'm very excited to talk to today's guests and, like we do here, I'm gonna have her introduce herself, tell us everything, give us a tea about herself, and then we'll get into today's episode. So, hi, samantha, how are you? Hey?

Speaker 2: 7:03

I'm doing well.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I'm good, can't complain, I'm happy to be talking to you. I feel like I jumped about this interview. To be honest, I, even before I sent you any sort of questions or even ask you, I'm like, okay, how am I gonna approach this queen? Because you know from what I see on the timeline, you are the queen, so I'm just so happy. I often get intimidated when it comes to asking some people who I think you know. Just amazing. So I'm just happy that you didn't even hesitate to say yes, so I want to thank you for that well.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Thank you for reaching out. I love to. I love to come and talk about anything wound related yes, I love it, so tell us about yourself well, for everyone who is not familiar with me, I am Samantha Denay.

Speaker 2: 7:44

I am a certified holistic health practitioner. I'm also known as the endo educator on social media platforms. I am a endometriosis advocate. I'm an educator as well as a survivor. I have a holistic healthcare business where I create wound detox capsules as well as other herbal capsules for the wound. I also have wound services, tissue geni steaming, wound consultations, wound reiki and massages, as well as other energy release practices that I conduct. I am a poll enthusiast.

Speaker 2: 8:20

I am a sacral chakra enthusiast and in my free time I go to high schools in the Atlanta area and I teach about period health care and reproductive disorders and diseases and how to advocate for yourselves being going to the doctor's in your inquiry about reproductive. This means a nutshell.

Speaker 1: 8:39

I love it. I love it and I think we're in alignment, because I have a nonprofit organization that provides education when it comes to menstruation and women's health, because it is needed, and it's oftentimes my conversation that we don't tend to talk about.

Speaker 1: 8:51

For some reason, the natural way of living we is still a stigma or we should be ashamed to have these conversations and that's why I kind of started the podcast to have conversations that we don't typically have out in the open, maybe with a friend that's close by, but not typically in the open, and that's part of, you know, working to our to stigmatize in the that particular topic.

Speaker 1: 9:12

But we're here to talk about psychosinking and when it comes to our menstrual health, because again, I want you to talk to me like I'm a dummy when it comes to psychosinking, because for me, for myself, don't psychosinking, but I fell off the wagon. And then here we are now, because I didn't necessarily be consistent or I didn't quite know, even though I did my research about, okay, what food should I be eating, how should I be moving my body during the different cycles or phases of my menstrual cycle. I still think that, again, the lack of education on me not applying certain things, because in my mind I know it all and I don't but for the listeners here thinking, because I think I've been seeing psychosinking become more popular now on social media and I'm awfully very skeptical when it comes to certain topics because, again, whenever a topic surrounding women's health becomes popular, there's always some sort of misinformation in between the polls that we see on social media.

Speaker 1: 10:03

so for those of us who don't necessarily know what the hell am I even saying what is psychosinking, and how does it even relate to our menstrual cycle or even our health as women or menstruators?

Speaker 2: 10:13

Pembro cycle is basically where you tailor your lifestyle and your routines in your life around your menstrual cycle, and a lot of people don't really realize the difference between your menstrual cycle and your period. A lot of people think where you is, your menstrual cycle period is a phase within your menstrual cycle. So it's just you doing things. In a nutshell, it's you doing things to kind of help regulate your hormones through cycling through your menstrual cycle. So think of routines where it comes to exercise, think of routines when it comes to your diet and eating habits, even when it comes to your sexual lifestyle. All of those are incorporated in how you can best regulate your hormones so that way you can have a more energetic life. A lot of times we are so tired when it comes to dealing with all these hormones. You know we only get about one good week.

Speaker 1: 11:11

I always say that as menstruators, we have one good week, and sometimes even in that week it may not even be a full week, where we are fully functional or fully normal.

Speaker 2: 11:19

So I'm glad you said that, yes, we get about one good week of just normal activities, where sleep is normal or emotions are regulated. You feel like you can just go and do and be whatever you want to do and be, until you crash again, and that's how the menstrual cycle goes. So this is to help you boost your energy and kind of give you a better sense of equality, like when it comes to dealing with your menstrual cycle, especially if you have reproductive issues.

Speaker 1: 11:47

So I want to talk about the phases of the menstrual cycle for someone listening. Like I said, talk to me like you're educating me about the phases of one menstrual cycle, because you said something earlier about the difference between our cycle and or period and our menstrual cycle.

Speaker 1: 12:01

So talk to me about the different phases of one menstrual cycle. For those who don't know, because I can tell you. Growing up, especially where I go up, sometimes we just heard about you had a period. You're gonna bleed 47 days. That's how you put on a pad and keep it moving or don't get pregnant. That's usually from that, that particular, from that cultural standpoint. But it was not till I started doing research, when it came to my nonprofit and you, okay, you know we have their four phases in our menstrual cycle and, of course, I started discovering other reproductive health issues as well. So for those listening who don't know what are the phases of our menstrual cycle, can you just tell us about that and how it impacts our bodies and our emotions? Because let me tell you, you know again, we only have not one good week it's hard so what are the different phases and how does it impact our bodies and our emotions?

Speaker 2: 12:49

So there are four phases of the menstrual cycle. Your period is not your menstrual cycle, but your period is the first phase of your menstrual cycle. So we go through a month-long cycle, usually about 28 days. That's about the length of a menstrual cycle. There's a month-long cycle where we have four phases for each week, basically, and so your period is the first phase of your menstrual cycle. And everybody knows during your period when we're menstruating, it's when our it's when our lining is shedding, we're tired, we are anxious, sometimes we're sick. Our emotions are open down, just depending on if you experience PMS or if you have PMDD, like it just depends on how your emotions are desaspirated when it comes to your period. But that everybody knows. That's just the time when we don't want to be bothered, but that is usually typically day one through five of the menstrual cycle.

