# Period Pain: What Conventional Medicine Leaves Out with Naturopath Loula George

An episode of [The Cyclist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1799823350), 5 May 2026, 42 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/101bd2764/podcast/play/119493912/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-5%2F423481327-44100-2-83aaea2ed738e.mp3

What if the answers to your period pain have been hiding in your gut, your diet, and your environment all along? In episode two of our period pain miniseries, Jess sits down with Loula George, one of New Zealand's most respected naturopaths, with over 30 years of experience specialising in women's health. Loula is the kind of practitioner whose name gets whispered in reverent tones across the women's health community, and after this conversation, it's easy to understand why. Loula opens up about how she found her way into naturopathy, from a childhood in a traditional Greek family where food and herbs were medicine, to an ecology degree, to a chance encounter with a naturopathy prospectus on a coffee table at 28 that changed everything. Three decades later, she says it's the women themselves who have taught her everything she knows. This conversation covers a lot of ground. Loula explains exactly where naturopathy sits within the broader women's health landscape, why the time and depth of a naturopathic consultation can uncover things a 10-minute GP appointment simply cannot, and why she sees her role as much about education and advocacy as it does about treatment. She walks us through the naturopathic view of period pain, how the gut, hormones, stress, pelvic floor, trauma, and genetic factors can all play a role, and why the estrobolome (the bacteria responsible for estrogen metabolism in the gut) is one of the most important and undertalked pieces of the period pain puzzle. We get into the histamine connection with endometriosis, the foods that consistently aggravate inflammation, and why gluten and dairy elimination doesn't have to be forever, just long enough to find your individual triggers. Loula also shares the herbs and nutrients she returns to again and again for period pain, including magnesium, PEA, Don Quai, Motherworth, and Ashwagandha, and explains how to know when supplements are working and how long to stay on them. She gives her honest view on the contraceptive pill as a first-line treatment for period pain, and why putting teenage girls on the pill before their endocrine system has even fully developed can create a whole other set of problems down the track. We also go deep on endocrine disrupting chemicals, plastics, non-stick cookware, synthetic fragrances, polyester clothing, and why the load of these in our everyday environment matters more than most of us realise. Kat recommends the Netflix documentary My Plastic Detox, which follows six fertility-struggling couples and shows just how measurably reducing plastic exposure can shift the picture. This is episode two of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now. Find Loula George and her team at their Auckland clinic. Loula is also listed on The Cyclist's practitioner directory at wearethecyclist.com. Follow and connect Instagram: @wearethecyclist Website: wearethecyclist.com Hit play. Your body has been trying to tell you something. This episode might help you understand what.

## Transcript

[0:06] This is The Cyclist, the podcast that finally talks about your
[0:10] reproductive health the way your group chat does.
[0:12] No awkward silence, no sugarcoating, just the real
[0:15] messy. Holy shit why did nobody tell me
[0:18] this convos about your body? I'm Jess Quinn.
[0:21] And I'm Catherine Douglas. We've been where you are,
[0:24] confused, dismissed and left figuring it all out on our own.
[0:28] So we're gathering the information we wish we had.
[0:31] We are the cyclist. Your cycle decoded.
[0:36] Welcome back to the Cyclist period pain Manning series.
[0:39] Today we're joined by Lula George, a registered naturopath
[0:42] and medical herbalist with over 25 years of experience
[0:45] specialising in Women's Health, fertility and hormonal
[0:47] wellbeing. Lula is the director of
[0:49] Motherwell in Auckland and has spent her career supporting
[0:52] women from their very first period all the way through
[0:54] menopause and beyond. She's also my naturopath and
[0:58] she's helped us so much with Al Qaeda in supplements, so she's
[1:01] someone that we respect so much in the industry.
[1:03] In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on what
[1:06] naturopathy actually looks like when it comes to period pain.
[1:08] The gut, the liver, the hormones, the lifestyle factors
[1:11] that no one has ever asked you about.
[1:13] Because if you've ever walked out of a GP appointment feeling
[1:16] that something might have been missed, this conversation is
[1:18] really going to feel validating for you.
[1:20] We get into the ingredients and herbs that Lola comes back to
[1:23] again and again, what she sees shift for her clients and what
[1:26] she thinks is the most overlooked piece of the puzzle
[1:29] for period pain. It is practical, it is eye
[1:32] opening and it genuinely gave us a whole new way of thinking
[1:35] about our cycles. If you haven't listened to the
[1:37] rest of the mini series yet, go back and start from the
[1:39] beginning. Each episode adds such a
[1:41] different piece to the picture and as always, it would mean the
[1:45] absolute world to us if you could take a second, leave a
[1:47] review, give us a follow. Have you listened to your
[1:49] podcast? It helps us so much get these
[1:52] conversations into the ears of women who need to hear it.
[1:55] Alrighty, let's get into it. This series is brought to you by
[1:59] Period Comfort, a product of our sister brand Cadence.
