Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of Vet Chat. Today we are carrying on our women's health conversations with mental health educator Tarash. Let me start by telling you a little bit about our guest today.

So Tara is passionate about creating a positive period story right from the start. Her popular and engaging workshops empower young people to feel confident and in control when it comes to their mental health. And she supports teachers in delivering a well-rounded education on all things periods.

Tara is also dedicated to helping people with periods, feel strong, whatever season of life they are in. She's a certified women's health coach, an abdominal therapist, and runs workshops for adults of all ages to help them to navigate their period health and also their menopause transition. So welcome, Tara, thank you for joining me today.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited about this conversation. Oh, me too.

So as we know, the female, that, sorry, the veterinary profession is. Prominently female. So we get loads of requests for women's health topics.

So we've covered lots already, but one thing that we've never actually covered is menstrual cycles. So it's great to have you here. I follow you on Instagram and I love all the stuff that you do around menstrual cycles.

So, so shall we start at the very, very start? Do you want to tell us a little bit about menstrual cycles and what they are? Absolutely, so sometimes the words get a little bit confused, like period and menstrual cycle.

So a menstrual cycle, just to be clear, is the length from the start of one period to the start of your next period. And if we're gonna go to kind of back to biology at school and just figure out kind of what happens through that menstrual cycle to give you a little bit of an understanding. And how those natural hormone changes affect frankly every aspect of our life, whether that is our mood, our energy, our motivation, our hunger, our libido, it really impacts everything as well as our immunity and our ability to train, like it just affects everything.

So, the first day of your menstrual cycle is the first day of your period, and then around about day 3 of your period, there is a conversation that happens between your brain and your ovaries. Your brain basically telling your ovaries what to do, telling them to grow some follicles, and there's a handful of follicles that start growing, and as they grow, they produce a hormone called oestrogen. And oestrogen, really often makes us, feel more chatty, more outgoing, our energy boosted around that time.

For some people as oestrogen is building, that can also affect their anxiety as well or exacerbate IBS symptoms. Then around about day 7 of your cycle. So maybe kind of at the end of where your period is at, depending how long your periods for.

One out of those handful of follicles that are growing, one is picked, like the chosen one for that month, and that really ramps up, and that's really often correlated with an increase in our energy. And then round about when oestrogen gets to a certain level, again, our brain tells our ovaries to release that egg and the egg poles off down the floating tube and it's either, Yeah, meets a sperm cell and becomes a baby, or it disintegrates within 24 hours. And then what is left behind when that egg has, has poodled off is a temporary endocrine gland called the corpus luteum.

And it's about 2 centimetres wide, and its job is to produce a hormone called progesterone. So you kind of can think oestrogen dominates in the first half of your cycle and then progesterone takes over. And we joke that Progesterone should be our keep calm and carry on hormone.

It should make us, it's really supportive for our nervous system. It should make us want to go to bed early. It should make us, want to take a sneaky nap or hit snooze on the alarm, in the mornings.

But if for some people, we don't produce enough progesterone, and it can be in that second half of a cycle, we have symptoms like, more anxiety, more sleep issues, and, maybe sore boobs, those sort of thing. And then, basically, at the end, when the body realises, oh, she's not pregnant this month, then there's a signal that our body then, releases the, the lining of your womb, and that's what causes your period, and that's the end of your cycle. And then the whole shebang happens the next month and the next month.

And yeah, so we can, I can answer any questions about why the hormones are different or Good cycle lengths, all the rest of it, there's so much that we are not taught about our bodies. Yeah, absolutely. Like, they really are, even just from listening then there's so many different phases that you go through in 4 weeks.

Yeah, yeah, and that's the thing, I think, you know, we've all been told the story that, we are unpredictable and that we are moody. But actually the reality is it's normal for the, for us to feel like a different person each week of our menstrual cycle. Because of those normal fluctuating hormones.

So actually, the way we should spin it around is that it's not that we're broken, but the system we live in is not made for our biology because we know that men were the, were the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. So the working day and the expectations of a working life are suited to men's study at testosterone levels. Their testosterone is highest, say, around 5 o'clock in the morning.

It peaks then and then it dips down for the rest of the day, and then it resets the next morning at 6 a.m., 5 a.m., then it dips down.

