Barrow upon Soar now has a Hormone Café thanks to one woman putting her hand up and asking if there was a support group for local women to come together and support each other. I heard ‘the call’ and Emily Ballard and I got together to create a Facebook group: Barrow Hormone Café and hosted our first in-person gathering this August. At the time of writing, we have 95 members in ‘the pride’ and all are welcome. Simply ‘join us’ via the Facebook page or contact Emily or me by email: menopauserockstar@gmail.com (Mairi) or eballard38@gmail.com (Emily).

Our September meetings are on Monday 19th between 10am and 12 noon and Wednesday 29th 7pm to 9pm. You can book via my email (above), so come along and join us.

Many women feel isolated and disempowered at this time of life when they notice changes to their body, mind and spirit and feel they have nowhere to go, or no one to talk to other than their GP or other lost women. Communication and connection are vital for women’s health, after all we were the ones who sat around the fires or shared the gathering of fruits and nuts, sharing wisdom and stories, whilst the men went hunting – YES, I know times have changed, but at our essence connection and community are still vital to our wellbeing. There’s a reason why women in the ‘Blue Zone’ (when you may be feeling down, sad, sick, tired or bored) live so long without the need for any medical intervention – it’s not just their diet but their community and place of respect in their families. This is why we created the Hormone Café as a safe place to come and be seen, heard and held – our own local pride.

“It was an extremely interesting and informative evening, thank you to both Emily and Mairi. I learnt so much generally and it has reframed my idea of this change of life and how I prepare myself and manage the symptoms along the way.”

“A fascinating evening at the Hormone Café – great to have free-flowing conversation about such a range of topics Thanks for organising, look forward to the next one!”

Our September meetings are focusing on Period Power, taking a look in more detail at the menstrual cycle – the energy and needs of all of the phases so that you can harness this cyclical living better. This topic is relevant to women of all ages as this energy stays within your body long after your periods cease. It’s also important information to share with daughters, nieces, granddaughters, sisters, basically anyone who has a menstrual cycle.

If over the summer you followed the triumphant win of The Lionesses at the Euros and then the Hockey Team win at the Commonwealth Games, I can guarantee that Period Power will have played a part in their game strategy – it certainly did in 2016 and for the American World Cup Soccer team.

There are four (and in some schools of thought five) phases to the menstrual cycle and each one of them brings a different energy, nutritional and training needs.

During menstruation it’s time for rest and replenishment, tuning in and reflecting. Time for R&R as well as stretching and walking and as you move towards the end of bleeding begin to ramp up your activity according to how you are feeling.

After menstruation your energy rises and late week 1 and week 2 try something new to take you out of your comfort zone when you have the energy for more challenging workouts. This is the best time for high energy, masculine energy, competition and increased training load / intensity – look at strength and agility but be aware of risk taking due to high testosterone in all areas of life! It’s time to push your training and you should see lots of improvement if you’re well-nourished and getting good sleep.

During ovulation, energy levels are at their maximum so you are primed to take on more strenuous and high impact exercise and group settings are great to work in right now.

During the first part of the second half of your cycle your energy may still be high so continue with more strenuous activities, as long as you are recovering well.

Then scale back in the last five days with activities such as walking, Pilates or yoga. You may experience more water retention so choose exercise with less resistance. This may be a good time to focus on your training details, sports psychology, intuition, reading the competition and strategies (if competing), problem solving and training details, ready to rest and complete the cycle again.

Please remember every woman’s cycle will be unique to her and the above are simply guidelines for you to tune in to, so that you too can feel like a lioness

Mairi Taylor