01
Your mood swings, but only in the second half of your cycle
This isn't low mood in general. It tracks the calendar. You're fine for two weeks, then somewhere after ovulation the volume goes up on everything: the tone of a text, the sound of chewing, the state of the kitchen.
That points at the luteal phase, when progesterone is supposed to rise and steady your nervous system. If it doesn't rise the way it should, or cortisol is eating up the raw materials, you lose the buffer.
What tends to help
Something you take daily, all cycle long, rather than something you grab when it gets bad. Vitex is the most studied herb for PMS and works on a two-to-three cycle timeline. It's slow. That's how it works.
02
You bloat on a schedule
If your bloating tracks the calendar better than it tracks your meals, food probably isn't the main thing going on. Your liver processes extra estrogen and your gut carries it out. When digestion slows down, some of that estrogen gets reabsorbed instead of leaving.
The giveaway is what comes with it. Breast tenderness, heavier flow, breakouts along the jaw. That combination points at estrogen, not gluten.
When digestion slows down, estrogen gets reabsorbed instead of clearing.
03
You fall asleep fine and wake at 2 or 3am
Trouble falling asleep and trouble staying asleep are two different problems. Waking up in the middle of the night, especially the week before your period, usually points at cortisol sitting on top of a progesterone dip.
It also feeds itself. Deep sleep is when progesterone consolidates and growth hormone pulses. Miss enough of it and next month is worse.
What tends to help
Herbs that work on GABA pathways, like valerian, passionflower, lavender and chamomile. They help with falling asleep and staying asleep, without the dependency or the next-day fog. Give them one to two weeks.
04
Your period is unpredictable
Twenty-four days one month, thirty-eight the next. A flow that suddenly changes. Spotting mid-cycle. Cycle length depends on ovulation, and ovulation depends on how the last few months went for your stress, your sleep and what you ate.
Which is also why this takes time. What you do this month shows up in the cycle after next.
05
Cramps that stop your day
Some cramping is normal. Cramping that puts you on the bathroom floor or sends you home from work is worth taking to a doctor, if only to rule out endometriosis, fibroids and adenomyosis.
Mechanically there are two things happening. Your uterus is contracting hard enough to squeeze off its own blood supply, and prostaglandins are deciding how hard those contractions get.
What tends to help
Cramp bark relaxes uterine muscle. Ginger brings down prostaglandins. In a tincture they absorb under the tongue in 15 to 30 minutes instead of the 45 to 90 a capsule needs. Starting a day or two before your period matters more than anything you do on day one.
06
Breakouts along the jaw and chin
Where it shows up tells you something. Acne along the lower third of your face that arrives the week before your period and sits deep under the skin behaves differently from ordinary congestion. Scrubbing harder doesn't touch it, because the problem isn't on the surface.
07
Tired in a way sleep doesn't fix
Wired at 11pm, flat at 3pm, caffeine to start and something to wind down. High cortisol suppresses progesterone, and low progesterone makes every other item on this list worse. It usually sits underneath the rest.
If three or more of these sounded familiar, the move isn't to add seven new things. Start with the two systems everything else runs through: your daily hormone balance, and your body's ability to clear what it's finished with.
