Does your menstrual cycle affect your ADHD? Hormones, periods, and ADHD symptoms #115

 
 

All right, today we're talking about the elephant in the room: MENSTRUAL CYCLES.

I know, I know - not everyone's favorite subject! But it's something we all deal with so we might as well discuss how our hormones and our periods affect us as mamas with ADHD.

When you think about hormones, think about HOW MUCH your body has evolved through your life. Adolescence, puberty, pregnancy, postpartum...there's no denying everything's in flux pretty much all the time.

So, the question is what do we REALLY need to know and how can we navigate our ADHD symptoms while our bodies are on a constant hormonal roller coaster?

Sadly, there isn't a lot of research on the topic but there are a few really great resources that I'm excited to share in today's episode!

Don't worry mama...I got you!

I did a looooot of digging and I think you'll love the tools and resources I'm sharing. They'll shed some light on how our bodies work and what to do to be even MORE successful and gracious with ourselves as a woman with ADHD. Plus a big thank you to my friend and mentor, ADHD Coach Elizabeth Brink, for the research help!

Want to dive in more? This topic comes up sometimes during our weekly group support calls for Daily Planning for ADHD Moms course. It's currently open for enrollment!

If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the Motherhood in ADHD Podcast to be notified when we drop our weekly episodes!

Join us in the Motherhood in ADHD Community Support Group on Facebook!

Links to things we talked about on today's show:

Links Use these links to save on products I mentioned today:

Patricia Sung  00:00

Why are psychos looked at as such horrible things? Half the population on the earth has to deal with it and the other half has to do with us dealing with it. Why is this not talked about more? I want to peel back some of the layers of making this a less taboo conversation and get real honest about what is our body doing? And how does it affect our ADHD? Because it sure does affect our ADHD. Come on, Mama, we are opening a can of worms today. Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can't figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home or your family? I get your mama. Parenting with ADHD is hard. Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest or the visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families. Well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on. Welcome to motherhood in ADHD.

 Patricia Sung  01:31

Hey there successful mama. It's your friend Patricia Sung. Before we jump in. Let's read our review of the day. Today's podcast review comes from a user schmoozer, really grateful for this podcast, there are so few resources for quote unquote imperfect mothers. So little support available anywhere from mothers struggling with motherhood. Thank you for creating this space for moms with ADD. Even though user schmoozer only gave me four stars is still appreciate your review, thank you. Because that's something I've had to learn in the time during this podcast is that I can't be everything to everyone. It's hard from a little RSD hurt to survive. But putting yourself out there means that some people are gonna say they don't like what you do, then I understand for starters, is not saying that the person doesn't like what I do, but still hurts my heart a little than it was on five stars. But here's the thing, Mama, if we don't try, we don't ever move forward. And just because you're not meant for a certain person doesn't mean you're not helping the other 1000s of moments who are listening. So we got to step out and possibly feel even when it's uncomfortable and hard.

 Patricia Sung  02:41

Well, we are diving into our menstrual cycles today. Now, our menstrual cycles greatly affect our ADHD symptoms. And this is not talked about enough doing all this research. And I'm finding that there's really not a lot of research, which on one hand is frustrating. And on the other hand, more just illustrates my point, we need to be talking about these things. The body is a beautiful thing. And it was created for a purpose and we have to take care of it. And well, part of this purpose for those of us with uteruses is making people but the background that goes into making people, it's a lot, and we have to deal with it over and over and over again, our hormones fluctuate throughout our cycle. This means that our body is constantly changing, making our ADHD different at any given point in our cycle. That means maybe our meds aren't working the same. It means we might have PMS or the evil twin version of PMS. PMDD. And to be honest, we just don't know enough about our hormones yet.

 Patricia Sung  03:45

Generally speaking, when you're doing scientific research, you use men because they don't have cycles, and they're more stable. I mean, maybe not mentally stable, but definitely hormonally stable. So they make better subjects for studying science, because you have less variables, right? Well, that's a disservice to us, because we need some more research about our periods. So that means when I'm looking for research on periods and ADHD, well I came up with about a bumpkin, to be honest. But that's not going to stop me from talking about this subject. I'm cobbling together everything that I can talking to a lot of women and we're going to be talking about our cycles over the next couple of months here and there. Because I want you to be armed with information to understand what your body's doing and how that affects your ADHD.

