Disclaimer: In this piece, the words female and woman refer to people with a menstrual cycle. A menstrual cycle does not determine if you are a female/woman. I feel this post can be best understood by using the words female and woman.

I am so tired is a phrase that constantly rolls through my mind. I really struggle to find the root of the tiredness. I know that your energy levels correlate with your diet, so I primarily cook for myself. For the most part, I eat my share of whole foods, including raw fruits and vegetables, plenty of healthy fats (specifically walnuts and avocados), whole grains, and a variety of protein sources (free roam, no hormone, pasture-raised chickens and chickpeas). No matter how much I improve the quality of my food or diet, I am still so tired.

If you were my doctor, you would ask what my exercise routine looks like. I get at least one hour of “activity” daily, but generally a lot more than that. I usually do 20 minutes of yoga in the morning and take a walk at some point during my workday. I have a night job at a restaurant that involves constant standing and movement on my feet, so 4 to 5 days a week, I am there for 6 hours continuously walking. On the two days that I do not work my second job, I go for a run. I would say that I get plenty of activity.

The final thing that a doctor would look at is your sleeping habits. Reflecting on my current schedule for the summer, I get up around 6 to 6:20 am, and due to my second job, I generally go to bed around midnight. Six hours of sleep is not ideal; however, it is enough to sustain myself. I do hybrid work twice a week, allowing me to get an extra hour here and there.

Looking at my daily life, you would not think I am constantly tired, but our general education system does not focus enough on explaining how hormones significantly impact alertness, mood, temperament, and general well-being. Since our current system, of course, is based on how a man functions, women are expected to be able to fit the same criteria. We are told that if a man can do it, you can do it, too, but that is not realistic.

The male hormone cycle resets every 24 hours. As seen above, men have a spike in testosterone in the morning (the spike decreases with age). The testosterone gives men energy and alertness to start their day. Throughout the day, the level of testosterone decreases, reducing energy. This cycle then resets every single day.

On the other hand, women experience a hormone cycle that is directly linked to their menstrual cycle. The cycle resets around every 28 to 35 days with the start of menstruation. If you look at the graph above, the hormones start low during menstruation, causing feelings of fatigue and tiredness. After, estrogen begins to rise, slowly increasing energy. Estrogen peaks (along with LH and FSH) during or right before ovulation and stays high for a few days. In tandem, these hormones enable high energy and confidence. Estrogen will fall as progesterone rises, but estrogen will generally have one last spike to give the body energy. Then, it will fall, giving way for progesterone to take hold. Progesterone is what will lead to any premenstrual symptoms (PMS) a woman experiences, such as mood swings, tiredness, irritability, etc. Finally, all the hormones will level out, leading to menstruation again. If that was confusing to you, you are not alone. Women who menstruate are not taught about their hormone cycles, and in general, menstruation is taboo.

Due to my constant tiredness, I searched the internet for answers other than diet, exercise, and sleep, which led me to learn about my hormone cycle. I would say that I am pretty in tune with my body, but I did not realize that practically every week, there are specific workouts and activities that I should be practicing during the different phases. It really clicked for me when I learned about cycle syncing. I had been working against myself my entire life, which caused a lot of unnecessary hardship. I fully believe this is because the world has focused on men for so long. They do not want women to thrive. Honestly, I am lucky to even be able to write that sentence. Women suffer so profoundly, thinking that there is something psychologically wrong when, most often, they do not understand how to work with their hormones. Instead of doctors educating women on their hormonal cycle, they give them birth control, which disrupts the cycle even more and even better, when they decide to come off birth control, their body goes through a detox period where it must relearn its own hormone cycle and how to produce enough of the hormones because it had been pumped with artificial hormones that did the job for it. This can cause worse mental health issues, extreme weight gain, and a major reduction in overall well-being.

It makes me so upset to know that doctors are not pushed to educate their patients on the hormone cycle, and sometimes, the doctor does not even know about it. Women have been in the shadows for so long as men built a world meant for them. Women had to pretend to fit in, causing mental and physical hardship. Now, it is up to each individual woman to learn about their hormone cycle if they want to or suffer silently because these men do not care about us. Instead, they will tell you that if you wanted to, you would, but I want to and just physically cannot. I am tired, and I must accept it. My body does not get the glory of receiving a constant spike in testosterone to get me through the day. I must instead bleed, prevent unwanted pregnancies, and PMS every single month. I then get to look forward to menopause, where my hormones start doing backflips, upsetting my entire life.

Just the joys of being a woman in a man’s world.

Thank you for reading, and please, as a woman, learn about your hormones so that you can do more than survive. If you are a man and love the women in your life, educate yourself so you can support your queen.