Your luteal phase isn't a personality flaw

There is a particular kind of self-criticism many women know well.

One week you feel focused, social and capable.

Another week everything seems slightly louder.

You may be hungrier.

More tired.

Less patient.

More emotionally affected by things you'd normally brush aside.

And because nobody taught us to expect context, we often reach for judgement instead.

What's wrong with me?

Sometimes, nothing.

What is the luteal phase?

The luteal phase begins after ovulation and lasts until the next menstrual period.

During this part of the cycle, the corpus luteum produces progesterone, alongside estrogen. If pregnancy does not occur, levels of these hormones fall towards the end of the phase, leading into menstruation.

That changing hormonal environment is one reason researchers have long been interested in how the luteal phase might interact with sleep, appetite, temperature, mood and metabolism.

Appetite changes are real for some women

Research has found greater average energy intake during the luteal phase compared with the follicular phase across a number of studies.

That does not mean cravings are dictated by progesterone.

Human appetite is influenced by sleep, stress, habit, environment, food availability and countless other factors.

But it does mean women deserve better than being told that a change in appetite is simply a lack of discipline.

Energy can have context too

Research into resting metabolism suggests there may be a modest rise in resting metabolic rate during the luteal phase, although the evidence is mixed and the size of the effect appears small.

This is not a justification for grand claims about “burning hundreds more calories.”

It is a reminder that the body is physiologically active and dynamic.

And then there is sleep

Premenstrual symptoms are associated in some studies with poorer sleep quality, increased daytime sleepiness and difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep.

Imagine the knock-on effect.

If you sleep poorly, you may feel less resilient.

If you feel less resilient, ordinary stress may feel bigger.

If your appetite has also changed, you might judge yourself for eating differently.

Then instead of recognising a cluster of experiences that may have context, you tell yourself you've somehow become a worse version of yourself.

Context does not mean dismissal

There is an important warning here.

Women have spent generations having legitimate symptoms dismissed with some variation of:

“It's probably just your hormones.”

That is not what cycle literacy should become.

Severe pain, dramatic mood changes, very heavy bleeding, unusual fatigue or symptoms that interfere substantially with your life deserve proper medical attention.

Understanding your cycle should make it easier to recognise when something is not normal for you, not easier for someone else to dismiss it.

You are still you

The luteal phase does not turn you into somebody else.

You are not four personalities rotating through one body.

You are one person experiencing a changing biological environment.

There is dignity in understanding that difference.

Because perhaps the aim isn't to eliminate every fluctuation.

Perhaps it's to stop treating fluctuation as failure.