 Patricia Sung  04:30

Now, you've heard me talk about the Enclave before Liz Lewis and Elizabeth Brink run this amazing community for ADHD women that I'm a part of, and I absolutely adore. Well, this past week, we were talking about hormones and ADHD. And Elizabeth wrote this beautiful article explaining what our cycle looks like and how it affects our ADHD. So I'm going to give you a summary of what she shared with us and I'm going to put in the show notes, a bunch of links that she used as well. So you can go in and dive in and look at some of the research. There's a really great YouTube video that's not too long. And it was like 10 minutes that explains your period, a couple of different articles and books, if you want to dive into it, we want you to give you like an upper level view of really what is our body doing in this monthly cycle, so that we can be a little more forgiving to ourselves when our body just isn't doing what we wanted to do, because we have to deal with it every month. I also want to talk to you about some of the tools that I found that make my period a lot easier to deal with, because ADHD affects everything. And that includes dealing with blood.

 Patricia Sung  05:35

So Elizabeth shared this great quote from the Cleveland Clinic, it says the hormones created and released by the glands in your body's endocrine system control nearly all the processes in your body. These chemicals help coordinate your body's function from metabolism to growth and development, emotions, moods, sexual function, and even asleep, we definitely don't give them enough credit, because they seem to be running the show, in a lot of cases, our hormones are just in charge of so much. And most of your hormones are actually made in your gut, which, you know, some of them are made in your brain as well. But that kind of blew my mind, it didn't realize how much of a connection our gut had to our whole body. And in some of the health struggles that I've been dealing with, I'm like, Whoa, this is blowing my mind. Like I'm learning so much about my body and how it functions. Like it's kind of crazy. But I'm starting to put together all these connections of like wool, you know, when we take any medicines, those are absorbed in our gut. And it's like, well, if my hormone levels are different, that means my medicines can absorb different.

 Patricia Sung  06:36

So if you're taking, say a stimulant for your ADHD, that's going to be absorbed and then utilized by your body in a different way at different points in your cycle. So if you're thinking like, hey, I really don't feel like my medicines helping me as much in this section of my cycle. It's because it probably isn't also like you know, your guts in charge of all your poo. Well, we hear about like, period booze? Well, that's because I learned that your body releases a hormone called and hopefully I don't butcher this prostaglandins. Oh, they words. And this hormone is stimulating the contractions like in your muscles so that you shed your lining of your uterus. Well, that means it also could be stimulating muscle contractions in your intestines and your bowels. Things move along a little faster. It also reduces how well your body absorbs water. So you're going to have softer stools, and increased risk of diarrhea. This hormone can also be connected to a lot of our PMS symptoms. And we're just like, oh, man, our body is so complicated. Let's try to break it down and just make it a little bit more simple to understand. So your cycle is generally going to run about a month, but some peoples are much shorter. And some peoples are much longer, we start counting from day one of your periods.

 Patricia Sung  07:54

So the first day that you start bleeding, that's day one. And then you have the first half more or less is called the follicular phase. And then about in the middle, which generally speaking is going to be on day 14. But like I said, if you have a longer cycle, then obviously your midpoint is not going to be on day 14, it's going to be farther out, right. So you have your ovulation in the middle, roughly day 14. And then you have the luteal phase, which is the back half. So it goes from day 15 to 28. If you're being super generic in your hormones are all going to be different during this time, we're going to focus on three testosterone is basically the same all the way through except you do get a little bit of a rise in the ovulation area in those couple of days. And then you have your progesterone, this is going to be low in the first half and it starts to rise up around ovulation and then it goes back down later on when your period starts. And then you have estrogen, which is slowly going to rise throughout the first half hits a peak at your ovulation in the middle and then dips down but then it has a slight rise again in the middle of the second half.

 Patricia Sung  08:51

So you have all these different hormones moving at all different levels throughout and they're going to affect our general like feelings throughout those weeks. In your follicular phase. This is when your period starts. Okay. So then at the end when you're hitting ovulation, right, because we're talking about just that first half of the cycle, you may have like a little more energy a little more focus, because in ovulation, that's when your egg is released, you might feel like a little more social have a little more boost in your sex drive. Because this is when nature's like, Hey, this is the time to make a baby. So it's going to you know, like most likely, you know, being very stereotypical, it's not true everyone, but you're gonna feel like a little bit better around this time, or a little more friendly or a little more sociable because your body's trying to make sure that like the human race doesn't end right. And then you have the second half, which is the luteal phase. And this is once the egg is out.