So basically their energy rises and falls with the sun, and they can be the same person every day as a result. But for us, our energy is still really predictable, but we have a much longer clock to be run by, not the 24 hour clock, but more like a 29-ish day clock. It sounds a bit woo woo, but more like with the moon.

We're more moon cycle rather than, men's, biology is more on the, on the sun cycle. And just knowing that, like, we often can't change life, Catherine, we still need to work. We still have caregiving responsibilities, you know, we've got holidays to go on events, whatever it is, we can't change ourselves saying, oh no, this isn't a good part of my cycle.

I can't do that. But knowing that those different phases of our menstrual cycle give us, different superpowers, that we are better. At different things at different times of our cycle, but we also might face different challenges, we can be kinder to ourselves because most of us are going around with what I call, I hope you're going to wear shit FM, very loud in our heads.

And we need to turn that down because we keep on thinking, but why? I was so chatty, you know, last week. I was really good at that presentation.

I was really good at negotiating. And now suddenly, suddenly, I can't even recall words. I can't form senses.

The way that I did before, and we berate ourselves, and we're so mean to ourselves, but actually we think, OK, you know what? This is the week before my period. I always get like this.

I always find it difficult to recall words. It's OK. In a couple of weeks' time, it'll be fine.

And in fact, I'm gonna ask for my pay rise around about ovulation, because I'm really charming at that time. I'm a really good wordsmith. I can really talk my way in, in and out of things.

So that we can use these different phases to our advantage, I think is. Like every woman needs to know this. Yeah, absolutely.

So just to to touch on what you just said then, so in each week of the month, should you try and focus on different things where you can do? Are you, is just kind of mind and your body more in tune with certain things in each week? Yeah, so we're really, lucky that there's lots of people in what we call the menstrual cycle awareness space, and the, two amazing founders at the Red School, Alexandra and Jani, described the phases of our menstrual cycle as our inner seasons.

Winter is when you have your period, spring is like the week or so after, when you're kind of coming out of your hibernation cave. Summer is around about ovulation, and autumn is the week before your period. And often when we start tracking our cycle, now tracking your cycle, it's got nothing to do with cycling.

It means literally writing down each day how you're feeling either on an app, in a journal, and I always share that I'm so boring, let me bring it out. I have, I know this is not very good for audio, but I have a white A4 pad lined. Had.

And so in the left hand column, I write the day and date, so day one of my cycle, you know, there's one sentence, you know, knackered, want to be alone. Like, whatever it is, you know, like in my summer, for me, a tough phase of my cycle is day 6 or 7. I often have a lot of inner critic, a lot of high anxiety around that time.

But knowing now that that's then, I can think, don't worry, Tara, it's OK. It's just day 7. This is totally normal.

So going back to your question about is there different things we can do. Now every person is different and it's really when you track it, you can then identify your own superpowers and your own challenges. But it's kind of a general, like a real umbrella approach to it.

Around about when you bleed, when you have your period, it's a, often a time where we get lots of inspiration. I know that's gonna be really irritating to people who suffer with period pain and they're like, I don't get anything apart from hell during that week, and we can talk about period pain as well if you want, or I have resources on that. But but it can be if your period pain is manageable and we're able to rest just a little bit more during our period.

It can be a time when our intuition is highest. We might get new ideas float in or answers to things we've been working on, but we have a lot of shame over resting during our menstrual cycle. We think it makes us look weak that we can't keep up.

But the thing is, if we rest during our men during our period. Or wherever we need that, it actually gives us more energy for the other more outward facing bits of our cycle. So we get the same amount of stuff done over a month, but we just do it in different ways.

So winter would be a time to claim rest and maybe if you weren't suffering with period pain that you might have intuition might be highest, then spring is a time where for a lot of people it's a really creative phase. It's really the kind of planning phase, they can really think, OK, they've kind of got ideas all buzzing around. Then the summer round about ovulation would be more where you are, you're getting out there, basically.

You're really social, you're chatty, you're doing your presentations. If you can, if that would be a good time for it. You can't always plan that.

