Drinking alcohol has a surprising link to your menstrual cycle

Drinking alcohol has a surprising link to your menstrual cycle, according to a recovering alcoholic.

Jenny Valentish said that she has discovered drinking during certain times of your menstrual cycle can have a considerably different effect that people may not have been aware of. Valentish wrote in her book, Woman of Substances, that drinking up until her 40s showed her that her menstrual cycle affected her in ways she didn't know possible. This knowledge also helped her on her road to recovery. Speaking to Refinery29, she said:

“Drinking and taking drugs during your menstrual cycle can have a bigger effect on you than you might have been aware. “The party mode, horny week is ovulation week, not period week. And you are more sensitised to the effects of drugs and alcohol.”

Valentish also said that the effects of alcohol are usually studied in relation to men's bodies and that it's important to consider alcohol intake in relation to women too. She said she discovered that women trying to stop drinking are also more likely to relapse due to their changing hormones because of menstruation. “Research tends to be a really patriarchal field, and the people at the top are usually men. They see drinking as a male issue, but it’s not at all," she said.