Speaker 2: 13:49

Now are you having your period phase. You're also having your follicular phase of your menstrual cycle and that lasts from one to like 13 or 14 days of the menstrual cycle and during that phase, after your period has ended, it's when you're starting to feel you still a little tired, but you're kind of starting to feel like yourself, but it's when the egg is getting ready, to kind of get ready to go into the oblatory phase. It's prepping itself, so to speak, for pregnancy, if it were to happen. During those 14 days you're tired, you're exonerated, your emotions are now desaspirated because it's coinciding with your period. And then, once that's over, the hormones are starting to regulate again and you're starting to feel more like yourself.

Speaker 2: 14:34

And then we get into the ovulation phase, and that is day 14 of your menstrual cycle and it lasts for a day and ovulation can go. It can go one or two ways, I feel like, depending on who you are, because some women enjoy ovulation for the feeling, because during ovulation we feel a little bit more confident, we feel a little bit more sexy, we're a little bit more sexual, a little bit more free. But some people, during the ovulation phase, have ovulation pain and that is no fun. And when they have ovulation pains it's like sharp pains, kind of mimicking your period almost, and some people are nauseous during ovulation pain and so it's not really fun for them. After your ovulation phase, we go into your little teal phase, and that is from day 14 up until 28. And during that phase, depending on if you get pregnant or not during your ovulation phase which is where you are, where your chances of becoming pregnant is more highly increased on ovulation.

Speaker 2: 15:37

But during this, during your little teal phase, the last phase of your menstrual cycle depending upon if you get pregnant or not will depend on if the menstrual cycle will start over again and back into your period phase. So this is where your progesterone levels will start to. They'll start to decrease a little bit. They'll start to decrease if you do not get pregnant, as well as your estrogen. But if you do become pregnant, you won't go back into your menstrual cycle because then you'll start to go into pregnancy.

Speaker 2: 16:09

But when it comes to emotions, you're tired. Usually that's around the time where your body is starting energy-wise, it's starting to get a little low Because your period is about to start back coming around. So you're starting to feel those symptoms of PMS that you have before your period is coming. Your body is getting ready to shed the lining. So you're usually a little bit more tired, usually a little bit more anxious. Your emotions depending on how you are when it comes to PMS or PMDD, or if some people don't have any kind of surge of emotions or have any kind of behavior during their, when they get ready to start their period.

Speaker 2: 16:46

It just kind of depends on you. We'll just kind of see how your emotions go, but typically we at least are collectively really exhausted, like for me personally, during that phase of my menstrual cycle. I am like a narcoleptic. Between that phase and my period phase I cannot stay awake to say my life is too long, oh tires, like for two weeks. I'm exhausted, I really do. I'm one of those people. I don't know if there are other women who might get a little bit longer than a week or a little bit longer than a few days, but I get like a few days to a week, sometimes just before. The energy level is just like all right.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Yeah, no, I feel that. And a question as you were talking, I came to mind because I have an upcoming episode talking about break control and I remember reading a book probably a year ago, a couple of months ago, and I forgot the name of the book, but that book basically was saying that if someone is on break control then it's essentially impossible or hard to even cycle sync. Is that correct? If someone who's on break control I need to know what I'm saying I want to practice cycle sync is I can make sure that I'm working at my peak throughout each phase If I'm on break control, could I actually try to incorporate cycle syncing into my routine?

Speaker 2: 18:01

Oh no, I wouldn't say no, or it's impossible. I think the reason why people say you shouldn't cycle sync when you're on break control is because technically, the birth control is kind of like a pseudo period, and that's even if you're having a period during the menstrual cycle, because a lot of women make you not have a period, right, and so that kind of you know your body but you don't know all of the phases, really how your menstrual cycle is, because the birth control is kind of throwing it off a little bit. I wouldn't let that stop me from trying to practice, especially if you're somebody who wants to get off break control, right. So you kind of need a start in prepping yourself to wing yourself off, because that was something that I had to do. I had to start doing stuff to prep myself to get off break control before I actually did it.

Speaker 1: 18:53

I'm curious, stuff like stuff like what I'm trying to cut you out. Well, like stuff like what you did when you were thinking like somebody listening even from myself, you're thinking I'm getting off, break control. Like what did you do as far as that when it came to trying to get to the point of cycle syncing and being consistent?

Speaker 2: 19:09

So I started with food because that was always the hardest Right. So I started there and I started to not eat certain things. I was going to be kind of hard for me to give up, like I stopped with red meats. I wasn't a person who ate a lot of sugar or like drank a lot of liquor or sweets or anything or like sweet or is there anything like that. But there were some some points in time, like especially when my period is coming, I crave chocolate or I crave donuts or something like that. So I had to start figuring out what to eat that was going to subside the cravings before my period would get ready to come.

Speaker 2: 19:49

I had to start incorporating more of like raw foods, like raw veggies and really start to eat them on a more regular basis, because I eat them, because I love veggies, but regularly, just like eating for the most part raw veggies or just veggie plates in general. I had to really kind of start weaning myself off of that. Then I knew I was going to have to stop eating cheese, dairy as a whole little bit really. Cheese was really what had to hold on me. Everything just through dairy family was up. I'm not there, I can't see that. See, that's how I was and I was like, oh God, it's done. Dairy is the hardest. I think dairy is the hardest to give up, especially cheese. I think that's the hardest part to give up when it comes to trying to change that.

Speaker 2: 20:34

Because we almost put cheese on everything.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Yeah, so that was the hardest, but once I started to get comfortable and used to eating a certain way, even if it wasn't every day, just for the first time so it wouldn't be as hard to do once I got off of birth control, because I was so afraid of having a period when I wasn't on birth control. Even though the periods that I was happening during taking birth control were 90 days for nine months out of the year, I was afraid of the periods that I was going to have now on birth control and they were probably going to last seven to eight days. And that's still long but compared to 90 days, seven days ain't nothing.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Seven days, yeah, seven, and 92, right, we'll take that, you know. But now we're on the topic of nutrition. So I've seen in different articles, different books, that nutrition plays, or dieting plays, a important or key role when it comes to an individual whom we want to cycle. Again, we mentioned the different phases of the menstrual cycle. We talk about where our emotions are at different phases, but are there any specific foods or dietary changes that will help someone who's wanting to cycle thinking? Because I know you said, when you were trying to get off a break control, you tried to eat less and less of certain food. But when you, if you're off and you are practicing, cycle thinking in your day-to-day life, like, are there any specific food we should be focusing on, maybe during our period or Luthiophase? Whatever the case, maybe yes.

