E199: Simple Product Swaps that WON’T Break the Bank for Less PMS, Better Periods & More Energy

Overwhelmed by the endless "clean living" advice? Just want to know which swaps can help with estrogen dominance, painful periods, and hormonal acne? What if you could make a few changes to your daily routine to naturally balance your hormones without blowing your budget or driving yourself crazy?

In this episode, Leisha breaks down the most impactful product swaps for your home, menstruation, and beauty routine.

You’ll learn:  

• The #1 period product upgrade that can ease cramps, heavy flow, and even recurrent UTIs—plus, which "clean" options to avoid 
• 3 kitchen toxins (like that "harmless" non-stick pan) worsening estrogen dominance, and what to use instead 
• Beauty & cleaning hacks (including a 2-ingredient deodorant recipe!) that help cut out toxins without restrictive diets or expensive overhauls

If you’re struggling with PCOS, insulin resistance, or post-birth-control syndrome, reducing everyday toxins could be a game-changer for balancing hormones: less inflammation = happier cycles, clearer skin, and more stable energy levels.  

Want to simplify hormone-friendly living? Hit play to learn which swaps matter so you can feel better without the stress!

Episode on castor oil packs 

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Transcript

[00:00:00] Leisha: If you get easily overwhelmed by thinking about what products you need to change out when it comes to your hormones, and you want to know really clearly and really simply which things make the most difference in your hormone health when it comes to beauty products, home products, and period supplies.

Then today, I'm gonna break that down for you as easily as we possibly can.

So today I'm gonna get into some products that will make your periods and period symptoms better without breaking the bank. And a couple of quick things that I wanna mention before I get into that. Number one, this can be a huge topic and a lot of us already have some awareness around it. So this is gonna be an episode where I'm just talking about some general categories.

I will give some specific product recommendations, just ones that I've used because I know they're tried and true. This is not an episode with 1500 affiliate links by any means. I'm just gonna share the things that I know work and just the general. Guidelines around some products that will matter for your home and for your period.

And I don't talk about this very often because I think that there is so much info out there about non-toxic living already. There are so many options. This cannot possibly be a comprehensive guide of all the options. It's just going to be a little way to simplify and modify some of the things that you're doing.

And you can just listen to this episode and kind of check through like, Hey, have I looked at this general area? Have I looked at this general area? What do I need to change as one of the next steps to have a little bit less of the toxic things in my life that could make my estrogen balance harder, essentially?

So that is what we're gonna do today. This episode is actually one that's been requested. I've had a few people ask me specifics about things that I'll use or things that I would recommend. the first thing that I'm gonna talk about, of course, is going to be period supplies. If you are using typical.

Tampax always just like the regular brands of period supplies and haven't even thought about it. This is for you. Or if you're using some that are maybe less toxic or wanna know if tampons are bad for you. Those kind of things. We'll talk about that too. Number one thing that I like to look at, especially if you're having period pain or if you have something like frequent UTIs, frequent BV infections or yeast infections.

This is one of the first things that I look at because what we are putting. On and in our most sensitive mucosal areas of our body, it really is important because it is going to absorb. So typical tampons, typical pads are not organic, and they are made to be really absorbent. They're made to be not smelly, and sometimes they're even scented, and that can be a problem.

They're bleached, they're often treated with pesticides. And then if they're treated with a synthetic fragrance. That is another endocrine disruptor, potential cancer causer kind of thing. What I like to do is I like to minimum make sure that if you are using disposable period products, that you are using organic cotton.

There are lots of options with this. A couple brands that I know off the top of my head there's a brand called Raw L. There's a brand called Cora. Most typical stores are going to have their own store brand of just regular. Organic cotton tampons and pads. So you can use those as an option. And I would always make sure that they're unscented no matter what.

I would also look at just deciding if you wanna get something that is disposable or if you wanna think about something that is reusable. So disposable may be you jam. Maybe the best thing for you, I have switched to reusable, I wanna say. It's been years, honestly, at this point. Some of the reusable options are organic cotton pads.

That can be a really great option that you actually wash. Some women are totally down for that. Some are like definitely not. The more fancy version of that would be period panties. I do think that it's important to be careful with period panties because they can have PFAS, which are those forever chemicals that we.

Found out are in all of our leggings and things like that. There are a couple of brands that I have found are better. One of them is MA Body, that is one that they have tested and they say there are no PFAS or all of the other letters that we're trying to watch out for. I don't have them all off the top of my head.

So I have tried those. Those are pretty good and . They work pretty well. I use those period ies A lot of times I will use actually a cup and then I kinda use those as backup. So we'll talk about that here in a minute. I use those on lighter flow days or when I think I'm about to start. I haven't quite started yet.

