There's a lot going on in the luteal phase, but treating premenstrual mood symptoms might be simpler than you think.

In this episode, Lara discusses common drivers of hormonal mood symptoms, such as high histamine, high prolactin, and a higher requirement for sodium.

Links:

• Why progesterone is both good and bad for mood
• Identifying a link between prolactin and female pain
• My iodine article
• ADHD linked to higher risk of premenstrual dysphoric disorder

If you’ve struggled with irregular periods, you might have noticed it can be a little tricky to figure out exactly what’s going on—and, therefore, exactly what you need to do to get your period back.

In this episode, Lara discusses:

• the two most common explanations for irregular periods,
• how to tell them apart, and
• how hypothalamic amenorrhea is frequently misdiagnosed as PCOS.

Links:

• Prof Jerilynn Prior's paper about hypothalamic suppression
• PCOS cannot be diagnosed by ultrasound
• Cyclic progesterone therapy for PCOS
• Lara's metabolism book

If you’ve been diagnosed with endometriosis, the big question is: What type of lesions?

In this episode, Lara challenges long-held assumptions to explore:

• the three types of endometriosis lesions,
• emerging evidence that superficial lesions may not explain pain or other symptoms,
• alternative explanations for pelvic pain and infertility, including pelvic congestion, immune dysfunction, and gut microbiome imbalance, and
• an update on the bacterial contamination hypothesis.

Links:

• Could pelvic congestion syndrome explain your pelvic pain?
• Prevalence of endometriosis in asymptomatic women (1991 study)
• Surgical removal of superficial peritoneal endometriosis for managing women with chronic pelvic pain: time for a rethink? (2019 BJOG article)
• Bacterial contamination hypothesis (2018 paper)
• Fusobacterium infection facilitates the development of endometriosis (2023 paper)
• ANZCA 2024 Statement on pelvic pain and endometriosis