Hot Girl Summer, But Make It Hormonal

In this episode we talk about how summer time fun can mess with your menstrual cycle as well as ways to stay more on track!

Transcript

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Hey guys, Dr. Celestine here, and I'm back for another episode of the For Vaginas Only podcast. It's been a while. And in this podcast episode, we're going to be talking about hot girl summer, but make it hormonal. First, let's cue the music. Hello and welcome to For Vaginas Only, the podcast about everything female. I'm your host, Dr. Celestine, bringing you important information about understanding your health and body in the way you wish your doctor would actually explain it. All right. And as I said in the intro, I am Dr. Charles C. Celestine, board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. This is my podcast called The 4 Vaginas Only Podcast. And here we talk about lots of different things when it comes to female health, breasts, vaginal health, everything to do with the female body. In this episode entitled Hot Girl Summer, but make it hormonal, we're going to be talking about Why the summer might be messing with your hormones. And summer is flying by, but it is still only July of 2025. And it's still important to talk about this heat and how it's messing with us. So let's get into it. Okay, so what's really going on? First of all, your circadian rhythm is your internal clock, so to speak. And it's regulated by a lot of things. It's regulated by your light exposure, your sleep patterns, and even traveling. So disrupted sleep, think late nights out, you're out at the bars, out at the concerts, out at the clubs, out at the raves, all during the summer. Jet lag also, you're traveling, flying across the country, 16-hour, 18-hour flights. All of these things can increase your cortisol, which can delay or disrupt your ovulation. And according to ACOG, which is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as some studies done by the NIH, cortisol The hormone cortisol and melatonin imbalances can affect your cycle regularity or how regular your periods are. So yes, it's true that periods sometimes come crashing in right before you go on that beach trip, right before you land in Japan, which was my situation last year. but blame travel-induced LH surge delays. So the LH surge is a part of your menstrual cycle that happens and triggers ovulation, which then down the line triggers your period. So that is what gets disrupted when you have these changes during the summer. So you're thinking, does this mean that I have to stop enjoying myself this summer? And I would never do that to you. Never. I am the queen of summer. Summer is my favorite holiday. Did I say holiday? Yes, I did. There is no way that I will say that that's the answer. So let's talk about what you can try to do in order to have the best summer possible with or without these period changes. So First, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Water actually helps to regulate your body temperature and can reduce inflammation. So, and you're in the heat and kind of in these summer places, these beach locations that can mess with that circadian rhythm that I spoke about, hydrating actually helps. Also, sleep. No matter what you're doing or where you are in the world, try to aim for at least seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Another thing you can do is kind of watch your nutrition. So for example, some magnesium rich foods such as bananas, oatmeal, spinach, turkey breast, almonds can be really helpful during this time to support your hormone balance. And last but not least, watch your alcohol intake. It spikes cortisol and disrupts your REM sleep. But listen, sometimes no matter how hard we try, I mean, if you're really changing whole time zones or if you're traveling to someplace that the temperature is way hotter than where you came from, or if your itinerary is just jam-packed and you can't get the sleep that I'm recommending that you get, there are some things you can do to kind of stay on top of any surprises so the first thing i would recommend is pack your tampons or your menstrual cups in your carry-on bag because the last thing you want is to have your period on a plane and you got nothing so make sure that that is in your carry-on bag also make sure that you wear loose cotton underwear don't have any tight synthetic underwear that on in this hot hot heat And another thing you can try is tracking your cycle ahead of your travel just to prep for these surprises. So I know for me, if I'm anywhere near where my period's supposed to start and I'm traveling or something big in my life is changing, I am already having those tampons in my bag. I have the panty liner on just in case I get a surprise start to my period because it's almost like your body is primed to bleed when it gets close to when your period's supposed to start anyway. So a big change like travel or a big change in temperature, lack of sleep, anything like that can make it come a little bit earlier or even a little bit later sometimes. So that's it. Those are the things you need to know to get through hot girl summer, even with some menstrual changes and some hormonal changes. Our bodies are brilliant, but even... these wonderful bodies need a little bit of extra TLC, especially during this hot girl summer. So stay cool, stay balanced, and as always, stay curious about your vagina. And that's it for this episode. Thank you guys so much. I'm Dr. Celestine. This is For Vaginas Only. You can catch me at For Vaginas Only on Instagram. You can go to forvaginasonly.com, which is my website. And please stay tuned to everything I'm doing on there. Find me on TikTok, DrCharlcee, that's D And I will catch you guys in the next podcast episode. Bye. Hope you're enjoying your summer.