Babbling About: Why You Feel Like A Different Person Each Week

#217: You wake up at 3 a.m. again. One week you feel sharp, social, and driven, and the next week you’re tired, irritable, and stuck in your head. If you’ve ever wondered, “Why do I feel like a completely different person every week?” We’re putting language to that experience and grounding it in hormone health, sleep, and the real-world messiness of being cyclical.

We start with insomnia and cortisol, the stress and alert hormone that’s supposed to stay low at night and rise closer to morning. When cortisol spikes too early, you can end up wired but tired and stuck in those middle-of-the-night wake-ups. From there, we zoom out to hormone testing and why a single blood draw can miss the bigger picture. Cycle mapping (tracking hormone metabolites across the full menstrual cycle) helps us see the whole curve instead of one snapshot, which matters when your labs are “normal” but you still don’t feel like yourself.

Then we walk through the four phases of the menstrual cycle in plain language: follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual. We talk estrogen peaks, progesterone as a grounding hormone, why hormone ratios can change how a phase feels, and how you can be cycling on schedule yet still not be at your optimal levels. We also name the taboo that keeps so many people quiet, and why tracking your patterns is a form of self-respect, not obsession.

If you want clearer answers about mood swings, fatigue, hot-at-night sleep, and perimenopause-style symptoms, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Why Mood And Energy Swing

