Your cravings and mood shifts are information. Chocolate at 10pm? Salt spiral three days before your period? Uncontrolled appetite during the ups and downs of perimenopause? Read on...
🩸 If you're still cycling
The week after your period, estrogen rises and serotonin follows. Then ovulation occurs marking a brief hormonal peak where estrogen surges and many women feel their sharpest, most energetic, most themselves. What comes next is the luteal phase: progesterone rises to prepare the body for a potential pregnancy, then drops sharply when pregnancy doesn't occur. That drop is the premenstrual window. Cortisol becomes more reactive (you may feel more anxious) and serotonin falls. You may notice you crave more carbs, which aren’t bad, just pick good options like sweet potatoes. The moodiness around day 24 also isn’t random. It’s from progesterone withdrawal.
Follow: @the.hormone.dietitian — Melissa Azzaro is a registered dietitian who cuts through the noise on hormones, metabolism, and cycle nutrition. No-nonsense, evidence-based, and one of the clearer voices on why what you eat and when you eat it hits differently depending on where you are in your cycle.
Try: Seed DS-01 Daily Synbiotic is a woman-founded company focused on gut health and its connection to hormonal health. Serotonin is largely produced in the gut so supporting your microbiome supports the whole system.
The Lādē Pops Menstruation formula was built for the days when progesterone has dropped and your nervous system needs a little support. With botanicals traditionally used to support mood through the luteal phase, CBD for the oncoming cramps – all in a format that works right where it’s needed.
🌀 If you're in the middle
The pattern you spent years learning has, unfortunately, become less reliable in perimenopause. Estrogen no longer follows a consistent schedule: some months it spikes, some months it crashes. And your serotonin, cortisol, and insulin responses shift with it. This can result in cravings that feel more intense and less tied to a specific point in your cycle because your cycle is no longer consistent. The anxiety and sleep disruption that often arrive together in perimenopause are tied to cortisol and estrogen. When one destabilizes, the other follows.
Follow: @heatherhirschmd Dr. Heather Hirsch is one of the clearest clinical voices on perimenopause because she focuses on specific, evidence-based approaches and is refreshingly uninterested in the extreme approaches that dominate this space. Follow for the kind of information you need, because your doctor probably won’t have it.
Try: Ashwagandha in its KSM-66 form, one of the most clinically studied adaptogens for cortisol regulation. This is important in perimenopause when cortisol and estrogen are pulling against each other. Momentous and Thorne both make clean versions worth trying.
The Lādē Pops Perimenopause formula is for where you've been and where you're going. The tin has five Menstruation suppositories for the months your cycle still shows up, and five Menopause suppositories for the “in-between” time when mood, libido or increasing dryness have you struggling.
🔥 If you're in the fire years
Estrogen has settled into its new lower baseline and serotonin production is lower as a result. Because your insulin sensitivity has shifted, the cravings you experience now are less cyclical and more steady-state. For women on HRT, estrogen partially restores the serotonin connection, which is one reason many women report mood stabilization alongside the better-known physical benefits. For women not on HRT, recalibration is possible through other means. We'll have a full perspective on the HRT conversation in a future issue because it’s so nuanced and personal.
Follow: @tim.spector Professor of Epidemiology at King's College London and one of the world's most-cited nutrition scientists. His research on the gut microbiome and how individual bodies respond differently to the same foods is some of the most practically useful science available. His feed translates sometimes overwhelming information without dumbing it down. The Zoe app was built on his work.
Try: A continuous glucose monitor for one month. Brands like Levels or Nutrisense offer short-term programs. Seeing your blood sugar response to food in real time is one of the most clarifying things a postmenopausal woman can do.
The Lādē Pops Menopause formula with broad-spectrum CBD and Black Cohosh works with your body as it recalibrates without estrogen's help. Sleep, mood, tissue support.