Shadowing Practice: Stop Letting Your Cycle Control Your Life | PMS & PMDD - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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If you have no idea why at certain points of the
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month you feel like you could burst into tears at any moment
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and then at other points of the month you feel absolutely
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fine then this video will not only help you understand exactly why
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that happens but give you actionable tips to implement into your own life from today to manage those symptoms
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and stop them controlling your life.
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If the luteal phase trend on TikTok has taught us anything it's
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that too many women are just accepting the negative consequences of having a menstrual cycle
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and letting them control their life and that might come in the form of brain fog, procrastination, low mood or even ruining relationships
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because you end up saying something you wouldn't normally say when you just feel so much more on edge.
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But that ends today
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because by the end of the video you'll be equipped to handle all these symptoms and why should you listen to me?
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Well my name's Faye, I am a doctor obsessed with women's health
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but not only that I have ADHD
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and women with ADHD are much more likely to experience PMS
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and PMDD and
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if you've never heard either of those acronyms before then do
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not worry by the end of the video you will be a pro.
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So without wasting too much time let's get straight into it.
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What is PMS and PMDD?
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PMS stands for premenstrual syndrome and PMDD stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
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There are lots of different studies on PMS and PMS likely affects about 50 % of women who get a cycle.
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I say this varies because it completely depends on the culture and the context.
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So for example France seems to be the country with the
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lowest rates of PMS at just 12 % whereas studies on Iran show
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that the amount of women who experience PMS is about 98 %
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and it's all those symptoms that as women we're just taught to grin
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and bear so low mood in the week
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or two weeks leading up to your cycle bloating tender breasts
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changes to your bowel habits irritability one of the most annoying symptoms for me personally is difficulty sleeping anxiety
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and essentially with PMS and PMDD the biggest factor
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when it comes to diagnosing these conditions is the impact it has on your life.
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So if any of these symptoms are stopping you from living your everyday life, that should not be considered normal.
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It is not normal to have to put your life on pause in the two weeks leading up to your period.
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And this is something that really bugs me about the luteal phase trend on TikTok.
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I think it just perpetrates this idea even further
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that women should just grin and bear it and there's no need for them to go seek medical help.
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It's just part and parcel of being a woman.
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And there are so many things that you can do to help with these symptoms.
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It doesn't need to just be taken as given.
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So that's PMS.
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PMDD is often considered PMS's more severe sister.
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And a lot of women with PMDD don't really like it being described as that because PMDD is a very, very, very serious condition.
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Some studies have shown
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that women with PMDD may be seven times more likely to
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end their own life by suicide than women without PMDD
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and I don't think anything that increases your risk of suicide by
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that much should ever be swept under the rug
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or taken as just part of being a woman
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but PMDD is essentially the symptoms of PMS
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that have more of an impact on someone's life so
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if you find at certain points of the month you are having arguments with your partner
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that you are just inconsolable like nothing they say
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or do can resolve that argument because your nervous system is
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so on edge and you just cannot seem to resolve that
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or if at certain points of the month you literally feel suicidal
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that is more likely to be pmdd
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but the most important thing is you go
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and see a doctor this is not a diagnosis
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that i can give you over a podcast
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but what i can do is make sure
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that you're aware of those symptoms and raise the alarm bell in your head that something is not right.
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And later in the episode we will be coming on to how to approach a doctor's appointment
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if you are worried that you've got PMS or PMDD
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because I think that is extremely important in this world of medical misogyny when often these symptoms are just dismissed.
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So when we think of the symptoms of PMS and PMDD we can separate them out into three different categories.
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So psychological, physical and behavioural.
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So psychological symptoms like mood swings, irritability, low mood, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed.
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What's really interesting is we have science to explain why these symptoms happen
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and I have no idea why this science is not more widely known
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because I for one know that if I understood
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the science of what was happening in my body when I was a teenager.
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I would not have blamed myself for all those days
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when I felt probably too depressed to get out of bed
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and go to school or arguments I had with people
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that felt really out of character that when I was at a different phase in my cycle, I looked back on and held a lot of shame against myself for those things.
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The next set of symptoms are the physical symptoms.
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So breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, back pain, weight changes, acne or digestive issues and the actionable tips that we're going to come on to later.