Johnna 0:00

What is up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Babbles Nonsense podcast. Thank you for hanging in there for the past three weeks where we talked about dopamine. But this week I want to shift gears a little bit because I want to talk about something I feel a lot of women experience but don't really have the language for, or maybe don't really want to talk about it because that's what we've been conditioned to do. And it's that feeling of why do I feel like a completely different person every week? Like one week we may feel clearer, more focused, more motivated. Our body may feel good in the moment. Maybe we feel productive. And then the very next week, we might be more tired, more sensitive, more in our head about things. And we're sitting over here thinking, what is wrong with me? And I'm here to tell you nothing because we are going to jump into hormones. I am in no way an expert on this, but I kind of did a little research for some more testing that I did more on that later. So we're gonna jump in and dive into hormones. So, like I was saying in the introduction, I have been doing some testing lately, mostly because I've had insomnia, which I've talked about a little bit on the podcast, and it's still kind of ongoing, but it's hit or miss. It's slowly getting better. Um, so a few things that can cause insomnia, right? Like cortisol, which is your stress hormone, um, just hormones in general, like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, um, and then also dopamine, things that are keeping you that quote, wired but tired um feeling. So I did the cortisol testing, which I revealed on the podcast that my cortisol was spiking super high at that two or three o'clock in the morning um time frame, which is when you're supposed to get your REM sleep, and then cortisol is supposed to spike a little later in the morning so that you wake up, um, which is predominantly why I've been having these wake-ups. And then cortisol can spike for several different reasons. So, like your cortisol can spike because of stress, um, imbalance of hormones, thyroid, um, your sugars dropping or getting too high. It's just basically your alert hormone, like right, like survive. So wake up and survive. Um, but I also then did the the genetic testing for um like psych psychiatric, psychotropic ADHD medications, um, mostly to see what my response to dopamine and serotonin was, and that's the way you can um kind of look and see how it responds to certain medications um and kind of go from there with that. And then I also did a cycle mapping test where it's testing urine to test um throughout your entire cycle to kind of see if your labs are falling the way they're supposed to, if they're supposed to be on that bell curve. And the the reason why I did these testing is because serum testing, which is blood testing, does give you a snapshot. But if you think about it, it only gives you one snapshot at a time. And when we're doing these other things, like, well, the DNA test is just your DNA. Um, but like cycle mapping, like you can go for sure to the lab and get your blood drawn for progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone, but it's only giving you that one moment in time. So you don't know if they're rising and falling like they should, more so the progesterone and um estrogen for the female hormones, because you can take the testosterone test at any time. And I just wanted to know because I was like, something is off, like I'm I'm 38 this year. I was like, something just feels off with me with all my insomnia, my blah moods, and whatnot. And so sure enough, the cycle map revealed like I am having that bell curve. And if you don't know what a bell curve is, it's literally just the shape of a bell, so it's steadily going up, and then it hits a peak, and then it steadily goes down. Um, and it's more of a bell at the top versus a like a V shape. And so there's optimal levels versus normal levels, and normal levels would be you fall within the quote unquote normal range. And then optimal levels is where you're optimal for your age. I don't know if anyone knows this, but when we do the serum testing, the blood testing, and don't quote me exactly on this because I'm sure I'm gonna mess up on the numbers, but the range that you get, for example, I'm sure everybody knows what a white blood cell count is. Um, they draw it on a CBC when you get sick, or maybe you have a UTI or whatever, and we need to know if you have, you know, infection going on. So the range that they have on there is what's called the normal range. So you can be below the normal range or you can be above it, and we know it's kind of out of sync. But then there is optimal levels within that range for your age group, because that range that they give you is anyone from aged, I th I want to say it's um 18 to 99. So we don't want our levels as a 99-year-old, but we also don't want them as an 18-year-old if we're not that age. So just a little background for that. And so we all know that our hormones are supposed to fluctuate, and that's a normal response that your body's doing because that's that's why I wanted to do the cycle map to see the fluctuations throughout the month and to see if they were hitting optimal levels for me and myself. Um, and the degree and quality of the fluctuations that happen, that is where these things can get off. That is where we can start having symptoms. And then again, if we just go get that blood test and it says, oh, you're in the right range for that time of the month, whether that be your ovulatory, follicular, or luteal phase, there's no way to know is it hitting the peak that it should be hitting to determine if that's what's causing your symptoms or not. Unless we're like, unless you go get your blood drawn every single day for 30 days or however long your cycle is, then really it there it's really hard to determine. And of course, as always, insurance does not pay for these extra testing. I personally don't know why, but they don't. But anyways, going back to these symptoms, so I've been having just almost like perimenopausal symptoms, like my cycle is kind of getting farther apart. Um, I've been having the insomnia, I get really hot at night, my mood switches from irritability to just blah to just I'm fine. And so I was just like, I just want to know because I also think it's not the best in our society that we don't start testing hormones way earlier because people are like, oh no, that's not gonna happen until your late 40s, 50s, when really research has shown that a lot of people start showing more signs, like whether it be perimenopausal or start having psycho issues in their early 30s or as early as their early 30s, is what I should say. And when we start having these symptoms, whether you know, depending on the degree of severity that we have them, I think that women kind of are taught two different extremes. If they go to their doctor and, like, hey, here's all these symptoms I'm having. You're either gonna get one response that's like, oh, you're fine, this is normal, you fall in the normal range, or you're too young for that to happen to you. Or you may get on the flip side of that, your second response may be, you know, your hormones are completely imbalanced. And I do think there's a difference there. Like, I think you have to go to a doctor that really either specializes in hormones or really cares about hormones to kind of get that second response. But the reality of it is, is there's this huge gray area in the middle. So, like, we can be cycling, we can be ovulating, and we can have all the right phases going on, the luteal, follicular, ovulatory phase, and still not feel or be at our best. So, this is where I kind of want to get a little bit more detailed and somewhat introduce something that changed the way I started looking at hormones completely, and that's your cycle isn't just about whether your hormones rise and fall. It's more about like how high they rise and how well they fall, kind of like going back to that bell curve that I was telling y'all, and how your body responds to those shifts in between. Because on paper, again, like I said, I'm gonna keep reiterating this. We can look quote unquote in that normal range, but in real life, having symptoms that fit a lower range hormone level, that means we're probably not feeling our optimal, and we probably are not optimal on the lap values. So let's walk through this in a way that can kind of actually make sense and kind of just, you know, take it down a notch from all the scientific stuff. Because like, even though, guys, I will say, even though I'm medical, like I didn't learn about hormones. And I know a lot of doctors, I'm not saying they don't know about hormones, but like sometimes there's certain things that it's like, hey, just go to the specialist, and that's what I'll say about that. So if you didn't know, which I'm sure you all know, we