[2:03] When Jess and I started Cadence, one of the first things we
[2:07] wanted to solve was period pain, not just because of our own
[2:10] struggles, but because we saw so many women around us struggling
[2:13] too. We created a dual product
[2:15] including Period Prep, which you take in the lead up to your
[2:19] period to help decrease inflammation and overtime,
[2:22] hopefully reduce the pain before it even begins.
[2:25] And then period peace and natural support for when the
[2:29] pain does show up. Together, they work with your
[2:31] cycle rather than just reacting to it.
[2:34] You can find Period Comfort on our website
[2:37] cadencewellbeing.com. Hello, Lula, Welcome to The
[2:41] Cyclist. Thank you.
[2:43] Thanks for being here. We like to start with a
[2:45] question, which is what have you demystified about period pain?
[2:49] Well, probably the main thing is that it's not normal that, you
[2:54] know, a little bit of twingeing and a bit of bloating and a bit
[2:57] of discomfort is normal. But when it comes to the point
[3:01] where it's affecting your day-to-day life or you need pain
[3:05] relief, that's not normal. And yeah, and just making sure
[3:10] that women, especially young women from the beginning, know
[3:13] that and they can start acting positively and going finding why
[3:20] it's happening to them and what they can do about it.
[3:22] Yeah, I think that's a great answer on that.
[3:25] How young are the woman that you're seeing in your clinic?
[3:29] Well, it's that puberty. So period.
[3:33] Pain. Yes, they're very fierce,
[3:34] period. Yeah, can be very painful.
[3:37] And sometimes the first one can be painful and then from then on
[3:41] it just as smooth sailing. But for some, it's painful right
[3:46] from the beginning. And it never lets up.
[3:49] And I'm seeing that more and more.
[3:51] Well, yeah. And it's, it's really sad
[3:55] because that's their first experience of it.
[3:58] And it's. Yeah.
[3:59] It's daunting for them to think, well, now for the rest, you
[4:03] know, for 40 years, this is what I'm gonna be like.
[4:06] And so often the mothers bring them in because they may have
[4:12] gone through the same experience but haven't ever identify the
[4:17] cause and have lived with it, and they don't want that for
[4:20] their daughters. Definitely had that experience
[4:23] with my mum. I think we both realised that
[4:25] she had many issues and then she, looking back, realised my
[4:28] Nana had many issues with periods and period pain and
[4:31] she's got so many memories around that.
[4:32] So it's really interesting. And we've had some conversations
[4:35] on the podcast about how sometimes that's really helpful,
[4:37] but then sometimes it almost gets normalised in families
[4:40] because they had that too. That's just what period pains
[4:42] are like, you know? It's quite interesting.
[4:44] Right. Yeah.
[4:45] I would love to chat about how you ended up specialising in
[4:48] Women's Health. How did you find yourself?
[4:49] Here. Well, I guess, you know, I come
[4:52] from very traditional Greeks at family and that's and so I grew
[4:58] up where food and herbs that we grew or out in the, you know,
[5:04] nature was our medicine and that kind of was very normal.
[5:09] And my parents are now in their late 90s, are still doing that
[5:13] and still living a really productive life.
[5:17] And in fact, going to the doctor was our alternative medicine.
[5:21] So, you know, that was just how it was.
[5:24] And but I didn't really think about it.
[5:26] And then, you know, I went to university and I studied science
[5:30] and worked in the area of ecology and worked and what's
[5:36] now Department of Conservation. And then when I was about 28, I
[5:42] was visiting a friend of a friend and there was a
[5:44] prospectus on the coffee table and it said, you know, about
[5:49] School of naturopathy. And it was like this light bulb
[5:52] moment. And I thought, Oh my God, that's
[5:54] what I meant to be doing. And I just left my job and
[5:58] studied for another four years. And right, even in my training,
[6:02] my woman's health was my love and my passion.
[6:06] And so all my learning kind of was targeted into that area.
[6:12] And then when I started working, the people that came to me were
[6:18] women. And so, yeah, 30 years later,
[6:23] it's the woman who have taught me everything I know.
[6:27] All their stories have just built up over the years so that
[6:31] I can, yeah, learn and pass it on.
[6:35] So it's been, it's never dimmed really, and I continue to learn.
[6:39] That's okay. I feel like it's one of those
[6:41] jobs that studies one thing, but then being in there and learning
[6:44] from the people around you is another.
[6:46] I would love to talk about where naturopathy sits in the
[6:49] landscape of woman's health around this mini series.
[6:51] I've spoken to many different people and we've really all
[6:53] agreed that especially with things like period pain, it's a
[6:56] multi faceted approach, right? Where we have, it's important to
[7:00] have this whole holistic view. Where does naturopathy sit
[7:03] within that? Well, I naturopathy is our
[7:08] training is all about a big holistic lens.
