Women Don’t Run on a 24-Hour Clock: Understanding Your 28 Day Cycle and Hormonal Rhythm

A holistic guide to your hormonal cycle (+ homeopathic support)

Most modern health advice is built around the male 24-hour hormonal cycle: stable energy, predictable cortisol, and a body that resets every morning.

Women? We simply do not work that way.

If you are a menstruating woman, your body follows a roughly 28 day cycle. A hormonal rhythm (longer or shorter for some) with natural rises and dips in energy, mood, appetite, sensitivity, libido, and stress tolerance.

This is not a flaw, it's biology. And when you understand the rhythm of your cycle, everything starts to make sense:

• Why some days you feel superhuman

• Why some days everything feels “too much”

• Why your stress tolerance changes week to week

• Why the same workout feels easy one week and impossible the next

• Why cold plunges, fasting, or HIIT can feel amazing in one phase and utterly wrong in another

Working with your cycle, not against it, is one of the most grounding things you can do for hormonal health. Holistic support respects the whole pattern, not just the symptom of the day. Read on for a woman-centred walkthrough of each phase, how it may feel, and gentle ways you can support yourself, plus an overview of some homeopathic remedies often considered in hormonal patterns.

🌸 Understanding the Rhythms of the 28 Day Cycle

(Cycles vary. “Days” are approximate and your rhythm might be shorter, longer, or irregular.)

🌒 Menstrual Phase (Days 1–5): Release and Reset

This is the body’s natural exhale.Hormone levels are at their lowest, and many women notice:

• Lower physical energy

• Deeper emotions or introspection

• A desire for warmth, comfort and quiet

• Less tolerance for noise, pressure or multitasking

• A sense of “starting again” once the bleed begins

Some feel crampy, fragile, or exhausted. Others feel oddly clear and relieved.

Holistic support ideas:

• Prioritise rest where you can

• Warmth (hot water bottles, socks, baths)

• Mineral-rich foods, broths, stews

• Gentle walking or stretching instead of pushing performance

• Journaling, reflection, slowing social commitments

This is your reset window, not a time you have to be productive in the same way as the rest of the month.

🌓 Follicular Phase (Days 6–12): Rebuilding and Rising

Oestrogen begins to rise and the body shifts into rebuild mode. This often brings:

• Clearer thinking

• More motivation and confidence

• Easier workouts and better recovery

• Natural optimism and creativity

• Increased tolerance for planning and busyness

You might feel like saying “yes” more often, to projects, social plans, ideas and movement.

Holistic support ideas:

• Schedule more demanding tasks here if possible

• Strength training or higher-intensity exercise can feel easier

• Lean into new ideas, creative work, and planning

• Make the most of more stable mood and energy

This phase loves upward momentum, but still benefits from rest and nourishment in the background.

🌔 Ovulation (Around Days 13–15): Openness and Sensitivity

Ovulation is like a brief peak in the cycle. Fertility is highest, and many women feel:

• More magnetic, social or sensual

• Naturally confident and expressive

• Emotionally open and connected

• More at ease in their body

For others, ovulation is more challenging and can come with:

• Headaches or migraines

• Bloating or abdominal discomfort

• Feeling overstimulated or on edge

• Breast tenderness or heaviness

The body is energetically and hormonally open here, which can amplify both the light and the heavy.

Holistic support ideas:

• Honour increased sensitivity (even if from the outside you “seem fine”)

• Hydrate and feed yourself regularly

• Support your liver with simple, real foods

• Keep caffeine and alcohol in check if you know they trigger ovulation symptoms

🌕 Luteal Phase (Days 16–28): Deepening and Preparing

This is the phase many women recognise immediately. Progesterone rises, body temperature increases, and the nervous system can become more reactive.

You may notice:

• Reduced stress tolerance (tiny things feel huge)

• More need for boundaries, alone time or quiet

• Breast swelling or tenderness

• Bloating, constipation, or cravings

• Irritability, low mood, or tearfulness

• Sleep changes or vivid dreams

This is not you “being crazy”.It is your body gearing up for either implantation or release.

