I was born in London in 1982 and my parents were neither hippies nor part of the Women’s Liberation Movement. As a result, frank talk about body parts, functions and sexual development was generally non-existent. The arrival of my period was not something I remember having any feelings about whatsoever, and it certainly wasn’t something the womenfolk in my family celebrated. Hormones were rarely invoked in the culture more widely apart from in a general ‘raging’ way to explain the wildness of teens.

Flash forward 40 years and the cultural tides have turned in quite a startling way. Now it often feels like women talk about nothing but their periods, or the dwindling thereof. Menopause is the giant in the manger – albeit one with a sizeable body of proper science around it. Just last week, scientists from Cambridge released data about the loss of grey matter during menopause and the possible link to increased female vulnerability to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. 

But proper data is not really where the lady-hormone vibe is at for the under-fifties. Instagram is full of reels about ‘seed-cycling’ – which literally means eating different seeds according to which stage of your ‘cycle’ you are in: follicular (the fertile bit before the blood), menstrual (the blood, out comes the egg), luteal (post egg-release, after the blood). It seems to be women in their twenties who are most obsessed with this practice and it is my belief they should step away from the ground........

© The Spectator