Speaker 2: 22:12

So during each phase there are certain types of foods that you should be eating that will help to support you emotionally when it comes to your stress levels, especially if you have like endometriosis or maybe like pylons. Sometimes you get those sharp pains like throughout the day. It'll kind of help starting to subside those, just depending on what part of the menstrual phase you are in your cycle. So, like during your period, most times depending and I tell I say this all the time try not to eat anything heavy during your period. We don't really think about how food really plays a part when it comes to like how it affects our bodies during our period and what it means for our bodies to have to shed the lining. It's all this honey.

Speaker 2: 22:59

So when you're getting ready to have your period, when you're in the period phase, try to eat healthy.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Your water intake should definitely increase because that helps to not only kind of subside cramping that you have, whether that's cramping your abdomen, like leg pain or like back pain. It'll start to really help the blood circulate a little better in your body if you increase your water intake during your period and kind of right before your period as well, because a lot of times we drink a lot of things that have sugar in it. So increase your water intake. Don't dream of water. Honestly, it's really good to be drinking like don't drink anything but water, but you can also eat some things that are high in iron, like spinach or like green leafy vegetables. You need to eat things that are rich in magnesium, because usually when our period is coming, our magnesium levels kind of drop a little bit. So you need to eat foods that are rich in magnesium and have, like, good fiber counts to it, because those are going to be the kind of things that will help your body to detox the lining even more.

Speaker 1: 23:59

And it kind of helps to make it a little easier.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Try not to eat a lot. Now, eat enough, but don't eat a whole lot, because you have to remember your body has to pass it and I think that we forget when it comes to our food.

Speaker 1: 24:13

You know those period foods.

Speaker 2: 24:16

They are horrible, and part of that and part of the reason why they're so horrible and so painful is because of what we eat right before our period comes and right during our period.

Speaker 1: 24:29

I didn't think about it. I didn't think about that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:31

And a lot of times we're eating normally you know we don't really eat it because we're not thinking about it like that but your body is trying to pass all the stuff that you already ate during the month. It's not the lining and that's passing the stuff that you're eating while you're on your period. So you have to think about all that. That's why I say don't eat a lot of heavy foods.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Because for me, when I'm on my period, pizza I mean pizza is my favorite food. I'll eat it every day if I could. But you know, I'm trying to be healthy in life but for some reason what I've been noticing is that whenever I'm on my cycle, on my period, I crave salty food, but then sometime my go-to is going to be pizza, because it's easy, I don't have to like make it and stuff.

Speaker 1: 25:13

I'm not a stove doing whatever, but I've been realizing that I've been craving salty food, whereas for some menstruators they may tend to crave sweet. So is there like some sort of correlation there that why am I? I mean, why am I whoever listening if you're also a person that may crave more like on the savory side versus sweet? Because growing up I've had friends who have some chocolate or ice cream, something that's really sweet. For me it's always been something that's salty, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:40

I'm in the salty phase.

Speaker 1: 25:41

So is there like a correlation to that or just like the genetic make up from a person, or is just it happens?

Speaker 2: 25:47

I think it just happens. I think for me the correlation becomes sort of spiritual, because I'm like you, I always crave salty, whether it's some chips, yes, or pretzels, like I just need to taste, like literally the salt on something. But I have had times where I crave sweets and I wanted like crisper cream donuts and chocolate bars and chocolate with almonds and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 26:18

And I think spiritually.

Speaker 2: 26:21

when you're craving more of the sugary foods, there's kind of some kind of emotional distress that's going on, and I think that's the kind of emotional feeling that we're craving for. So I think that's the kind of emotional feeling that we're craving for. So we're craving for some kind of intimacy, so to speak. And when you're craving more of the saltier foods, I think there's more of a correlation of not that you are desiring or looking for love, but sort of that, to be honest, would have thought to even think that, but that's an interesting take.

Speaker 1: 27:01

I love that. That's crazy. So when someone is craving sweets, it's because they're desiring some sort of love or affection or intimacy. And then for the salt. Now we're trying to push that away. So you're saying that is, I learned something today? I mean, I'll be honest, that was something that I did not know. So I guess I got to look into myself. No like, why am I pushing away?

Speaker 2: 27:23

What are you trying to?

Speaker 1: 27:24

avoid. I'm trying to avoid, but I do want to ask for those listening, what are some ways or strategies that they can use or some tips for incorporating psychosyncers at the end of this episode. They can say you know what, beginning of my next cycle, I'm going to make sure, maybe I'm tracking, maybe you can touch on tracking your cycle and then ways in which they can optimize and, you know, put it into their routine, because everybody know they have a period and I'm bleeding, but again, people are not counting or tracking to say, okay, within the next two to seven days or after, it's going to be this phase, that phase. So how I guess one can track their cycle and then also incorporate the psychosyncing into the end of it.

Speaker 1: 28:03

On this day I'm going to work out XYZ because I'm in my period phase or follicular phase, and these different things. So how can we track that and also incorporate psychosyncing into our everyday life?

Speaker 2: 28:15

So you can either use apps or use a journal. I suggest writing it down so that way you can start to really become familiar with your menstrual cycle and getting more in tune with your body, because your menstrual cycle doesn't stay the same, like where it is now, isn't where maybe in six months your menstrual cycle is going to be. You know you have your period. You used to have your period at one particular week during every month and then, as the months go on, your cycle, your period will start to start on a different day.

