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How Hormones Shape Women’s Mood: What Every Woman Should Know

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Hormones influence nearly every system in the body; metabolism, sleep, energy, and especially mood. For many women, emotional shifts can feel sudden or seem to come out of nowhere. In fact, they often reflect real, predictable biological patterns. Understanding these patterns can help women reduce self-blame, communicate their needs more clearly, and recognise when psychological support or medical evaluation may be useful. As therapists, we see how often women pathologize themselves for what is, in part, normal hormonal variability. This article highlights the main hormonal influences on mood and how they interact with stress, trauma, and daily life.

The Menstrual Cycle: A Monthly Emotional Landscape

Oestrogen

  • Typically rises in the first half of the cycle (follicular phase).
  • Often associated with improved mood, motivation, and mental clarity.
  • Can enhance serotonin and dopamine activity, which contributes to feelings of well-being.

Progesterone

  • Rises in the second half of the cycle (luteal phase).
  • Has a calming effect for some women, but for others contributes to irritability, low mood, or emotional sensitivity.
  • Sudden drops in progesterone and oestrogen before menstruation can contribute to PMS or, in some cases, more severe PMDD, which includes intense mood swings, depression, and anxiety.

Tracking cycle-related mood patterns can help identify when emotional shifts are hormonally influenced rather than signs of failure or instability.

2. Hormones and Stress: The Cortisol Connection

Cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, interacts with reproductive hormones in ways that can amplify emotional experiences.

  • Chronic stress can disrupt the menstrual cycle and intensify mood symptoms.
  • Many women report of feeling more anxious, overwhelmed, or fatigued during times of hormonal fluctuation when stress levels are also high.
  • From a therapeutic perspective: Supporting self-regulation, boundary-setting, and stress reduction can significantly ease hormone-related emotional shifts.

3. Mood Changes Across Reproductive Life Stages

Adolescence

Hormonal surges paired with identity formation and social pressures can make teens especially sensitive to emotional dysregulation.

Pregnancy

Oestrogen and progesterone soar, leading to:

  • Heightened emotional responsiveness
  • Increased need for rest and support
  • Potential vulnerability to perinatal anxiety or depression, especially in those with a history of mood disorders

Postpartum

Rapid hormonal drops combined with sleep disruption and new-parent stress can contribute to:

  • Maternity blues (common and short-lived)
  • Postpartum depression or anxiety (more persistent, requiring attention)

Perimenopause

This transition often brings:

  • Unpredictable hormone fluctuations
  • Mood swings
  • Irritability
  • Increased anxiety
    Women frequently describe feeling “not like myself,” which can be deeply unsettling without proper understanding.

Menopause

While hormone levels are lower overall, emotional steadiness often returns once fluctuations settle.

4. Hormones Don’t Act Alone

Hormones influence mood, but they don’t determine it. Psychological factors intertwine with biology:

  • History of trauma can increase sensitivity to hormonal shifts.
  • Internalised expectations (e.g., “I should be on top of things”) intensify distress.
  • Relationship dynamics often become flashpoints during hormonally sensitive times.
  • Sleep, nutrition, exercise, and social support all modify hormonal effects.

This means that therapy and lifestyle changes often significantly reduce hormone-related symptoms, even when biology is part of the picture.

5. How Therapy Can Support Clients

1. Self-Compassion Over Self-Criticism

Reframing hormonal mood changes as biological patterns, not personal flaws to reduce feelings of shame.

2. Emotional Regulation Strategies

Mindfulness, grounding techniques, and cognitive reframing can be especially helpful during hormonally vulnerable phases.

3. Tracking Patterns

Encouraging clients to track mood, sleep, and cycle patterns can empower them to anticipate shifts and plan accordingly.

4. Communication Skills

Helping women articulate their needs to others, during sensitive times in their cycle, can transform relationship dynamics.

5. When to Seek Medical Input

If mood symptoms are severe, disruptive, or cyclical, a medical evaluation for PMDD, thyroid issues, or perimenopause-related changes may be appropriate.

Conclusion

Hormones play a significant role in women’s emotional experiences, but they are just one piece of a larger mind-body system. When women understand the predictable patterns behind their emotional shifts, they can respond with insight and self-care rather than self-blame. Therapists can support this awareness, helping women move toward greater emotional stability and empowerment.

Collette O’Mahony (Dip.Psy.C)

To book a free introductory session (15 minutes) contact me: info@colletteomahony.com

The Self-Deception Trap: How We Create False Narratives to Outrun Emotional Pain

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History is generally written by the victor; seldom do we hear the true voice of the oppressed. And so, it is within each of us, we celebrate our best achievements and we consign our fears and failures to the annals of our emotional wasteland. We are all the authors of our own inner histories, changing the narrative to craft a curated self-image for the outer world until at some point we too come to believe the edited version.

