Cultivating women's hormonal health naturally

Nicole Dawson Cullinan
10 hours ago
6 min read

Part Two in my blog series on Women's health.

This blog is based on a recent presentation on women's hormonal health. I shared how to cultivate Hormonal balance with Nutrition and the role of plants as food and medicine.

Hormones may feel like they limit us, but they also have superpowers when we understand how they work and how to keep them in a flexible balance.

I am proposing that when you align your eating habits, food and nutrition with natural cycles, you also align your life, your energy, even your career… giving you more flow and ease. I will explain how you can do just this.

I'm sure we can all do with more flow and ease right now?

This blog will help you to cultivate a solid foundation for hormone balance and health built on self care and resilience, to the rhythm of our cycles.

A woman’s hormonal health story unfolds in stages and cycles, each shaped by hormones. I like to use the metaphor of the four seasons when talking about this normal and healthy hormonal life cycle. We go through four hormonal 'seasons' beginning with menarche and ending in menopause.

Which hormonal season are you in?

The cycle starts with menarche, that first period, when the body blossoms and announces it’s stepping into a new form. This is like springtime. And this phase we know as puberty.

Through our fertile years, our monthly cycles are a marker of metabolic health and influence everything from energy and motivation to mood and weight. Pregnancy is the ultimate 'stress test' for our hormones and overall physiology and the months after birth bring big hormonal swings that affect recovery, sleep, and our health and wellbeing in general. This is summer: your fertile years.

Then comes perimenopause, when cycles become unpredictable. Brain fog, hot flushes, restless nights, and stubborn weight gain often appear. This is a neuro-endocrine transition, a bit like puberty but in reverse and can also be a zone of chaos. This is Autumn- where navigating change is the new normal.

Finally, menopause itself brings a natural drop in ovarian hormones, changing how we store fat, build bone, and we start to rewire our brains for a new type of leadership and creativity. We pivot inwards conserving energy and preparing for a new phase of vitality. The focus shifts from caring for children to self care. This is winter.

But what comes next? A second spring… menopause is not an ending but part of our evolution and an opportunity to grow into and liberate the fullest authentic version of ourselves.

Seen together, these stages in our life cycle, from menarche to menopause behave as a cycle of different seasons. We aren't that different from nature which is why I love this metaphor and have used the seasons as inspiration for my book series, Wild seasons. We are very much part of nature and can be in better balance when we are aware of these cycles that connect us to the natural world.

What does it mean to SYNC or align with seasons, earth cycles and rhythms?

There are cycles - within other natural cycles.

These are the cycles, I’m talking about

Circadian rhythm - 24 hour body clock - day/night cycle
Lunar cycle - 28 days - which controls the tides, bodies of water, and can align with your menstrual cycle if you are aligned with the circadian rhythm
The four Seasons - 365 days/1 year

This is where science meets self care… I am not a dietitian or a gynaecologist but rather a bridge between medicine and complementary care and a holistic health practitioner licensed in both the Netherlands and South Africa with 25 years experience working with women and their hormones. This is what have learnt about cultivating hormonal balance naturally...

So how do we cultivate balance in such a complex system?

We give the system what it needs - optimal fuel and a suitable friendly supportive environment - and then the body can do the work of balancing. This is because our bodies contain innate wisdom that promotes rhythm and self healing.

Mother Nature is on a cycle just like we are, and for example living in alignment with the seasons of our life cycle and those outside of us, will help you to tap into her greater wisdom and cultivate more easily this ease and flow that we all desire.

We can support our hormones by aligning with nature’s rhythms through these 5 pillars of hormonal health.

Nutrition - We need balanced meals to support metabolic health in the form of both macro and micronutrients, including phyto nutrients . Learn more by watching my EAT WELL webinar. This supports our steroid hormones - how they are made, used, recycled, and eliminated. Eating a combination of Protein + Plants, watch my webinar on Plantbased Eating.
Sleep/rest - We need sufficient and appropriately timed sleep and according to life cycle needs and menstrual cycle stage. Learn more by watching my SLEEP WELL webinar.
Exercise/movement - We need daily and appropriately timed exercise and adapted to life cycle needs and menstrual cycle capacity.
Nature - We need daily contact with and immersion in the natural world. Time spent outdoors exposes us to the seasonal cycle, moon cycle, and circadian rhythm. Plants too affected by these cycles which is one of the reasons why eating plant foods can be beneficial to health.
Community - We need a village and like minded community. Feeling heard and supported releases oxytocin the bonding hormone. Even healthy levels of progesterone make us feel less alone in the world.

I want to empower you with a more connected view of hormones and how ‘cycle syncing’ can be a powerful self care tool because we are part of nature and not separate from it.

The problem we have is that our modern way of life disconnects from nature. Our modern world & mindset often dis-connects & separates us from the natural world.

I want to highlight the problem of artificial light exposure as one of the major dysregulating but modifiable influences on your hormones and menstrual cycles.

We have many hormones that play significant roles in this intricate web called hormonal balance. It is a cycle of balance, going out of balance, coming back into balance.

So how do we cultivate hormone balance naturally?

Firstly we need to recognise that hormone balance isn't static or a fixed place.

It is a cycle.

If that makes us inconsistent, then it is in our nature to be changeable and to be healthy is to need flexibility in our diets & lifestyles…and in our relationships, homes and workplaces.

Women are not broken, they are complex because of our cyclical nature. Our ability to change and transform, much like the trees in autumn, can be a gift and a superpower when we accept it for what it is and know how to nurture it.

You can start with cultivating Hormonal balance by

Understanding your hormones and how they work. Which are the good foods that make them and how protect them from toxic influences.

Track your menstrual cycle

Know where you are in the hormonal seasonal cycle

Prioritise feeding and sleep routines by syncing with the circadian rhythm

Eat seasonal produce

Eat more Plants because they are a complex cocktail of health-giving chemicals that can sync with nature’s cycles

My invitation to you is to be more aware of the cycles within cycles and this concept of SYNCING or aligning the way you live with the seasons and of course

eat more plant foods for more hormonal ease and flow.

If you want to know more about the following topics, subscribe to my newsletter and you will be the first to know about new blogs, books and events on these fascinating subjects.

Health in your Fertile years

Health in your Peri- and menopause

Your Hormones - HPATG axis going beyond oestrogen and progesterone

Your Menstrual cycle

Plant foods & seasonal nutrition for all hormonal life stages

Endocrine disruptors & xeno-oestrogens

Looking at your hormones through a female lens sees the cycle, validates the complexity of their biochemical distress and solves the often perfect storm of illness through active listening, gentle and effective guidance and natural modalities.

We need a different mind-set when looking at women’s health. And we need to recognise that a pervasive systemic bias in medicine and in our culture has blown off women's complaints and served to invalidate the normal cycle and common experiences of being human in the female form.

Discover holistic and personalised care through a female lens, using Homeopathy and Functional medicine for your hormonal and general health needs.

Until next time, take care