have four phases in our cycle. Um, and yes, they should or could be very predictable where you are in the cycle, but what most people don't talk about is the quality of each of these phases that matter just as much as the phase itself. And I'm sure we've all heard quality over quantity. So that's what we're looking for here is like what's the quality of each phase of your cycle to make it your optimal best? All right, so we're gonna kind of dive on in to the four phases of our cycle, which is follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual phase. And we're gonna start with the follicular phase. So during that follicular phase, the estrogen is supposed to rise, and we should feel more clear, more motivated, more energized. And if that estrogen rise becomes weak or is weak, we may not feel that full shift. We may feel like we're not really ourselves in that moment. And then we go to the ovulation phase, which is supposed to be the peak of our cycle, and this is where estrogen is at its highest. This is where we get the feeling of confidence, energy. And then if we're not hitting that peak of estrogen and it's not actually going as high as it's supposed to be, we can still be ovulating and our body can still be doing what it's supposed to do, but we're not gonna get the full effect of that estrogen. We're not gonna get that strong sense of clarity, that drive, that vitality that you feel if all your hormones are optimized. Then we switch to the luteal phase, and this is where your progesterone rises. And ideally, this should feel more of like your grounding. Um, my friend calls it the anti-anxiety hormone, like your natural anti-anxiety hormone. It's supposed to make you feel very stable. But if your progesterone is low or not strong enough relative to your estrogen, because I've recently learned that it matters on the progesterone, sorry, progesterone and estrogen ratios, that your luteal face can feel completely different than what it should for you. You may feel more emotional, more reactive, more restless. So now instead of feeling like you're flowing through your cycle, you feel like you're dragging yourself through it. And that is what I see very often that women talk about. Like, again, not a hormone expert, but the more I read about it and talk about it with my friends, it's just the more I see in women. And we we we should just learn to talk about it because we're not going through these symptoms alone. And then we have to just realize, like, ask for the testing, and then know that if you're having these symptoms and it's not rising and falling the way that it should, is that our bodies are just not operating at optimal hormone levels. And this is why understanding your cycle can become very powerful or getting testing, like, I mean, sure, the serum is fine if that's what you can do, but like getting a cycle map and just learning about it and being aware and educated about your cycle. And again, I don't know why society has made it so taboo to not talk about it. I I was thinking about this the other day. Like, I know when I was growing up, we were taught like hide your pads, hide your tampons. You don't want anyone to know you're on your cycle. It's so embarrassing. And it's like, why? Like, this is what women have to do to prepare their bodies for a baby. This is natural. We can't control it, we can't help it. So why are we embarrassed by it? And I think it's just we're not supposed to talk about it. If we want to get really technical, like going through Bible study with my friend, like way back in the old testament, being on your menstrual cycle meant that you were unclean. And so it's it's it's just been passed down through generations that we just don't talk about it. And I think the more that we do talk about it as women, even educating men, because some are going to be a father to a daughter someday, and just having that education and just knowing kind of makes it more normalized and makes the um embarrassment go away. And it also just lets you know when to seek help from your physician, your doctor, your functional medicine, whoever you're going to to see. And sorry about that, got off on a tangent per usual. But going back to why understanding your cycle becomes so powerful, and that's because when we start tracking our patterns of the phases within the cycle, we can start to notice things like do I feel a shift here, but it's very subtle. Do I feel a dip here, but it's stronger than it should be? I'm technically following the pattern, but something still feels off. I still feel symptomatic. But again, in order to do that, we have to understand the normal symptoms in the phases of the cycle. And I've I truly feel like that really matters because our body is still communicating with us all the time. Sometimes I think we just don't listen because we're in this hustle-bustle of go with life. And sometimes it's not just screaming or it's not whispering at you. But if you ignore those whispers long enough, then that's when things can start to feel louder over time. So this is what I want women to understand. And obviously, men too, if you're listening, you don't have to wait until something is clinically wrong to pay attention to it. Like you don't have to wait till you're fully symptomatic. We can be proactive in this and we can be aware. We can notice when we're not functioning at our best. And if your physician or whoever you see comes back to you and says your labs came back, quote unquote, normal, that's when we have to know that there are other testing. Also, there's the optimal levels within the normal range. And so I really encourage you to seek medical care through physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians' assistants, um, whoever it is that you see who operates in an optimal range for your body and listens to your symptoms and doesn't just look at your labs and say, well, everything's fine. But on the flip side of that, that does not mean that we go into panic mode. It just means that we need to get a little bit more curious. We need to start asking, how is my energy across my cycle? How is my mood? What about my sleep? What about my focus? Because our cycle is truly a reflection of that internal environment that we're feeling. And when we start to understand our personal patterns, then we can stop guessing and we can kind of be in tune a little bit more with our body. We can stop labeling ourselves inconsistent and we can start recognizing, like, hey, this is just my baseline, but I want it to be better. I want it to be improved, I want it to be optimized. And that's gonna look very different for every different person. Everyone's labs, even if you fall within the normal range, some people are gonna feel better when they're on the lower end of the range, and some are gonna feel better when they're on the higher. So that's why it's very important to seek that medical guidance from someone who listens to you, asks what your symptoms are, and see if there's any room for improvement within a range. And that altogether is just a very different place to start operating from. So if there's one thing that I want you to take away from this episode, is that your hormones are not supposed to feel chaotic. Um, they're not supposed to feel like it's overwhelming. I know it is, trust me, it overwhelms me, and I'm in the in the medical field. Um, but they're supposed to feel rhythmic and we're supposed to be in tune with them. And I think once we truly understand that difference, we can start to take our power back and be more in tune with ourselves. And it's not to like try to control every hormone and try to control every symptom, but it's truly by actually understanding what our body is doing in that moment so that we have a clearer picture of why we're responding the way we respond or feel the way that we feel. Because how we feel today will not be how we feel next week. Pretty much, probably guaranteed. But maybe you do. And I don't think that that means that we're unstable. It just means that we are human. So if there's one takeaway from this episode, it's this. I want you to start paying attention, track your cycle. I mean, obviously not obsessively, but start learning how to track your cycle and do it just enough to understand your patterns and your symptoms because awareness creates clarity and then clarity changes everything for us. And we have to remember that we are not broken, we are not inconsistent, we are cyclical human beings. And once we understand that, we start to work with our body instead of against it. And that's where things actually start to feel better for us. So I hope y'all kind of went through that journey with me and I explained it well because again, I am 1000% not a hormone expert, but it's something that I am trying to educate myself on more these days, and I wish I would have done it at an earlier age. But, anyways, I will end it there. Until next time, guys, bye.