Speaker 2: 28:48

Maybe it'll start on a different day later, so your cycle might be becoming longer or it might be becoming longer. So start tracking. I would suggest, really I would suggest writing it down and starting with your period is going to be the easiest because you have a physical indicator that you're in that phase. So a lot of women don't they don't really track their period. Some of them don't really know when it's going to start. It's like they can have the same symptoms every month. That's going to let them know their period is coming, but it's not really registering that they're having the same symptoms every month. And so if you start to really track your menstrual cycle and every month write out okay, I started my period this day and then my period this day, and count after your period is over, count those days so that you'll know which phase you're in, it'll start to make you more aware. And so once you start to become more aware, it'll get a little easier to kind of be on a track to to cycle sync. Because once you start incorporating diet changes and to be consistent with diet changes, it's going to be important for you to be aware of what phase you're in when you're, when you're trying to figure out like what diet you might want to do, and it needs to be like you need to have been journaling and tracking your menstrual cycle enough time so when you're thinking about it you don't have to refer to your paperwork as much as kind of like you know, okay, your periods going to start here and then from there.

Speaker 2: 30:23

Once you know when your periods going to start, you can really just count. You can just count how you can count the days within the menstrual cycle. So and I just say this in the beginning but how you count the days of your menstrual cycle, your menstrual cycle start, you start counting the day after your period ends, until the day your period, your next period, will begin, and that is how you know how many days is within your menstrual cycle. And so for me, I have a period app. I use Clue. Clue is, for the most part, clue is pretty spot on, but I still count the days and so period one. So Clue will have a projected date of when my period is going to start, and instead of me just looking at the projected date of when my period is going to start and just saying, okay, my period is going to start this day, I go back and I count for when the last day of my period ended up until when it says it's going to start, and I see how many days it's in between that.

Speaker 2: 31:21

My period is on a 24 day cycle. Clue predicts my period to be like on a 22 or 23 day cycle and so in the app my period is supposed to start earlier, a couple days earlier than it really is going to start. But that's because I've counted the cycles so I know really would day my period is going to start and so once you get used to being able to track how long the menstrual cycle is and it gets easier to know which phase you're in, and then once that becomes easier, you'll really be able to know which phase you're in based on your emotional state and based on your energy levels. So I use me as an example. After my period we go to the follicular phase. During that phase my period is 5 days, so maybe in the 8th or 9th day of my follicular phase I'm starting to get my energy back.

Speaker 2: 32:21

I'm starting to be able to be up all day and I feel like I need to take a nap, like it's just like I got to sleep, I got to take a nap and I can fight through the nap. I'm usually able to get up early in the morning and start cleaning and doing stuff.

Speaker 2: 32:35

I'm like yeah, I'm getting back to my energizer bunny phase. When I'm there by the time we get to day 9 of the menstrual cycle and so in that phase for me I'm eating more foods that are kind of like richer in protein, and I mean it's like vegetables or fruits, more stuff that's gonna help to boost my energy because I'm coming off of my period. But when it comes to like exercising and trying to figure out what I need to do during my molecular phase of my menstrual cycle, I call dance, and so I don't really have as much wiggle room as if I were to like be going to the gym. But for that phase I can always tell which phase my cycle I'm in depending on how much I sweat in pole class. It's crazy. So during my follicular phase and my ovulation phase, those two weeks are gonna be my best week of pole.

Speaker 1: 33:32

I don't sweat a lot.

Speaker 2: 33:34

Yeah, I don't sweat a lot because my period has gone off, so my body temperature is back regulated because when my period is coming and during my luteal phase, my body temperature is it just starts going up and down. And I think it's a. I was on blueprint, it's a chemo treatment for endometriosis, yeah, so that I think I still have high flashes from it's a side effect from the blueprint, so I think I still have high flashes from it. But that's during my period and my luteal phase is when my body temperature is all out of whack and so I sweat a lot more during my period and I sweat a lot more right before my period is coming, and so during the follicular ovulation phase is when I have the most energy and so I can really really like lose some pole tricks and like really do some stuff and so and those during those phases is when your energy is more increased.

Speaker 2: 34:23

So like doing HIIT workouts, doing like strengthening workouts, like those are the best times to be doing those, but, like during your luteal phase, when you get ready to go back into your period phase if you didn't get pregnant is when your energy levels are gonna start to drop and you're gonna wanna exercise, especially for one of those kind of people that, like, made a dedication and you're committed so you're gonna do it, but you're not gonna feel like it and so sometimes, depending on what kind of exercise you already do, you can do something that's kind of a little lower flow, something that's like a little bit more moderate, but still giving your body movement. But, like during your period, that's when you wanna. Me, personally, I don't do anything during my period. I just no, ask me to move, ask me go on where. To ask me to do nothing.

Speaker 2: 35:06

I'm gonna sleep but you wanna exercise during your period, I would suggest doing stuff like restorative yoga or like something that's like low flow, where you can move your body a little bit but not, yeah, but yeah, not a whole lot of movement, just really movement that's gonna really low stress movement and movement that's gonna really give you kind of more of a mindful impact.

Speaker 2: 35:30

Because when you're doing like mindful kind of yoga, when you're doing mindful exercise practices, it helps you to become more aware of the space, which, in turn, will help you to start becoming more aware in your everyday life. And that's the whole point is for you to be aware, and so the more you are aware, the more you are in tune with your body. So when something happens, like if you're having a good day and all of a sudden you get hit with it's crazy. You just get angry almost every time.

Speaker 1: 36:04

Yeah, you can't pinpoint. Why am I upset?

Speaker 2: 36:06

you're asking yourself who did that, and then you're trying to find somebody to blame, when it's just yeah and see the first thing, the first thing you should be saying to yourself is hey, what's today, one day, my period coming? Yeah, cause that's the first thing I do now, like I feel an emotion If it wasn't in a situation that caused the emotions just be aware, the first thing I do is ask myself hang, how many more days I got to my period.

Speaker 1: 36:35

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:36

I go look at the app and then I go look and see and I'm like, oh okay, I'm gonna go then I'm gonna go then this week. That's why I feel like that Like, or sometimes we have those like heightened emotions, like sexually heightened emotions, that you don't know where it comes from. Yeah, Nine times out of 10 is probably because you're you're ovulating.

