On this post I give a summary of May 2022 by looking at the most important factors that I pay attention to around my lifestyle.

My cycle

My month is back to a very normal of 30 days and my luteal phase was 12 days this time. I want to have a luteal phase that is longer then 10 days and usually it does not go longer then 14 days at max. The luteal phase is pretty static. It is the follicle phase that tend to vary a lot if my cycles become unregular.

Like I wrote last month as well. You want adequate progesterone production as this is crucial for maintaining healthy bones, long-term heart health, sleeping well, and feeling your best. I have noticed though that I am suffering from lower levels of progesterone as I do not get the best sleep and mast cell activations.

Hot flashes

This cycle I was very bothered one day with hot flashes. This is a very recognizable symptom of both perimenopause and menopause and are experienced by up to 75 percent of women. The condition can come on suddenly and last for a few minutes. But some can have much shorter like a few seconds and some have longer which is many minutes. The flush is usually followed by chills. Some get nightly sweat attacks (I have experienced those as well). They can come once per hour, sometime per week or a few times during menopause (1). So as you can see it is very individual. Other symptoms are a red or flushed face, sweating, burning skin, or even stronger symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, pressure in the head or the sensation of the heart beating faster then usual.

Hot flashes can be mistaken for other conditions

One might think that one has a fever when experiencing a hot flash. But it s actually not the body temperature itself that gets hot. It is the skin. Other conditions that are similar to hot flashes are panic attacks, poison goiter, diabetes among others.

My experience this cycle

This time I experienced burning skin, sweating, chills, dizziness, nausea, and heart beating faster (heart palpitations). I was disturbed during the day AND also the coming night where I woke up every 90 minutes sweating with heart palpitations and then chills afterwards. It then took some time to get back to sleep for another 90 minutes only to wake up again. It was really uncomfortable, and I did not get the recovery that I needed that night, that is for sure.

What causes hot flashes?

The official cause is unknown, but most research points to the brain. Specifically to a narrowing of the thermoneutral zone of the brain’s thermoregulatory mechanism. It is basically a narrowing of the range of temperature that the hypothalamus considers to be normal – like a touchy thermostat.

Before menopause, the hypothalamus accepts as normal a shift in body temperature of up to 0.4 degrees Celsius. This allows you to enjoy a hot drink for example without your body trying to cool itself with a flash or sweat. With perimenopause and menopause, even the tiniest shift in body temperature can result in the hypothalamus trying to make a “temperature adjustment” with shivering or sweating. In my case I guess it was triggered by my progesterone that naturally raises my body temperature. Looking at my biometrics that night, sure enough I had a raise in temperature of 0.5!

The sections around hot flashes facts come partly from Lara Briden and her book “Hormone Repair Manual”.

Focus on building more muscles

I still have focus on building more muscles. This is one of the most important factors for vitality and an optimal long-term health. It is important for all of us but especially for women. As we lose our cycle, we also lose estrogen. Estrogen is anabolic just as testosterone and is a key part of being able to build muscle. I train not only for today but just as much for tomorrow. The older I get the harder it will be for me to build muscle. So making sure to “bulk up” now is my strategy to keep my vitality for many more years to come.

I am very happy with my progress in the gym this cycle. I set a new personal best in bench-press by lifting 81% of my body weight! I have also increased my total volume compared to last time in almost all my workouts!

Min fastande livsstil

I continued this month with more of a time restricted eating to my lifestyle. This in order to be able to build more muscles. On average I fasted 18 hours and I collected 408 hours in total.

Sleep and recovery

Looking at my average HRV I increased it slightly this month and I sit on 58 which is awesome! May and June month is usually not my best period of the year. I usually suffer from some sort of spring depression. So to accomplish 58 on average is absolutely phenomenal for me!

Digestion

I am still searching for answers to my digestion issues. One thing I have discovered however is that I have a histamine sensitivity! Ever since I realized this fact and started making changes to my diet, I have less symptoms of histamine overload in my body. Histamine is involved in a lot of functions in the body and mast cells are spread out throughout your whole body hence you can get a wide range of symptoms that can make it hard to pinpoint what is the actual cause. But a good place to start is to reduce histamine rich foods, histamine liberating foods and DAO blocking foods. To read more about this you can go hit..

Ytterligare läsning

Summary of April 2022 you can find hit..