So there are all kinds of options for those period panties including, all the types of underwear so you can have for a heavy flow day, you can have the bigger ones, you can have smaller ones for a smaller day. I really like the overnight shorts. There's different brands that have different ones, and those are really nice for just being able to sleep without having to worry about your period.

It's almost like I would totally use them postpartum now that I've experienced using those. I would use those for my first, however long postpartum, because it's like you're wearing bike shorts, but they're really absorbent, that can be a really good option. So if you haven't looked into period underwear.

I would recommend looking into those as an option. And I like the brand mody, body and I like the brand period.co. Those are both cleaner, more organic brands that I have found. Now I also really like the option of a period cup or a disc. There are differences if you haven't used one of those.

Disc in cup. Both kind of fit differently. They work differently for different cervical positions. Some of us have our cervix. More straight up and down. Some of us are more tilted forward or tilted backward. If that's something you don't know. It may be a little bit of an investigation for you to do, but sometimes the disc will work better than the cup, depending on cervical position and just like general vaginal tone and things like that too.

I typically really like using a period cup. One of my favorite things about using it is I do not have to always be buying tampons and pads. Making sure I have them in stock and I have enough with me and like all the things now with a period cup, it is something that if you are like out and about for a long time and you don't have a bathroom that's a toilet and a sink together, then that can be a little bit more tricky.

So that's something to think about, especially if you work somewhere where you don't have an option like that. But I am at home a lot, but, and if I do go out on a heavier flow day, typically those period cups , honestly, they last me most of the day. So I don't even have to think about it.

And then also, I can think about where I'm going, if there's gonna be a bathroom that I can use to dump it and clean it, or I can wear period undies as a backup. I really have not had an issue with using a cup and kind of like the convenience of it out and about, I've actually found that it's very convenient and I change it way less than I used to change a tampon.

I just make sure that I'm, sanitizing it, boiling it in between periods and those can last a really long time. There are many brands of these. I have an organic cup. I like that. I also have a Cora like flex disc. I like that too. Those are some options. The thing that I like about them too is, we're not gonna be running into the issue with the pesticides and the chemicals and things like that, that sometimes we run into with tampons.

And depending on your pelvic floor strength and things like that, usually those can be pretty good. Pretty safe option. Those are kinda my thoughts on period supplies, and there are lots of different options, but if you're struggling with an option or if you haven't even thought about it and you're using typical tampons or pads, I would just encourage you to try something different and see if your period is better.

Because I've had clients tell me when they switch to say they were using typical tampons and they switch to just organic pads instead, and didn't have that additional irritation of something like actually in the vagina during your period. It really seems to make a difference sometimes and can just be a relief for the pelvic floor.

And just thinking about even the vibrational frequency of some of the materials that it all really does matter. Being able to make some switches could in and of itself make your period better. The next general area of things that I wanna talk about is. Actually what is in your kitchen?

So this is again, not the typical area that people go with non-toxic beauty products and things like that. But if you're like me and you're cooking at home a lot, what you're using in your kitchen is really important. this is gonna be a little more of what to not do versus what to do, but a couple of things that I want you to check into our, number one, do you have Teflon pans?

If you are using the typical non-stick cooking pans, those. Are very much, very heavily proven to have a ton of chemicals in them. I'm not gonna tell you all the names of them or pretend that I know all the names of them, but those can be really toxic and you can just be leaching just a little bit into your food over and over every single day.

So I would highly recommend switching to something like stainless steel can be a good option. Ceramic non-stick can be a good option. The thing with ceramic is that after a while, a lot of the times it's ceramic on top of aluminum. After a while, those can chip too if you are like me and you like to still cook at high heat, even if you're not supposed to.

That's just something to essentially budget in that maybe you're gonna have to swap those out because you don't wanna be getting leaching aluminum into your food. Cast iron is one that a lot of people use and like I personally don't use cast iron anymore because I do think that we get enough iron exposure.

I think that we just need to really work on. The way that our bodies are able to absorb and use iron typically. I know that a lot of people will use cast iron to get more iron in. I personally don't love to do that. I think that it can cause more harm than good long term, but that is just my thought on that.

In the kitchen also, plastic is a really big one. If you still have plastic dishes, plastic cups, plastic Tupperware, it's really common. It's the cheapest, it's the easiest most of the time. The first thing that I would say is just thinking about how you're using it. If you are using, plastic plates and you are putting them in the microwave or you're putting hot food on them, , it would be ideal that you are not doing that.

