Understanding Your God designed Corpus Luteum.

God does amazing work in small things. An example of this in a woman's body is the Corpus Luteum. Let's take a moment to tune into your God designed body during your menstrual cycle + see what we can learn about this tiny but mighty piece of your body.

Each month, the balance of hormones in your God designed female body during your menstrual cycle, relies on the health of your corpus luteum and the impact it has on a hormone called progesterone.

During the second half of your menstrual cycle known as the luteal phase, the job of the corpus luteum is to give you a nice boost of progesterone to stimulate your uterus to thicken and prepare for the potential of implantation of a fertilized egg to occur.

If pregnancy takes place, the tiny but mighty corpus luteum continues to produce progesterone in your body until the placenta takes over at week 12 of gestation (isn't God an incredible designer?).

If there is no conception, your body realizes it does not need to maintain the lining of the uterus and so the corpus luteum will stop secreting progesterone and will decay and turn into a corpus albicans. This usually happens around day 10. So without progesterone maintaining the endometrium, you will shed the lining resulting in menstruation.

Many women today suffer from symptoms of low progesterone around this time which worsens PMS, due to lack of ovulation or aka anovulation (which supports a healthy corpus luteum). This is influenced by chronic stress, over use of birth control, toxins, and lack of nutrient dense food (especially when to comes to under-eating or yoyo dieting). You can still have "a period bleed" even when you do not ovulate, so this often goes unrecognized.

The problem is: If you do not ovulate, you rely on your adrenal glands to produce progesterone.

But remember, our body is interconnected and that is the place you also make stress hormones. And if your body is already stressed out and your adrenals are over burdened + now having to focus on progesterone, this will further mess with hormone imbalance and impact fertility, weight, mood, and more.

So many women feel like their bodies are against them, but sweet friend...

Why would your body want you to procreate if it perceives you are in a dangerous environment?

Why would your body want you to lose weight when fat tissue is protective and it is perceiving food supply is low + you are in danger because you are skipping meals + pounding caffeine running on adrenaline and cortisol?

Why would your body want you to lose weight when you have toxins circulating in your system and adipose tissue protects you from toxicity?

When you learn that many times your body is protecting you and responding to the environment it is in, you learn compassion.

Let's move on...

When ovulation does not occur it leads to:

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance (because your corpus luteum relies on ovulation to produce surges of progesterone and when you do not ovulate, it leads to low progesterone or, estrogen can be too high + it lowers progesterone).

And when you struggle with excess estrogen you end up with low progesterone.

So back to our focus: the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum thrives + produces good amounts of progesterone when it has optimal nutrients + when the signaling from the pituitary to the ovaries is appropriate and it sends the luteinizing hormone telling your body it is safe to ovulate + form the corpus luteum. What causes poor communication between these two?

Liver stress + congestion (this leads to a build up of estrogen)

Under eating

Nutrient deficiencies such as zinc, selenium, magnesium, vitamin B6

Chronic Inflammation (elevation of certain cytokines)

Dysregulated blood sugar

Poor sleep

Physiological + emotional stress caused by living in a chronic state of stress + perceiving the world is dangerous + causing you to have chronically elevated stress hormones + imbalanced sex hormones + depleted minerals.

But wait, what if I no longer menstruate?

For my ladies who are in their golden years and no longer menstruating, taking time to tune into your menstrual history can still give you clues and insight into how your health was back then and what could potentially be causing certain symptoms for you today.

Example: if you had a history of symptoms listed previously in the estrogen dominance category, you likely had estrogen dominance. If this is true, you will likely struggle with low progesterone (increases symptoms during perimenopause). As you age, estrogen dominance worsens and low progesterone can lead to insulin resistance, osteoporosis, low thyroid function, and increases your risk for cancer later in life. Supporting your estrogen detoxification pathways, managing your stress + blood sugar are all ways to help optimize the aging process.

Your God designed body is interconnected and sometimes choosing to simply tune into your God given menstrual cycle and symptoms that accompany it each month (or occurred each month) can enable you to make changes to avoid pain + worsening symptoms the following months and actually befriend your cycle.

Often today many try to quiet the symptoms with birth control + over use of medications. I am not saying birth control is wrong for you (I do not know your unique history or experience). But I will say beware it depletes vitamins essential for liver detoxification like vitamin B6 and can worsen estrogen dominance.

You also need to be aware that you do not ovulate on birth control and when you do not ovulate, as we covered, it messes with your progesterone levels (which often results in estrogen dominance over time) and it results in you relying on your adrenal glands to produce progesterone (which can lead to worsening adrenal related fatigue, fertility problems, + worsening mood disorders + more if you already live in a nutrient depleted + stressed state).

To learn more about how to tune into your God designed menstrual cycle, subscribe to the Refined Wellness Membership for an upcoming master series on Menstrual Health: Coming in February!

This series will cover:

Period pain + what causes it.

Tangible ways to support a healthy balance of estrogen + progesterone.

How chronic stress impacts your menstrual cycle + what to do about it.

Nutrition + herbal support for an optimal menstrual cycle.

Helpful testing you can request from your provider.

How to optimize your detoxification pathways to support healthy hormone balance.

Sign up now here. (P.S Current course students: this will be added as a bonus lesson inside you course!)