People have found a name for the moodiest part of the menstrual cycle, and the right has seized on it. Emily Rae Detrick, a health coach, is urging women to become more aware of their cycles in full, while using the luteal phase as part of a broader Maha message about women’s bodies, fertility and “natural” health.
In an October episode of Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, a podcast popular among “Make America Healthy Again” adherents, Detrick said the approach is “a way that you honor God and the way we were created”. She also linked it to her self-assigned mission to help “make America fertile again”.
What is the luteal phase?
In the episode and on social media, Detrick speaks at length about the luteal phase, the 14-ish days between ovulation and menstruation when women are more likely to experience irritability, bloating and food cravings. If a woman does not get pregnant after ovulating, or so Detrick’s line of thinking goes, her body becomes upset.
“During the luteal phase, the reason why your stress threshold is so much lower is because this is the time your body would be incubating a potential baby,”
No baby, and you might turn into a frazzled, nagging shrew.
This interpretation may sound retrograde, recalling ancient medical theories of female hysteria or wandering wombs. Plato wrote that a childless woman ultimately goes mad because of her angry, empty uterus. But for some women, the luteal phase — a real scientific term — has become a catchall for feminine malaise.
Thousands of TikTok posts are tagged “#lutealphase”, with women sharing memes and humorous videos about temperament changes during this period. One woman wrote:
“I won’t tell anyone I’m in my luteal phase but there will be signs,”
alongside a closeup of her blistering acne. In another video, a woman washes dishes at home. Her husband comes up to give her a light, affectionate butt slap. She shouts, recoils and sprays him with soap. Blame it on her luteal.
The clip has almost 100,000 likes. One comment reads:
“I don’t even want to be PERCEIVED during my luteal phase,”
and a man responded:
“I don’t think my wife ever gets out of her luteal phase.”
Google searches for “luteal phase” have risen 300% in the past five years, likely because of these kinds of videos. Other popular searches include “luteal phase workout” — low impact cardio, pilates and yoga are good for stress management, according to infographics — “luteal phase meal” — sweet potato satisfy cravings, according to one influencer — and “luteal phase mood” — rancid, according to everyone.
This content traffics in hyperbole, and in the hands of influencers such as Detrick and Clark, even pronatalism. But the growing interest in the luteal phase also reflects an ugly truth: Americans have long received inadequate sexual health education, especially when it comes to women’s health, and it is getting worse. Abortion misinformation flooded after the supreme court’s reversal of Roe v Wade, and “don’t say gay” laws in states such as Florida and Texas ban discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. It makes sense that women might find empowerment in talking about their luteal phases.
Dr Karen Tang, a Pennsylvania gynaecologist, said:
“It’s about wanting to take control and learn more about their bodies,”
and added:
“People are saying: ‘I had no idea that other people had these similar patterns.’”
Mariah Wellman, an assistant professor at Michigan State who studies influencers and wellness culture, said:
“Women’s bodies are understudied, underfunded, under-researched,”
and added:
“By no fault of their own, women are lacking information and not getting it from their healthcare providers.”
How does the luteal phase work biologically?
According to Tang, the luteal phase describes what happens on a physiological, biological level: progesterone rises and estrogen lowers, and these hormonal swings result in physical and emotional symptoms until menstruation happens. Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, refers to the symptoms that flare up — moodiness, bloating, breast tenderness, hunger and sluggishness, for example — during someone’s luteal phase.
“Explaining what happens in the luteal phase provides a way for people to understand why they feel the way they do, so it’s not as confusing or mysterious why their physical and mental health seems to change so drastically,”
Tang said.
Tang says she has noticed an uptick in women coming into her practice who are potentially experiencing premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which they first heard about on social media — sometimes through luteal phase posts. An intense hormonal sensitivity, PMDD affects about 6% of people who menstruate, according to the American Psychological Association. It can be devastating; one study found that 72% of individuals with PMDD reported “lifetime active suicidal ideation” — and it often goes undiagnosed.
“It’s wonderful to see those patients go from being absolutely miserable almost a quarter of their life, where [PMDD] is affecting their relationships,” she said. “When they’re able to get treatment, they’re themselves again.”
Haley Martinez, 29, is an energy-healing and breath-work coach living in Clinton, New Jersey. She used to bodybuild but quit because it was too hard on her body.
“I had missing cycles on and off for years,”
she said.
“I just felt disconnected from that part of me as a woman.”
Martinez says her doctor “dismissed” her concerns, so she began studying holistic health. When she started to get her periods back after quitting bodybuilding, she felt heightened emotions, which she later learned occurred during her luteal phase. She wondered why her doctors or health teachers had never mentioned it.
“There was a relief having an explanation, but there’s also an anger at not being taught this at all,”
Martinez said.
Luteal phase is a genuine medical term, which gives influencers credibility when they discuss it, even if they are not licensed medical professionals.
