The Cyclist

What if the key to your mental health, fertility, and longevity was sitting quietly in one hormone most women have never been taught to protect?
In this episode, Jess sits down with Francesca Lyon, degree-qualified Naturopath and Medical Herbalist from Auckland, now based in Amsterdam, and Director of Nutrition at Future Woman, a UK-based at-home hormone testing company. Francesca has spent over 13 years specialising in women's health, hormones, fertility, PCOS and perimenopause, and this conversation is one of the most wide-ranging and genuinely eye-opening we've had on The Cyclist.
It starts with progesterone, the hormone Francesca is perhaps most passionate about, and why protecting ovulation is the single most impactful thing a woman can do for her mental health, sleep, pain levels, brain health and longevity. 
She explains what happens when progesterone breaks down in the body, how it communicates with GABA, our calming neurotransmitter, and why so many women in their 30s experiencing anxiety, rage, sleep disruption and low mood are being handed anxiety medication when what they actually need is more progesterone.
Francesca shares her own story of burnout, cystic acne, a miscarriage, and a brain AVM, an arteriovenous malformation, that was diagnosed after she developed daily debilitating migraines two weeks postpartum. She had suspected the AVM for years before her diagnosis, having studied them in her psychology degree and had a gut feeling she had one, only to be told not to be silly. The moment she was finally diagnosed, her first thought was: I told you.
They go deep into miscarriage, what Francesca believes about why they happen, why she would never wait for three before investigating, and what she thinks about the deeply underfunded and underinvestigated space of pregnancy loss. She talks honestly about the grief of a lost pregnancy, the anxiety of trying again, and the client she worked with who had eight miscarriages in a year before a progesterone deficiency was finally identified and addressed.
The conversation moves through PCOS, which Francesca believes is reversible in every case when the root drivers are properly investigated, and endometriosis, which she approaches as an autoimmune and inflammatory condition, often triggered by a microbial infection. She shares her views on the gluten and dairy question for endo, the link between environmental toxins and PCOS, and why unexplained infertility is really just uninvestigated infertility.
There's also a genuinely practical section on sleep, two of Francesca's top sleep hygiene tips for hormone health, and an honest conversation about the food noise and control that can come with managing a condition like endometriosis, and when the stress of avoiding a food is worse than just eating it.
Francesca is also co-founder of Future Woman, an at-home hormone testing service using the Dutch test, with expert interpretation and a personalised protocol included, making comprehensive hormone testing accessible without the cost of multiple practitioner appointments.
Find Francesca at flnaturopathy.com and Future Woman at future-woman.com
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Instagram: @wearethecyclist
Website: wearethecyclist.com
Hit play. Your hormones have been trying to tell you something. This episode might be the one that finally makes it click.

We're closing out our period pain miniseries the way it started. With a real story.
In the final episode of the Period Pain Mini Series, Jess sits down with Ella, founder of Els Lovers, a New Zealand-made brand creating wearable heat packs designed specifically for endometriosis and period pain relief. 
Ella takes us right back to the beginning to a musical theatre rehearsal camp, three days before her 14th birthday, when her very first period arrived and brought her to her knees. From that day forward, eight-day heavy periods, severe pain, and chronic exhaustion became her norm. Because her mum had always suffered the same way, Ella assumed that's just how it was for her too.
What followed was years of dismissed symptoms, a GP who attributed her chronically low iron to her plant-based diet rather than the blood she was losing every month, and a gynaecologist at family planning who told her that heavy periods were an opinion. It wasn't until a nutritionist connected the dots, low iron, low B12, IBS-like symptoms, painful heavy periods, and said the word endometriosis, that Ella finally had somewhere to start.
She shares what it took to push for her diagnosis, what her endometriosis surgery in February 2024 actually involved, and why the year and a half she spent with a Mirena afterwards was the most painful of her life and how trusting her body and getting it removed was the decision that finally started turning things around.
Ella also opens up about having to leave her first full-time job out of university at just 21 because her pain had become too unpredictable to manage, and how that painful chapter led her to create Els Lovers. Handmade in Aotearoa from 100% natural cotton, Els heat packs were born out of Ella's own search for something wide enough, long enough, and weighted enough to actually wrap around the places that hurt.
This is the episode we want every young woman who is quietly pushing through to hear. Because how the hell are you supposed to know if your period pain isn't normal if nobody is talking about it?
This is episode five of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now.
Find Ella and Els Lovers at elslovers.com or on Instagram @elslovers
Follow and connect Instagram: @wearethecyclist Website: wearethecyclist.com
Hit play. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, send it to them.