Speaker 1: 36:53

You like to ovulate?

Speaker 2: 36:54

yeah, yeah and we're just we're too busy doing stuff that we're not even aware of, like why it's happening, and then we don't even question, like oh, yeah, we just go up on everything you know. It's normal. Yeah, it's just hormones.

Speaker 1: 37:08

But yeah, again, it's important for us to know. Again, when we go to the doctor they'll ask you when was your last menstrual cycle?

Speaker 2: 37:14

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 37:15

There's a reason why they ask, and I think for us, we have to ensure that we're in tune. It's the way for us to be in tune with our bodies. So, like you just mentioned, let's say you're overly emotional. Where am I in my cycle? We forget that out. So I think it's very important that we, we really and truly stay abreast, even if we have the app, because I have the apps too, but I also write it down Cause I just need, I just need to make sure that you know if I go, I gotta go to the doctor I can say you know what? This is what my calculation is saying, for instance, the app, because sometimes, as much as the apps are usually pretty accurate, at least my experience.

Speaker 1: 37:49

Again. My thing is technology does not belong to us In that regard. Whereas my phone can be broken, something they can just do whatever they want to do, but once I have my period journal or that log in, I can be able to better explain why something is is probably off with me Cause. I feel, the same way. Sometimes I'm like okay, why am I quiet?

Speaker 2: 38:06

I mean, I'm not really quiet.

Speaker 1: 38:07

I can watch like I'm watching the TV show. I'm gonna cry. I can't help myself. The simplest thing, something that will get me emotional. But I can often tell when it's that time, because emotions are just much more high and I can kind of control. You know what Kind of you don't need to cry for this. It's just a TV show, it's just something. But sometimes the tears just come and you just can't help it. You get that, you get that good cry and then all of a sudden you're like wait, what's going?

Speaker 2: 38:32

on here.

Speaker 1: 38:33

The very next day or something, even the same day for me, here comes Miss Period on her way, making an entire grand entrance, you know. So it's very important.

Speaker 2: 38:42

I am the exact same. I cry on TV shows too. I just I'm on the same TV shows too, Like I didn't know what was gonna happen and just still be crying. But I am but I am really so like that, because for me I'm not one of those people that get like angry or like or irritated when my period is coming, but I get very emotional and I cry a lot, and it's usually.

Speaker 2: 39:02

That's usually how I know that my period is coming. If because for now I know when my period is coming, but it's not a thought for me anymore. You know a lot of times where, anxious when our period is getting ready to come, like we're kind of bracing ourselves for it, he's not even thought anymore. He's like, oh dang.

Speaker 1: 39:19

It's not even thought anymore, my period?

Speaker 2: 39:20

I ain't even thought about it. My period couldn't come Like it's not even thought, but that is the indicator, for me, though, that your period couldn't come it could I cry at the drop of a dime?

Speaker 1: 39:33

No, me too, I guess. If somebody crying, I am going to cry, it's just I can't help it, but you just know a particular cry means that it's time for your period, like it's a different feeling.

Speaker 2: 39:46

And you can't even stop crying. And then it's an afterthought, after it's like oh, my period is about to come. Like me, I'm like did you just come last week? Because for some reason.

Speaker 1: 39:57

I don't know about you, but my periods seem to become in a little bit too often for me. Granted, it's the 28th day, but for some reason I don't know if time is moving or I don't know what's going on, but I'm looking at it at this one and I'm like wait, how am I eight days away? Like did you just come last week, but again time. You know me just not even thinking that wow the time actually went by.

Speaker 2: 40:14

So it's that time again.

Speaker 1: 40:16

You're blank. Yeah, it's crazy, but you know, again, it's just all about being in tune with your body.

Speaker 1: 40:21

That's how we're able to maybe even find some sort of issues with our reproductive health system when it comes to that, you know, like for you you talk about and I want, if you don't mind, share a little bit about your end of journey and what made you decide to like cycle sync but that's how we know that something is off. We're not only looking for a misperiod to identify it as pregnancy Again, of course, that'll be the first thing many of us would want to think about. Ok, you know it could be pregnancy. Of course you take a pregnancy test. Then you're going to be like, ok, it's just like, it's just stress. But no, I think for me it's just how you know that something. You know when your body's off If you are that in tune with your body, especially when it comes to your cycle. You know when something is wrong. You know, ok, I have a misperiod this month, but then the other month is another period or I'm having like heavy flow.

Speaker 1: 41:03

It's just like a lot. So, with you and your experience going through endometriosis, is that one of the reasons why you decided to do cycle sync, and how do you even combat that? Or what did you do? Or what were the signs for you to know that something was not right when you come to your cycle?

Speaker 2: 41:17

Yeah, they. First of all, let me say doctors will make you feel like you're crazy when you go through when you come up to explain and what you're going through. You are not. You know exactly what you're going through. Let me say that first. So for me, my periods have always been bad. Ever since I've had a period, I've never had a period that was shorter than seven days, and that made me have to not miss school or not miss work.

Speaker 2: 41:45

I always had to be able to take periods, and so it took me a while for something to really click. That something was kind of off, because that was all I knew was having a bad period.

Speaker 1: 41:56

Right.

Speaker 2: 41:57

One of the signs that made me finally say because I had seen many doctors and I had told them about my period I had tried Earth Control. I tried Earth Control once in high school for like six months. It didn't do anything and then I tried.

Speaker 2: 42:11

Earth Control again my freshman year of college for a year, and I was on the shot, so I didn't have a period for a year, but my mom was so afraid of the side effects that she made me get off of it and it was like no, this is not going to work. And so for a while my period was just. It was literally always the same every single month. Nothing varied from the sprues until I got about maybe like 20. I think it was like 24. And I couldn't walk one particular period and I had always had like my. I always had leg pain, like my thighs always felt like it was boulder sitting on top of them, but I had never really had like literal trouble walking.

