I tried for a long time to regulate my cycle. In fact one could say that was my goal before trying to get pregnant. I was successful in my own way but those last six months where I felt like I was just waiting for something were really challenging. In the end, the result I got was much bigger and much better than anything I could have anticipated.

 For those of you that are just starting out on your own journey – whether you’re just coming off birth control and trying to get your cycle back on track, or you’re just starting to actively monitor your body and your cycle, I wanted to share a pretty awesome success story of one of our readers.

 She came off of birth control about a year and a half ago because she just wasn’t feeling like it doing anything positive for her anymore. After coming off she got a few successful cycles right away, each one between 28 – 35 days apart. After a few months of this though, the cycles started to get further and further apart until she was experiencing almost six months in between cycles, the last one being May 2014.

 Like me, she was frustrated that her cycles were so irregular and wanted to confirm that there wasn’t anything concerning causing it. In late September, she went to see her GP who asked her to get some blood work done to test her LH and FSH levels. When her GP called her back into the office to review the test results, she was told she had unbalanced numbers and that she most likely had PCOS. The GP suggested an internal ultrasound and sonogram to see if there were any cysts on her ovaries. After the ultrasounds, she told her that if she wasn’t ready to get pregnant right away, she could wait until she was ready where she would then refer her to a fertility clinic.

 Let me tell you a little bit about this LFJ lady. She is tall and beautiful, she is healthy and fit, she is strong and she eats well. She doesn’t carry any of the physical traits of PCOS. When she heard this diagnosis she was super surprised. Were there things going on inside that were hinting to PCOS that she didn’t know about?

 On October 13th her period showed up! Her GP suggested a Day 3 blood test, which more accurately represents the LH/FSH numbers. After getting these results back (which were much more balanced and not indicative of PCOS) she decided to make an appointment to go see a Naturopath at the CCNM clinic to discuss how to move forward naturally.

The Naturopath’s interpretation of her results were that she might in fact be underweight for her height and not be processing fats properly. A low BMI can offset the super sensitive hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis which can cause irregular cycles. The Naturopath suggested seed cycling as well as including a few new vitamins and one herb to help regulate and regain her normal cycle.

 For the first half of her own cycle (starting on day 1 after her October 13 cycle) she was to take one tablespoon of pumpkin and flax seeds per day. For the second half of her cycle she was to take one tablespoon of flax and sunflower seeds per day. As well as this she was to take the herb Rhodiola Rosea (a herb known for it’s ability to help the body restore and normalize bodily functions). Almost a month to the day on November 11th, she got her cycle!

Along with the herbs and the seeds, she started to really monitor her body. She was taking her temperature and just becoming more aware on a daily basis of what was really going on. She said she really felt as though she could feel her cycle coming on which was huge considering it was such a shot in the dark before. Having that innate knowledge of your body is so powerful – one that really helps you to know yourself and can give you the confidence to not give up when you get frustrated. 

 I wanted to share this post with you not because I think this will work for everyone, but to show you that it can and does work for some people. I know I tried seed cycling but because I had a completely absent period the only way for me to really ‘gain’ a cycle was to use the moon for guidance. I feel as though I would have had to really stick with it as well as lunar cycling for at least six months to a year to see results. If I learned anything from her experience it’s that something like seed cycling is that much more effective when implemented on your own true cycle.

 Herbs and seeds can take a very long time to start working. It takes patience and energy to take the seeds every day and it’s not always the easiest but like I keep saying, when you’re ready to really focus on yourself and on your body, you’ll know what you need to do to help get yourself back to balance.