If you need to use plastic sometimes, which I could maybe argue, you don't. But if you feel the need to use plastic sometimes, just make sure that you are not heating it up and that you are not putting hot food in or on it. If that kind of rules it out for you where you're like, okay, then what am I supposed to do?

Only eat cold food. No, just look at a different option of glass or stainless steel or something else. I for my kids, I do have three kids. For a while I was just very idealistic and I was like, they're going to use glass. They're going to use whatever. They're just gonna use what we use and it'll be great.

They broke all my dishes and then they broke them all again and. I realized that maybe that was not a stressor I needed to have in my life, that they were always making dishes, and so I found some wheat straw kids' plates on Amazon. This sounds very crunchy. I know. And if they're a scam, I don't think they're a scam, but my friend came over and was like, these look like plastic.

They do look like plastic, but what I read on Amazon said that they were not plastic and that they were actually a lot better and they don't have BPA and bp. All the things, all the bees. I like those. They are really easy to use. They're just essentially like plastic plates for the kids.

We've also done stainless steel a lot of times, and those are really good too. , I think that honestly we win with the wheat straw ones because they are colorful. They don't make as much noise when the kids like bang them on the table and things like that. That has been really nice, but that's an option that I have found for Tupperware.

You know, We just use glass Tupperware, like the Pyrex dishes. We have switched out our utensils as well. The things that you're actually stirring with , if those are plastic, you're just heating up plastic in your food all the time. That's not ideal either. I have a few that are silicone, but I like to stick with metal for the most part, or just more

non-toxic materials as much as possible. I think silicone can be okay, but I'm not totally sold. That heating it up all the time is a really great idea and I have really not a lot of research behind that. That's just my own personal feeling. So I don't use tons of silicone, but I do have some.  

The other thing that is in the kitchen most of the time that is pretty inflammatory and toxic is seed oil. So like canola oil, soy oil. Even sunflower and safflower oils. This is not really a product but kind of a product. It's more of a food, but I just wanna mention that too, that if you're not looking at your condiment ingredients and what your chips and cookies and stuff like that have in them, then that's something that I would really look at while you're in the kitchen just to help switch over to less inflammation in the body in general.  

. Another product that I really love for hormone health. Is a castor oil pack. This is, not a general product recommendation like a category, but this is something that I really love. And when I said that I was gonna give you products that will make your periods better without breaking the bank, I had to put this on the list because castor oil packs are going to be really supportive to help the liver detox better.

And they can also make a really big difference in period pain when they're used over the uterus. So you can use them up over your liver or down over your uterus. Either way, I find that they're really helpful and I really love just an organic castor oil pack from Amazon you can just look that up because the links change all the time for that.

And then I use organic cold pressed castor oil that is in a glass jar. It feels expensive when you buy it, but it will last you for a long time. I buy a 32 ounce jar, maybe like once a year, I buy it pretty infrequently. And I wanna say it's $25 or something like that. It feels expensive, but once you keep it for a long time and use it for everything, you will find that it's highly worth the effort.

If you need help with castor oil pack, we can put a link in the show notes of how to do it. This is something that I would highly recommend, and it is also not going to break the bank, and it can make a really big difference for your periods. We actually have an episode on castor oil packs, a ways back that we will link to episode 15.

. I'm gonna get into two kind of bigger categories too, but I'm gonna go into those and break them down a little bit. Just a little bit so that this doesn't get too long. And this is something that you can, do a little more deep diving on your own, but just give you a few highlights of what to look for.

Number one is beauty products, which could mean a little bit of anything, right? It's gonna be your makeup, your hair stuff, your shampoo, toothpaste, face wash, body wash, perfume, all of the things right? This is where I feel like it can get overwhelming and expensive really fast. That's why I wanted to talk about it and break it down and give you some suggestions.

Number one, if you have not tackled this category at all, think about what you are using the most. What do you use every single day? What goes in your body, like toothpaste versus just outside on your skin? Now your skin is very absorbent. It's a mucus, or it's not a mucus membrane, but it's a very absorbent organ.

And it does absorb. What you're putting on your skin, you're essentially putting in your body. And with that being said, if you're putting something in your mouth, it's getting absorbed a little more than what's going on in your skin. I like to start small. I like to start with something like toothpaste or deodorant because those are going to be less expensive typically, and a little more bang for your buck because you are using them definitely at least a couple times a day.

So toothpaste, I like a brand that has xylitol. As the main like mechanism of action. I find that can be really helpful for just dental health, but also for bacteria in the mouth and things like that. There are several Xlo Hall toothpaste. There's silo White. I like a toothpaste from Himalaya Wellness.