 Patricia Sung  09:41

Your body is then building up the lining of your uterus and it's preparing for a possible pregnancy. So your body is doing a lot of hard work in this time it is growing the lining to prepare so that you could grow as a human if you want it to or in want to. So this is a lot of work that your body's doing. and creating basically like the sustenance for a baby to grow like to grow a human life, your body is preparing for that. So a lot of hard work, right. So, in this time that your body is doing a lot of hard work, a lot of women with ADHD are just feeling like more sleepy, and, you know, sad and kind of foggy. And this is a harder time for us, which stinks because it's literally half the time, right? This is the second half of your cycle, literally half the time. And I want to back up a little bit to estrogen. So estrogen is a key in our norepinephrine production.

 Patricia Sung  10:35

So norepinephrine is part of like converting into the dopamine process, which I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole. Side note, if you do want to look at energy regulation, you can check out the podcast on Episode 71, where I talk about energy regulation, much more in depth. So as your estrogen levels fluctuating throughout the month, it's going to affect your ADHD symptoms pretty much guaranteed. I'm sure there's some people that don't but haven't found one yet, as your estrogen is moving up and down, especially in the second half of the phase. This is where some people feel like I'm like a different person, I don't feel like myself. So you get a lot of people who get diagnosed with mood disorders or bipolar because their body is going through some huge shifts in that second part, and it feels rapid, and it feels frequent, because it is it's the second half of every cycle. And I also want you to think about when is ADHD often diagnosed major life events, like if you start a new job, or you start school or you switch schools, those big transitions, and also big hormone events like puberty, pregnancy, having a kid menopause, these are the times where we really see the difference, because guess what our estrogen levels are all over the place in these times. And so our symptoms are all over the place at these times. And it's much more apparent that who something is not right.

 Patricia Sung  11:53

I do want to give like a little side note here, if you are using any kind of birth control or an IUD, you can still have hormonal changes, you just aren't shedding the lining of your uterus. So keep in mind that you can still have all of these hormonal shifts because your body still may be releasing eggs, it's just that you're not shedding the lining of your uterus. So yeah, that stinks. I mean, going into you're not doing their period, but you still could be dealing with all of the stuff that comes with it. And a lot of women were saying when we were chatting my best is that especially when they have an IUD, they don't really know where they are in their cycle, because they're not having a period or like one of the ladies mentioned, like she had one of those an ablation, where they go in and basically like, remove the lining of your uterus, so you don't bleed anymore. But you still have all of the hormonal, like side effects that go with it and aren't uncommon side effects. I mean, they are what they are, right. So they're not really like on the side, it's part of the package.

 Patricia Sung  12:54

So even though you're not having a period, you're still having all of the other stuff that goes with it. Like, you know, tenderness in your chest were the cramping and the back pain, like all that stuff does not go away. So just because you're taking a hormonal birth control, which may prevent you from having a baby, it's not stopping all the other stuff that goes with it. Like for me when I tried doing that, I think it's called like the mini pill were like you only have a period every three months. It's like a hot mess, y'all. I had to stop it my body like could not handle the change in the hormones. It was a no go. Like the appeal of only having a period like four times a year was not worth the trouble.

 Patricia Sung  13:36

Hey, Mama, have you been over to my website and grabbed any of the free ADHD resources of God, you can make your mornings more peaceful. Overcome time blindness hurdles, learn ways to treat your ADHD beyond the obvious medication option, or grab a copy of all of my favorite ADHD resources on one page, you can snag these all on my website at patriciasung.com/resources. And I'll email you the PDF or the video. Now don't go putting in your spammy junk email, okay, I'm not going to send you junk. I email you once, maybe twice a week, for sure. I'll send you a note about this week's podcast topic. And if I'm having a particularly organized week, I might email you again about what's working for me ADHD this week, or venting about whatever executive function disaster happened. Your inbox is where I spill more of the beans. And if you change your mind, you can always unsubscribe, right? Plus, I really love hearing back from you. So write me an email back, tell me what's going on in your life or what you want to learn about next. So go grab those free goodies, and I'll see you in your inbox.