And then autumn, we have a lot of connections with that being a really tricky phase, and there's so much we can do to make that late, phase of our, cycle easier. But autumn, autumn has its powers, we are really good at identifying what we do and don't like, really good at being sort of having to critique things, whether that is . Like putting the dotting the I's and crossing the T's on some project you've been on, it's a really great time to do your tax return because you're really like hyperfocused.

It's often a type of hyperfocused and really like attention to detail, not a time for creativity, more kind of like let's look at the spreadsheets. Great time to actually do a clear out, whether that is like clearing the cupboards, you know, and like a spring clean at home or just organise. Things at work, kind of where you have to be quick and decisive about things as well.

And again, it's a time where we, we know exactly what we do and don't want. And so that also can be a challenge, because basically, society likes us in our spring and summer, likes both because they expect females to be smiley, to be available, to Generous and giving. And when in our autumn, that week or so before your period, and then on our period, say our winter, when we want to take more time for ourselves, say no, have more boundaries, that is not liked by society.

And so you are really changing the narrative and saying, I'm not available at the same speed every single day. Even though your job is probably going to demand that, but at least your inner voice, you can be kinder to yourself, or you can reduce the other commitments, like you still have to go to work, you still have to look after the kids, whatever it is, your caregiver responsibilities. But then you can be like, well, I won't plan a big night out like 2 days before my period because I'm gonna be knackered, or whatever it is, and you can try if you can make things easier for yourselves on the things that aren't the necessary, aren't my having to get a job.

Brilliant. No, it's fascinating. It really is.

There's so much, that can impact our daily lives, isn't there? And I love what you said there about kind of thinking rather thinking if it's a 24 hour cycle, but a sort of 29 day cycle, you know, that's, yeah, makes so much sense. Did you know the webinar vet has a public community Facebook group?

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The webinar that community on Facebook. So just if we have a little look, about, you know, periods and diet and exercise and self-care and things like that, could you tell us a little bit about that, Tara, please? Yeah, totally, so again we're kind of told that our hormones and our periods are just one of those things, it's like you have good ones or bad ones and you know, that's just it, that's just your lot in life.

But actually there's so much that we can do, really easy, simple things to. Help ourselves have a healthy period and and and stable moods throughout our cycle. And there's a really sim oversimplification if we think of our main endocrine hormones as kind of like in a pyramid, at the top we have cortisol and insulin.

So cortisol is obviously through stress and insulin is through our diets. They dictate how we make pregnoline and DHEA. That those hormones we call the parent hormones cos they go on to make our sex hormones as well as melatonin and thyroid.

So if we think of it like in a pyramid, we can see, ah, right, if my stress levels are through the roof, or if I'm just eating junk and my insulin levels are like yo yoing all over, that is gonna cascade down to how my mood is and how my period presents itself. And we say that basically our period is our monthly report card on our health. So it reflects how we have basically looked after ourselves not just over the last month, but kind of almost for the last six months, and in fact during the pandemic, for many clients I supported, you know, it was March 2020 when everything happened, periods of fine, April, May, June, no problem, and then, oh my goodness.

July and August, September, the periods were awful, moods were awful because it takes that long, basically the. The way that the follicle grows, they get exposed to stress maybe say 6 months beforehand, and so they get affected by everything in our environment before that. And it's not to say that, OK, well, we can blame everything, it's just knowing that it can be a cascading effect and things like being sick or, jet lag.

All of those things could affect your cycle now or maybe in a couple of cycles later. So going back to the kind of diet and, and, self-care bits, I'm all about the easy stuff, Katherine, right? Because there's so much bloody diet and lifestyle advice out there.

So like, I always start with the three things that can, I like the foundations. This is for, like, man, woman, child, this is for every human, which is sleep. We need to prioritise our sleep and we really just have, an epidemic of sleep deprivation.

And I've got some really good resources. If someone is suffering from sleep, as someone who suffered with insomnia, I'm really passionate about this topic. So there's all sorts we can do to support our sleep, but knowing that really we should be looking for about 7 to 8 hours, deep sleep per night, turning off all devices 2 hours beforehand.

This is unpopular, but this really affects, yeah, it's toughy, it's a toughie. Or getting those snazzy blue blocking glasses can also help should you need to be scrolling. But it affects, you know, melatonin, sorry, blue light affects our melatonin levels, but also the dopamine hits that we're getting from scrolling really affects how we get to sleep at our cortisol levels.