[7:11] And so being able to have the woman in front of you and hear
[7:16] her story and really listen and really give her the time to give
[7:23] you all the clues to understand where the origin or what the
[7:27] causal factors are. And so it's that holistic lens
[7:32] that we're so trained in, but also the time that we give the
[7:36] woman because, you know, our consults are 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
[7:42] And so that's a lot of time to be able to really understand
[7:46] what's going on. And I also feel like we have a
[7:50] lot of tools to offer and, you know, we're quiet and well, I
[7:55] am. And because of our clinic, you
[7:58] know, I'm so used to working in a collaborative, integrative
[8:02] way. So sometimes I see our role more
[8:06] as kind of triaging. So we get all we have the luxury
[8:10] of time to give them to kind of really hear we need to do that
[8:16] deep dive with them. So it's often also doing a lot
[8:20] more tests than normal and then working out what the best way
[8:24] forward is. And sometimes it's referring to
[8:28] other practitioners or sometimes it's working integratively with
[8:33] the medical centre, with medical the medical way model and just
[8:39] making sure that we can point them in the direction that best
[8:43] serves them. Yeah.
[8:45] I found it really refreshing. I mean, I've seen that breaths
[8:48] for years dating right back to when I had cancer when I was 8,
[8:51] so a really long time and but I do fine with my woman's health
[8:54] journey specifically. It was so refreshing.
[8:57] You were probably one of the first people I saw and coming in
[9:00] and having someone listen for a long period of time because
[9:03] you're used to. And unfortunately it's just the
[9:04] system, a 15 minute GP appointment and you can only
[9:07] cover so much. And I think especially with
[9:09] things like period pain or chronic health issues,
[9:12] especially in the woman's health landscape, is like I've learned
[9:15] there's so many different connecting factors.
[9:17] Like I remember talking about my period pain and someone was
[9:19] asking about my bowel motions and I was like, what, What's
[9:22] going on? Yeah.
[9:23] So when you have that time, you realise the interlink of
[9:25] everything, which is what's so fascinating.
[9:27] Yeah, so multifaceted. And also, I think a big role of
[9:32] naturopaths is educating women, so actually being able to help
[9:37] them understand what's happening in their body and helping them
[9:42] then advocate with that knowledge, helping them advocate
[9:46] for themselves within the medical system, because
[9:49] sometimes that's not it. It's not happening.
[9:53] And so they can't know what they don't know.
[9:56] So then we educate them so they can have the questions to ask
[10:01] and make sure they see them. And yes, that's a big role of
[10:06] naturopaths, I think. Yeah, it's education side.
[10:09] Yeah, like I remember even seeing you and you'd recommend
[10:12] certain bloods, then I could take those bloods to my doctor.
[10:14] And you know, I can't come up with those on my own.
[10:16] And I often don't have long enough time to dive into that
[10:19] with the GP. So it was quite nice having that
[10:21] link. What's the naturopathic view of
[10:24] period pain? How do you understand its root?
[10:28] Well, I guess 1st we understand that it's different for each
[10:33] woman and it's our job to try and find out what are the
[10:37] triggers or what is the cause. And so yeah, we look at
[10:42] everything. We look at the abounds, we look
[10:46] at, you know, family history, we look at, you know, is there
[10:52] pelvic issues in terms of, you know, pelvic floor issues or
[10:57] tight ligaments, tendons that might be contributing?
[11:01] Is there is it an endo picture or adenomyosis picture?
[11:06] Is it trauma? Is it genito urinary microbiome
[11:14] dysbiosis? You know, so there's so many
[11:18] areas to look at and yeah, so by listening to what they're
[11:24] talking about, listening to their family history during the
[11:27] tests, if you have a idea of what it is, then referring them
[11:32] on to like a powerful physio or doing further, deeper tests.
[11:37] How common would you say period painters in terms of what you
[11:40] see across your patients? I know you do a lot of work in
[11:42] the fertility space, but how commonly are you seeing people
[11:44] come in with period pain issues? Private ohh, at least 50%.
[11:50] Wow yeah so and one way or another.
[11:53] MMM, no, it can be infection and can be indo, it can be bowel
[11:59] problems, but it's very common yeah and the severity, you know,
[12:04] it's about severity too. And and yeah, how it's affecting
[12:09] their lives and their fertility as well.
[12:12] Hmm. What would you say the
[12:14] conventional medical system get right about period pain and
[12:18] where does it often fall short? Well, I mean, I'm very grateful
[12:24] for the tools that they have that help me and my woman
[12:28] because, you know, without imaging, without being able to
[12:32] access blood tests, without surgery, you know, I can't do
[12:39] all those things. So I'm grateful for those
[12:43] things. But sometimes because of their
[12:47] medical model of health where they only have 10 minutes to
[12:52] talk, they can't find out what we can find out.
[12:55] So my ultimate goal is to be able to work well with doctors
[13:01] and specialists so that we can kind of offer the best of both
[13:04] worlds to the woman because often that's what they need.
[13:08] I mean, we have amazing tools, our herbs and our nutrients and
[13:12] our lifestyle and dietary tools that we can offer.
[13:16] But sometimes we need the the bit of both.
[13:20] So yeah, unfortunately, that's not always the case.
[13:25] You have to strongly advocate and it's exhausting.
