Vibrant You

Decoding Your Menstrual Blood: What Your Period Blood Says About Your Hormones and Overall Health and Common Imbalances

• Bindi Stables

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The menstrual cycle—a complex process orchestrated by interactions between many of the body's tissues, cells, and hormones—reflects a person's overall health status and can be thought of as a “fifth vital sign,” along with blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate.

In this episode you'll learn:

•The signs of a healthy period and menstrual cycle
•What do the color and texture of your menstrual blood say about your hormones
•Are blood clots in your period blood okay or a sign of imbalance?
•What does it mean if your period starts or ends with brown or prune-ish color blood?
•Top 3 most common hormonal imbalances in women
•The most common underlying causes behind missing or irregular cycles
•Functional medicine hormone testing you need to optimize hormones

Links:

Work with me www.bindistables.com
www.bindistables.com/labs

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Visit my website for more resources and ways to work with me: www.bindistables.com

Bindi:

Welcome to the Vibrant you podcast. I'm your host, bindi Stables, and here we talk all things wellness and vibrant living. You'll learn about integrative health, functional medicine, holistic biohacking and enjoy raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Optimize your body and mind and become the healthiest, most vibrant. You Enjoy the show. Hello, and welcome back to another episode on Vibrant you.

Bindi:

I'm so excited for today's episode because we are getting into one of the most important topics in women's health and that is how to decode our menstrual blood and what our period blood is really telling us about our overall hormones, our health and common hormonal imbalances. Whether you struggle with hormone based issues painful periods, breast tenderness, pms, moodiness whether you're just looking to optimize your hormones or you're looking to understand your fertility in a deeper level then this episode is for you. We're talking about what our menstrual blood means, the different qualities and the color, and how to really interpret or decode our menstrual blood to understand exactly what's happening in our body. You'll also learn some key hormonal imbalances that we can identify through our menstrual blood to really empower you with this knowledge to understand your period and your menstrual cycle as a vital sign or a window into your overall health and well-being. So let's get right into it. So, of course, our period as a woman is a window that gives us a clear picture into our overall state of health, and more recent studies and research is now sharing that. Actually, a woman's menstrual cycle, in her period, is being called the fifth vital sign. So, beyond just the vital signs that someone you know, a practitioner, might take at the hospital or at the doctor's office, like checking your blood pressure, the vital sign of your body temperature, your heart rate, your respiratory rate, we're now actually considering a woman's period, her menstrual cycle, this fifth vital sign, because it's such an essential window into our overall health and well-being.

Bindi:

Of course, when I'm working with clients, there's always a few key questions that when we begin our consultation we get into, of course, their goals, their health history, we go over their intake form, we go over the main concerns that they want to work on and, of course, with every single client, I'm asking them a few main questions How's your gut? So, how's your digestion, your bowel motions? Because of course, our gut and our digestive state is such a window into our body's overall health. Of course I'm checking how's their stress levels, how's their energy levels, their sleep, their mood, and definitely I'm always asking them about their period. So in consultation, in my private practice, of course, we go deep, not just into her period length how many days is her period, or her menstruation, her overall cycle length. So our period is not our whole hormonal cycle, it's only one phase. Our whole hormonal or menstrual cycle is actually a 28-ish day cycle that we flow through on a about once a month average. But we're also getting into the color of her menstrual blood, the consistency of it, the texture. All of this gives us so much insight into what's happening in her health, her body and especially with her hormones. So, as women, we're so lucky we actually have this free monthly blood test that we have access to and we get it right at home, and it's called our period or our menstruation Every month with this free blood test. It's like our monthly report card showing us and revealing to us, based on what we see and feel throughout our menstrual phase, what's in tune, what's in balance and what's not. So, of course, how we feel during our period is really a reflection of our whole month and our overall state of health.

Bindi:

I noticed for myself even what's inspired this podcast episode is my last period was actually, like, not so comfortable. Normally I have quite good periods. They feel good. I don't have any major concerns. I may feel a little bit more tired, may want a little bit more rest, maybe some slight, mild cramping, but not a big deal and not debilitating by any means. And actually my last period, just a few days ago, was not so fun. I had a lot more cramping, a lot of discomfort, a lot of moodiness leading up to it. So it was a good reminder and a good opportunity for me to apply the knowledge that I have and see, okay, well, what's going on with my cycle, what's going on with my hormones. So I share this with you today.