Speaker 2: 42:53

It'd be like you hunched over and have to walk. That's really just because I'm crepping in my legs, but not just like I get up and I just fall, like I couldn't walk and I was like okay, yes, I'm not right now, like yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:05

So Yadin told me, every doctor I've seen has told me my period is just bad, it's just how it is. I could try birth control to regulate it or it'll just get easier as I get older, when I become pregnant. But that's when I knew like something was wrong and so I saw a doctor, told her about my period symptoms and she prescribed me coding. And I was not familiar with narcotics, like not those kind of narcotics, I was just used to taking ibuprofen, but I was taking ibuprofen like the 800 milligrams. I was taking like 1600 milligrams, like at the time, and so for me, 1600 milligrams, that is don't do that, I mean.

Speaker 2: 43:48

I say that when I do that, but I didn't know no better. I was just trying to get rid of the pain and so I was prescribed the codeine. They did not explain to me how to how to really like take it.

Speaker 2: 44:01

And they were six milligrams and I took six of them, thinking that 36 milligrams is nothing. I do like 1800 in my sleep, like 36, and woke up and was almost overdosed. And when I went back to the doctor's office the doctor who had prescribed the codeine was not there. So I saw someone else and told him everything that had been going on and he gave me a pamphlet. I said I think you haven't done metriosis, never heard of it before. And he told me I was going to have to have surgery to find out if I have endometriosis. They don't have like ways where you can find out during an ultrasound or X-ray or MRI. You have to have surgery for it. And at the same time I had two ovarian cysts that were the same size as my uterus.

Speaker 2: 44:43

And my uterus was the size of an orange and it was supposed to be the size of a lemon, because I've never been pregnant I had kids before. So I had my surgery for the removal of the ovarian cysts and found out during that surgery that I was stage one endometriosis and from there I tried different birth control treatments. I already hated birth control. I did not want to do it, but that's how they try to regulate the growth of endometriosis.

Speaker 2: 45:06

Because what it is is when we have our periods and our lining is shedding. For us with endometriosis, our endometrium, like lining, sheds and so it's shedding in the inside of our bodies and then that tissue, that shedding, is going to sit and grow into blood, it's going to turn into blood and it's just going to start attaching all of the organs so it can make your organs sit together, kind of like a spider web. So for me, I tried the different birth controls. I tried different birth control pills. On the shot, I tried Lupro Depon, which is a chemotherapy treatment that they give me with prostate cancer.

Speaker 2: 45:46

And when I was trying to Lupron I was not taking hormonal replacement therapy, which I wasn't aware of at first. But because I was not on hormonal replacement therapy, I kind of went into menopause and had menopausal symptoms. So I had like the high bloodshed and night sweats. I didn't have a libido anymore and I was like 25 and then when we touched it again in my life it was horrible, and so my period started to be longer and longer.

Speaker 2: 46:13

I started from having like breakthrough bleeding, which is kind of what they call spotting, but longer spotting. Most times when you spot, you spot for like a day or two, but when you break through bleed, you kind of spot for like a week and then the spotting kind of starts to look more kind of like a little bit of the beginning of a period. And so I was having that for like three weeks and then in turn to a month and then a breakthrough bleeding in turn to a full period for a month. They let me have periods for 90 days for nine months out of the year and it was like that for four years and tried all different kinds of treatments and none of it was working and what's going to do in ablation and a history to me and decided against it and my doctor suggested that I try holistic medicine and I was like okay, and got up for control, changed my diet. I started juicing a lot more instead of eating solid foods because at that time I couldn't hold solid foods everything I ate.

Speaker 1: 47:07

I grew up.

Speaker 2: 47:08

So I started juicing, trying to help me get some kind of nutrition and the juicing really helped. I will say I think people really smoothies is one thing but juicing is another and I think people think they're the same and they are not. Juicing. You get more of the nutritional components of whatever it is you're drinking, versus the smoothies just being blended up.

Speaker 2: 47:36

And break down a lot and break down, and so juicing really Not only gave me a lot of energy, but it helps with like skin wise, I Feel like it makes you feel kind of lighter too.

Speaker 1: 47:50

It's a really good. It cleans. It cleans the yard in a way that you Imagine it was going to.

Speaker 2: 47:54

It does yeah, especially the green juices and celery juices and beet juices I love beet juice, like really, really help, help with just cleansing out a lot of the body and detoxing. And I started, um, yoni, steaming up with myself on the only steam schedule. This is how I ended up getting my holistic practitioners license right and I worked through a lot of trauma. I tell a lot of people that, um, we heard a lot of trauma in our rooms.

Speaker 1: 48:23

Yeah, speaking that especially come to our period.

Speaker 2: 48:25

Yeah, we heard a lot of trauma in our room spaces and that, in turn, causes reproductive issues, and so, because we either Don't really have the time to like really sit and dive into emotions or because they be too intense to really like Drive through and like dissect and digest for real, we are really heal a lot of the traumatic situations that we have been through, and so that Causes us to have reproductive Disorders and discourse in our own spaces. And so I had learned Um, do, I started doing one meditations there are my only stings and then I started slight, really Work on forgiving myself for feeling guilty for not being able like naturally conceived I feel like I spoke it upon my life tonight. He is naturally I felt guilty for not being in a relationship and that feeling like I was not gonna find a better Deliver me through all the stuff that I was going through. Yeah, I started working through all of that. I started working through like parental traumas, relationship traumas, um, generational trauma is at least the ones I know of.

Speaker 1: 49:29

Okay.

Speaker 2: 49:29

Yeah, it's not just like really really diving more into myself and learning more about my world and how I Think of my woman as a. It helps me to think of thinking for this way, but I think of my woman as a separate person and To do stuff, I Feel like in my mind, my woman sitting next to me telling me You're you supposed to be eating that? You know that, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:57

I don't really want that. She's holding your carnival. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure person.

Speaker 2: 50:02

Yeah, and that's what I'm gonna say like, um, learning About my reproductive health and like really healing myself has really led me to like learning how to for real be accountable, whether that's just when it comes to my womb health or just like any type of life in general, because I now can understand the difference between blaming the disease verses Understanding what did I do to help the disease.