[13:29] And often the women are caught in the middle where I'm saying
[13:33] one thing and that's saying another thing and it's so awful
[13:37] cause I'm watching that create stress and that's the last thing
[13:41] I want. So it's about finding the
[13:45] doctors in our community that understand the way we work and
[13:50] honour it and value it. And then that's the best thing
[13:54] for women. Yeah, I agree I saw can relate
[13:56] to that being caught in the middle feeling and I I've also
[13:59] found on my journey and I'm a huge ad for the medical system.
[14:02] It's saved my life many times, quite literally, but I kind of
[14:05] sit in the middle of both because I have found when they
[14:09] play together, that works really well.
[14:11] But I have found when I'm speaking to a naturopath and I'm
[14:14] talking about, you know, I remember telling you that I had
[14:17] gone on some medication and things like that and you were
[14:19] really supportive of that. So I've always found that way
[14:21] really positive. But the other way, if I
[14:23] mentioned to a doctor, ohh, my naturopath thinks that's all my
[14:26] naturopath thinks that it's not often the same reaction.
[14:29] Whereas I've always found naturopaths and, and that kind
[14:32] of world really open to both sides, right?
[14:35] But you just doesn't always happen.
[14:37] From Nice and I'm often finding myself saying don't say that
[14:42] you're naturopath set yeah cause they they just have this not.
[14:49] All. No, but some the minute you
[14:52] mention naturopath, they just go no and they just won't even
[14:56] listen even when I produce, you know give them kind of medical
[15:02] evidence of where my thinking is they just shutdown and others
[15:07] are great. Just finding the right.
[15:09] People. On that note, if there's someone
[15:11] driving sitting at home listening to this and is
[15:14] thinking maybe before this conversation they were maybe
[15:16] thinking naturopaths a bit. We're well, they're just not
[15:19] really sure because they haven't dived into it and they've just
[15:21] heard that it's about. What would you say to that?
[15:24] Well, there's a whole spectrum of naturopaths and actually, you
[15:30] know, having been in industry for 30 years, it's changed a
[15:34] lot. Like it was quite we were Once
[15:36] Upon a time, but now it's very science and evidence based.
[15:42] The orientation is, I mean, and it's the training is a actual
[15:46] degree, a science degree. And it's not woo anymore.
[15:51] And yeah, so it's, it's a really good mix.
[15:55] I think now cause it is evidence based.
[15:57] We've got really good research to bec our traditional use of
[16:03] herbs and nutrients. So it's kind of it's a really
[16:07] good place to be at the moment because we still love our
[16:12] traditional hairs, but now we know why they work.
[16:16] And yeah, so it's not woo at all.
[16:19] In fact, it's gone almost the. End of the spectrum, full size.
[16:22] Sometimes. In terms of period pain, are
[16:25] there, we'll get into ingredients in terms of
[16:28] supplements and stuff later, but are there foods that
[16:30] consistently make period pain worse, like little things that
[16:34] people could do, changes they could make now?
[16:37] Yeah. I mean, so with period pain,
[16:40] it's often inflammatory response in some way.
[16:44] And so reducing those inflammatory, those foods that
[16:47] have an inflammatory response in in the body and it's different
[16:53] for different people. So generally speaking, it's
[16:59] processed foods and not good gluten and dairy in particular.
[17:04] But it doesn't mean that all women necessarily have to go off
[17:08] all gluten or dairy cause it's good to go off them and
[17:14] reintroduce them and see if they have an impact because it's a
[17:19] hard thing to tell someone to go off ordering all gluten forever.
[17:24] So you do have to test it out for each woman to see which one
[17:29] is aggravating their inflammation.
[17:32] But so gluten, dairy, high histamine foods not good either
[17:37] for the cause a lot of inflammation.
[17:40] Can you label a couple of high? Histamine foods, people who
[17:42] aren't familiar. Good meat.
[17:45] Ohh, didn't realise aged cheeses, beer, wine, alcohol
[17:53] particularly bad and fish. Ohh.
[17:56] Unfortunately, especially canned fish.
[17:59] Hmm so those are the tomatoes. Ohh and and aged aged vegetable.
[18:06] I mean not aged vegetables. Don't eat aged vegetables.
[18:10] Oh my God. Vegetable and fermented
[18:12] vegetables. Fermented vegetable they are.
[18:14] Kind of managed, yeah, that really high histamine OHH.
[18:17] And they can aggravate this year for people who can't breakdown
[18:23] histamines, they've got this genetic predisposition.
[18:26] It makes period pain much worse and it's incredible when you cut
[18:32] those out. Wow, I'm hearing a lot about
[18:34] histamine at the moment. I feel like it's really buzzing
[18:37] around. I think people are starting to
[18:38] understand a bit more special link with histamine and endo.
[18:41] I think it can be quite a strong link there, right?
[18:43] I thought tomato is it? Tomato, tomatoes and eggplant
[18:47] and spinach. And yeah, so the very, very high
[18:50] ones are the ones that I've just mentioned.
[18:52] But then there's kind of moderate and depends on your
[18:56] individual ability to breakdown. So some people have to go all
[19:00] the way. But yeah, histamine the spit
[19:04] endo woman with endo have a big histamine picture anyway because
[19:09] there's a lot of immune cells trying to deal with the Indo
[19:14] implants and they release histamine.