“They seem more credible and educated,”
Wellman said.
But Tang warns against their tendency to make generalizations.
“There’s a lot of verbiage and absolutes, as if it were astrology, where a Taurus or a Virgo is prone to this sort of behavior,”
she said.
For instance, TikTok users post about their sense of self totally derailing once the luteal phase sets in; every month, without fail, they say they have turned into “the ugliest person alive” or a monster. Detrick, the guest on Clark’s podcast, claimed that working out is inevitably harder:
“You’re like, ‘Am I weak? What is wrong with me?’”
Clark agreed:
“I always feel that way.”
Tang said:
“They have latched on to these little kernels of truth about the phases of the cycle and turned it into almost a prescription,”
and added:
“None of this is so absolutely universal that you have to live your life based on these principles.”
How is Maha using the luteal phase?
Most women who post online are not politicizing their luteal phases. Talk of women’s cycles among Maha evangelists, however, easily lends itself to conservative viewpoints about pronatalism, traditional gender roles and restricting access to reproductive healthcare such as birth control.
Hormonal birth control methods such as the pill prevent ovulation from taking place, which means there is no luteal phase. That may sound like a positive change for people who deal with intense discomfort in this part of their cycle, and many take birth control at least partly for that reason. Along with preventing pregnancy, hormonal birth control can ease cramps and symptoms of PMDD, and help treat hormonal acne.
That does not sit well with Clark, a self-described “cuteservative”, who has said she wants to and experience their “natural” hormonal cycle — even if that means they suffer a couple of weeks every month. In an episode of Clark’s podcast earlier this month, Kylah Smook, a content creator who runs retreats for women getting off birth control, said ovulation is a “vital sign” that indicates whether a woman is in good health:
“If you’re not ovulating [due to birth control], it’s your body telling you: ‘Hey, we’re not feeling good. Like, I don’t feel safe to make a baby.’”
It is true that ovulation can be an indicator of general health, and irregular cycles might indicate an issue, but millions of people do not ovulate while safely using birth control. Smook and Clark’s skepticism evokes a familiar political project: getting people to question and quit birth control would probably lead to more babies being born and women becoming mothers, signaling a return to conservatives’ beloved nuclear family structure.
“Me and the man who loves me through my luteal phase,”
Clark wrote of her fiance, Maha blogger Vance Voetberg, implying that the perfect couple will not let a mood swing scare them if it is in service of procreation.
In this way, telling women to embrace the luteal phase helps sell Maha ideology. It is also being used by the adjacent wellness industry to market products such as “PMS bars”, aromatherapy oils and many different teas.
“The wellness industry has a big incentive to commercialize the luteal phase as something you can purchase your way out of,”
Wellman said.
And while familiarity with the luteal phase has been helpful to women, it can also be easily caricatured.
Sharon Cancio is a full-time YouTuber who lives in Florida and makes what she calls “big sister content” — the sometimes awkward conversations you might have with a sibling about bodies, health and sex. Before learning about the luteal phase around five years ago, Cancio assumed she was depressed.
“Why did I feel so crappy and depleted most of the time?”
she said.
“Is it my boyfriend who’s ruining my life?’”
(It wasn’t; they’re still together.)
Knowing about the luteal phase has not magically fixed Cancino’s mood issues, but it has helped her deal with them.
“I hate to admit that I do get very mean,”
she said.
“Now knowing that it’s a thing my body actually goes through, and it’s not just me suddenly hating everyone, I can prepare for it when it comes around.”
Women’s partners often gird themselves, too. Boyfriends and husbands frequently appear in luteal phase TikToks, often painting themselves as longsuffering and subject to the wild whims of a woman. In one video, a husband reads off a list of things his wife said to him during her luteal phase. Samples include:
“Shut up,”
“Can you not breathe on me,”
“Don’t even, that’s just gonna piss me off.”
(“Sounds like clear communication to me,” one presumably female user quipped.)
In another, a group of men muse on ways they could annoy their wives during the luteal phase, including loudly playing video games while they are trying to read, watching football all day and then complaining about being tired, and leaving dirty utensils in the sink.
“Women are the butt of the joke,”
Wellman said.
“It’s another way women can be torn down by men for something that is natural and that they have no control over. And then they are being told by other women – wellness influencers – that they can be ‘fixed’ if they buy this product.”
Women who pathologize their luteal phase struggles may find comfort in social media sisterhood. That does not change the fact that women’s health can easily be co-opted to poke fun, sell products or advance political agendas. Ultimately, it is up to individuals to decide how they want to engage with this content.
Martinez, the former bodybuilder, finds humor in the unpredictability that comes with hormonal shifts.
“I’ll joke with my boyfriend if I’m feeling especially sensitive about something and I can recognize it’s because of my luteal phase,”
she said.
“But I always want to say: be careful not to dismiss yourself, because our feelings are always valid to some degree.”
