Can You Really Hack Your Period to Make It More Regular?

PHOTO: Stocksy

Honestly, I don't know many women who get their periods exactly every 28 days. Most people's are pretty variable. But my cycle takes irregularity to the extreme. After I went off birth control three years ago, it started coming once every three or four months tops, and it was completely unpredictable. Case in point: I got it once in January 2016, then the next was that November, followed by another in January 2017 and another that May. I'd told doctors about this, but after getting blood work and an ultrasound, everything looked fine to them, and they'd just suggest birth control to regulate things. But what if the birth control was covering up a larger issue?

Then a friend told me about FloLiving, a site full of information about menstrual health by functional nutritionist Alisa Vitti, author of WomanCode and creator of the MyFLO period-tracking app. On the site I read that Vitti offers a counseling program ($550 for three sessions or $1100 for six) to help women get to the bottom of their period problems and craft a nutrition plan and lifestyle that supports healthy hormones. I also read that an irregular period usually indicates some sort of hormonal imbalance, which in turn can be tied to many other aspects of your health, like your mood and energy levels. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists backs this up, declaring in 2015 that menstruation is the fifth vital sign for women. Curious how my well-being could improve if I regulated my period, I emailed Vitti, who agreed to give me four complimentary sessions to help me get a regular period without birth control.

After reading about all the different issues that can be tied to irregular periods on FloLiving, I began to question how healthy I really was. Sure, I could function, but I was anxious, tired, and cranky all the time. I had acne. I had trouble sleeping. I'd lived with these issues for so long, I didn't even think of them as issues. But according to reproductive endocrinologist Aimee Eyvazzadeh, M.D., these problems often indicate some sort of hormonal imbalance (as do irregular periods). So if you can fix your irregular periods, you just may end up addressing other health problems in the process.

While it's important to also go to a doctor to see if you might have a hormone disorder, Dr. Eyvazzadeh agrees with Vitti's basic premise: eating right can have a huge impact on your hormones and your period. She pointed me to research showing that diet can improve polycystic ovarian syndrome symptoms. "Most people don't realize the medicinal powers of what's sitting there in their kitchens or what's at the grocery store," she told me.

Inspired, I started working with Vitti in early July. She asked me about my medical history and eating habits, including when my first period came and what it was like, whether I ever experienced PMS, what medications I'd been on, what I tended to eat for each meal, and what my sleep schedule was like. The questions got very specific, from "What color was your last period?" to "How long did your first period last?"

As I answered these questions, Vitti began to understand why I wasn't getting a regular period. She pointed toward the fact that when I was 14, about a year after my first period, I started to develop an eating disorder. I am in recovery now, but my period never even had a chance to become regular, according to Vitti. "When your hormones are thrown off during puberty," she explained, "it can throw them off for the rest of your life if you don't make an effort to correct for the imbalances." Which I wasn't doing. My diet was far from perfect, and my sleep schedule was erratic. Dietary deficiencies, abnormal sleep schedules, and stress all release cortisol, which in turn reduces progesterone and estrogen, potentially delaying ovulation, says Kecia Gaither, M.D., an ob-gyn]. The pineal gland is involved with the menstrual cycle as well as the production of melatonin, she adds, so improper sleep can throw it off.

So we moved on to the plan. I took notes as Vitti gave me several dietary suggestions. She urged me, first and foremost, to eat at least every four hours to stabilize my blood sugar (and hence reduce cortisol), focusing on protein and healthy fats, which help stabilize blood sugar and have compounds involved in producing hormones. She even gave me a few recipes to supply those nutrients, including a protein smoothie with maca powder, scrambled eggs in coconut oil, and whole-wheat bread with hummus. There was also a sleep schedule: go to bed by 11:00 P.M. if possible (or at least by 1:00 A.M.); wear blue-light-blocking glasses if I use a computer at night; make sure there's no light in the room or coming in from the street; and try to get up by 9:00 A.M. This would help my melatonin production normalize. And she prescribed me a whole bunch of vitamins—B6 to help build the gland responsible for progesterone production, D3 to help regulate blood sugar and boost progesterone), evening primrose oil to help balance estrogen and progesterone), magnesium, which can help regulate cortisol and build estrogen and progesterone), and omega-3s, which have been linked to more regular periods). Since caffeine can increase cortisol levels, she also encouraged me to give up my daily latte or cup of black tea. (I later ran these suggestions by Dr. Eyvazzadeh, and she agreed with the logic behind them.)

