Your Daughter’s Period Is a Vital Sign, And Why We Shouldn’t Ignore It with Fertility Specialist and Author Dr. Natalie Crawford
About this episode
The episode discusses the importance of understanding the menstrual cycle as a vital sign for girls' health and wellbeing.
As a pediatrician, I was not asking enough questions about my patients' periods. We ask when the last one was. We rarely go deeper than that. And after this conversation, I will never approach it the same way again. I sat down with my friend and colleague Dr. Natalie Crawford, reproductive endocrinologist, fertility specialist, and author of The Fertility Formula. Here is what I want every parent raising a girl to understand: the menstrual cycle is not just a monthly inconvenience. It is one of the most important windows into your daughter's hormonal health, her long-term fertility, and her overall wellbeing. And the symptoms we keep brushing off as "just puberty" or "just a bad period" are often the first clues to conditions that will matter deeply later in life. In this episode, we cover: Why the menstrual cycle is a vital sign and what that means for the girls in your life The warning signs parents and pediatricians too often dismiss as normal What a first period should actually look like, and when irregular cycles need to be taken seriously Hypothalamic amenorrhea: the condition linked to over-exercising, under-eating, and chronic stress that silently affects estrogen during…
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