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Some of them target the psychological symptoms and others will help target the physical symptoms.
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Finally there are behavioural symptoms
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and my ADHD girlies out there this one is really for you
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because I know my brain fog in my luteal phase is de -habilitating.
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I feel like I cannot follow a single thread of thought often.
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So these symptoms are difficulty thinking clearly, even food cravings can be different in this phase.
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But what's really interesting is you can even be more accident prone.
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But before I come on to some actionable steps that are actually going to help you manage these symptoms, let's talk about my favourite thing in the entire world.
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Well, not really my favourite thing in the entire world
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because it causes me a lot of trouble every month
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but the most interesting topic in my head I find it
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so so so interesting and that is what is happening in your brain
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and your body for women with PMS and PMDD in their luteal phase
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so you probably already know in your menstrual cycle two really important hormones are estrogen
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and progesterone and
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if you don't know what the phases of the menstrual cycle
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are let's do a really really quick recap number one is the menstrual phase.
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So this is when you are bleeding, that's all I have to say on that one.
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The second phase is the follicular phase.
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This is just after your period and before you have ovulated.
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This is when oestrogen is climbing and you may feel more energized, more alert, like a better version of yourself.
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Then you ovulate, which is just where an egg is released, which is the third phase of the menstrual cycle, which brings us on to the luteal phase, which gets a really, really,
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really bad rep this is when progesterone is rising
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and estrogen is lower than in the follicular phase we have estrogen and progesterone
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and progesterone is broken down to a lot of things in the body one of those things is called allopregnolone
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and that is an important compound that i'm gonna need you to try
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and remember for just a couple moments now i want to talk about another compound in the body
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which you may not have ever even heard of
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and it really shocks me that more people do not know about this chemical
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because it is so so so important for your body's ability to relax and that is GABA.
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So GABA is your body's inbuilt chill switch and essentially
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when GABA binds onto GABA receptors it literally changes the amount of electrical activity
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that can happen within cells and when less electrical activity can happen within cells it literally relaxes your entire body.
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If you've ever had general anesthetic, so you've been put to sleep for a surgery or you've ever taken a benzodiazepine or even had a chamomile tea,
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you have taken substances that target the GABA receptor and have the aim of relaxing you.
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If that all seems a little bit complex, I want you to imagine your brain like a busy airport where GABA is like the air traffic controller. So
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when there are lots of planes circling it's getting very very
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very busy the air traffic controller is there saying you have
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to wait your turn you're not allowed to land right now
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we've got enough going on they are in control of making sure
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that there's not too much going on essentially now we need to come back to allopregnolone
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which is that product of progesterone the important hormone in the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle
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so allopregnolone binds to GABA receptors in the body.
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Now what's really interesting about this is in theory
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that should have a calming effect on our body
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but in women with PMS and PMDD it doesn't have the effect that we expect.
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This is where the science gets a little bit complicated.
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It doesn't seem to matter how much progesterone or oestrogen you have.
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What seems to matter in women with PMS and PMDD is the change in levels of progesterone and estrogen.
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What scientists think happens is the GABA system,
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so like your airport, has gotten used to a certain amount of allopregnolone.
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So like imagine that as planes.
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And suddenly there is a change in the number of planes and the GABA system cannot cope.
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So like a small local airport, not really knowing what to deal with the change in air traffic.
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So your Body's inbuilt chill switch it is not working properly.
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So that is why something might happen in work that on any other day would not make you react.
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In any sort of way, you'd be able to handle it and get on with the task at hand.
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But that same thing can happen in your loose heel phase
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and you may need to go lock yourself in a toilet and cry.
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Or your partner might do something that doesn't annoy you the rest of the month.
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But at that point of the month, you are so much more annoyed by it.
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And it's not just that they have become more annoying there is a physiological process going on
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that is preventing you from relaxing the same way
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that you would normally relax and it's not just the GABA system
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that is affected in women with PMS
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and PMDD you may have also heard of serotonin aka the happy hormone
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and that also might be a big factor for women who experience PMS
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and PMDD What I find most interesting about the involvement of serotonin in PMS
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and PMDD is the response time when we treat women with PMS and PMDD with SSRI antidepressants.
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SSRI antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which basically means that they increase the amount of serotonin, the happy hormone that is available.