After receiving Vitti's advice, I went on a huge shopping trip, getting almond butter, nuts, cheese, and avocado to increase my healthy fat and protein intake, milk and bananas to make smoothies when I woke up if I didn't want to eat, and energy bars to pack in my bag in case I couldn't find food every four hours. I also got all the vitamins she recommended, except the magnesium, which the pharmacy had to order.

Taking the vitamins and wearing blue-light-blocking glasses was easy. Eating more was not—recovery is a lifelong process, and it turned out this was still something I struggle with. My smoothies and snacks came in handy for that, but I didn't always meet the every-four-hour criterion, especially late at night when I wasn't hungry. And changing my sleep schedule was tough too. I'm a digital nomad, and at the time I was living in Europe and working a middle-of-the-night shift in my time zone. I didn't typically get off work until 3:00, 4:00 or sometimes 5:00 A.M., and then I'd sleep until noon, sabotaging my chances of eating breakfast. Giving up caffeine at least allowed me to fall sleep once work was over, though there were some days when I just couldn't function without it.

About a week in to my experiment, I went on a three-week vacation, which gave me the chance to implement the plan without so many obstacles. I also got my magnesium, which did wonders for my sleep. For the first time, my eyes were closing on their own while I read before bed. W. Christopher Winter, M.D., president of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine and author of The Sleep Solution, told me this makes sense because magnesium plays a role in melatonin production. I settled into a routine of getting to bed around one and getting up by nine or ten. Waking up earlier left me more time for three square meals and snacks. I ate nice cheeses and nut butters. With less work to do, resisting caffeine was easier. My most recent period had come the last week of June, and my next came right after this trip, during the first week of August—just five weeks after the previous one. I hadn't had two periods so close together in years.

When I got back, I tried to keep to the routine, but with my work schedule back in full throttle, I was once again staying up late and sleeping through breakfast. I did make a habit of having the daily smoothie and protein-based snacks like almond butter and crackers. But my schedule made it hard to fit in three meals on many days, since that would've meant having one late at night, when I wasn't hungry. The most I could get down then was a snack and a glass of milk. When we had our next talk in early September, I was scared Vitti would chastise me for this, but she said this was extremely common. "Eating enough to stabilize blood sugar is the hardest part of the protocol for many women," she said. But, she added, it was one of the most important, because low blood sugar can halt ovulation.

When I went on another vacation in mid-October, I made an extra effort to get on a normal sleep schedule. And since I was at a resort with meals included, I piled my plate with every kind of food, from seafood and meat to fruit and yogurt, at each meal. I got my period a week into this vacation, two and a half months after my last one. Vitti didn't think it was a coincidence that the same thing basically happened twice.

Getting my period right after vacations twice in a row made me start to believe in the power of nutrition and sleep to regulate your hormones, which motivated me to stick to my schedule of sleeping from 11 to seven in the morning and eating three meals a day with proteins and fats. After six weeks I got my period again in late November. I also noticed that I was getting less acne and experiencing fewer bouts of crankiness, and my head wasn't as foggy.

"The good news is that your body seems to be responding, so getting you on a monthly cycle should be possible," Vitti said on our next call. Since she had just come out with her own FloLiving supplements, which are designed to provide the nutrients you need for a regular period, she sent me them to take in place of my previous stash of vitamins. The five she sent—magnesium, coenzyme B complex, dairy-free probiotics, detoxification support, and omega oil blend—were similar to the ones she already recommended, and all play a role in hormone production, says Dr. Eyvazzadeh.

Vitti and I had a wrap-up call in mid-January, during which we talked about this journey's successes and shortcomings. She pointed out the obvious: that there appeared to be a relationship between how closely I adhered to the plan and how often I got my period. "This is proof of how sensitive your—and many women's—hormones are," she said. So even though my period's still not coming once a month, I now have a better sense of why. I also have more confidence that I can hack my period to make it more regular without using birth control if I don't want to. After all, the birth control really was covering up a larger issue: that my lifestyle is not one that's kind to my body. I'm thankful that this experiment made me aware of that. Your period really is a vital sign.

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