Читать книгу Brain Fitness for Women - Sondra Kornblatt - Страница 33

In our teens, we begin making the monthly menstrual-hormone journey, a voyage of the body and the brain. You're familiar with the route:

 It starts with the irritation and/or relief of your period …

 moves into the “just fine” weeks that follow …

 may encounter a cramp or ache during ovulation …

 then goes through the week or two that ranges from just fine to the hell of PMS, until you reach …

 the irritation and/or relief of your period.

Such is life for most women for forty years, starting in the preteen or early teen years.

Here's the map of what's happening within your body and brain during the trip.

In the follicular phase, before ovulation, your body pumps up follicles (cavities in the ovary containing the immature egg) with the aptly named follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH). Both endorphin and estrogen levels are high, giving a real boost to neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. The result? You feel pretty good.

The follicles get all pumped and tell the ovary to release the egg, about fourteen days after the first day of the previous period. Estrogen rapidly spikes and drops during ovulation, and it seems to prime your sensitivity to the next drop in estrogen a few days before your period.⁷³

The egg begins its journey down the fallopian tubes and begins the luteal phase, when the body prepares a home for a possible fertilized egg. During the first part of the luteal phase, the scar (corpus luteum) on the ovary where the egg used to live produces estrogen and progesterone to care for the egg, if it's fertilized.

Estrogen refreshes and recharges cells and areas of your brain, which helps you be more socially relaxed, sharper, and steadier on the emotional level. Progesterone helps the brain by boosting the receptors to enhance GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), a neurotransmitter that slows down or calms the nervous system in the brain, which can help reduce anxiety.