Speaker 2: 50:35

Yeah, so now if I over indulge in something and I know I was really supposed to, and then like I might do some pains or like something from that, what I can say to myself, well, say you know I don't be. I mean what you thought we would, you think was gonna happen, and it just helps me to be able to say like, don't eat that, don't do this With this, this is not the week that we should be doing it like a period coming next week, we think, yeah, which we're gonna do, and so that helps. That's really helped me to become more Accountable and more aware and being able to be more aware about my menstrual cycle and like where I am when it comes to feeling Sorry, any, motions or like energy surges or anything like that, just to know, like, where I am and how that's gonna help me.

Speaker 1: 51:18

And as we get ready to wrap up, I do want to talk about really quickly how does hearing you like I said, I'm always emotional, just as hearing your story to me. If you see me crying, if you hear my voice cracking up, don't laugh at me. No, talk to us about the importance of even having these conversations. I want women's help because, again, you know a Menstrual cycle. Essentially, for me I think it is just the tip of the iceberg because you know you go to a puberty, so at some point you're gonna have a menstrual cycle if you are bliss, depending on whatever may happen to you. From my health standpoint, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 51:50

Previous episode I was talking to a doctor and we were talking about At a certain age. Sometimes it's actually our culture parents, they shy away from having certain conversations. So, like for me going up, I've had classmates or friends who had severe cramps when they're on this cycle but for some reason we just thought oh, you know, it's normal for them, but not normal for me, because I may have a five day period or Friday cycle. They may have eight to ten days and then during that eight to ten days, their puke in there can't go to school. There's so many different things, but we're not thinking that it could be something deeper than what it is. We just thinking about having a painful period is enough. They're supposed to have cramps somewhere in the midst of time.

Speaker 1: 52:30

Mm-hmm, that's what we will talk. Oh yeah, period cramps. Okay, moving on, what we're not understanding or realizing that it could be something that's going on internally that needs to be addressed before we get to a certain age or before it's too late Sometimes, if you want to say that. So how important is it for us to be having these open conversations surrounding, you know, women, self reproductive health, because, again, for me, I think the menstrual cycle is the Tip of the iceberg, but we got to go deeper. But for some reason in society, again, we're just picking and choosing what we're talking about. We are picking, choosing how. I don't want to say picking and choose, but it's just not Talked about in the open enough.

Speaker 2: 53:11

Because you know we're here, you know you're.

Speaker 1: 53:13

The end of a requeen, but you're doing your part. But it's still so taboo that sometimes for me I feel I don't have to say I feel ashamed because I'm more comfortable now, but it's just. You, shouldn't you feel defeated?

Speaker 1: 53:26

You know this to get the conversation going. But then there's like some sort of pushback because you know it's not the normal what you're talking about periods here, we're talking about in the nature of PCOS, why we don't care about that, essentially, but you still want to police my body or my reproductive system for some reason. You know it's just like how important should we have? We have these conversations like what we have in right now and just going forward Like why do you think? Of course you know why it's important. But for those who may just be saying, oh, I have a period every month.

Speaker 1: 53:54

That's fine. I don't want to think about it. Why is it important for us to be having these open conversation with each other, but also without here our health practitioners as well? Because I'm telling you it's, we can't talk about holistic health at all.

Speaker 2: 54:05

If we're not having these conversations first of all, it's super important because it's almost like each one teach one Mm-hmm. Granted, everybody's different, so everybody's bodies are different. Everybody's body has different things that they go through during their period, during their menstrual cycle, but In some kind of way they kind of all correlate and connect. I think Trying to bridge the gap between the past generations and this is like a big thing, because they were taught to not talk about it and then they weren't really educated about different reproductive diseases either. So for them a bad period is just kind of just always what it was.

Speaker 2: 54:45

It wasn't really an explanation past that, they might have got five boys. That might have been the best explanation. You got past that, but that was really it, and you'd be surprised at how many women that are in older generations who don't know anything about the menstrual cycle either. They think the period is your menstrual cycle, and so that's really where, where you got to start. You really do have to start at teaching the menstrual cycle and what it is and how, how it's going to affect you and your hormones and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 55:15

And then, once we Get an understanding of the menstrual cycle and how it works and how it plays a role in our everyday lives Because our hormones are always constantly going up and down, up and down then you can start to kind of understand and learn more about reproductive disorders and diseases and like how that affects your hormones and how diet plays a role into being able to kind of heal yourself from from some of the symptoms of either reproductive issues or just your period in general. If you have a debilitating period, we have these conversations and it's like people here, unless you say something that's like shock, and then at that point it's like, okay, yeah, we'll listen, cuz it's like, wow, how you going to other, like I ain't ever I heard nobody going through. You know, I'm saying that kind of thing because a lot of people don't even a lot of people shame, shame, others for your symptoms during that period so true.

Speaker 2: 56:18

How like difficult of a period that you're having. Like they just quick to say you like.

Speaker 1: 56:22

I said that.

Speaker 2: 56:25

Who wants to be in?

Speaker 1: 56:26

pain.

Speaker 2: 56:28

I really say here, made of this whole fictional story about I'm over here feeling like I'm dying and then my last breath and I can't breathe and I'm bleeding all over the place, like who really will sit there and make all that I'm glad.

Speaker 1: 56:40

I'm so glad you said that not to cut you off, because it's really a thing that there's a there's a stigma. There's a shame for people who just kind of be bothered or kind of do anything. Like you said one of my period I could. Can I move around? Yes, but for me I rather lane bed, watch TV because to be comfortable. I'm not ashamed or feel guilty for for doing that.

Speaker 1: 57:02

So I'm glad you mentioned that too many times we shame individuals who have periods that are that are super heavy or super painful and these different things, and we should just understand that and I think sometimes we, like that, understand that we got to make a mockery of the person first before realizing how severe their symptoms are.

