Eating, moving and sleeping around your cycle

Sleep, regular meals, water and some movement do more for how a period feels than any single food. They are also the things that slide first in a busy week.

There is no cycle diet. Claims that particular foods "balance hormones" or "cleanse" anything are marketing, and the honest position is that the evidence for most specific dietary fixes is thin or mixed.

Bleeding uses iron. For most people that is unremarkable, but consistently heavy periods can contribute over time to low iron levels and to iron-deficiency anaemia - which typically shows up as tiredness, breathlessness on mild exertion, pale skin or a racing heart rather than as anything to do with your period.

Iron-rich foods include red meat, liver, beans and lentils, tofu, dark leafy greens, and fortified cereals. Vitamin C alongside a plant-based iron source - a squeeze of lemon, some fruit with the meal - helps absorption.

Do not start iron supplements on your own. Too much iron is harmful, the symptoms above have other causes, and a blood test settles the question in a way that guessing cannot. Ask a clinician.

Many people notice that heavy caffeine makes anxiety and breast tenderness worse, that a lot of salt worsens bloating, and that alcohol makes sleep worse in a week when sleep already matters. These are worth testing on yourself.

They are not medical rules. The research on each is limited, individual responses vary widely, and there is no need to give anything up on principle.

You can exercise at any point in your cycle. Some people train straight through, some ease off during their period, and both are fine - the useful guide is how you actually feel rather than a chart.

Low mood, irritability or anxiety in the days before a period are common. When those symptoms are severe enough to disrupt relationships, work or study most months, that is worth raising with a clinician rather than managing alone; there are recognised patterns of premenstrual symptoms that respond to treatment.