During our formative years we rarely understand how to navigate our emotional landscape. Painful feelings are often bottled up, rejected and forgotten. While the mind may in time learn to repress painful memories, our bodies do not. Unprocessed emotions are the building blocks of ego. Emotional gaps are replaced by bricks of fiction, false narratives about the past. These thoughts are whispered and repeatedly told to the self. “This did not hurt as much as we think it did,” or “It was my choice to break-up with them”.  This inner dialogue is not designed to deceive others, but to help us survive the emotional hurt.

What is the true, eventual cost of these building blocks? A defensive fortress is constructed from our unresolved pain trapping the emotions inside. We may gain an immediate reprieve from difficult feelings, but we lose access to reality, trading present comfort for prolonged internal exile. When we use fiction to numb pain, we ensure the core emotional lesson is never absorbed. If the narrative claims that the difficulty was entirely someone else’s fault, we are avoiding accountability. This leaves us open to repeating the same dynamic again and again until it becomes a maladaptive behaviour pattern. This behaviour patten continues in a continuous loop until we set free the original emotion trapped behind the false narrative.

The false narrative is a house of cards. It requires constant, vigilant upkeep and cannot withstand the inevitable, sudden wind of a new, painful event. When life inevitably challenges the lie (e.g. a new rejection that mirrors an old heartbreak), the entire scaffolding collapses. The pain is not just felt; it is experienced with the added, terrifying force of the shame of the deception. We reel, not from this current setback, but from many layers of false narrative and illusion.

The role of therapy is not to brutally shatter the false narrative; that act of violence would only deepen the trauma. The work of healing is a process of gentle, persistent illumination of concealed emotions where our rejected truth resides. Psychotherapy provides a safe platform for this courageous act. The first step in dismantling the false narrative is to slow down the unconscious loop of maladaptive behaviour cycles. By doing so, we can gain access to the precise feeling the narrative was designed to evade leading to inner balance within and without.

For one-to-one counselling, please click on my counselling page: www.colletteomahony.com/counselling.

For a free introductory call (20 minutes) to discuss goals for therapy – Email: info@colletteomahony.com

All sessions are on Zoom. All time zones considered.

I look forward to hearing from you. Collette.

Energy Sources

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Finding inner-balance

A key to achieving emotional balance is in understanding the sources of our energy. Is it renewable energy, grounded in mindfulness, self-awareness, and intrinsic motivation? Or are we relying on a secondary energy source, which is often external and unsustainable, such as seeking validation, praise, or status?

Renewable energy is internal, arising from practices that foster emotional and mental well-being. This kind of energy comes from a place of mindfulness, self-awareness, and an authentic connection to oneself. When we draw from this energy, we are more likely to experience emotional resilience because we are not dependent on outside circumstances or external validation. We are grounded in our inner self-worth, capable of staying calm in the face of adversity, and able to make thoughtful decisions rather than reacting impulsively to fear or stress. Renewable energy is self-sustaining. Mindfulness practices, such as meditation, journaling, or spending time in nature, help cultivate this energy. It is also nurtured by an ongoing practice of self-compassion, where we approach challenges with curiosity and patience rather than self-judgment.

This energy allows us to face both optimism and pessimism without getting lost in extremes, because it fosters emotional flexibility—the ability to respond appropriately to whatever arises.

Secondary energy sources are externally driven, often coming from a need for praise, validation, status, or attention. These sources of energy are less stable and can be fleeting, which makes them unreliable when facing emotional challenges. If our emotional well-being is tied to how others perceive us, we become vulnerable to external fluctuations. For example, if we rely on praise to feel good about ourselves, it can lead to a pattern of people pleasing and co-dependency. On the other hand, when we don’t receive the validation we seek, it can trigger pessimism and feelings of worthlessness. Relying on external energy sources creates a cycle where our emotional state is dictated by circumstances beyond our control. This can leave us feeling emotionally depleted, causing us to oscillate between extremes of behaviour, from excessive optimism when things go well to deep pessimism when they don’t.

Just as we learn unhelpful habits, such as relying on external sources of energy, we can also unlearn them. Firstly, we need to recognise patterns of behaviour. Behavioural Therapies such as CBT helps us chart our maladaptive behaviour patterns and to recognise triggers that lead to these spirals.

For online one-to-one therapy sessions please get in touch with me at: info@colletteomahony.com.

This is an extract from by book ‘A Compass for Change’. Available on Amazon.

Collette O’Mahony.

