The 5 Hormones Every Woman Needs to Understand to Truly Thrive

How to eat, train, and live in sync with your biology to feel vibrant, energised, and empowered — all month long.

Most women are taught to either fear their hormones or ignore them completely — until something goes wrong.

We're told mood swings, fatigue, bloating, cravings, and painful periods are “just part of being a woman.” But I want to flip that narrative. Your hormones aren’t the enemy — they’re powerful messengers. When you understand them, nourish them, and move in alignment with them, everything in your life starts to shift.

You feel stronger, more energised, more in tune with your body — and less like you're fighting against it every day.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through the five hormones every woman should understand and how to support them through intentional nutrition, training, and lifestyle habits.

1. Estrogen: Your Confidence and Clarity Hormone

Estrogen is one of the most well-known hormones — and for good reason. It plays a huge role in regulating your menstrual cycle, but also affects your brain, bones, metabolism, skin, and mood.

When estrogen is in balance:

You feel confident, clear-headed, emotionally stable, and energised. Your skin glows. Your libido is humming. You feel strong and capable in your workouts.

When it’s too high:

You might notice bloating, sore breasts, mood swings, heavy periods, and stubborn weight gain (especially around the hips and thighs).

When it’s too low:

You may experience brain fog, fatigue, dry skin, vaginal dryness, anxiety, and low libido.

🧘‍♀️ How to support estrogen naturally:

Eat cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale) to help your liver detoxify excess estrogen.
Include quality protein and healthy fats — they’re essential for hormone production.
Move your body regularly with strength-based training to build muscle and keep estrogen balanced.

2. Progesterone: Your Inner Calm and Sleep Support

Progesterone is your body’s natural anti-anxiety hormone. It kicks in after ovulation and is responsible for preparing your body for pregnancy (whether you’re trying or not). It also helps regulate sleep, mood, and inflammation.

When progesterone is low:

You may feel anxious, irritable, struggle to sleep, or notice spotting before your period.

Stress is a massive factor here. Chronic stress depletes progesterone because your body prioritises making cortisol (your stress hormone) over it.

🌙 How to support progesterone:

Manage stress with tools like breathwork, journaling, or gentle movement.
Prioritise magnesium-rich foods like dark chocolate, leafy greens, seeds, and whole grains.
Avoid under-eating — especially in your luteal phase. Your body needs more calories during this time.

3. Testosterone: The Forgotten Strength Builder

Yes — women do produce testosterone. And while we make far less of it than men, it’s still crucial for maintaining lean muscle, boosting libido, sharpening focus, and feeling confident.

Signs of low testosterone:

Low motivation
Weak muscle tone or trouble building muscle
Flat mood or low libido

Signs of high testosterone (often linked to PCOS):

Acne
Hair thinning on your head and/or unwanted hair elsewhere
Irregular cycles

🏋️‍♀️ How to support healthy testosterone levels:

Focus on strength training — lifting weights helps increase and stabilise testosterone naturally.
Eat enough calories and protein to support recovery and hormone health.
Balance blood sugar (more on that below) to prevent spikes that may drive up testosterone in some women.

4. Insulin: The Blood Sugar Regulator

Insulin is responsible for moving glucose (sugar) from your bloodstream into your cells for energy. When your body becomes less sensitive to insulin (a condition called insulin resistance), it leads to unstable blood sugar, fatigue, inflammation, and weight gain — and can impact all your other hormones.

Women with PCOS often have insulin resistance, but it’s incredibly common in women across the board — especially during high-stress or high-sugar periods.

🥑 How to support insulin:

Eat balanced meals that include protein, healthy fats, fibre, and slow-digesting carbs.
Avoid skipping meals — it leads to blood sugar crashes and hormone stress.
Move your body — walking, strength training, and even yoga improve insulin sensitivity.

5. Cortisol: The Stress Hormone That Steals the Show

Cortisol isn’t “bad” — you need it to wake up in the morning and respond to danger. But in our constantly on-the-go, over-caffeinated world, cortisol is often too high for too long.

And when that happens? It hijacks your entire hormone system — stealing from progesterone, driving blood sugar instability, and slowing down your metabolism.

☕ How to balance cortisol:

Get 7–9 hours of sleep each night and aim for consistent bed/wake times.
Limit caffeine (especially on an empty stomach).
Integrate nervous system regulation practices — walks in nature, breathwork, journaling, or simply doing less.
Adjust your workouts — if you're exhausted or in your luteal/menstrual phase, high-intensity training may increase cortisol more than it helps.

The Power of Living in Sync With Your Cycle

Now that you know what these hormones do and how they impact your life — here’s the truth: they don’t operate in isolation. They shift and flow across your menstrual cycle.

That’s why training, eating, and living in sync with your cycle is the most powerful thing you can do for your health as a woman.

Syncing your training and nutrition can look like:

Menstrual phase (Day 1–5): Gentle movement on the heavy bleed days, warm foods, rest
Follicular phase (Day 6–13): Build strength, experiment with new routines, eat lighter, vibrant meals
Ovulation (Day 14–16): Peak energy — go heavy or high intensity, enjoy fresh whole foods and healthy carbs
Luteal phase (Day 17–28): Lower intensity training if needed, focus on recovery, eat grounding, hearty meals

This is the framework we follow inside my Cycle Sync Club — a supportive space to help you align your training and eating with your hormonal flow, rather than fighting it.

TAKE ME TO THE CLUB

Your hormones aren’t something to fight, suppress, or fear.They’re powerful, beautiful messengers that — when supported — allow you to feel vibrant, connected, and deeply empowered.

You weren’t meant to feel flat, burnt out, or out of sync.You were meant to thrive.Let your hormones lead the way.

💌 Want Support?

✨ Join the Cycle Sync Club and learn how to train, eat, and live in harmony with your cycle.👉CLICK HERE

🎁 Download my Free Cycle Sync Guide to start syncing your lifestyle with your hormones today.👉 CLICK HERE

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