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Let’s Talk About Seed Cycling

By Kelsey

on Jan 23, 2018, Updated Aug 13, 2019

Seed Cycling! I thought it was finally time to talk to you guys about my experience with it and how it helped me regulate my period and get pregnant.  If you guys haven’t read about my experience with Hypothalamic Amenorrhea I suggest heading back to read that first.  After not having my period for most of 2016 I was so excited to get it back because I knew we wanted to try to start a family in 2017.  I first got my period back in November of 2016 and for the next 6 months my periods came about every other month, getting a bit closer each month, and by July they were still about 45 day cycles.  At the end of July we decided to start trying to get pregnant and I knew if we were going to go for it I was going all in!  So I decided to go to acupuncture about mid August as I had heard so many people rave about it for hormone support.  I explained everything I had been through to my acupuncturist and before we even started with the needles she said, okay first of all you need to start seed cycling.

She wrote down on a little post it note, what seeds to take and how to take them and said to start on the new moon which happened to be starting just about 4 days later.  Why the new moon? Well the reason a normal cycle is 28 days is actually because of the moon!  You should start your period on the new moon and ovulate on the full moon… apparently.  So of course I asked no questions and just said YES LET’S DO THIS!  So this is what I did.

How Seed Cycling Works:

On the New Moon (if period is longer than 35 days), or on the first day of your period:

• 1 tablespoon raw flax seeds, fresh ground
• 1 tablespoon raw pumpkin seeds, fresh ground
• Fish Oil pill

You do those 2 seeds for 14-18 days.  This all depends on you and your cycle.  Because I started at a 45 day cycle, I started at 18 days, then my next cycle was 35 days, so I switched to 15 day seed cycles.

For the next 14-18 days:

• 1 tablespoon raw sesame seeds, fresh ground (i used black sesame seeds)
• 1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds, fresh ground
• Evening Primrose Oil

Questions you might have:

Do you have to fresh grind them every day?

• My acupuncturist suggested fresh ground every morning for maximum benefits. You can pre grind them I guess but in my opinion, if you are super serious about your hormone health and want to regulate your period, just put in the extra work.  I scooped 1 tablespoon of each of the days seeds into a coffee grinder and it took no times at all.  And yes I went out and bought a coffee grinder for this exact reason.

How do you eat them?!

• This is an important part! My acupuncturist told me not to heat the seeds.  They are raw for a reason – maximum nutrients and benefits.  So the main ways I ate them were:
  • Adding them into smoothies.
  • Mixing them with a drippy nut butter/ coconut butter combo and eating with a spoon or apple or banana.
  • Mixing them into guacamole and having on toast.
• Those 3 ways were about what I did every morning for the 2-3 months I did this! Yes it gets old, yes it’s work, and yes I am now pregnant 🙂

What time of the day do I have to eat them?

• Preferably in the morning but if you can’t do it then, later on is fine.

Why these seeds?

• Seeds are so great for hormone support!! These four seeds are super rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
• Flax seeds and sesame seeds contain lignans which block excess estrogen – AMAZING! Excess estrogen causes tons of problems in the body including excess weight gain/ hard to lose weight, bloating, irregular periods, headaches and all kinds of other health issues.
• Pumpkin seeds are high in zinc which supports your bodies rise in progesterone levels.

How fast does it work?

• For this, everyone is SO different. But for me, I started taking them when I had a 45 day cycle, my next cycle was then 35 days and the next cycle was my last because I never got my period again!  I will note that I still could not tell when I was ovulating.  I don’t think that part of it went totally normal because how my baby girl measures shows that I ovulated way late in my cycle .  Who knows, but at least I ovulated!
• I think I was pretty lucky, my acupuncturist said it would take about 4 months to regulate.

What hormone issues can seed cycling help with?

Most of them! Here are a few that it can help:

• Hormonal Acne
• PMS
• Irregular Cycle
• Infertility or sub-fertility
• Too light or too heavy bleeding
• Peri-menopause
• Post-menopausal hormone symptoms like low libido or depression
• PCOS
• Irregular cycle

Where should I buy all of this stuff?

• You can find all of it at most health food stores but amazon is amazing too! I got lots of my stuff there. Here are some good amazon finds:
• Raw Flax Seeds
• Raw Pumpkin Seeds
• Raw Sesame Seeds
• Raw Sunflower Seeds
• Fish Oil
• Evening Primrose Oil

To learn more about this and other hormone information, listen to our Hectic Hormones episode of the podcast!