Menstrual Cycle Phases: What Your Hormones Do Each Month
Understanding your hormones
By Orie Quinn, D.C. Founder, Chiropractor & Certified Functional Medicine Clinician Ozark Holistic Center · Fayetteville, Arkansas
Your period is the most visible part of your menstrual cycle, but much of the work happens between bleeding days.
When I look at a cycle, I want to understand the sequence: what is happening before ovulation, what changes afterward, and where symptoms fit. Signals between the brain and ovaries help coordinate that sequence. Understanding it makes cycle changes easier to describe and hormone test results easier to put in context.
The menstrual cycle phases are often presented as four neat boxes: menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation, and the luteal phase. That is a useful introduction, with one important overlap. Menstruation is already part of the follicular phase. One describes what is happening in the uterus; the other describes what is happening in the ovary.[1,2]
One cycle. Two connected stories.
The ovary and the uterus change together.
Follicular phase Follicles develop in the ovary | Luteal phase The corpus luteum forms |
Ovulation separates the ovarian phases
Meanwhile, in the uterus
Bleeding | Lining rebuilds | Lining prepares for a possible pregnancy |
A simplified sequence, not a fixed calendar. Menstruation overlaps the early follicular phase. Sources: [1,2].
01 / Before ovulation
The cycle starts before bleeding ends
Day 1 is the first day of your period. At this point, estrogen and progesterone have fallen from their levels in the previous cycle, and the uterine lining is shedding. Meanwhile, follicle-stimulating hormone, or FSH, supports the growth of follicles in the ovaries. Each follicle is a small structure containing an immature egg.[1]
As a follicle develops, it produces increasing amounts of estradiol, an estrogen. Estradiol helps the uterine lining grow again. The process is coordinated through feedback: the brain changes its signals in response to what the ovaries are producing. Low hormone levels early in the cycle can therefore be an expected part of the sequence, rather than evidence that something needs to be corrected.[1,3]
02 / The turning point
Ovulation is an event rather than a week
When the hormonal conditions are right, a surge of luteinizing hormone, or LH, helps trigger release of an egg. That release is ovulation. The days leading up to it matter because sperm can survive for several days in the reproductive tract, so the fertile window begins before the egg is released.[2,4]
Ovulation does not reliably happen on day 14. A calendar illustration shows an example, and an app often estimates from previous cycles. Neither establishes what your ovaries did this month. Changes in cycle length commonly involve changes in the time before ovulation.[2,4]
A useful distinction: a calendar predicts timing. Your body's actual sequence determines the phase.
03 / After ovulation
After ovulation, progesterone rises
The follicle that released the egg becomes the corpus luteum, a temporary hormone-producing structure. It produces progesterone as well as estrogen. Progesterone changes the estrogen-prepared uterine lining so that it can support an early pregnancy. It also contributes to the small rise in resting body temperature often seen after ovulation.[1,3]
If pregnancy does not occur, the corpus luteum regresses. Progesterone and estrogen fall, the lining sheds, and another cycle begins. If pregnancy occurs, hormonal signals from the developing pregnancy help maintain progesterone production until the placenta takes over that role.[3]
The hormone pattern at a glance
Schematic · Timing varies
Each line shows a qualitative pattern, not a hormone concentration or a comparison between hormones. This example assumes ovulation and no pregnancy. It does not predict symptoms. Sources: [1,3].
04 / The whole-person view
Your experience does not have to match the chart
Some people notice changes in breast tenderness, appetite, headaches, sleep, or mood across the month. Others notice very little. A hormone curve describes a biological pattern; it cannot tell us exactly how every person will feel on a particular day. Symptoms are also affected by health conditions, medications, sleep, and events in daily life.[2,5]
Hormonal contraception can change or suppress the ovarian sequence described here, depending on the method. Bleeding while using contraception may have a different explanation from a period after a spontaneous ovulation. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, and perimenopause also change the context. A standard cycle chart should always be read with those circumstances in mind.[2,4,5]
The pattern helps us ask better questions about your experience.
Dr. Quinn's approach
The six phases I use to explain the cycle
At Ozark Holistic Center, I find it helpful to organize cycle education into six phases: Rest, Renew, Rise, Radiate, Refine, and Release. Rest overlaps with bleeding; Renew and Rise follow the progression toward ovulation; Radiate, Refine, and Release describe the time afterward. This gives us language for discussing changes across the month.
01 · Rest During bleeding | 02 · Renew Earlier in the progression toward ovulation |
03 · Rise Approaching ovulation | 04 · Radiate Earlier after ovulation |
05 · Refine Through the middle of the luteal phase | 06 · Release As the next period approaches |
I use these phases as a practical way to understand the underlying biology and organize observations. Their timing follows the individual cycle. Someone who ovulates later has not necessarily entered the luteal phase when the calendar reaches day 15. The useful question is what you have observed and, when relevant, what testing supports.
These six names are my educational framework for following the cycle. The biological phases remain follicular and luteal, separated by ovulation.
05 / A practical first step
Start with observations you can use
Record the first day of bleeding, how long it lasts, and any symptoms that affect your activities. Include medications or contraception that could change the pattern. A few consistent details are often easier to interpret than a long list collected only on difficult days.[5]
Timing | First day of bleeding How long it lasts |
Daily experience | Pain, sleep, mood Symptoms affecting activities |
Context | Medication changes Contraception and life stage |
Bring substantial changes, persistent irregularity, or pain and bleeding that interfere with daily life to a clinician. Learning your cycle can help you describe the problem clearly. It does not mean that you need to accept disruptive symptoms as your personal normal.[2,5]
Ozark Holistic Center · Northwest Arkansas
Questions about your cycle? Let's talk about where to begin.
Learn about our functional medicine approach in Fayetteville, Arkansas, or schedule a free 15-minute consultation to ask whether an appointment is a good fit.
About the author Orie Quinn, D.C., is the founder, chiropractor, and Certified Functional Medicine Clinician at Ozark Holistic Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Sources & further reading
Reed BG & Carr BR. The Normal Menstrual Cycle and the Control of Ovulation. Endotext. 2018.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Menstruation and Menstrual Problems.
Endocrine Society. Reproductive Hormones. 2022.
American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Fertility evaluation of infertile women: a committee opinion. 2021.
Office on Women's Health. Your menstrual cycle.
