PSA: YOU SHOULD BIOHACK YOUR PERIOD

Clever innovations to make the most of our menstrual cycles.

IT’S QUITE THE TIME TO BE A WOMAN. We’re standing up, fighting back, making our voices heard. But the part of womanhood that is most uniquely “us” – our period – is still stuck firmly in the past. Think of the applicator tampon. The current design is almost identical to the one created back in the ’30s. The first menstrual cup was patented that same decade, but we didn’t get a silicone-based model until the early noughties. And despite creations such as period-proof underwear, which are changing the periods of the bravest among us, the culture of shame and secrecy around menstruation remains.

But new innovations are pushing us to reconsider (or actually consider for the first time) what we’ve been taught, and prescribed, when it comes to handling “that time of the month”. As the biggest consumers in the wellness industry, we women are becoming more aware, and even sceptical, of what we’re putting into our bodies --- and why. As a result, an increasing number of us are breaking up our long-term relationships with the oral contraceptive pill – still the most common form of contraception among Australian women (and for good reason: when taken as prescribed, it’s incredibly effective). We’ve discovered there’s a growing world of hormone-free alternatives at our fingertips – literally.

One of the women pioneering this field is Alisa Vitti, a women’s hormone expert and the bestselling author of Womancode: Perfect Your Cycle, Amplify Your Fertility, Supercharge You Sex Drive, And Become A Power Source. She’s spent the past 15 years exploring how we can improve our energy levels, mental clarity and general health by getting in sync with our hormones. She points out that most of the medical research on hormones is based on male data – a big issue, especially considering our bodies are wired completely differently. We operate (generally) on a 28-day hormone cycle, while a man’s is staggeringly faster. “Both nutritionaland performance-based research is predicated on the male 24-hour circadian hormonal cycle,” Vitti says. “In fact, a lot

of it comes from World War II military research on how to create more stamina with diet and physical activity for soldiers.” Our hormones are different – they ebb and flow over a much longer period, with fluctuations that require food and exercise modifications in order to fully harness their power. “You’re trying to squeeze your glorious, majestic, magnificent 28-day cycle into a 24-hour pattern. It will age you to try to play like a man and succeed on a man’s terms.”

With this knowledge, Vitti created Flo Living, an online health centre aimed at educating women about their menstrual health. She wants us to have a more comprehensive understanding of the four phases of our cycle – menstrual, follicular, ovulation, luteal – and what’s actually going on in our body during each one (she’s been dubbed the Dave Asprey of female biohacking for a reason). The results can be surprising. “For example, studies have shown that in the second half of the cycle, HIIT workouts cause fat storage and turn on muscle wasting,” says Vitti. “So here you are, going to bootcamp every day because that’s what you’re ‘supposed’ to do, and in the second half of the month you’re actually undoing all the gains you’ve made because you’re not accounting for your cyclical fluctuations.” Yes, our hormonal balance is that delicate.

Those grab-and-go biohacks can be found, conveniently, within Vitti’s periodtracking app, MYFLO. As you move through your cycle, the app offers advice on what food to eat, which workout is best and how your current hormone levels will influence your mood and behaviour. You can also sign your partner up to receive “cycle updates” via email, covering both the biological facts, such as where your oestrogen levels are at, and the real-world applications, like whether it’s a good time to bring up a point of contention or hold off until the next phase of the cycle when you’re more likely to respond with an open mind.

According to Vitti, “There isn’t enough vocabulary that describes the female experience, so we’re always borrowing terms from the guys. [Biohacking] is a perfect example of that. Your body needs no compensation, whereas men have a very limited hormonal profile. They do need caffeine, they do need nootropics [aka smart drugs]. Women don’t have that problem. We have a stronger conservation of energy mechanisms in the body, a stronger immune system and a stronger connection between the hemispheres of the brain. All we have to do is work with it, feed it the right foods and do the right activities at the right time.” It’s biohacking – which tends to be made up of aggressive, particularly “masculine” endeavours – on women’s terms.

And it’s not just periods. Even the most archaic forms of contraception, such as natural family planning, are becoming future-proof. Though the creators are hesitant to call it “biohacking” outright, the app Natural Cycles – the first of its kind to be certified as a contraceptive in the EU – satisfies women’s burgeoning interest in understanding their cycle more intuitively. “Advances in technology and AI mean we’re gaining a better, more precise understanding of women’s bodies than ever before,” says Elina Berglund, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who created the app with her husband after finding a disappointing lack of natural birth-control options available. “And this understanding will increase over time as new technologies afford a more profound understanding of health and wellbeing.”

Here’s how the app works: after subscribing (it’s about $100 and includes the proper thermometer), users take their basal body temperature (BBT) from under their tongue each morning – the BBT is the most scientifically accurate way to gauge whether you’re ovulating – and enter the reading into the app, which then determines if it’s a “green” (non-fertile) or a “red” (fertile) day (factoring in your period, cycle irregularities and sperm survival). The more data that’s entered, the more days turn green as the app becomes more in tune with your cycle (there’s only a maximum six days you can conceive each month – often fewer). It also adjusts to women who forget to enter their daily temperature, offering more red days instead. “The app gets to know each woman’s body individually so it can provide unique data and insight, which is incredibly empowering,” says Berglund. It’s a scientifically backed take on the rhythm or calendar-based method of natural family planning – the primary form of birth control among Catholic couples in the early 20th century – and now boasts more than 600,000 users in 161 countries. And while there’s been some controversy lately over the app’s effectiveness (a Swedish hospital filed a complaint after 37 women fell pregnant while using the app and subsequently sought abortions), the fact remains that, when used correctly, your chances of becoming pregnant using Natural Cycles are lower than when on the pill.

“There’s this sort of consciousness rising with women,” says Vitti. “We’re looking things squarely in the eye. We’re questioning the standard protocol.” We’re totally onboard with the use of period-tracking apps like Glow and Clue, but only now are we beginning to realise that the painful, shameful, un-fun parts of being fertile goddesses aren’t supposed to be “just part of the deal”. It may be a good excuse to stay in bed and watch Unreal, but add up the time lost dealing with your period over the course of a lifetime and things get too real. There’s never been a more powerful moment to proudly own your period, and the revolution begins with a simple app download.

“ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY MEAN WE’RE GAINING A MORE PRECISE UNDERSTANDING OF WOMEN’S BODIES THAN EVER BEFORE”