Holistic support ideas:

• Say “no” more often in this phase and protect your energy

• Focus on warm, grounding meals with good protein and healthy fats

• Avoid stacking in new stressors (new diets, new exercise regimes, big emotional conversations)

• Prioritise sleep, magnesium-rich foods, and gentle movement

When you stop expecting yourself to be in follicular–ovulation mode all month, your luteal phase feels far less like a problem and more like a built-in signal to slow down.

💛 Homeopathic Support for 28 Cycle Hormonal Patterns

Homeopathy does not “treat hormones” directly.Instead, it supports the whole woman: her emotional landscape, stress patterns, physical sensations, and how she responds to life.

Below are five remedies frequently considered in women’s hormonal and cyclical patterns. These are not prescriptions, and they are not a replacement for medical care. They are snapshots of patterns many women recognise in themselves.

Pulsatilla 🌸

Softness, Sensitivity and Changeable Cycles: Pulsatilla is often described as the remedy of tender-hearted, emotionally open women whose symptoms and moods are very changeable.

Patterns may include:

• Delayed, irregular or “stop–start” periods

• PMS with gentle weepiness, clinginess, or needing reassurance

• Feeling better for company, cuddles and fresh air

• Being easily affected by rich, greasy foods

• Headaches or digestive upsets that shift around the body

She may cry easily, seek closeness and feel deeply hurt by disconnection. Thirstlessness, especially with discomfort or fever, is also a classic Pulsatilla trait.

Sepia ⚖️

Depletion, Overwhelm and Hormonal Burnout: Sepia is the classic picture of the woman who feels done. Overworked, under-supported, and emotionally flat.

Themes often include:

• Feeling drained, irritable or detached

• Low libido, especially after childbirth, long-term stress or hormonal shifts

• PMS with heaviness or a “bearing-down” feeling in the pelvis

• Constipation, headaches, or fatigue around hormonal changes

• Feeling resentful, snappy, or like everyone needs something from you

She may love her family deeply but feel like she has nothing left to give. Hormonal changes (puberty, postpartum, miscarriage, menopause) can be big triggers for Sepia states.

Ignatia 🌿

When Cycles Shift After Grief, Shock or Emotional Strain: Ignatia is closely linked with emotional shock, grief, disappointment and inner conflict.

You might think of Ignatia when hormonal or menstrual changes follow:

• Bereavement, break-up, or heartbreak

• Suppressed crying, “holding it together” for everyone else

• Sudden life changes that never really got processed

• Amenorrhoea or irregular cycles after emotional trauma

• PMS with spasmodic cramps, sighing, or a “lump in the throat”

She may be sensitive, idealistic, and easily wounded, hiding her pain behind composure or humour. There can be big contradictions: laughing then crying, craving then rejecting, wanting company but pushing people away.

Folliculinum 🧪

Feeling “Ruled by Hormones”: Folliculinum has a strong relationship with the ovarian hormonal system and is often considered when a woman feels:

• “Controlled by hormones” rather than held by her cycle

• Intense PMS or ovulation symptoms (mood swings, breast tenderness, bloating, migraines)

• Weight gain out of proportion to food intake, especially premenstrually

• Premenstrual cystitis, vulval or vaginal itching

• Hypersensitivity to noise, heat or touch before a period

  
  

A very typical picture is extreme emotional and physical build-up before a bleed, with a marked sense of relief, lightness, and calm after day 3 of the period.

Lachesis 🐍

Pressure That Needs a Release: Lachesis is deeply connected with intensity, pressure and release – emotionally, hormonally and physically.