So first thing's always sleep. Second thing is about pooping. I'm really comfortable talking about pooping, because it's so important for our menstrual health.

If you need to be having one good daily poo, and if you're not, that is gonna really impact your moods, and your period. And the third thing is joy. Being a grown up is quite boring, to be honest.

There's loads of responsibilities and sometimes without realising it, we haven't. Given ourselves enough time for fun and joy, so we need to be doing something every day that makes us laugh or brings joy into our life. They're the three basics, they're like the foundations for health I'd say.

And there's loads more I can suggest, obviously, loads and loads and loads more for period pain or mood issues. But they will be like, you need to nail those three before we can think about something else. Yeah.

OK, brilliant. Thanks, Tara. That's great.

I'm just conscious of time. We, we're quickly running out of time, but I really wanted to touch on the workplace, cause it's, you know, as you say, it's impossible for women to all be at the same stage of the cycle at all times. Do you have any sort of practical advice, of how we can kind of Have a nice culture around periods, like is there anything that we can do to really help people who are, you know, going through this but kind of don't know where to start or feel a bit overwhelmed with it all.

Totally, totally, so I think we all need a lot of compassion, you know, to know that, you know, that it's totally normal to feel different every week, but also to know that there's different phases of that, whether that is through going through perimenopause as well, and there's different changes there. And it can be I know obviously that the er veterinary profession is predominantly female, but you know some people feel really stuck about talking about this with their male colleagues or and to explain why they're feeling different, and I think we all need to just. Say it as it is.

I think often we start rambling whenever we're talking about topics we feel uncomfortable about, and I see that, say that for myself as well. And I think we just need to raise awareness and I provide, menopause awareness webinars and and menstrual health webinars to corporates so that it is for all genders to attend because this isn't a woman's health issue, you know, it affects 50% of the population, but the other 5 80% live with us, or work with us or have us in their lives. So everybody needs to know about this.

And Catherine, in the pipeline, I do have a workshop for, cis men to explain the cycle. So that will be coming out in the next few months as well, because it's really important, whether you are a colleague, a son, a brother, a partner or a father, to understand what's going on in really simple factual ways, and And what I think is lovely and something I teach the young girls who go on my workshops and also the women in their 30s and 40s, is having some way to communicate that in your household. We do, like, for the younger children, we do like a weather dial, like a circle, where you can turn it to be like, you know, either winter, spring, summer or autumn, depending if you use that language in your home, or just like, go away, leave me alone, up for fun stuff, really hungry, you know, you can just put that either on your bedroom door for children or on the, On the fridge so that everybody in the house can see it, and having some sort of way, I have clients who have a big calendar in the in their kitchen and they mark it off so that their sons and their partners can see where they're at in their cycle so.

It's having those, those challenging conversations, maybe with your colleagues to explain that, but maybe picking a good time of your cycle to have that challenging conversation. You looking inwards first of all and thinking, OK, I'm feeling quite brave and quite sassy right now. I'm gonna talk about this topic, and then you can put in place those, those things to support you and your female colleagues.

That's great, Tara, thank you. So just to finish, if any of our, listeners would be keen to get in touch, maybe they might want to invite you into practise to do a workshop about, you know, with their teams. Where should they find you?

Where should they head to? Fantastic. So my website is Taraghosh.com.

Also on Instagram, I'm Taraghosh. I have loads of free handouts should you need that. I've got ones, as I mentioned, on sleep, Pure pain, PMS also better boundaries with your phone, also how to have a better relationship with alcohol, lots of different things out there, how to pay your kid for their period, so a whole raft of things.

So, and they're very welcome to either email me or, drop me a DM on Instagram as well. Oh, that's brilliant. Tara, thank you.

I highly recommend Instagram to everyone listening. I love watching all your stories. We'll also, when this goes live, we'll, you know, tag you on all of the webinar that socials and blogs, etc.

So, yes, hopefully it'll be easy for people to reach out. Tara, thank you so much for joining us. I really enjoyed the conversation today.

Oh, I love chatting to you too. Thanks so much, Katherine. Aw, thanks a lot.

Bye. Bye bye.