We all know that during pregnancy, the physical and emotional changes that a woman undergoes are caused mainly by hormones and all that revolution that she has in her body when she is gestating a new life.
However, something that I have noticed at this stage (and in many others of life as a woman) is that hormones are frequently used as an excuse for everything that happens and particularly, in a negative tone. So today I’m going to broach this topic and say it loud and clear: yes, I am pregnant, but stop blaming my hormones for everything.
Sure, hormones play a role …
Of course, I will not deny that hormones do influence our emotional state . The hormonal changes that we go through in each stage of our life influence our body from the physical to the emotional aspect.
Menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause are the main moments in which these friends of ours come and say “here I am!” , and they begin to do their work as usual, while we adapt to those changes and adjustments caused by them.
Hormones are not bad, nor are they our enemies. They are necessary for many processes in our life and our day to day, and also many of them are very positive – such as serotonin and oxytocin, which are part of the quartet of the famous hormones of happiness.
In pregnancy for example, they are in charge of preparing our body and accompanying it from this stage to lactation. And in addition to being responsible for guiding and taking care of all these changes, they also greatly influence changes of character .
We have already talked about the roller coaster of emotions that one experiences in pregnancy precisely because of hormones. We feel happy at the same time that we feel terrified , because although it fills us with hope, fears that we never had before also appear for the first time: about us, about our baby and his health, about whether we will be good mothers or not, and a thousand things more.
… but stop using them against us
Although, as we have clarified, they do influence our emotional state, what makes many of us tired as women is that they are constantly used in a derogatory way as a pretext or excuse for everything that happens to us .
In the case of pregnancy, if one day we are angry or in a bad mood, they often say that we are like this because of the hormones, when it can be for a thousand other reasons. Maybe we had a bad morning or we didn’t sleep well, for example.
It is true that in pregnancy we can be more sensitive than usual, but honestly it is irritating that they want to attribute everything to hormones, causing our emotions and desires to be invalidated or belittled .
And although pregnancy is the central theme of this writing, let’s not forget the other stages that I mentioned at the beginning, because those derogatory comments about hormones begin even long before and continue also after this one.
A woman cannot show character or raise her voice to something that seems wrong or unfair to her, because the first thing that many tend to do, is to say that her hormones are revolutionized: “Are you on your period, right?” , “it sure is by menopause .”
These kinds of comments are very annoying and unfortunately it happens in all kinds of situations, including in the workplace, where apparently there can be no firm or determined women, because immediately the comment saying that it is with the rule is not missing.
Stop blaming and start listening
We are not going to deny the existence and influence of hormones, but it would be very good if they stopped using them as a pretext to annul us or minimize us, and better begin to listen and understand us, taking seriously what we say without blaming hormones .
So let’s see if we are taking off that catchphrase of saying that women are hormonal all the time – and that it can invalidate our desires, requests and emotions – and we begin to really listen to what they have to say.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Positive and negative thoughts: the roller coaster of emotions you can feel during pregnancy