Bindi:

And I always find that the last month of my life is always reflected in my recent menstrual phase, my recent period. So if I've noticed like I've eaten more inflammatory foods, then I will, or more processed foods, or I'm traveling, I will get more cramps. If I'm not getting enough rest or I'm having those higher levels of stress and cortisol, in that luteal phase, that premenstrual phase, I'll get PMS and irritability. If my body's not detoxifying well, especially in that second half of our hormonal cycle, in that premenstrual or luteal phase, I'll get breast tenderness and sore breasts and water retention. So all of this is essential, vital signs helping us understand how we feel through our period, of how we are in our body and our overall state of balance or imbalance. So, decoding our period blood, we can actually develop the skill of interpreting our menstrual blood and what our blood is really saying about our overall hormones.

Bindi:

So, of course, this isn't medical advice. We're not treating, we're not diagnosing, we're not curing anything here. This is for educational purposes only and this is just to empower you with knowledge to, first and foremost, get more acquainted with your menstrual blood and look at it and notice the texture and the color, notice the patterns in it. If you're not yet tracking your menstrual cycle, I highly recommend that Tracking the first day of your period, tracking ovulation, if you can, tracking any signs or symptoms throughout the month, because that's all valid and important information, showing you things about your overall health and all the different body systems. So I recommend tracking it with an app like I. Personally, I use the aura ring, which actually tracks my body temperature for me and can show me when I'm going to menstruate, when I'm ovulating, which is really helpful, but you can also use, like any free apps that you can just get on the app store to track your menstrual cycle, which is a powerful way, and every menstruating woman of reproductive age should track your cycle, because it's really empowering, whether you're trying to prevent pregnancy or to conceive and just overall, understand your body and more in depth.

Bindi:

So first let's get into what is a healthy period, right? So the signs of a healthy period is, ideally, our period is about three to seven days in length. That would be considered a healthy period. Our cycle length can be anywhere from 24 days, from the first day of our period to the next first day of our period, 24 to 32 days as our full cycle length, three to seven days being your actual period and then 24 to 32 being your whole hormonal cycle, from period to period. And ideally, we want this cycle to be really consistent, as in, we get our period within one to maximum two days of the same length every single month. So this doesn't mean, just to be clear, it's not that you get your period on the 15th of every month, but what I mean is that you get it every 28 days or every 27 days or, you know any, every 28 to 30, right, we want about a 24 to 48 window where we're consistently getting our period on the same day each month, so a healthy period.

Bindi:

The color of the blood that we should be seeing for a healthy cycle and healthy, balanced hormones is that our period should both start and end with a really bright, happy, vibrant cranberry color from start to finish. And if we're noticing like a brown color in the beginning or a brown prunish color at the end, we're noticing different colors. I'm going to explain what all of that means and what's happening in your system hormonally based on variations in color. But, for example, when you wipe, it should be like a bright cranberry red from start to finish. That's healthy. The amount of menstrual blood should be like a medium viscosity, not too thick, not too thin, so it's not watery but it's not sick or jelly like, and it should have virtually no clots, right? If you have one or two tiny, tiny little clots, that would be considered normal. But if we're getting big clots or we're noticing like thick strings or coagulation in our blood, that means something different and I'm going to tell you what's happening in your hormones if that is the case, or if you're having really watery or thin or even frothy menstrual blood. So the quantity of blood that we should be having for a healthy cycle is anywhere from 30 to 80 mls of blood. Now you may be thinking I have no idea how many milliliters I'm bleeding, but if you compare it it's about up to five tablespoons or two one and a half ounce shot glasses of blood. Now how that measures it, if you're using like a menstrual cup, it's easier to measure. I think most are like something like 20 mls or something. I think it's about a shot glass ish. You'll have to check your own menstrual company and see how many mls is like a full cup and you'll be able to kind of measure and keep track of how much you're bleeding each cycle with that.

