Want to try my easy trick for having a happier premenstrual week?

My Hormonology

Want to try my easy trick for having a happier premenstrual week?

 

I’m deep into my premenstrual Week 4. So, yesterday as I was working, my stomach started to grumble. But, I was in the middle of something important and didn’t want to interrupt my flow to go eat.

Then I remembered something important about the premenstrual week: Plunging estrogen in Week 4 has the tendency to exaggerate negative effects.

Like what? Like if I’m hungry and put off eating, I’m not just going to get the hunger crankies. I’m going to start smashing furniture and breathing fire on anyone who comes within a five-foot radius of me and my grumbly tummy. Or if I decide for some very stupid reason to go to the supermarket during their most crowded hour, I’m not just going to get frustrated with all the annoying shoppers who bang my cart, steal the last bag of my favorite cookies as I’m reaching for it and hold up an entire line at the cash register while they go hunt down yet another item they forgot. I will steamroll my cart into one of those annoying end-of-aisle displays like a rectangular bowling ball and run out of the store screaming that this year will be the one where I finally grow a sustainable backyard garden so I’ll never need to go to the supermarket again!

While this may be a wee bit of an exaggeration (and, honestly, it’s just very wee), what I’m trying to say to you is this: If you know that something will annoy you, trigger the blues or have a negative repercussion in some other way and it’s your premenstrual week, keep in mind that plunging estrogen on these days can make this negative effect more intense.

Then consider whether it’s worth doing what you’re about to do–like skipping a meal or heading to a crowded supermarket. Or if it’s better to avoid that negativity completely so you have a happier premenstrual week.

For my own part, I got up from my computer, snacked on a low-fat granola bar with a glass of oat milk and went back to work. And no furniture was destroyed and no one’s hair got singed as a result.

 

 

Follow me
Latest posts by Gabrielle Lichterman (see all)