Dr. Tamsin Lewis: Regaining Menstruation, Breastfeeding for Athlete Moms, Postpartum Performance and More
December 28, 2016Sponsor:
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On this episode with Dr. Tamsin Lewis of Curoseven, we dive deeper into female issues, how to be a healthy fertile female athlete and Q&A:
- Tawnee shares personal details about regaining her menstruation once she made the decision to stop being such a hard-hitting athlete, and the time it took for her periods to normalize.
- The value of tracking your female health and cycles.
- Tamsin shares more of her story from pro triathlete to regaining health and her pregnancy.
- Depending on the situation, normalizing one’s period after years of amenorrhea can take time, even years.
- A crucial variable in proper HPA axis function and healthy hormones for a normal cycle is energy availability (how much you have once you subtract energy expenditure from energy intake).
- Questions from female athletes:
- Competitive female endurance athlete wants to start a family with her husband. She recently stopped taking the pill and hasn’t gotten a period back yet. Is it normal for a woman’s body to take time to readjust after being on the pill for so long or is there potentially a deeper issue to address?
- Are there certain tests to determine if there are underlying problems?
- Scale back on exercise (and if so to what extent)?
- Supplementing? Thorne Basic Prenatal and what else to be healthy before baby?
- Breastfeeding while training and racing an Ironman – are there special considerations? Was very active during pregnancy, so this is not too much of a new extreme.
- Bouncing back to great fitness postpartum – faster than before! But what can female athlete moms expect as far as performance after weaning and hormones regulating?
- Does breastfeeding or not breastfeeding (i.e. the hormones) influence performance?
Comments (2)
I found this episode EXTREMELY helpful not only to myself but to my female athletes who are very scared to gain weight in order to have a family. It become so obsessive to keep up with race times as well as a certain number on the scale! Thanks so much. ( oh and I have listened to all of Tamsin's interviews and love them all! )
Hi! I'm Meridith and my question was discussed toward the end of this podcast. Thanks so much! I wanted to follow up to say that I did get my period at the beginning of January 2017 at 14 months postpartum. I also ran my marathon in January and hit sub 3 with a 2:58! 🙂 I'm currently at 19 months postpartum and still breastfeeding without any issues with my training or period regularity. Thanks so much for providing resources to women and mommas!