Are your hormones out of balance? Want to get back to feeling healthy and happy all month long? One of the most important steps we can take is to encourage healthy ovulation.
5 Simple Steps To Support Healthy Ovulation
Everyone is different depending on which hormones are out of balance and what has caused the imbalance.
But there are some ways that you can encourage a healthy menstrual cycle, no matter what the underlying concerns.
Track your cycle
Tracking your cycle can help you to see the patterns throughout the month and what might be out of balance. It seems simple, but it can make a massive difference!
Tracking can also help you to plan accordingly. For example, when you track you might find that you get tired, moody and start craving starchy carbs around day 21 of your cycle.
To tackle this, you could batch-cook some nutritious meals around day 19. That way, you’ve got meals on hand when you’re too exhausted to make them from scratch.
When you track your cycle, make sure you note:
- How you’re feeling each day
- Your energy levels
- How well you’re sleeping
- Your appetite and any cravings you have
- Mental symptoms such as brain fog, poor memory and racing thoughts
- Physical symptoms such as skin breakouts, low blood pressure and changes to your bowel movements
It is also useful to track your cervical discharge and how it changes throughout the cycle.
Take a look at your diet
Your diet can have a significant impact on your hormones. A healthy, balanced diet supports healthy ovulation.
There are two key areas to address when it comes to your diet.
Firstly, remove excess sugar, refined vegetable oils, refined fructose products and overcooked meats. These are inflammatory to the body and produce AGEs – Advanced Glycation End-Products. AGEs can damage eggs and halt ovulation.
Secondly, consider removing trigger foods such as dairy and gluten. These foods can lead to inflammation and inhibit thyroid function, particularly for those with autoimmune issues.
Boost up your progesterone levels
A healthy ovulation will lead to healthy progesterone levels. Unfortunately, there are many factors that can
One option is chaste tree – also known as Vitex. This stimulates the pituitary gland to increasing luteinising hormone, which boosts progesterone production.
Some people don’t do well on chaste tree, so monitor how you feel when using it. Do you feel brilliant and relaxed on it? Great – keep using it for up to 3 months. Feeling anxious and agitated? It might be increasing already high luteinising hormone or dopamine levels.
Another option to consider is bioidentical progesterone cream. This can boost up your levels, especially if you’re stressed out or dealing with underlying factors that sabotage progesterone production. Seek a professional’s advice if you’re interested in using a cream.
Test your hormones
The right approach to balancing your hormones depends on what your cycle is doing. Most women with ovulation issues will have a longer cycle, shorter cycle or a complete absence of ovulation.
If you have a longer cycle, there will be contributing factors such as stress and potentially PCOS. To correct this, you’ll need to identify which phase of the cycle is lengthened and why.
If you have a shorter cycle, it is likely due to excess oestrogen. To address this, you want to look at detoxifying the excess oestrogen and address root causes such as stress, MTHFR and thyroid issues.
If you have no ovulation and no period, you want to address every potential cause of the issue. This includes the diet, stress levels, thyroid function and any potential autoimmune issues.
The easiest way to know where to start with these? Get your hormone levels checked.
There are different options for hormone testing, depending on your budget and what you want to look at. To learn more about hormone testing, take a read of this article.
Optimise your nutrient levels
There are a number of nutrients that support healthy ovulation, directly and indirectly. If you want a good balance of hormones throughout your cycle, you want to ensure that you aren’t low in these critical nutrients.
- Iron – a vital co-factor for the thyroid. Low iron is common in women with hormonal issues, due to poor absorption and/or heavy losses through menstruation
- Vitamin D – research has found that vitamin D enhances ovulation and supports progesterone production
- Zinc
- Cholesterol
Your levels of these nutrients are easy to check via a blood test. This can give you an overview of what might be missing.
Some will also benefit from adding in the supplement N-acetyl cysteine, or NAC. NAC helps on a number of levels – it supports energy on a mitochondrial level and stimulates the ovarian reserve. It’s particularly useful for those with low thyroid hormone levels.
If you haven’t been ovulating, you could return to ovulating within a few months of adding NAC.
Remember to seek advice from a qualified practitioner to make sure NAC is right for your needs.
Want a guide that tells you exactly what to eat to support a healthy cycle?
I’ve created a meal plan that is designed to help balance blood sugars, support progesterone production and prevent bloating.
Grab my Hormone Support Meal Plan here.