Your pain is real. And your brain is trying to protect you.
In episode four of our period pain miniseries, Jess sits down with Andy Leggat,  registered Health Psychologist and Fertility Counsellor with over 15 years of clinical experience, for one of the most validating conversations we've had on this podcast. 
Andy is a returning Cyclist guest, and if you haven't heard her first episode on the emotional side of infertility, we'd highly recommend going back to that one too.
If you've ever been told your pain is in your head, been referred to a psychologist and felt confused or even insulted by that, or spent years quietly gaslighting yourself into thinking you're just not coping, this episode is for you.
Andy explains why psychological care isn't the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff when it comes to period pain. It's a core part of the picture. She breaks down how the brain actually processes pain, not as a simple tissue-based experience, but as a deeply contextual one shaped by the nervous system, past experiences, trauma, environment, and the relationship we have with our own bodies. Two people with the exact same diagnosis can experience pain in completely different ways, and this conversation explains why.
They get into pain memory and how significant pain experiences shape future ones, the cyclical nature of anticipatory anxiety around periods, and why years of chronic dismissal, from doctors, from family, from ourselves, can create deeply entrenched thought patterns that spill over into health anxiety, hypervigilance, and conditions like panic disorder. Jess shares honestly that this conversation hit close to home, describing how she was body scanning and messaging her husband in a spiral just minutes before they sat down to record.
Andy unpacks self-gaslighting, what it is, why it's concerningly common, and why it makes complete sense when you've spent years being told your pain is normal. She talks about the grief that quietly sits underneath chronic pain, the grief of missed career milestones, changed relationships, and lost trust in your own body, and why naming it as grief can be one of the most validating things a person can do.
There's practical guidance throughout, too. How to navigate period pain conversations in the workplace, how to raise children who feel safe talking about their bodies without amplifying anxiety, and exactly what a first session with a health psychologist looks like so there are no surprises before you walk in the door.
This is episode four of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now.
Follow and connect
Instagram: @wearethecyclist
Website: wearethecyclist.com
Hit play. Your body is working hard to keep you safe. This episode will help you understand how.
Listen to Andy’s episode, Infertility Unfiltered: The Emotional Side of Infertility with Psychologist Andy Leggat
Here’s the link to it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1S5M8ob4zVC0kDGi1J44wi