Bindi:

Let's say you're using tampons, which is another easy way to measure. So a regular tampon holds five mls of fluid. So let's say you're going through six regular size tampons, right, five mls times six tampons. And that's assuming that you're filling those tampons and it's not just like a small amount. So five mls times six regular tampons, that's about 30 mls of blood. Okay, so that would be considered healthy. Now let's say that you're using 16 regular tampons and you're filling 16 regular tampons, let's say, over the series of a few days obviously you're probably not using 16 in a day then that is 5 mls times 16 tampons is 80 ml of blood. So anywhere from 6 to 16 Regular size tampons would be considered healthy and normal. Now a super tampon holds 10 mls of fluid. So a little bit more math here. If you used three tampons, super tampons that are 10 mls, that's 30 mls of blood. Okay, and anywhere from you know three to eight super tampons is again between that 30 and 80 ml range. That would be considered normal or optimal. So if you're bleeding through way more tampons than that or you're like man, I use like one or two tampons and that's like my full period that would be considered low blood and I'm going to share exactly what that Reduced menstrual flow or heavy flow means for you hormonally.

Bindi:

Overall symptoms in a healthy cycle is there should be no major symptoms. It's very natural and healthy for us to experience like mild sensation, like a little bit of cramping, but nothing too serious, nothing debilitating, not going to keep you home or prevent you from living and enjoying your life. It would be natural to have a little bit of like mild digestive Changes, just because the presence of prostaglandins it does stimulate our bowels more, so we may be going to the bathroom more frequently, our stool may be a little bit on the softer side, but not loose, and certainly not diarrhea and not constipation. Those are other imbalances that we'll get into and it's natural that we might feel a little bit more tired, but not debilitating, not like we can't get through our day. You know, we just may feel naturally like we want to rest a little bit more, which would be natural. But if you're experiencing extreme cramping, nausea, gosh, if you're vomiting, if you have extreme pms breast tenderness, back pain, exhaustion you know you can't get out of bed on those days you have to pound back abuprofen these are certainly a signs of imbalance. So if you are seeing healthy blood and from everything I just shared your notice, saying, okay, I feel like that's me, I must have a healthy cycle, that type of blood and that type of cycle is considered balanced.

Bindi:

Estrogen and progesterone, which are your two main female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone and we're going to get into a few other variations of estrogen and progesterone and how that might be showing up in your body. So if, as a woman, you have too much estrogen or too little estrogen or too much progesterone or too little progesterone, then these are signs of imbalance and this will cause symptoms everywhere on the spectrum, from irritability, pms and fatigue to extreme breast tenderness, extreme cramping, headaches, nausea. All of these different things are signs of high or low progesterone from a hormonal perspective. Of course there can be more things going on in the system that can be causing that, but just from a purely hormonal perspective, that's what we're talking about and we can really use our menstrual blood to help us see when those other symptoms may be coming from and if it aligns with our menstrual blood and some of the symptoms that we face. So what does it look like in our menstrual blood and how can we tell if we have something called low progesterone? So again, progesterone is an essential sex hormone. Progesterone is important, essential for healthy pregnancy, for healthy ovulation, for mood regulation in that second half of the cycle especially so. We love progesterone.

Bindi:

Most of the women that I see in my practice and most of the lab tests that I get back, the most common hormone imbalance is low progesterone. So let's get into what that could look like. You know that you have low progesterone If the start of your period or the end of your period that the color of your blood is more brownish color. It's like a pale brown or more of like a prune juice color. So those are signs of low progesterone. And what that more brownish color of blood is is that it's actually old, oxidized blood from your previous period. So if you're getting your period and it starts with like spotting or that brownish color, then you know that it's actually still blood from your previous cycle and those lower levels of progesterone didn't allow you to fully menstruate and to fully release the uterine lining and so it's actually old blood. It's not dangerous, it's simply a sign of low progesterone.

Bindi:

So another sign of low progesterone is spotting. Are you having a lot of spotting in between your cycles, like are you having ovulatories spotting? Are you spotting for days leading up to your period and then you get your period? Any sort of spotting can be pointing to lower levels of progesterone If you have short cycles, so hormonal cycles less than 24 days. So if it's 24 days or less between periods, then that would be considered a shorter cycle and can be again pointing to that low progesterone, all kinds of PMS. So if you're noticing irritability or you're more anxious before your period, you get headaches, all of these things. Difficulty conceiving is really often low progesterone.