It often comes into focus around:

• PMS that feels explosive: irritability, jealousy, talking fast, feeling wired or “too full” inside

• Symptoms that are worse before a period and ease once the flow starts

• Hot flushes, palpitations, and rushes of blood (especially around perimenopause and menopause)

• Feeling suffocated by tight clothes (especially around the neck or waist)

• Left-sided ovarian or pelvic pains that may improve with the onset of bleeding

Emotionally, the Lachesis state can feel:

• Intense, reactive, passionate, and sometimes suspicious or jealous

• Deeply affected by long-standing grief, resentment or suppressed emotion

• Worse after sleep (waking up into the aggravation)

She may talk rapidly, jump from topic to topic, and feel better when things are moving and discharging,

whether that is tears, words, a nosebleed, or a menstrual flow finally starting. For many women, Lachesis reflects the feeling of being under internal pressure from hormones, heat, emotions, or unprocessed experiences, with a big sense of relief when the body finally lets go.

🌺 What About Conditions Like PCOS and Endometriosis?

PCOS and Endometriosis are complex and involve hormonal, metabolic, inflammatory and immune layers. They are not defined purely by “which day of your cycle you are on”.

In Endometriosis, you may see:

• Very painful periods

• Pain around ovulation or throughout the cycle

• Inflammation, immune involvement and often fatigue

• Symptoms that can affect digestion, sex, urination, and daily function

Find out more about Endometriosis here: https://www.vitalrootshealing.com/post/endometriosis-understanding-what-s-happening-in-your-body

In PCOS, you may see:

• Irregular or absent periods

• Ovulation that does not happen every month

• Insulin resistance and blood sugar issues

• Higher androgen activity in some women

• A wide range of body shapes and symptom patterns

  
  

Find out more about PCOS specifically here: https://www.vitalrootshealing.com/post/pcos-a-holistic-guide-to-balancing-hormones-naturally

If you live with PCOS or Endometriosis, your cycle map may look very different, and that is okay. You still deserve individualised care and validation, not a one size fits all template.

🌺 The Takeaway

Your Cycle Is Not a Problem It Is a Rhythm

You are not meant to feel the same every day. You are not “failing” because your energy, mood or appetite change across the month. Your cycle is a monthly rhythm, not a daily reset. When you understand it, things start to soften:

• You stop seeing PMS as random chaos

• You stop blaming yourself for low-energy days

• You stop forcing your body to fit a 24-hour template that was never designed for you

Instead, you can:

• Plan your workload more kindly

• Support your body with the right foods and rest at the right time

• Understand your cravings and emotional waves

• Choose exercise that actually suits the phase you are in

Holistic tools, including homeopathy, nutrition, nervous system support and lifestyle shifts, are simply ways of saying: “I am going to work with my body, not against it.”

If you would like support exploring your own hormonal pattern through a homeopathic and holistic lens, this is exactly the kind of work I do with women in my practice.

📚 Research, References & Resources

Quick Guides:

NHS – Menstrual cycle: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sexual-health/understanding-the-menstrual-cycle/

NHS – Premenstrual syndrome (PMS): https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/premenstrual-syndrome-pms/

Mayo Clinic – Menstrual cycle: What is normal, what is not: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/womens-health/in-depth/menstrual-cycle/art-20047186

Mayo Clinic – Premenstrual syndrome (PMS): https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premenstrual-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20376780

Natural Healthcare Research:

de Mello, S.B. et al. (2023). Homeopathy in women's health: gynecology and homeopathy. Clinics.

Overview of 30+ years’ experience in a women’s health clinic using homeopathy for menstrual issues, PMS, dysmenorrhoea and more.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10411710/

Danno, K. et al. (2013). Homeopathy for premenstrual syndrome: A case series. Homeopathy.

Observational series suggesting improvement in PMS symptoms and wellbeing with individualised homeopathic treatment.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1475491612000835

Cardigno, A. (2009). Homeopathic treatment of menstrual irregularities. Homeopathy.

Case-based paper describing amenorrhoea, oligomenorrhoea and irregular cycles managed with classical homeopathy.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1475491609000101

Mainstream Scientific Research:

Sundström Poromaa, I. & Gingnell, M. (2014). Menstrual cycle influence on cognitive function and emotion.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2014.00380/full

Greenfield, S.F. et al. (2021). Influences of ovarian hormones on physiological responses to cold in women.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9154773/