Your pelvic floor has more to do with your period pain than you might think.
In episode three of our period pain miniseries, Jess is joined by Caitlin Fris, pelvic health physio, founder of Unity Studios, The Cyclist's resident pelvic health expert, and the woman behind @thevaginaphysio on Instagram. 
Caitlin has been on the podcast before and if you haven't heard her first episode, Pelvic Health Demystified: Pain, Pleasure & Power, we'd highly recommend going back to that one too.
This conversation starts with something deceptively simple, the term "painful periods", and why Caitlin thinks it does a disservice to everyone who experiences them. When the language we use doesn't capture the full picture, it becomes easier for symptoms to be dismissed, minimised or misunderstood. And that has real consequences.
Caitlin shares her own experience of uterine fibroids and the moment she dropped to the ground mid-Pilates class, flooded with blood and excruciating pain, and why that moment changed how she thinks about the language around period pain entirely. 
She explains what normal period pain looks like versus what warrants investigation, and why the addition of symptoms like painful sex, bladder pain, or bowel pain alongside period pain should always prompt further investigation.
We get into what a pelvic health physio assessment actually looks like from start to finish,  so there are no surprises before you walk in, and why the majority of that first hour is simply talking. 
Caitlin explains the central sensitisation picture, how the nervous system gets turned up in volume after months or years of chronic pain, and why that's not weakness or drama, it's biology. She also walks us through the connection between a hypertonic pelvic floor and period pain, explaining how up to 70% of people with endometriosis will experience pelvic floor dysfunction, and why learning to relax the pelvic floor is often much harder than learning to contract it.
There's also a beautifully simple breathwork exercise in this episode that Caitlin takes us through live, something anyone can do at home, including a visualisation technique involving a rosebud that we won't spoil here.
They also go deep on painful sex, how it presents, what structures might be involved, when it's entry pain versus deep pain, and why even one negative experience can set up a pain cycle that takes time and the right support to unwind. 
And Caitlin finishes with honest advice for anyone who has been told their pain is normal when it really doesn't feel that way: get a second opinion, write everything down, and find someone who will actually listen.
This is episode three of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now.
Find Caitlin at Unity Studios or follow her on Instagram @thevaginaphysio. She's also listed on The Cyclist's practitioner directory at wearethecyclist.com.
Follow and connect Instagram: @wearethecyclist Website: wearethecyclist.com
Hit play. Your pelvic floor will thank you.
Listen to Caitlin’s episode, Pelvic Health Demystified: Pain, Pleasure & Power with Caitlin Fris 
Here’s the link to it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PMxhbNRBoKocQifgy4QC9

What if the answers to your period pain have been hiding in your gut, your diet, and your environment all along?
In episode two of our period pain miniseries, Jess sits down with Loula George, one of New Zealand's most respected naturopaths, with over 30 years of experience specialising in women's health. Loula is the kind of practitioner whose name gets whispered in reverent tones across the women's health community, and after this conversation, it's easy to understand why.
Loula opens up about how she found her way into naturopathy, from a childhood in a traditional Greek family where food and herbs were medicine, to an ecology degree, to a chance encounter with a naturopathy prospectus on a coffee table at 28 that changed everything. Three decades later, she says it's the women themselves who have taught her everything she knows.
This conversation covers a lot of ground. Loula explains exactly where naturopathy sits within the broader women's health landscape, why the time and depth of a naturopathic consultation can uncover things a 10-minute GP appointment simply cannot, and why she sees her role as much about education and advocacy as it does about treatment.
She walks us through the naturopathic view of period pain, how the gut, hormones, stress, pelvic floor, trauma, and genetic factors can all play a role, and why the estrobolome (the bacteria responsible for estrogen metabolism in the gut) is one of the most important and undertalked pieces of the period pain puzzle. We get into the histamine connection with endometriosis, the foods that consistently aggravate inflammation, and why gluten and dairy elimination doesn't have to be forever, just long enough to find your individual triggers.
Loula also shares the herbs and nutrients she returns to again and again for period pain, including magnesium, PEA, Don Quai, Motherworth, and Ashwagandha, and explains how to know when supplements are working and how long to stay on them. She gives her honest view on the contraceptive pill as a first-line treatment for period pain, and why putting teenage girls on the pill before their endocrine system has even fully developed can create a whole other set of problems down the track.
We also go deep on endocrine disrupting chemicals, plastics, non-stick cookware, synthetic fragrances, polyester clothing, and why the load of these in our everyday environment matters more than most of us realise. Kat recommends the Netflix documentary My Plastic Detox, which follows six fertility-struggling couples and shows just how measurably reducing plastic exposure can shift the picture.
This is episode two of five of The Cyclist's period pain miniseries. All episodes are available now.
Find Loula George and her team at their Auckland clinic. Loula is also listed on The Cyclist's practitioner directory at wearethecyclist.com.
Follow and connect
Instagram: @wearethecyclist
Website: wearethecyclist.com
Hit play. Your body has been trying to tell you something. This episode might help you understand what.