You're Not PMSing—You're Luteal
This mindset shift will transform how you feel about your period.
I reposted this tweet on Instagram back in 2019, and it really made some waves.
At time, I was deep in my educator and doula era. LOOM was open and bustling—a physical space built to shift narratives and reclaim language around women’s bodies.
Recently, at an event I was speaking at, a conversation pulled this post back into focus.
A woman shared how she and her friend had been chatting about the fact that they were both PMSing. I gently interrupted, offering: “Oh, wait, you’re not PMSing, you’re actually just luteal.” She paused, smiling with recognition, and agreed, “Oh, ya, of course—that’s true, remind me what that means again?” It struck me right then: perhaps we could all use a gentle refresher.
Let’s be clear: I’m not suggesting you aren’t about to get your period, nor denying the very real symptoms accompanying that shift.
But the term PMS itself is inherently negative—one of the more successful outputs of the patriarchal media spin machine of the ‘90s. We were trained to see bleeding as burdensome, and PMS as the plague. Inundated with stock imagery of exhausted women—head bowed at a desk or crumpled up in bed ready to bitch someone out. The message was clear: our bodies were problems to be managed.
It’s also worth noting: PMS stands for premenstrual syndrome. “Syndrome” is often just a placeholder—a catch-all term used when medicine doesn’t fully understand what it’s labeling.
The same thing happens with PCOS, or polycystic ovary syndrome—a condition with a complex hormonal profile and symptoms that’s often misdiagnosed or poorly managed. In both cases, the term syndrome gives the illusion of clinical clarity, when in reality it often signals that more research, curiosity, and care are needed.
Language isn’t neutral. It reflects how much something has—or hasn’t—been valued.
So what does luteal mean? Well, before we dive into that, let’s briefly break down the four phases of the menstrual cycle: