hormones Archives - Big Kids' Table

Engaged

Yes, you need boundaries in marriage too.

It is easy to think that once we’re married, we have free reign to let loose and be as sexually free as we desire. Some Christians can often think of marriage as a ‘sex on tap’ situation. However, the reality is that sex within marriage still requires consent and self-control. No, sex is not on tap in marriage! You don’t get it as much as you so desire, there’s a whole other person with opinions, desires, and values to consider – just like dating. Knowing how your body responds to your menstrual cycle allows you to communicate your needs with your spouse, not only is it helpful to understand yourself but it creates a channel

Female Health

Physical boundaries and hormones. A dynamic duo.

You may have stumbled upon videos of this 1970s psychological experiment where children had the option of having a marshmallow as an immediate reward or two marshmallows if they waited 15 minutes being alone with a single marshmallow. The study (the Stanford marshmallow experiment, if you’d like to check it out) looks at delayed gratification. I bring it up because keeping physical boundaries when oestrogen levels are through the roof, around the time of ovulation, can feel a little like being tempted with the greatest reward we could access right at that time. Women’s bodies, their hormone cycles to be specific, are geared towards fertilising the egg at the time of ovulation, so, unsurprisingly, sexual

Female Health

My sexual desire feels so hard to control, why did God make it work this way?

No matter what your journey has been up to this point, I want to bring us back to the truth that God is a graceful God whose love and mercy are never-ending. There are people whose experience around dating, physical boundaries, and sex is filled with broken-heartedness, pain, regret, and trauma and I acknowledge this may be a challenging space to sit in. Maintaining physical boundaries in dating is a challenging enough experience without even mentioning the difficulties surrounding a body full of sex hormones. Saying that we live in a hypersexualised world should not come as a surprise. The cultural messages we are exposed to suggest that sex is casual and not a big

Female Health

Why is my sexual desire so inconsistent? Are my hormones to blame?

Are you a woman who’s noticed that you become more sexually aroused during certain weeks of the month? Perhaps you struggle to understand why your libido feels so high despite being single or navigating boundaries in dating? Or perhaps you’re married and trying to figure out why some weeks all you can think about is sex, while during others being touched is the last thing you want? As women, while we are often quite familiar with our hormones in terms of our menstrual cycle, we can often shy away and blush at the thought of talking about hormones and sexual desire! However, this is a relevant and real part of the hormone cycle that few

Female Health

Periods and libido. They are more linked than you think!

As mentioned in our previous posts, there is mixed research on whether our menstrual cycle affects our sexual desire. While some studies have indicated there is little significant impact, others reflect strong changes in women’s sex drive throughout their cycle. Have you noticed this about yourself? Do you find yourself more flirtatious, getting turned on by your partner or someone you find attractive when you’re ovulating? In my experience, knowing that my hormones have this impact on my sexual desire helps me understand why I have days where I find guys more attractive than I normally would or if I start feeling aroused for no clear reason. So let’s get into the science! The two

Female Health

Tell me more, what I can do to support my mental health RIGHT NOW?

You now know that there might be a reason for those mood swings around your period, the tiredness, increased energy, changes in appetite and why you sometimes might not want anything to do with anybody. All that is well, but is there anything you can do about it while you wait for a doctor’s appointment? Yes, my friend! There is quite a lot you can do about it, actually! There are three main categories for this: Food As with the rest of our health, our mental health can benefit greatly from good nutrition. Eating a healthy diet and avoiding processed foods is helpful. Importantly, eating enough food is key, as too little food may result

Female Health

How do my hormones affect my mental health? It seems like a rollercoaster!

A quick Google of “why do I feel so angry/sad/emotional on my…” suggests that “on my period” or “before my period” are some of the most popular ways that question is entered into the search bar. I picture all the people who enter those questions in, perhaps as they are trying to understand why on earth they (or a loved one) feel as if their world is crumbling before or during menstruation. The simplest and most general explanation is that our hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, are the main culprits behind the emotional symptoms relating to menstruation. Our serotonin levels may also decrease and cause a dip in mood. Some emotional changes before or during our

Female Health

How do sex hormones affect my body?

Hair Have you heard that stress makes your hair fall out? That’s likely due to the rise in cortisol that can target and damage hair follicles, leading to hair loss. When it comes to reproductive health though, two significant events that can affect our health are pregnancy and menopause. The increase in oestrogen and progesterone during pregnancy leads to hair growth and strength, nurturing the hair and preventing hair loss. Once those hormone levels balance out post-pregnancy or decrease significantly in the case of menopause, it can lead to hair loss (Grymowicz et al., 2020). On the other side of the spectrum, we have hirsutism (excessive hair growth). This condition is often a symptom of

Female Health

Is my period normal?

Hi, my friend! If you are here it may be simply because you want to learn about the common hormonal disorders. It might also be because someone you care about experiences one of these conditions and you want to be more informed (how caring of you!). There is a chance that it may be you who is going through these symptoms (whether formally diagnosed or not). Before we go on to chat about this, I want to tell you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS. Whatever you are feeling is completely valid and there are other people walking alongside you on this journey. Sometimes, it can take up to seven years to diagnose conditions

Female Health

Forget about menstruation for a second, how do sex hormones impact other parts of my body?

If you’re over 15 years old, chances are that you’ve experienced the symptoms of puberty. You know what it feels like to have changes to your voice, hair, muscle growth, how you store fat and your skin (among many more). Most of us have been there and know what it’s like to experience all those changes and the awkwardness and even embarrassment that can come along with them. When we arrive at the other side of puberty, we tend to think we don’t need to worry about how our reproductive hormones affect our physical health until well…we want to have biological kids of our own, or if something goes wrong with our health. However, our

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