Follicular phase emotions: why you feel this way

Your period marks the start of the follicular phase, and three hormone shifts happen right away:

• Progesterone and allopregnanolone, a calming brain chemical made from progesterone, hit their lowest point of the month. Both had been rising through the back half of your last cycle, so the sudden drop can feel like a kind of withdrawal.
• Cortisol tends to run higher in the follicular phase than in the luteal phase. A meta-analysis of 778 women found a small but consistent difference (Hedges' g 0.13, p<0.01) [1].
• Estrogen is still low in the first few days, then climbs steadily through the first one to two weeks of the phase.

Higher cortisol alongside low allopregnanolone can leave you feeling more wired or anxious before estrogen rises enough to balance things out. For more on how that unfolds, see hormones in the follicular phase. Most women notice their mood lifting as estrogen rises.

Yes. Some emotional ups and downs in the follicular phase are normal, since your hormones are resetting after a full cycle and that doesn't happen instantly.

Cramping during the follicular phase is almost always just your period. Bleeding falls in the first three to seven days of this phase, so those cramps come from your uterus shedding its lining, not from a separate follicular-phase effect. Follicular phase symptoms covers what else is common in these first weeks.

Most women notice both the cramps and the emotional dip easing within the first week, as bleeding stops and estrogen rises. If cramps continue well past your period, or emotional symptoms stay intense into the second week, that's less typical and worth a closer look.

Two points in the follicular phase tend to feel hardest, for different reasons.

Early on, roughly days one to three, the drop in progesterone and allopregnanolone is sharpest, and cortisol is already a touch higher. That combination can bring tearfulness, low energy or irritability on top of period symptoms.

Later, roughly days seven to eleven, one small study found that the LH pulses triggering ovulation were more likely to occur right after a brief awakening or during lighter sleep, not during deep REM sleep.

In that study, the luteinizing hormone pulses that trigger ovulation were more likely right after a brief awakening, with less REM sleep in the five minutes before (22.3% wake versus 9.1%, p=0.0111; 4.4% REM versus 18.8%, p=0.0162, n=8) [3].

Scientists think lighter, more fragmented sleep in the late follicular phase adds to restlessness or low mood for some, even while estrogen keeps rising.

PMS and PMDD are tied to the luteal phase, the one to two weeks before your period, and both ease once bleeding starts. If what you're feeling happens mainly in the follicular phase, after your period has begun, it doesn't match that timing and isn't PMS or PMDD.

Moods don't always line up with hormones so cleanly, though. Some premenstrual symptoms linger a few days into the follicular phase before they fully ease, especially after a steep luteal drop. For others, the follicular-phase dip is the hormone reset described above, or it overlaps with stress, poor sleep or life events that happen to land that week.

When the early-phase low shows up, you don't have to just wait it out.

• Get outside within an hour of waking. Morning light can help reset your cortisol rhythm faster than staying indoors.
• Move for 10 minutes, even a short walk, to help burn off some of that extra cortisol.
• Protect your sleep in the second week. Research on this window is limited, but one small study found LH pulses tend to follow brief awakenings rather than disrupt sleep outright.
• Name the feeling out loud or on paper instead of pushing it down. 'I feel flat today' is enough.

If you want somewhere to put a flat or anxious day before you react to it, Niyora is a PMS and PMDD support app. Its Moon tool lets you write down what you're feeling, see it from another angle, and check it against your estimated cycle window.

The only way to know your own pattern is to log it for at least two cycles.

1. Note your cycle day each morning, starting from day one of bleeding.
2. Rate your mood, energy and any cramps on a 1 to 5 scale.
3. Mark sleep quality and wake time, since that shifts the picture late in the follicular phase.
4. After two cycles, look at which days repeat. A dip on days one to three most months points to the hormone drop described above; a dip on days seven to eleven points more toward sleep.

What phase of my cycle am I in? can help you line up your notes with where you likely are, and the menstrual cycle hormone chart shows roughly where estrogen, progesterone and cortisol sit on each day.