[19:18] And so you already have quite a high threshold of this means and
[19:23] also genetically you probably already can't break them down
[19:28] South. That's why you've got endo in
[19:29] the 1st place. Almost end.
[19:31] So yeah, putting another load of food just, yeah, it makes it
[19:39] much worse. But stress also increases
[19:42] histamine. So ohh, there's the fact we
[19:44] always talk about histamines as a bucket.
[19:47] And so if you know, you can getaway with some histamine
[19:51] foods if you're sensitive histamine, if you don't have
[19:55] added stress or have an infection brewing or all those
[19:59] things that increase histamine, yeah.
[20:02] Interesting. And in terms of cutting out
[20:04] things, you mentioned gluten and dairy, that doesn't have to be
[20:07] forever. How long would you cut something
[20:09] out and monitor and how long would you know if it's helped if
[20:12] you cut that out? That makes sense.
[20:14] Yeah. So you need to be off the foods
[20:17] for about four weeks. OK.
[20:18] Yeah. And then introduce one food at a
[20:21] time, which is kind of what the FODMAP diet does as well.
[20:25] So you kind of eliminate all the possible trigger foods.
[20:29] And it's not meant to be a forever diet, but then it gives
[20:32] you the opportunity to kind of clean the slate and then
[20:35] introduce one food at a time and see what your individual
[20:39] triggers are so that you can manage your pain.
[20:44] Interesting, I would have thought it would have had to
[20:46] been longer for some reason, but that's quite.
[20:49] Manageable. Yeah.
[20:51] Interesting. I would love to jump in and talk
[20:53] about the gut connection with period pain because that is
[20:55] something I definitely, I think a gut was a huge clue for me
[20:59] with endometriosis and obviously endometriosis isn't always the
[21:01] cause of period pain, but how does the gut play in with period
[21:04] pain? So hugely or one, the gap is
[21:09] right by the uterus. So anything that's happening in
[21:13] the gut affects uterus and vice versa.
[21:16] But the if you have any disposals or anything that's
[21:21] caused your gut lining not to be as healthy as it can be.
[21:25] And you know, one word for that is it becomes a leaky gut.
[21:30] So the integrity of the gut wall is compromised.
[21:34] So that allows all these cells to go through into the blood
[21:41] stream and cause inflammation, causes an inflammatory response
[21:47] and that has a direct impact on all the pelvic organs.
[21:51] So it just makes it creates huge inflammation and we have a
[21:59] microbiome and the gas that serves us, but it can go out of
[22:04] balance. And so there's a whole lot of
[22:07] bacteria that's called the Estrella love bone.
[22:14] Okay. Mr. Lobo And that's bacteria
[22:18] that help regulate hormone metabolism.
[22:22] So they kind of help breakdown oestrogen, but they help cleave
[22:28] the oestrogen from the little protein molecules so that we can
[22:35] get rid of them through our stool.
[22:36] And the oestrogen doesn't recycle back into the body and
[22:41] just keep creating their oestrogen imbalance.
[22:45] So if it's if we've got the wrong bacteria, it will keep
[22:50] recycling the oestrogen. And oestrogen is if you've got
[22:55] too much compared to progesterone, it will cause
[22:58] inflammation. One way is that increases
[23:02] histamine. So that's another link.
[23:05] And also, you know, if you are constipated and you have long
[23:09] term Constipation, that also causes more pain.
[23:16] Can't believe. That mechanically and but also
[23:20] it creates a whole disposes in the gut that just creates that
[23:23] whole thing. You know, it just means that if
[23:27] you have gut issues, there's nutrient deficiencies or
[23:32] imbalances that can feed into it.
[23:35] Yeah. So those are some ways.
[23:37] Gut is an interesting place, that's for sure.
[23:40] In terms of lifestyle factors, like it's their certain
[23:42] lifestyle factors, you touched on stress earlier that we can
[23:47] work towards or work on that could decrease our period pain.
[23:50] Yeah, or definitely stress. Stress produces cortisol and
[23:56] that is inflammatory by nature. And it also affects the the
[24:01] vagus nerve. So it makes us more pain
[24:03] sensitive, and that's another thing going back to the gut
[24:07] where it affects the gut brain. Yeah, connections, and that's
[24:12] via the vagus nerve. And so if we have gut problems
[24:16] and it's causes inflammation, that inflammation just goes
[24:19] straight to our brains and then we have kind of this pain and
[24:25] kind of unbalanced pain perception and that causes
[24:29] problems. And same with stress.
[24:33] So, you know, there's a lot of woman with period pains have
[24:37] irritable bowel syndrome. So it's very common.
[24:40] Hmm. So yeah, lifestyle factors.
[24:42] Stress is definitely one diet and also trying to have a good
[24:51] amount of exercise, not too much where it might tighten a lot of
[24:54] powerful muscles and can stretch blood vessels, etcetera, but
[25:00] some to keep good circulation going.
[25:04] And then of course there's the whole endocrine disrupting
[25:07] chemicals and needing to understand them and know where
[25:12] they are in your environments and how much you might be
[25:15] exposed to them and reduce those.