Resolving Conflict in Relationships

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Recognising areas of conflict

To diffuse misunderstandings in a relationship, we must focus on the feelings that contribute to the situation by processing our emotions. We can then use analytical thinking grounded in facts rather than emotional thinking based on fear. This helps us to better understand our differences and look for a resolution. Conversely, if we exit relationships rather than work through conflicts, we risk accumulating a pattern of broken connections. While we might make excuses for relationship breakdowns or blame others for being unreasonable, we are ultimately at the centre of all our relationships. It is essential to recognise that conflict arises from our avoidance of processing emotions.

We need intention and self-awareness to follow our behaviour back to its origin. We also require determination. We have magpie minds that alight on glitter rather than mining for real treasure. Once we recognise disturbing thoughts and behaviours, we may feel compelled to struggle against them. We falsely believe that by fighting them, we can eliminate unwanted inclinations. However, our role is simply to be an observer. When we observe difficult thoughts, we must also experience the emotions that accompany them. Avoiding our feelings can result in mental wrestling, leading to a chaotic spiral of thoughts. Notice an emotion in your body that is triggered by a thought or feeling. (Remember, a feeling is an emotion embellished with value judgements; an emotion is a sensation stripped of thought.) Allow the emotion to be as it is, whether it is a tingling or heavy sensation; just observe it without resistance or judgement. With this continued practice, the energy will release and it can no longer fuel difficult thoughts and maladaptive behaviour.

When we become aware of maladaptive behaviours and their source, they cease to have an unconscious hold over us. Instead of an automatic reactive response in a triggering situation, we have a conscious choice of how we act, or react to the emotional stressor. Avoidance is a maladaptive behavioural response to excessive fear and anxiety. Avoiding challenging situations may provide temporary relief, but it can hinder personal growth and fulfilment over time. Avoidance as a coping mechanism leads to dependence, and it undermines our confidence.

We must push through limiting attitudes if we are to germinate and grow. A seed needs darkness to germinate and light to grow. When we are immersed in darkness, we are in germination; we must keep pushing through until we reach the light of a new consciousness, a higher level of understanding. Life is cyclical, seasons come and go, and we are perennial, cosmic flowers having a human experience. 

An extract from – A Compass for Change.

Click on the image to go to my Amazon Bookshelf.

Collette.

Coping with unwelcome Change.

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A cataclysmic event like the death of a loved one, divorce, or job loss dramatically shifts us from a state of stability into the unknown. Stability offers a sense of continuity, routine, and security, while such unexpected events dismantle that foundation, forcing us into a space where growth, adaptation, and emotional processing become necessary.

When something significant occurs, especially unexpectedly, it directly affects our mental health. These events disrupt our familiar patterns and throw our lives into emotional and practical turmoil. We may experience intense feelings of loss and grief, as our subconscious mind, which thrives on repetition and stability, struggles to cope with sudden change.

Whether the change is gradual, like separation and divorce, or immediate, like the sudden death of a loved one, the event triggers a cascade of emotional and psychological responses such as shock, grief, confusion, and even disorientation. In these moments, our natural inclination is to resist change. The subconscious mind clings to established routines and familiar behaviours, attempting to restore a sense of stability. For instance, someone experiencing bereavement may wake up expecting their loved one to still be there, only to be painfully reminded that they are gone. This is because the subconscious takes longer to process and accept changes that contradict its habitual patterns.

Faced with sudden, unwelcome change, resistance is a natural, almost automatic, reaction. This resistance stems from the mind’s need to hold on to the safety and familiarity of stability. Our subconscious mind is programmed to maintain order through daily habits and conditioned responses, but when those routines are shattered, the mind becomes overwhelmed, leading to a sense of confusion, forgetfulness, and emotional exhaustion. This is evident in the grieving process.

Grief

After the loss of a loved one, it can take weeks or even months for the subconscious mind to adjust to the new reality. During that time, the conscious mind bears the weight of constantly reminding the subconscious that the loss is real, which can feel mentally and emotionally exhausting. This ongoing mental battle adds to the feelings of disorientation that many grieving individual’s experience, leaving them questioning their sanity.

The subconscious starts to adapt in time, and the gradual process of adjustment to sudden change begins. Just as our mind gradually learned routines and habits during stable periods, it can relearn new patterns in the wake of change. But this adaptation doesn’t happen overnight. Eventually, as the subconscious begins to acknowledge the reality of the situation, the emotional and cognitive strain on the conscious mind starts to ease. As the subconscious adjusts, feelings of confusion and mental overload begin to lift. The grieving person starts to experience moments of clarity, and with it, the ability to process their feelings of loss in a more focused and manageable way. This adjustment marks the point where growth begins to emerge from the loss of stability.

A extract from my new book on change and inner transformation – A Compass for Change.