Speaker 1: 57:20

So I'm glad you mentioned about period shame. Let's just stop it. We're all on here, menstruating, trying our best to survive, trying to best to heal our bodies, trying to be in tune with our bodies, so we can know what's going wrong If something feels off, and I think that's one we can do. When you track that cycle to see, okay, this month it was eight days long. Let's see what happened next month. It's okay, it's been seven or it's been 14 days. You know, I have an individual school bleed for 14 days and like that's not normal. And then when they go to their care provider, that's when they find out that it's something then just like an abnormal people.

Speaker 2: 57:55

Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1: 57:55

So it's like we got to really be in tune and get these conversations going up from the time. We know that we have Individuals who are going through at the adolescent stage because again, we like to shun them. Oh no, they're gonna get to that point. Let's just have the open conversation now so we can all be comfortable having the conferences. It becomes a norm, and I think that's how we make things. We come to know, when we're not afraid to have these conversations, why we face our work periods. It's something that happens to us. We can't hear.

Speaker 2: 58:25

None of us would be here if we didn't have fear.

Speaker 2: 58:28

So, it really shouldn't be that terrible of a thing to talk about. Being able to open the conversation at home is gonna be the biggest start, because a lot of times, like our parents always wanna, you know, we get to just like how you said earlier when you get, when you start your period, you get told how to use a pad. You get told, now you can get pregnant, don't be out there in mistakes, and that's really about it. You know you're gonna have a period once a month, and that's really about it.

Speaker 2: 58:54

You don't really get told anything of it, and so we need to, I think, if we started in the home and start being able as I'm not a parent, but as parents being able to not even just parents, like parental figures and Jordan's like you know what I'm saying, cause I have younger cousins that and I got help guide her through her period so being able to like start talking to them about it so it doesn't feel as shameful because they don't feel ashamed about it. You know, we all know how we felt when we started. Yeah, no, especially when we started your period out in public, it was a really and we all know how we felt. We had our first period.

Speaker 1: 59:31

No, you're right. Cause I always say, for me I have period trauma Cause it was one point in time where I had my period at school, messed my uniform up when I went to an August school. Then my friend you know luckily we went to the bathroom, watched the skirt out everything. But from since then I always say that I experienced period trauma, in the sense that I'm always afraid that I'm going to have a leak here or even in our big age.

Speaker 1: 59:55

I'm going to be wearing two panties. I don't care if you listen to me, judge me, I don't care, but I'm going to put on two underwear. That's what makes me feel safe.

Speaker 2: 1:00:03

I'm comfortable when it comes to my cycle, I don't have a extra heavy flow.

Speaker 1: 1:00:07

If you want to go, they work for some reason. That one time at school traumatized me.

Speaker 2: 1:00:12

That's how you do it. That's okay, that's right. What you need is one thing to trigger, and this is how you make a trajectory of how you figure your period on from then on that's why we have to have this conversation.

Speaker 1: 1:00:24

It's going to happen. You may leak, you may mess yourself up, but at the end of the day you shouldn't be ashamed.

Speaker 2: 1:00:33

You're not going to go through all these years and have a period and not have a one leak and the accident is going to. Sometimes it happens in public.

Speaker 1: 1:00:41

Sometimes it happens at home You're going to buy yourself a new home going to bed and putting the towel down Because, again, you're just never know yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:00:48

You never know. One thing I will say before we wrap up that will help when it comes to tracking your cycle and really wanting to get into single cycling. While you're tracking your menstrual cycle, track the symptoms that you feel, especially the symptoms in your little teal phase before your period is coming, Because there might be certain indicators that let you know every month that your period is about to start Like for me every month, either the night before my period starts or during the day of, I get a headache, oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 1:01:25

And I can tell if my period is going to start that night or the next day, just depending on what time I get the headache. And so once I get the headache, I'm like, oh yeah, period coming tomorrow, Period coming a few hours, girl, Go ahead and get ready. And so if you can start to track those things about your period and the symptoms that you have right before your period is coming, then you can start to see every month which one is the one that you have the most times. And in that way you can start to know, OK, when you get I don't know a sharp pain somewhere, that might be your indicator. Or if you just all of a sudden get an ostracized out of nowhere, that might be your indicator. It'll help you to start being able to pinpoint when things are about to start happening and that can help you more and to with your body.

Speaker 1: 1:02:12

And that I hope, with ensuring that you know which part, which phase, you are in. So that's why I'm glad you said that. That's a really good way for us to end this episode. But before we go I know you gave us the summary before, but let us know where we can find you so we can support you, and of course, we'll put that in the show notes as well but just tell the people where they can find you on social media and website and everything. Tell yourselves. Tell yourselves.

Speaker 2: 1:02:34

My website is SamanthaDenaycom. You spell Denay B-E-N-A-E. My social media on Instagram Instagram is the same underscore SamanthaDenay. Underscore SamanthaDenay on Facebook and SamanthaDenay on Twitter as well, and on TikTok I am the Endo Educator, love it.

Speaker 1: 1:02:55

Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 1:02:56

I'm sure I have a link tree. I have link trees everywhere.

Speaker 1: 1:02:59

We got to put in one of them in the show notes too, because we I think we're here to help each other, because there's someone, evidently, who will listen to this part, I say, oh, I have the symptom too. And then you know, we have to educate. We got to learn.

Speaker 1: 1:03:11

One community, one listener at a time, and I always say, if we're able to just help or touch one person, for me my job is done, because I'm not one person, I'm going to let the person, and then it just trickles down into so many different things as we talk about these, quote unquote uncomfortable conversation that for some reason shouldn't be uncomfortable, but definitely you want to say thank you again for taking the time out of your busy day to talk to me, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to see you back here in a different capacity, because I already have an idea.

Speaker 2: 1:03:42

So we're definitely going to be. I was just about to say that you can bring me back, I'll be ready, we're definitely going to keep in touch for real. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:03:55

Thank you for joining me for another episode of Tea with Tanya. If you liked this episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Don't forget to follow on Instagram at Tea with Tanya podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the weekly Tea Talk newsletter and, of course, rate on Apple or Spotify and subscribe wherever you listen. See you next time. I love you for listening.