Topic Guide
What Is Hormonal health?
Hormonal health is a subject covered in depth across 2 podcast episodes in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Hormonal health
Four pillars of sexual health
Dr. Reena Malik's framework for optimizing sexual function, comprising Fuel (nutrition), Strength (cardiovascular, resistance, and pelvic floor exercise), Environment (stress, sleep, chemicals, social influences, porn), and Confidence (knowledge, curiosity, communication, exploration). These pillars form the foundational 'house' of sexual health.
Sensate focus
A therapeutic technique used to reduce performance anxiety during sex. It involves intentionally removing the pressure of penetration and instead focusing on exploring each other's bodies and non-genital erogenous zones, allowing arousal and erections to occur naturally without direct demand.
Pelvic floor muscles
A group of muscles forming a 'bowl' within the pelvis that support organs and are crucial for sexual function. They contract rhythmically during orgasm and ejaculation, but can become tense due to stress or injury, leading to pain, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, or arousal difficulties.
C tactile afferents
Special nerve fibers on the skin that respond specifically to slow, gentle human touch (around 3 cm per second). Stimulating these fibers in erogenous zones outside of the genitals enhances feelings of pleasure and sexual arousal, highlighting the unique importance of human touch over mechanical stimulation.
Coital alignment technique (cat)
A specific sexual technique where partners move in a rocking motion, aligning their pubic symphysis (pelvic bone) to rub against the clitoris during penetration. This technique has been shown to increase orgasm rates and pleasure for women by providing more direct and consistent clitoral stimulation.
What Experts Say About Hormonal health
- 1.An irregular menstrual cycle is a significant red flag for underlying hormonal health issues or systemic problems.
- 2.Consistent irregularity, not just an occasional abnormal month, is a clear sign that something is amiss with your body's systems.
- 3.If you cannot predict when your cycle will come or if it consistently occurs every four to six weeks, it is considered irregular and warrants attention.
- 4.Modern contraceptive options often lead women to not track their cycles, causing a lack of awareness about their natural hormonal patterns and potential dysfunctions.
- 5.Tracking your cycle, especially knowing when ovulation occurs and the length of your luteal phase, is crucial for identifying early signs of ovulatory dysfunction.
- 6.People who have sex once a week live 49% longer than those who have sex once a year, highlighting a strong correlation between sexual activity and longevity [00:39].