[25:18] And is there a link with endocrine disrupting chemicals
[25:21] and period pain? Yeah, because they're that
[25:25] endocrine disruptors and they are often mimic oestrogen.
[25:30] And so a lot of period pain is due to too much oestrogen or not
[25:36] so much, too much. But the balance of oestrogen to
[25:40] progesterone is is not okay. And often we can't.
[25:45] Genetically we can't metabolise oestrogen, so it just adds to
[25:49] the pot of oestrogen and causes inflammation and pain and hmm.
[25:54] Yeah, I'm trying to educate my husband on endocrine disruptors
[25:57] at the moment. And I'm doing a really bad job
[25:59] of it because I have always been strong on like the cleaning
[26:03] chemicals we have in our house. And all of these kind of things
[26:05] are washing powders. And he loves things that smell
[26:07] really good, like a personal. And I went into our wardrobe
[26:10] last night and I was like, it literally smells like this
[26:13] stranger in my house because he'd washed this one jacket with
[26:15] the strong personal. Stuff.
[26:17] And I'm trying to, I'm really trying to set our household up
[26:20] because I feel like my daughter has probably the odds against
[26:23] her because there's a lot of endometriosis in our family and
[26:25] a lot of woman's health issues. So I'm trying to set her up in a
[26:28] way that does her service really, but I find it really
[26:34] hard. I think his argument and the
[26:36] reason I'm talking about this because I feel like other
[26:38] people's mindset might be similar.
[26:39] His argument is like, like what's that changing 1?
[26:43] Like you absorbing a tiny bit of spray on a chemical gonna really
[26:46] do. But I feel like all of these
[26:48] things add up, right? Add up in that forever molecules
[26:53] so once they're in the environment that always there.
[26:56] So there's this really good documentary on Netflix at the
[27:00] moment. Okay, that you have to get him
[27:02] to watch. It's called my plastic.
[27:04] Ohh I wanted to watch the. My plastic, my ohh I forgot.
[27:09] I know the one you mean, the new plastic.
[27:10] Document. Yeah, it is so amazing.
[27:14] It speaks about fertility. Yeah, it kind of covers 6
[27:18] fertility couples who've been struggling and some of them are
[27:22] unexplained. And it just goes and you think,
[27:26] ohh, how depressing. But what was so good about it
[27:29] was it was very hopeful because you can actually make a change.
[27:35] Like it followed them. So she would be doing urine
[27:39] tests and blood tests and she could see how much you started
[27:43] off with like the BPA in your blood stream, etcetera.
[27:47] And then 12 weeks of really being educated about how you can
[27:52] minimise the exposure and then redoing the test and seeing that
[27:58] it completely reduced in their blood stream.
[28:02] And then out of the 6th. Ohh, now I'm telling you.
[28:05] The story. Out of the six couples, 3
[28:09] conceived spontaneously. Wow.
[28:11] So that's quite extraordinary. So yeah, I mean, a lot of people
[28:16] say, well, what difference does it make?
[28:18] But actually in a household, it can make a phenomenal
[28:22] difference. And it was measured.
[28:23] The differences were measured. The measure interest incredibly
[28:27] measurable. Guess what I'm doing this
[28:28] weekend? My husband.
[28:30] That'll be our date back this weekend.
[28:32] I can watch the plastic documentary.
[28:34] I've been really wanting to watch it.
[28:35] Like some things I'm really strong on is not microwaving
[28:38] food and plastic. And I do store food and plastic,
[28:40] but I need to get better at getting some glass containers.
[28:42] But those are all the little things that we can do right
[28:44] around into contractors. Is there any main ones that I've
[28:47] missed? So plastics are the big ones.
[28:49] So even BPA free plastic and not OK Yeah.
[28:54] And just going to the supermarket and instead of
[28:57] buying a tray of mushrooms with plastic thing all around them
[29:01] yet the paper bag and put the mushrooms in there.
[29:04] You know you don't have to take more plastic home, but it's
[29:08] plastic non stick cookware yes so bad yes yeah any pesticides 1
[29:15] sector sides you'll pay anything that you put on your skin.
[29:19] You know need to be paraben free.
[29:21] They late free, fragrance free, Yeah, that's the main thing.
[29:26] So you can make a difference. I mean, you can't completely
[29:30] avoid it. It's just part of our world now.
[29:33] But you can reduce it. And that's where I think if you
[29:36] can minimise where it's in your control, then you can kind of
[29:39] let go of the things that are outside of your control.
[29:41] Like I stopped wearing perfume. I think the last time I wore
[29:43] perfume was on my wedding day, which was three years ago.
[29:45] And that was just for a special occasion.
[29:47] I'd stopped wearing perfume because of the fragrance thing.
[29:49] And I'm really strong. And again, I feel like I'm
[29:51] throwing my husband under the bus, but he loves convenience.
[29:54] Like he loves a non stick with the eggs all lies around.
[29:59] Whereas I'm like, I will not allow it in our house.
