What’s Going On?
Check out the graph above to see what happens during each phase.
Menstruation: Low Estrogen and progesterone levels signal the body to start shedding the built-up blood and uterine lining
Follicular: Estrogen, FSH, and LH all increase during follicular and peak at ovulation.
Ovulation: Your body naturally ovulates.
The corpus luteum (the follicle where the egg came from) tells your body to start producing progesterone to make the womb a nice, welcoming place for a baby to implant.
Luteal: During the luteal phase, estrogen falls to a moderate level and progesterone rises, causing the uterine lining to build up.
Estrogen and progesterone fall sharply before menstruation.
If you would like to optimize hormone health through life style choices, movement, and nutrition, check out our guide.
Have you ever wondered why you think or feel differently during your cycle? Throughout your cycle, progesterone, estrogen, and luteinizing hormones (LH) all surge and fall, impacting your moods, appetite, and energy.[1]
Girls
In women, Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) stimulates the growth of ovarian follicles in the ovary before the release of an egg (ovulation). It also signals the body to increase oestradiol production.[2] Your reproductive hormones change your body’s internal chemistry, which can and will affect how you think and feel.
Guys
In men, the Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) acts on the Sertoli cells of the testes to stimulate sperm production (spermatogenesis).[3] So, adult males are hormonally consistent from day to day. During puberty, guys can have mood swings, but they don’t fluctuate cyclically like a women’s does during her cycle.
Women Are Not Small Men,
Ted Talk by Stacy Sims
What’s Going On with Hormonal Contraception?
When discussing the hormone cycle, it’s important to understand the difference between your natural cycle and the hormonal shifts your body experiences when using hormonal contraception or birth control.
Week of Menstrual
The placebo week, for those contraceptive methods that have one, mimics menstruation but is actually caused by hormone withdrawal.[4]
Weeks of Follicular, Ovulatory, and Luteal
Continuous release of synthetic progesterone and estrogen prevents the natural fluctuation of hormones and ovulation. It’s a bit like continually being in the middle of the luteal phase, but with a high risk of developing anxiety and depression. [5,6]
The constant, relatively low levels of progesterone and estrogen do not cause the endometrium to build up like it does in the luteal phase.[7]
To learn more about hormonal contraception and its side effects, visit: www.j4gmagazine.com/contraception-consequences.
STOP
Be Empowered: Taking Charge of Your Hormonal Health
1. Optimize Your Hormone Health: Learn more about what nutrition, movement, and lifestyle choices you can make to optimize your hormonal health.
2. Learn More About the Effects of Contraceptives
3. Talk to a trusted women’s healthy physician or specialist. Debilitating pain and nausea during menstruation are not normal or healthy and there are natural ways to improve these conditions.
If the doctor recommends hormonal contraception, you can say no! There are natural options that may work for you. You have the information and the tools to say that hormonal contraception isn’t what’s best for your body and that you want something good for your natural cycle
Check out the Sources:
1. “Hormones.” You and Your Hormones, https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/. Accessed 20 February 2026.
2. “Follicle Stimulating Hormone.” You and Your Hormones, https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/follicle-stimulating-hormone/. Accessed 20 February 2026.
3. Ibid.
4. Moriarty, Cassondra. “Does birth control trick your body into thinking it’s pregnant… or in menopause?” Natural Womanhood, 16 July 2021, https://naturalwomanhood.org/birth-control-contraception-tricks-your-body-into-thinking-its-pregnant/. Accessed 20 February 2026.
5. Mengelkoch, Summer, et al. “Hormonal contraceptive use is associated with differences in women’s inflammatory and psychological reactivity to an acute social stressor.” Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, vol. 115, January 2024, pp. 747-757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.10.033.
6. “Depression.” Natural Womanhood, updated 26 April 2024. https://naturalwomanhood.org/topic/depression/. Accessed 20 February 2026.
7. Moriarty, Cassondra. “Does birth control trick your body into thinking it’s pregnant… or in menopause?” Natural Womanhood, 16 July 2021, https://naturalwomanhood.org/birth-control-contraception-tricks-your-body-into-thinking-its-pregnant/. Accessed 20 February 2026.