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And SSRIs are antidepressants that are commonly prescribed to women with mood -related symptoms for PMS and PMDD.
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So if you've ever heard of fluoxetine, sertraline, these are all SSRI antidepressants.
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Now, when they're given in depression, they can take about two to six weeks to start working.
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When they are given in PMS and PMDD, they can take a couple of days to start working.
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So if there's anyone who has ever heard, oh, it must be that time of the month and had these low mood symptoms dismissed by someone,
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that difference in response shows us
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that there is a different process going on in our body between people who are depressed
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and people who have PMS and PMDD.
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That is not to say that depression is any less serious than PMS or PMDD.
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It's to say that we have evidence that this is just something different entirely.
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It also gives us hope that there are things
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that we can do to mitigate the effects of this low mood
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but I will come on to that a little bit later on.
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There's also some really incredible emerging evidence about the role of inflammation in PMS and PMDD
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and whenever I see the word inflammation on social media it does make me cringe a little bit
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because I think on social media at the moment it is
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being used as a blanket statement to just mean bad
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and inflammation is a much more complex topic than social media
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would let us believe like a lot of medical topics in general
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but we are seeing emerging evidence that there is increased levels of inflammation in women with PMS and PMDD.
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The last scientific topic that I want to cover
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when it comes to PMS
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and PMDD before I come on to the actionable steps is something
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that I think will really help you come to terms with
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maybe some experiences you might have had in your lucille phase in the past
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and maybe some guilt that you might hold for them
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because I know that there's a lot of things that I've done
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that I still hold a lot of guilt for and
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that is brain scans that have been done on women with PMS and PMDD.
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You may have heard of the prefrontal cortex.
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This is the area of the brain that is responsible for executive functioning.
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But I like to refer to it as the part of the brain that stops you from doing silly things.
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On brain scans of people with ADHD, they also have some changes in the area of the brain that stops them from doing silly things,
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the prefrontal cortex, which is why people with ADHD are far more likely to be impulsive, to have addictive personalities, you know,
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just do things that maybe people who don't have ADHD may not do.
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In PMS and PMDD, there looks to be less activity in the area of the brain
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that stops us from doing silly things.
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So for me on a personal level I know
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that I should not be allowed access to my credit card for the last two weeks of my cycle
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if I'm being completely honest.
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I notice a lot more impulsivity and a lot less forward thinking
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when it comes to making decisions that are sensible for future fae.
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The other really interesting difference on brain scans is increased activity in the amygdala.
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Now the amygdala is the emotional processing centre of the brain.
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So the part of the brain that is responsible for fear
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and anxiety which explains why during that last two weeks of your cycle you may literally feel more anxious.
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So when people say it's all in your head, yes arguably it but it is there on the brain scans in your head
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and hopefully that legitimizes those feelings
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that you might have been having for the last decade or
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so and had no idea why they happen
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so finally the community question what are the best ways to manage PMS and PMDD.
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So the first thing I will say to anyone, go and see your doctor.
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I love a herbal tea as much as the next girl.
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If you have PMDD and you are literally seven times more likely to kill yourself, that is not something that you should be managing with a supplement that someone is trying to sell you on the internet.
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And if I sound like I'm getting a little bit firm and stern with you,
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it is because I'm sick to death of seeing people on the internet try
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and flog vulnerable individuals products instead of encouraging them to seek medical help
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and oh my god i know that doctors can be
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so dismissive especially when it comes to women i have seen
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that firsthand myself and i know whenever i speak to any of my friends
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and they come to me with a medical problem
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and i tell them to go and see their doctor
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and they say to me what on earth is the point
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fate they're just going to turn me away they're just going to not take me seriously I know
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that that is a huge deterrent for people going to seek medical help
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but I promise there are some good ones out there
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that will listen to you will take you seriously
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and will offer you solutions that can actually help
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so please just go
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and see your doctor ideally go to your doctor with a symptom diary already
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that can speed up the process a lot
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because likely what the doctor will do is ask you to complete a symptom diary
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which does prolong the process and then you've got to book in another appointment
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and lord knows we all live busy lives
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and not everyone has time for that but
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if you can keep a symptom diary it doesn't need to be pens paper this isn't the
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1950s you can pop it down on the notes app on your phone just keep track of
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when your last menstrual cycle was how long it was for
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and then the symptoms you experience on a day -to -day basis there are
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so many apps that let you do this
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but the notes app on your phone is also perfectly fine i know
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if you've got like apple health
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or an apple watch you can literally export your menstrual cycle data as a pdf
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and just email that directly to your gp
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which is super super super helpful after you've kept a symptom diary the doctor will then take a thorough history
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and try and asserting whether it's pms or pmdd and the severity
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because also it depends on how severe the symptoms are what treatment is offered.