Bindi:

Progesterone is one of the main hormones that we need for pregnancy. Now, I always remember it Progesterone, pregnancy. It's a little alliteration there, especially early pregnancy, miscarriages, low progesterone, hot flashes, trouble sleeping, especially before your period. That's relieved with your period all low progesterone. So just make that little mental note. Does it sound like you have low progesterone? I would be curious to hear.

Bindi:

So the next most common imbalance that I see, along with low progesterone, is high estrogen, or what we call estrogen dominance. And estrogen dominance can be one of two things. Either you have high levels of estrogen so if we were to lab test you on day 19 to 21 of your cycle, if you had high levels of estrogen, that would be estrogen dominance. But it's not always the case. For example, on my lab test I actually had normal levels of estrogen, actually optimal levels of estrogen, but I was having all of these high estrogen symptoms. However, I had really low progesterone, and I see this often in my practice. So we can have normal estrogen but low progesterone, and it will still show symptoms of estrogen dominance because of the ratio between estrogen and progesterone. So again, estrogen dominance can be high estrogen, normal progesterone, or it can be high or normal estrogen, low progesterone, just because of that ratio between the two. So how do you know if you're experiencing high estrogen or simply symptoms of estrogen dominance?

Bindi:

Your period bled will be a little bit more of a dark red color or almost like a purple color or for some women even like a blueish tinge. When you look at your period blood it's not bright red, it's more of a purple, dark color or even a little bit blueish color, often high estrogen or estrogen dominance. You'll notice a lot of clots in your menstrual blood. Your period blood might be thick or coagulated or have like strings of blood, like when you wipe or you remove your cup or your tampon. There may be like long strings of blood, more coagulation. That can be high estrogen or estrogen dominance and typically a heavier period. So a heavier period meaning you're filling you know, super tampons more quickly than a few times a day. You're bleeding more than that 80 mls of blood that we mentioned earlier. So if it's more, eight filled, super sized tampons, that would be considered high blood flow, heavy blood flow and a sign of estrogen dominance. If we have a longer cycle length, so a cycle five, six, seven or longer than seven days long. So women that are bleeding for more than seven days, this can be a sign of estrogen dominance.

Bindi:

Breast tenderness before your period or during your period, swollen boobs, fibrocystic boobs so if you notice like before your period, if you notice that your, your breasts are really tender, and if you were to palpate your breasts, especially underneath the breast tissue, do you notice little like lumps or bumps or things that feel like more swollen and that go away when you get your period right. So you might be like, oh, what's that in my breast tissue? That is not normal feeling and you might think, oh, maybe I need to get this checked out, which, if you're concerned, you definitely should. But I'm just saying that we can actually have high levels of estrogen and create this fibrocystic lumps in our breast tissue. That's alleviated with menstruating when our estrogen levels decrease. So that can be high estrogen as well.

Bindi:

Water retention do you get puffy and feel swollen and feel like you gain weight before your period. That's all estrogen dominance. Do you get headaches before your period? All of these can be signs of estrogen dominance. So these two, these are the most common imbalances that I see.

Bindi:

Estrogen dominance or low progesterone. Again, it can be high or normal estrogen, but low progesterone or the ratio between estrogen and progesterone is not optimal, okay. The third thing that can go on and another hormonal imbalance that I see is low estrogen. So how do you know?

Bindi:

If you have low estrogen, what would you be looking for in your menstrual blood? If your period blood is more pink in color, it's more pale and a lighter color, or it's more watery, watery or even frothy, okay. And if you don't see this in your period blood, you might be like what are you talking about? I couldn't even imagine having frothy period blood, but if you do, you know what I'm talking about. It's a bit more watery, pink, light, pale like that. So what that is is that's actually blood mixed with cervical fluid. It can also mean like possible anemia or iron deficiency or other mineral based deficiencies. But if you're experiencing more of a light flow, like some women that just went straight for like a day or two days anything, basically less than three days, this could be pointing to lower levels of estrogen.