[30:03] And for a while there, he had his own one you would cook on,
[30:06] which I'm like, I also don't want you to be unwell.
[30:09] But anyway, I like that's your, that's your prerogative.
[30:11] I've given you the education. But we both advise ceramic pans
[30:16] now. But yeah, it's really
[30:17] interesting, all these things, and I think a lot of them have
[30:20] interestingly come from convenience, right?
[30:22] Plastics and deflections. But also clothing, yes, you know
[30:28] a lot. Most of our clothing these days
[30:31] is plastic, polyester, polyester.
[30:33] And so even if you can do that. I'm still getting told to listen
[30:38] to this because we had a conversation other night around
[30:40] Marla's clothes and I was like I'm not buying any holistic
[30:43] clothes, we only buy cotton and I'm the weirdo in the shop.
[30:46] Looking at the tag being like this is cute but what material
[30:48] is it? Is it?
[30:49] And if it's not cotton or a natural fibre, then.
[30:51] It's not for me. And that's really important.
[30:53] And because when you wash them too, all those microplastics go
[30:57] into the water. It's called my plastic detox.
[31:00] My plastic detox, that's the one.
[31:01] Yeah, okay, amazing. What are the ingredients or
[31:05] compounds that you come back to again and again for period pain
[31:09] and why do they work? So we have our beautiful herbs.
[31:13] We have so many herbs that are anti-inflammatory and you know,
[31:18] pain relieving and support blood flow.
[31:22] So things like Don Quai and motherboard and cramp bark and
[31:29] blue cohosh and cinnamon and I mean this pioneer, we have so
[31:36] many and nutrients, of course, magnesium and PA, which is in
[31:44] period piece and really effective.
[31:48] And you know, making sure that they have, you know, if you
[31:53] understand that they've got hormone metabolism problems, so
[31:58] supporting their liver to be able to metabolise estrogen's in
[32:04] a more favourable way like St. Mary's the saw and in a Sea and
[32:12] them and all these things that really support their
[32:16] detoxification and metabolising and making sure their
[32:20] methylation is good, so making sure they've got the B vitamins
[32:24] that they need to help breakdown histamine and oestrogen and
[32:28] cortisol. So yeah.
[32:32] And also what's really amazing about the natural world,
[32:35] especially with our herbs, they often do more than one thing.
[32:41] So, you know, Withania for an or ashwagandha for instance, is
[32:46] really good for kind of stress and reducing cortisol, but it's
[32:50] also a really good hormone support, especially with
[32:55] testosterone and oestrogen, you know, so if someone's really
[32:59] depleted in those and there's a big stress picture that supports
[33:04] both. Yeah.
[33:05] So, yeah, that's great. Yeah, but.
[33:10] I've even found that with Cadence, like we've had some
[33:12] people message when they've been taking grateful guts and they
[33:14] found a reduction in their period pain, but it's obviously
[33:16] because they are offloading their gut or helping their gut
[33:18] in some kind of way. And I was smiling cause a lot of
[33:21] the ingredients you just listed off as what's in our period
[33:24] comfort duo pack, which will actually help.
[33:26] And your colleague Rebecca helped advise us on in terms of
[33:29] the ingredients in them, like PA in California, poppy and mother
[33:32] wart. And yeah, some really amazing
[33:34] ingredients. So it's cool to hear that whole
[33:36] point of Cadence is to kind of make accessible these products
[33:39] that are really highly recommended and research pact,
[33:43] which is really important in terms of supplements.
[33:46] How long do people expect it would take until they see
[33:49] change? Well, generally, I mean they can
[33:53] see change within a week sometimes, but the important
[33:57] thing is that it continues and it consolidates.
[34:02] I always say, you know, like we monitor it like week by week,
[34:06] but generally speaking, once we see that it is having a positive
[34:10] impact, you need to make sure that they are on it consistently
[34:14] for at least three months to get that consolidating effect in the
[34:19] body because the body, it takes that long for the body to really
[34:23] get it and switch into a different pattern.
[34:26] And once you're on these supplements or something like
[34:28] period pain, can you ever come off?
[34:30] Like is there a time that you can come off them if your period
[34:33] pain gets better? Or is it something you should
[34:34] stay on to keep it? Yeah, it depends on the person.
[34:38] So if it's, you know, the picture is where lifestyle and
[34:43] diet also contributes. And so the supplements are
[34:47] helping them kind of until they make those changes.
[34:51] And if the lifestyle changes are what really has made the
[34:57] difference and they're able to stick to those, then maybe they
[35:01] don't need the supplements. But for other people where it's
[35:04] actually a genetic issue and they're that particular
[35:10] biochemical pathway that that gene is responsible for will
[35:14] always be slow or too fast, then those nutrients are something
[35:19] that they need just to kind of support that particular
[35:23] deficiency. But they may not need it
[35:26] everyday. They might just need it once
[35:29] they've built it out. They might be able to have a
[35:32] maintenance dose of once a week or twice a week or, or they stop
[35:37] it for a while and then symptoms slowly start to come back.
[35:41] They know what to go back to. So people manage it themselves
[35:46] according to what works for them.
