In the past few months, we have spoken a lot about how our femininity can impact on aspects of our lives. From the added burden some of us felt during the early days of lockdown, to the mental toll motherhood can have on us.
But have we ever considered that the way we live our modern lives is not taking enough notice of us as female and can actually be having a negative effect on our physical well-being?
One woman who thinks just that is nutritionist Jodie Brandman.
Jodie began her career working in psychology, in hospitals helping those with eating disorders and self-harm issues, but at this point, she felt something was up with the system. The way these women were being treated was not holistic.
'The solution would be to eat cake, drink coke, and take pills. This just didn't sit well with me.
I was disillusioned with the medical model. So I did a course in macrobiotics. Then I did a nutritional therapy diploma and took it from there."
In her work as a nutritionist, Jodie noticed that the women who really listened to what she was advising were the ones who were having trouble conceiving, and that began her focus on fertility and period health.
"Every month as women we are amazing. Our period gives us insight into our health. Imbalanced, painful periods are not normal. They let us know if things are out of balance. There is an ebb and flow to our cycle that gives us the opportunity to look inward and reflect on what is normal.
But pain, anger, irregularity, mood swings - these things are not normal and we can look to improve things"
So many of the conditions that we suffer from can be attributable to hormonal imbalance. Common imbalances include too much estrogen, not enough progesterone. Secondary infertility is more common due to stress and thyroid underactivity. While, an imbalance in testosterone can lead to PCOS.
So I think I speak for all women when I say that Jodie's message that we need not be hostage to our hormones is good news. But how? What is the holy grail of hormones that will get us on track?
Unsurprisingly its not that complicated, and boils down to Jodie's four pillars of good health.
Balancing your blood sugar through diet, eating the right food right time.
Deep nourishment, ensuring you are getting the food, minerals, and vitamins you need in your diet.
Managing your stress response, as well as your mindset, creativity, sleep hygiene. And exploring pathways of eliminations such as the gut and liver to remove excess hormones.
Much of the above can be achieved by lifestyle changes, nutritional support, with some small medical interventions.
And it's these changes in lifestyle that Jodie is hoping to support via her new Female Health Hub. An online platform designed to help women really understand their bodies. Taking Jodie's five years of experience and condensing it down in to easy to watch master classes where people can learn all about their bodies from the comfort of their own home without having to work one to one with a nutritionist. You also have access to a private Facebook group for further support.
"It's ideal if you are busy and in need of support and recipe ideas, to make the health changes needed accessible to all. "
One of Jodie's overarching messages comes back to my opening point about our modern lifestyles. Jodie is one of many women I have spoken to recently who are going against the grain and saying, listen, we are women and we need to listen to our bodies as such. Rather than fighting to have it all, Jodie is suggesting we listen to our feminine energy and respect our womanhood.
"We are not tuning in to our bodies, to the ebb and flow of our health. We should be listening to ourselves and taking rest. We can’t do that if we try to keep up with men. Our bodies are not the same as men and we need to celebrate that. We have feminine energy. Why do we have to push it down? Its a caring loving, energy -why is it second rate?"
This message really resonates with me, and while I can understand the backlash Jodie gets for this message in some circles - I can see her point. We are women, we have a physiology that needs to be understood and worked with if we are to live our healthiest lives. And I applaud voices such as Jodie for speaking out and giving us permission, as women, to celebrate this.
If you want to work one to one with Jodie check out her website www.jodiebrandman.com and you can find out more about her amazing Female Health Hub here.