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One of the treatments the doctor might offer is SSRI antidepressants which I've spoken about.
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There are other antidepressants they might also offer you
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but another medication they might offer you and please don't roll your eyes when I say this is the combined contraceptive pill.
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I am a little bit passionate about this topic
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because the combined contraceptive pill gets a really really really bad reputation
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and for good reason in some ways I personally have had bad experiences on the combined pill
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and a lot of other hormonal birth control I know a lot of my friends have
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but this is the instance where I really really really hate the birth control pill online
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because for some women the birth control pill is a lifeline if you've had a bad experience with the birth control pill.
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I know that can seem completely alien and really difficult to understand but our bodies respond differently to hormones.
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Like the example I gave where allopregnolone should in theory cause a relaxation of the GABA system and it doesn't.
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It's an example of the body not always behaving in a linear way or for example benzodiazepines as a medication.
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In about 80 % of people these will have a relaxing calming effect
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and they also bind to a GABA receptor
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but in about 20 % of people it will have the
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completely opposite effect it will make people more anxious our bodies
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are not the same our bodies will have different reactions to the same medication
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and that's really important to keep in mind
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if you are someone who has PMS or PMDD
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and the doctor suggests the combined contraceptive pill and you've heard
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that your friends have had a bad reaction to
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that their experience is completely valid
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but I would just encourage you to keep an open mind
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because that might be what works for you and it might not
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and then you might go back to the doctor
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and say absolutely never again that was a whirlwind and I wish
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that we had better options than just giving women medications
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and seeing how they get on it's not fair to expect someone to just go away
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and check whether it makes them depressed
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or not it's not realistic we've all got things to be cracking on with with our life I personally know
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that I can't just take three months to check whether a birth control makes me depressed
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or not like that would put my life on pause
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and I hate that we do not have a better option to give women
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but that really is the best that we have and obviously
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if you're in a position where your cycles are completely limiting your life it's worth staying open to the options
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that might help but I haven't even said how the birth control pill works
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so where we know the levels of hormones of people with PMS and PMDD don't really differ.
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It's their to the change in these hormones.
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So by taking the combined birth control pill you're essentially keeping those hormone levels steady so there isn't these big fluctuations,
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these ups and downs that can trigger these changes in mood.
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So that's the theory.
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Doesn't always work.
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I think it works for about 50 % of women and if it doesn't that's fine.
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There's also no shame in going back to your doctor and saying that was absolutely not for me.
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Those are the most common medical treatments available but there are other options
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and new emerging treatments that I won't get into
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but you can discuss with your doctor if the first two maybe don't work.
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There are also lifestyle changes that you can make
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and the first one I know is not going to make you happy
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and I promise I don't want to sound like a preachy doctor on the internet
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and I'm sure you've heard it before but reduce alcohol.
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There was this really interesting meta -analysis that was done in 2018
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that looked at 19 different studies so huge huge numbers of participants
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and it suggested that we could potentially prevent 1 in 12 PMS cases in Europe
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which is an area where there is a lot of drinking by reducing our alcohol intake.
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Alcohol also affects our serotonin and GABA systems so
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if you've ever experienced anxiety the day after a heavy night
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of drinking you will have experienced the impact alcohol has on your GABA system
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that anxious overthinking on edge sensation
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that is similar to what a lot of women experience in their lucille phase
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so I'm sorry to say it cutting down alcohol should be top of your list.
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Another important thing that I do not think enough women know is
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that during your lucille phase you may actually burn an extra
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300 calories this may be why we end up having these extra cravings
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and personally I know that when I'm not eating enough I do definitely get quite hangry.
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So during my luteal phase I like to ideally add on maybe one to two extra snacks in the day.