Bindi:

We often see, with lower estrogen as well, you may be more prone to like dry skin or more aging skin. In the long term, low estrogen can lead to more like brittle bones or osteoporosis. You may notice more moodiness or irritability before your period and you may experience hot flashes or night sweats. So those lower levels of estrogen at any age can cause that. But that's actually what's happening in a woman's body when she's going through perimenopause and into menopause is this low, this decrease in this sex hormone, estrogen and progesterone but we'll often feel like hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness. Those types of things can all be pointing to lower levels of estrogen. So those are the three main things that we want to interpret from our menstrual blood to understand where our hormones are at, where our progesterone's at, where our estrogen is at.

Bindi:

I'm going to share with you now some possibilities that are less related to hormones but more related to like a localized based infection. So if you are ever noticing like an orange color or more of like a copper or rusty color in your blood, that's often blood mixed with cervical fluid, which can also be estrogen dominance, but it can be a possible sign of infection as well. So we would want to go to our doctor and just rule that out. If you're noticing a more gray color or black color or green color definite signs of infection, possible bacterial vaginosis. It may be associated with an odor. We definitely want to go to our doctor and get that sorted out for us. So those are the possible signs of infection. Of course, if there's irritation, itchiness you're visibly seeing any signs of irritation, of course that can also be sign of infection and you want to get that checked out by your physician.

Bindi:

Okay, and then missing periods. So if we are missing our period, what can it mean? Number one pregnancy is a possibility. You stop getting. You had a healthy period for forever. All of a sudden you stop getting your period. Of course we'd want to rule out the possible pregnancy right.

Bindi:

Missing periods can be from PCOS, so polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is where the ovaries have small cysts on them, and there can be many different variations actually of PCOS. I should do a full podcast episode on this for my PCOS ladies out there, because there's actually four different types of PCOS and hardly anybody talks about this, and when you go to your doctor, they really only see one type of PCOS as worthy of a PCOS diagnosis. So PCOS can be high cortisol, it can be high testosterone, it can be with or without cysts actually. So there's so much going into that, but missing periods can be PCOS as an underlying root cause. If you're missing your period, it could be that your body's just under a lot of stress.

Bindi:

I was just talking with a friend the other day that I have like my menstrual cycles clockwork. It's something that I'm so grateful for. I don't want to take for granted, because I know, yeah, so many women struggle with their hormones and you know, this last period where I felt a bit of cramping, I was a bit bummed and like, oh, this sucks, and kind of like feeling sorry for myself as a woman and I'm like, wait a sec, this is amazing. So the sign of my fertility, this is like a powerful window into my overall health and well-being that I get every single month and that's something so not to take for granted. It's so sacred and so precious to have a menstrual cycle and to have fertility and to be connected to our feminine energy in that way. So, and in connection with nature, it's just amazing.

Bindi:

But higher levels of stress can certainly shut down our sex hormones and I was saying with a friend the only I think four or five times in my life that my cycles gone like out of the clockwork has always been associated with a really stressful event. So only, I think, twice in my life I like got my period two weeks early once and then I got it two weeks late once, and both were immediately after really stressful events. Or you know women that have experienced like trauma or sexual trauma or having sexual encounters with people that you don't connect to, you don't feel safe with yeah, sexual encounters that you feel conflicted about or that you weren't feeling all in about or didn't feel fully safe, like I've definitely seen changes in the cycle related to that and just how you feel in your body and relationship to your sexual partner. I've definitely seen shifts in in a cycle from that and women and overall, just like long term chronic stress. So our body is so intelligent and when we are going through stressful periods, our stress hormone, cortisol, gets driven up and naturally our body is so smart and we'll say if we're so stressed we don't want to get pregnant. And so it's gonna, on purpose, that high stress or high cortisol is gonna shut down our sex hormones and say our main priority for the body right now is survival. We're gonna pump out these stress hormones but we can't get pregnant when we're this stressed because it's not safe, right. So it's actually a very intelligent nature mechanism in women's bodies that when we are that stressed, we can't fall pregnant, because that high cortisol will shut down our sex hormones and our fertility as well.

