My worst periods lined up with my most stressful months

Megan · 27 September 2026

When I first started tracking my cycle, I noticed that my worst months, the ones with the most pain and where I felt completely wiped out, often came after a very stressful few weeks.

I had never really directly correlated stress and my period.

It builds up

I want to be really clear here, because this isn’t about saying your pain is your fault. It isn’t. But what I’ve learnt is that the pain I felt when I bled wasn’t a reaction to what I’d done that day, or even that week. It was a build-up of lots of things over my whole cycle.

Stress also looked really different for me at different times, and I’ve noticed two kinds.

The first is the more obvious one. When I’ve been running around like crazy, travelling a lot, lots of work events and meetings, literally not able to catch my breath, anyone looking at me would have said “Megan, you look stressed”.

The second is maybe not so obvious. I might not be running around at all, and from the outside I look fine. But inside I’m overthinking one thing over and over. For example, when my freelance work has dried up and I’ve needed to find more.

So if you’re reading this thinking “I’m not that busy though”, there are so many things that can stress us out. I remember listening to a podcast a long time ago where someone talked about all the little micro-stressors in our lives (and this was way before the chaotic, non-stop stress machine that is social media really took off), from the alarm in the morning, to burning the toast and then tripping over the rogue shoe someone left in the most stupid place possible (!).

It’s impossible to avoid stress and it’s not all bad, it is just nice to give our mind (and body) a chance to re-regulate every so often, as whether we like it or not between the burnt toast, the social media scroll and the slack DM, it is always building up.

I came across this quote from Epictetus (a Stoic philosopher, nearly 2,000 years ago!):

Ouch. But fair. And it could not be MORE relevant today. Care for and nourish your mind as you would your body, don’t let stress and other influences harm it.

It’s not just me

There’s research on this too. In one study, 388 women kept daily diaries, and the ones who were really stressed in one cycle were more than twice as likely to have painful periods in the next. And interestingly, stress in the first half of their cycle mattered more than stress in the days just before their period, which is exactly the build-up I’m talking about. For women who already had painful periods and were highly stressed, the risk was about ten times higher than for women with low stress and no history of painful periods.

Another study of 259 women found those with high stress were two to four times more likely to have moderate or severe symptoms around their period.

This doesn’t prove stress causes the pain, and it probably works both ways too (being in pain is stressful in itself!). It’s also rarely the only thing going on. But what is the harm in some mind-nourishing, stress-reducing time?

What I do now

I’ve blocked out time in my calendar every morning to do at least five minutes of breathwork or meditation. Some days I manage fifteen, but five is my minimum.

I use Insight Timer, which is FREE. There are loads of breathwork sessions and meditations, and some are even matched to different phases of your cycle. I’ve got my cycle in my calendar with Nadi (it’s literally why I built it), so I know which one to pick. Here are a few I cycle specific options:

• Follicular/ovulatory phase (after your bleed): https://insig.ht/MdAOGp0nM6b
• Luteal phase (before you bleed): https://insig.ht/tFP9Ps8nM6b
• Period (during your bleed): https://insig.ht/eOsRa29nM6b

Did it work?

This is my cumulative stress from my Oura ring (it’s the ring’s estimate from my heart rate and other variables) after doing 19 days in a row of breathwork/meditation:

The only thing I changed in that time was committing to doing breathwork or meditation once a day.

And my periods? I have had months without pain, which I honestly never thought would happen. But I can’t put that down to breathwork on its own. It’s come from lots of different things working together over time (more on that at the end). What I have noticed is that how bad my symptoms are tends to follow how stressed I was in the cycle before, and it is a clear part of the puzzle.

Try this

Just do five minutes tomorrow morning. One breathwork session or one meditation, that’s it.

And if the morning runs away from you (it happens!), do your five minutes just before bed instead. That’s my backup too, and it really helps me get a restful sleep (there are specific restful sleep options on Insight Timer too).

If you use Insight Timer, it tracks how many days in a row you’ve done it, a bit like Duolingo. That little streak has kept me going more than once!

Also please get rid of the idea that you have to be a monk, or someone with a 10-step morning routine, or a health-maxxer, to be able to meditate. Take 5 mins to yourself to just listen to the track.

Where this fits

Stress is just one part of a bigger picture that’s slowly come together for me over the last few years. I’ve started drawing it out and I’m going to add to it with each email, so it gets a bit more detailed each time:

It all starts with understanding your cycle. Then on top of that:

1. My mind: stress and looking after my nervous system
2. What I put in my body: food, supplements (if any) and water
3. What I put on and around my body: skincare, products and my home

Today was my mind. Next time I’ll pick one of the other two.

Which one should I do next?

Hit reply and just say “in” (what I put in my body) or “on” (what I put on and around my body). I read every reply and I’ll go with whatever most of you say.

Megan

I’m not a doctor, I’m purely sharing my journey and what’s worked for me. If any part of your cycle is particularly hard or debilitating for you or you’re worried about your stress, please seek out a specialist (and take any cycle tracking you have done with you, as it can be a great help and proof point for your conversation).