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Best if those snacks are complex carbohydrates because there's some weak evidence
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that complex carbs can contribute to the production of tryptophan and tryptophan is essential basically for serotonin production.
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The evidence isn't brilliant but making sure that you are eating enough of good nutritious food is pretty solid advice for anything.
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In terms of supplements we have really strong evidence for calcium supplementation
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and vitamin b6 supplementation however with b6 supplementation there is a very fine line
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that can tip you into having too much and
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that can have really serious consequences
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so with any supplementation it's really important to see whether you are deficient first of all
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and have that guided by a doctor
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because one of the biggest issues i see personally on social media is this idea
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that supplements are completely benign and harmless supplements can do real damage
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when they are not used appropriately
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and you don't want to be causing more issues for your health in an effort to prevent these health issues
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that you're dealing with final point on lifestyle is reducing stress
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now how on earth do you reduce stress in this world
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that is constantly go go go
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and it feels like stress is worn as a badge of honour
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but I think with stress it's really important to remember that a little bit of stress is good, a little bit of stress keeps us motivated.
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What I find helps me manage my stress is keeping stress and chill time segregated.
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So first thing in the morning I kind of want to be a little bit stressed, I want to plough through my to -do list but
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when it comes to 5pm I want to be able to shut my laptop, switch off completely, turn on Netflix, have my chamomile tea and set my body
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and my brain on this slow relaxing trajectory towards my bedtime
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so I can get into bed and I'm not thinking about all these different things
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that are happening in the day
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and also I don't expect my brain to just immediately switch off when I expect it to.
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Our brains are not an on and off switch.
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You need to give yourself time to relax, to unwind, to get rid of the stress is from the day,
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whether that is relaxing with your chamomile tea or getting your energy out with some exercise.
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And look, I know it can all sound very fluffy and woo -woo saying reduce your stress.
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If you are struggling with PMS or PMDD, if there's one stat I want you to take away
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that could motivate you to try and make a change with your stress, it's 92 % of studies reviewed found stress is a predictor of PMS or PMDD,
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which is pretty striking as a percentage
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so we've spoken all about what pms is what happens
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and actionable steps you can take to try
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and minimize the effects in your own life
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but you might want to know more about cortisol regulation
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which is super important when it comes to stress management
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or even nervous system regulation and you can find both of those videos on screen now
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if you enjoyed the video please don't forget to like comment
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subscribe i hope you have a wonderful wonderful wonderful week and i will see you in the next video
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63 sentences
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 341 sentences and 4479 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:48. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| symptom noun | /ˈsɪm(p)təm/ | A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a… |
| pill noun | /pɪl/ | A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication. |
| mood noun | /muːd/ | A mental or emotional state, composure. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| hormone noun | /ˈhoɹmoʊn/ | Any substance produced by one tissue and conveyed by the bloodstream to another to effect physiological activity. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| essentially adverb | /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/ | In essence: by nature. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| medication noun | /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/ | A medicine, or all the medicines regularly taken by a patient. |
| depressed adjective | /dɪˈpɹɛst/ | Unhappy; despondent. |
| diary noun | /ˈdaɪ.ə.ɹi/ | A daily log of experiences, especially those of the writer. |
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| supplement noun | /ˈsʌp.lɪ.mənt/ | Something added; especially, such an addition added to make up for a deficiency. |
| receptor noun | /ɹɪˈsɛp.tə/ | A protein on a cell wall that binds with specific molecules so that they can be absorbed into the cell in order to control certain functions. |
| inflammation noun | /ɪnfləˈmeɪ̯ʃən/ | The state of being inflamed. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come on to verb | To start to. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| lead up to verb | To set in motion; to act as a causal or preparatory event or sequence of events. |
| switch off verb | To stop or disable a device by turning a switch or a lever. |
| cut down verb | To cut downward. |
| get on with verb | To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has taught · you've never heard · have shown |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be equipped · should not be considered · be taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | women who get · women who experience · ovulate, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 65 contractions and reduced forms, such as you've, don't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, inflammation /ɪnfləˈmeɪ̯ʃən/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, inflammation /ɪnfləˈmeɪ̯ʃən/, psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like symptom, pill, mood.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.