Bindi:

Missing period can be more extreme. Sex hormone imbalances like extremely high estrogen or extremely low progesterone, thyroid imbalances so hyper or hypothyroidism, or undiagnosed underlying thyroid issues Too high of testosterone can certainly shut down periods. All of that. So all of this is pointing to something deeper to address if you are missing your period or it's become really irregular. We would wanna be looking at that far more in depth. So each of these the low progesterone, the high progesterone or estrogen dominance and the low estrogen all of these really require their own unique wellness protocol to rebalance the hormones. So everything from lifestyle, stress reduction, supplementation, how you exercise, the foods that you eat all of that will really be dependent on what unique hormone imbalance you've found through your observations of your menstrual blood and your menstrual cycle.

Bindi:

And I'm so happy to do additional podcast episodes if you're like hey, I think I might have low progesterone from everything you shared. Can you do a podcast on how to rebalance low progesterone? Like? What should I be eating? What supplements should I take. Send me a DM on Instagram. I'm so happy to create these episodes for you. This whole podcast is made with you in mind and I love to answer your questions, so you can always reach out to me on Instagram. My handle is at bindi-stables, that's B-I-N-D-I and stables with a B, and I'm happy to share more information on those unique imbalances themselves.

Bindi:

So again, this decoding of our menstrual blood is used as an educational tool, not a diagnostic tool. We do do functional medicine, lab testing, where we can actually test your hormones. So often what we do is we look at your menstrual blood. It's great to get acquainted with it, to start to observe it, and it's also a great track of progress over time as you start to heal and rebalance your hormones, to have these markers of what will change over time and to be able to notice. Let's say, like I've rebalanced my hormones. But this last period I did have more clots and it was darker blood. So I'm like, oh, gotta take care of that estrogen dominance. That's kind of snuck in there, just with like a little bit more stress and a bit more travel over this last while. So it's great to have these tools ongoing. So if that is you, if you'd like to look into lab testing, reach out to me on Instagram or you can visit my website, bindi-stablescom.

Bindi:

Forward slash labs and I'll link that up in the show notes for you to check out and you can actually look up some of the main labs that I offer and some of the hormone testing that we do to assess exactly your estrogen levels, progesterone, testosterone, as well as another important hormone marker, dhea. The hormone test that I do also checks thyroid. So TSH, free T3, free T4, which are the three most important thyroid markers, as well as TPOAB, which is a fancy way of saying do you have any thyroid autoimmune-based issues? As well as it's gonna do a four times throughout the day cortisol test, which is again that primary stress hormone. So it's gonna help us to see are you missing your period or irregular period, or lower levels of progesterone, high estrogen right, and is stress a contributing factor? Do you have really high levels of cortisol or stress hormone that's shutting down your female sex and fertility hormones? So we're actually able to see on that lab test your body's stress levels, not just how you feel in your mind, because a lot of women and I know for me I've been like I don't feel stressed. But then a lab test. I'm like my cortisol, my stress hormones are through the roof and I'm like, okay, maybe I'm more stressed than I think that I am and I need to slow down. It's great insights, great data, so you're always welcome to reach out to me for lab testing.

Bindi:

I also have, if you're looking for deeper support in balancing your hormones, understanding your unique hormonal imbalances and receiving an in-depth and customized personalized wellness plan for you with the exact nutrition and supplements and therapies that you could be using to rebalance your hormones, whether that's to enhance your fertility, for conception or simply to reduce hormonal discomforts, pms, bloating, belly cramping all of those things.

Bindi:

I would love to support you in that I have two main programs.

Bindi:

I have my hormone harmony program, where we go over exactly what we need to rebalance your hormone, and we also have the conscious conception program, which is specifically for women looking to conceive within the next three to 12 months to really optimize your hormones, get your body into the healthiest space so that you can conceive a child with ease when you are ready. So do reach out to me if you're interested in that and if you have any questions, please let me know. I'm sending you so, so much love and I will see you back for another episode real soon, take care. Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review, or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on Instagram at Bindi Stables, or visit my website, bindistablescom, to connect and work with me. Thank you so much again for being here and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant you.