 Patricia Sung  14:38

But here's thing we are women and this is not going to change throughout our whole life like yes, you may hit like perimenopause and menopause. And like I always thought like, oh, at some point, I won't have to deal with this. Well, then Elizabeth was telling us that some people deal with menopause forever. I was like, Yo, you gotta be kidding me seriously, but there's light at the end of tunnel. Clearly it's not. So mostly just one Say, you're not alone. Our cycle affects us greatly, especially when you have ADHD. And talking to women with ADHD, I've just found that this is a huge issue, it seems to affect us more than your average bear. So you're not alone, you're not crazy, this is a thing, I'm going to tell you about a couple of tools that I find extremely helpful, that hopefully will help you to as you're dealing with your period.

 Patricia Sung  15:22

First one is a tracker app, keeping track of your feelings, how your body is feeling, mentally, physically, will help you be prepared. And you can plan ahead for the coming craziness, if you will, I don't have an iPhone, but I've heard on iPhone, there is one that you can just like come to your phone, I use an app called glow. And I use the free one. They have all kinds of features. But I'm fine with the basic plan. And I use it to track just my super basic symptoms. It will remind me if I wanted to, like you could have a notification that pops up and asks you like, Hey, do you want to log your symptoms today so that we don't have to keep in your mind of like filling it out. And I don't track everything. Like when we were trying to get pregnant, I used it super detailed with all the thermometers, and you know, checking my temperature and all that stuff, which I don't know at this point, since we're not trying to have more kids like I just use it to track my period. And I can kind of keep an eye out for when my ovulation is coming in just those like major symptoms so that I know in my head, I'm roughly about where things are. And if you don't know, like, if you don't recognize the changes going on in your body, like no, you are totally normal. Like a lot of people were not taught about this and don't even know it's a thing.

 Patricia Sung  16:33

If you had asked me a couple years ago, I didn't like I don't even know he's talking about like, I didn't see a pattern, I didn't feel a pattern. But I found that in tracking with the app, that definitely helped me be more aware. So I've been using that for probably like seven years now. Wow, it's a long time. And what I find is helpful now is that as I'm tracking, I'm using it to plan my life better. I know, when I have my period, I'm not gonna do anything. Like I don't want to do anything at all. And that's okay, like, this is a time where my body is meant to rest. But I also need to plan ahead that like, I'm not going to try to do a big project, I'm not going to be recording podcast, because I have literally just won't be sitting here going like me, life is terrible. It's not inspirational. When I'm writing and recording podcast, it is in my follicular phase, but after my periods over, that's the time where we're more creative and have more energy. So I plan my life accordingly and is so much better. And also, it prepares me for like that PMS time where I'm like, I'm gonna be mad at a lot of people for reasons that are not necessarily that valuable. And I just know, like I haven't written on my calendar so I can prepare. And I know like, I'm just going to be a grumpy Gus at those times. And it's fine, knowing that I'm not like a crazy person. And it's just these are the hormones and I'm dealing with them makes me feel so much better. Like I just have so much more grace for myself. Now, on that note, we have an episode coming up about cycle syncing, I'm so excited to share with you because I'm doing this for the last few months and it like, the more I get into it, the better I feel about it. I'm just like, I cannot wait to share it with you. So keep that in mind that's coming.

 Patricia Sung  18:08

Now, my other two tools to make periods easier. The first one is flex discs. Now I've been using these for about three years. And they're basically like an alternative to tampons and pads. They are a plastic disc, I'd say they're probably about the size of like a tennis ball around, but they're flat. And it's basically like a stopper that you put in to catch all the blood. Why I think these are amazing for ADHD is because you can leave them in for up to 12 hours. Now on light days, I've let them in for longer, which is not recommended. But okay, sorry. And I have a friend who has like super, super heavy flows on the first day or two. And she has said that they're just a lifesaver for her because she was running to the bathroom with super tampons, like every 30 minutes to an hour. And now the flex desk holds so much more. But also like, you can keep using it. It's not like one and done.

 Patricia Sung  19:04

So the way that it works is it basically is a crate stopper, and they have a video on their website, you can watch and it shows you how this add functions. And when you go to the bathroom, you kind of bear down like you're gonna poop and it releases the seal and the blood drains out and you just keep it in there. Now what I love about them is that you don't have to worry about changing them so often, which means like not having to be aware of like, Oh, I haven't gone to change it in a while and having some kind of leakage or an accident. I don't have to remember to carry around supplies with me because I put one in in the morning. And I don't have to change it until evening time. So like if you're at work or you're out running about, you know, you don't have to carry stuff with you. You just put it in the morning and it's like set it and forget it and as long as you go to the bathroom at some point you're emptying them out.