[35:49] Speaking of managing it themselves, often the first
[35:52] thing women are given when they go to the doctor for period pain
[35:56] is the contraceptive pill. What is your view on the
[35:58] contraceptive pill for period pain?
[36:00] Well. I mean, there has a place in a
[36:04] way, but not at the beginning, because if you put someone on
[36:08] the pill, then it completely masks the course and we lose the
[36:15] ability to be able to actually find the cause while they're on
[36:19] the pill. So it's much better to at least
[36:23] give women a chance to see what they can find out about their
[36:27] bodies and find a different way and, you know, have that
[36:32] opportunity to empower themselves and know that they
[36:34] can manage it. But there are some cases where
[36:38] it's so bad and they've done all that they can and they need that
[36:43] Marina or they need that pill and continuous pill to stop them
[36:49] having periods so that the endo doesn't just continue creating
[36:53] chaos. So I'm not 100% against it if I
[36:57] see that that's a real last. Who would have called?
[37:01] But not at the very beginning when it just masks the problem,
[37:06] especially when young girls are put on the pill at 15 and that
[37:13] you know, they they haven't even their endocrine system hasn't
[37:18] even really got going. And so to put the pill in it can
[37:22] really change the way they develop or their hormonal
[37:28] pattern develops. And yeah, and then they come off
[37:32] the pill when they're ready to have children.
[37:35] And then it gets all unmasked and it's, you know, something
[37:41] they have to deal with then and there.
[37:43] And it's stressful and. I think everyone at home or many
[37:47] people will be nodding like I am because that is my exact story.
[37:49] Yeah, on the pillar, I think it was 16, maybe 15 for period
[37:53] pain. And I then didn't realise I had
[37:56] endometriosis until I wanted to have kids because I'd master for
[37:59] so long. And I did come off the pill
[38:00] probably about a good 6-7 years before I wanted to start having
[38:04] kids. So I was able to start seeing it
[38:05] then. But still, it was kind of given
[38:08] like a Band-Aid. And I think that's fine.
[38:10] If you've got, if you're being told, you know, it might be
[38:13] endometriosis and you know, then you make that decision yourself
[38:16] to go on the pill cause that's what you want to do.
[38:18] But when things aren't even mentioned and then you just kind
[38:21] of go about your life not knowing you've got this
[38:22] underlying condition that could impact fertility or your future
[38:25] in some kind of way. It's.
[38:26] Pretty disheartening, The real disservice.
[38:28] Definitely, we unfortunately need to wrap soon because the
[38:31] time is. Ticking that's.
[38:33] Good, but I wanted to ask a couple of questions.
[38:35] What's one thing you wish every 16 year old knew about their
[38:38] cycle? Well, it would be great if they
[38:43] could really honour their cycle, even with pain.
[38:47] Understand how amazing it is to have a cycle and how it connects
[38:51] us with nature, because nature is all about cycling.
[38:55] And, you know, seeing the positive to try and outweigh the
[38:59] negative of pain and then leading.
[39:03] Yeah, just helping them educate themselves about what's
[39:07] happening to their body and then finding ways, even when they're
[39:11] young, to make a difference so they can see that they have some
[39:16] power to change that direction. Things are going in, you know,
[39:23] sometimes it they can't get enough, you know, or they're not
[39:29] able to make the changes that they need to.
[39:31] But if they can at least start when they're young to understand
[39:35] there are things you can do and you can find ways around it and
[39:41] not see it as such a negative, horrible thing.
[39:46] And and still to them that this, you know, it's a beautiful
[39:50] thing. There's something going wrong.
[39:53] Let's try and fix it. Yeah, perfectly worded.
[39:57] What would you want a woman listening right now who's been
[40:00] in pain for a really long time, to take away from this
[40:02] conversation? To educate yourself about your
[40:07] body, really understand it, you know, get one of those find apps
[40:14] you know, where they can track their cycles and see patterns
[40:18] that maybe they haven't understood.
[40:20] And then work from there to realise that something is
[40:24] happening that shouldn't be. And then find someone to help
[40:28] you along the journey to just go as deep as you can to understand
[40:33] what's happening to your body and find the answers and find
[40:38] you know the part that suits their particular woman.
[40:42] Thank you so much, Lola. Thanks for coming on the
[40:44] Cyclist. That's going to help so many
[40:46] people. I'm a huge advocate for
[40:48] naturopathy. I mean, obviously I am the Co
[40:50] founder of supplement business, so I'm a little bit biassed, but
[40:53] it's helped me so much in my journey.
[40:55] And you're someone whose name, whenever I mentioned it to
[40:58] anybody, experts or other people who are in the woman's health
[41:01] space, they're like, Oh my gosh, you're seeing Lulu George S.
[41:03] Oh my God, you. Are, I think, a fairy godmother
[41:06] and the naturopathy space in New Zealand.
[41:08] So I'm very grateful for this conversation.
[41:10] Thank you. Thank you.
[41:14] Thanks for listening to The Cyclist.
[41:16] To join the community, follow us at We Are the Cyclist, Your
[41:20] Cycle Decoded.

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