 Patricia Sung  19:49

Now they do take some getting used to you'd have to figure out like how to set them in right so that it does create that seal. So it takes some practice and obviously it is a little bit messier because There's not like a string, you just pull, you do have to put your finger in to hook it and bring it out. But kind of like you know what, once you've dealt with all the blood postpartum, it's kind of like me, it doesn't really faze me as much. So Brando, if you want to try them out, I have my affiliate link in the show notes and you get $5 off your first order. And what I do is I ordered the biggest bag, and then set my delivery for every two months. And it's just so easy. It just like shows up on my door, I don't worry about it. It's auto set for every month. So you can order like a smaller bag and have it arrive every month. It's up to you. But it's just awesome. Like, I don't have to think about it, it shows up on my door. I can use it all day, I don't have to carry stuff around with me, like, seriously brilliant for ADHD brains.

 Patricia Sung  20:47

Then my third tool is thinks underwear. Now these are meant to absorb your period, blood and I have been wearing knees for probably about five years, they have a ton of style. So like regardless if you want like hip hugger bikini bone, they have like all the different like styles that would fit your body. And they have a bunch of absorbency. So they have light ones to heavy ones. And I have a couple of the classic ones that I tend to use on like the heavier days or at night because they are a little bit thicker. And you don't have to wear anything else with it. Like you literally just wear the underwear. But from a sensory standpoint, I don't like having gooey underwear. So I prefer to use them as more of like a backup with the flex.

 Patricia Sung  21:30

So most of it's called the flex but like if for some reason, like I didn't quite get it in, right and I have a little bit of leakage not a problem and catches it. I also like to wear the things air, which are my favorite. I like to wear them like beforehand when I'm not exactly sure when my periods going to start because it protects from like having an accident or a leak, like leading up. And then I wear them as backup for the flex throughout my period. And then I wear them by themselves again, at the end on the lighter days, it's kind of like tapering off. And I like to thinks air because it's like a thinner like mesh kind of material. And it's like a cool, they're not super thick. And it just feels like normal underwear. And they're like breathable and everything. I just they're super comfy. And I really liked them. Now if you want to try things underwear, I also have an affiliate link in my show notes for $10 off your first pair and you can buy just one pair and try them out or you can buy like you know, they give you a discount. If you buy like three pairs or five pairs together, I just find that that like peace of mind of knowing like if I forget to keep up with it, it's there as a backup and absorber I don't have to worry about like cleaning up a mess. And then what I do is if they do end up getting super messy, I'll rinse them out in the sink. But otherwise, I just throw them all in one of those mesh like laundry bags they use for bras, I just throw them in there my whole period. And at the end, I wash them separately, you can wash them with the other stuff. But I don't know mentally, I'm just like, I just keep separate. So I just throw them on the mesh bag until the end of my cycle and then wash them in the washing machine. And usually I'll do like a soap load first and then wash them just it seems to get out cleaner, like if you don't rinse them out at the time. But even the times where like it got totally crazy. And I had a lot of like luggage, it all came out, like no issues and the peace of mind is just really helpful.

 Patricia Sung  23:25

So we're going to be talking about periods and hormones and ADHD over the next few months because it's now become a bit of a hyper focus for me. We're gonna talk about cycle thinking next time so that you can learn what makes sense for your body. And what are the times where you can really use your hormonal levels to your advantage and one of the times where we just need to give ourselves some rest and care and extra TLC because our body is doing hard work. So I hope that these three tools help you out the glow app or whatever comes on your phone for tracking your cycle and symptoms so that you know kind of, you know, heads up on what's coming second, your flex discs, which you can wear all day and then your thinks underwear that are a great backup protection plan for when you forget to bring stuff or when you forget it's coming that you have these tools in your toolbox for your ADHD. Because menstruating is inevitable for quite a few of us and we got to deal with it. But it's not all bad. We are creating lives. We are doing great things.

 Patricia Sung  24:28

So Mama let me know. Do these tools help you out? Shoot me a note taking on Instagram. Let me know what you think and have an amazing week successful mama. For more resources, classes and community head over to my website motherhoodinadhd.com

Podcast EpisodePatricia Sungpodcast, resources, community, coaching, hormones, menstrual cycle, adhd symptoms, adult adhd