There's all kinds of different toothpaste based on your needs. If you need to remineralize your teeth or fix a cavity, then a lot of people really like doing a remineralizing tooth powder. I have one from Earthly. There's one from Just Ingredients. There's several really good options for that.

That's something that you can look into as well. But I would start with something small like that. Just make sure that you're not getting a toothpaste that has. Artificial flavors, fluoride dyes, weird sugars in it. Those things are gonna make a difference for your health overall long term, and it's just an easy switch.

Deodorant. My cheapest and easiest option is my husband and I literally mix coconut oil and baking soda. Like half and half. Mix it up and we keep it in a Pyrex in our bathroom. Is it fancy or cute? Not at all. But does it work? It totally works, and it's so cheap, and we always have that on hand. So I'm not spending $15 or more on a non-toxic deodorant.

Now, some people are sensitive to baking soda and can't handle that, and if that's the case, there are many types of non-toxic deodorants that you can try. I would just look at do they have aluminum in them? Do they have fragrances in them? Those would be the main things that I would stay away from, and even the ones that are

antiperspirant I would avoid because really like your lymphatic system, your body, it needs to sweat. We don't wanna be putting something in that really sensitive area an absorbent area of our armpits that is going to, essentially impair detoxification. And we do need to sweat. But if you use a deodorant that actually works for your body, it should help keep that under control now.

A whole side topic with deodorant is if you have really bad body odor, it probably is a detox issue in general. Some people have seen chlorophyll being really helpful for that. Taking chlorophyll internally can be like an internal deodorant and you may not need deodorant, so that's an option.

There's also, if you look up armpit Detox by Wellness Mama, you can look up and do an armpit detox mask for a while and see if that helps with smell. There's lots of options and I'm going on a little tangent with that. But deodorant is something that I would start with and then I would just look from there at what else are you using on a regular basis?

, Obviously it's gonna be body wash and shampoo and hand soap and things like that. And you can look for DIY recipes. You can use just a generally clean brand. I like the everyone brand for that kind of thing, especially for my kids. Is it the 100% perfectly clean thing? Maybe not, but it's definitely a lot better than most options.

So that's usually what I will go with. I also would just have you look at, especially your, beauty products where you're using nail products, you're using skincare, hair products, makeup, those type of things. Again, this can get pricey pretty fast, but. I would just assess what are you using the most and what have you not changed out, and then start looking into options.

There are all kinds of different options for each of those things, and really a lot of times you have to find what's best for you. There's not a one size fits all best practice option, but just using the guide of checking in with what you're using most and then looking for that and changing.

One thing out every month or a couple things out every month. It's usually better slow and steady pace than trying to throw everything out in your house at once. Okay. And then the last area that I wanna talk about is more like the household cleaning products, because those can be incredibly toxic, especially if you're using the typical.

Clorox bleach and comet for your bathtubs and for your toilets and things like that. You really don't need to be using that harsh of cleaning chemicals in your house and it will affect your hormones and it can affect your breathing and your kids' eczema and asthma and all kinds of things that we just really don't want to have.

Again, this is an easy breezy episode. I'm not going to go into every detail, but a couple brands that I do like,, things that I've switched out are dishwasher, soap tablets. Coding all the food that you eat because you're putting it on your plates and it's coding that with whatever chemicals are in it.

So we use the, if you care brand, I get it on Amazon, subscribe and save shows up at my house more often than I need it, which is great because then I don't run out. So that's what I use for that. I, we use like ECOS or sometimes seventh Generation Dish soap.  

We use the Ecos brand two for dishwasher or so for laundry soap. If you happen to be a Costco person, they have a really big bottle at Costco for much cheaper than the small bottle at everywhere else, I really love that. That's a great one for laundry soap. We used to use Charlie soap when we were doing cloth diapers, and that worked great too.

It's really not about making everything perfect, especially if you are a really crunchy mama and you're listening to this and you're like her products are really not as clean as I would want them to be. That is totally fine, and my standards have ebbed and flowed a little bit over the years, but what I'm really looking at is trying to make it the most simple and affordable and reasonable way to decrease the amount of toxins.  

these products are still so much better than the typical products. While they may not be, made of only beeswax, they typically are gonna make a huge difference in your toxin load. So that is really my point with this episode, is just making it as reasonable as possible and checking in with all the areas so that you can start to have just a little bit reduction in toxins.

And why that matters so much is because these are all hormone disruptors, typically, the things that we want to avoid in all of these products. And if your hormones are being disrupted and irritated by these products and you have these. Xenoestrogens, which are like fake estrogens coming in. It is going to impact the way that you are making and detoxing hormones, which is what I teach all the time, and what we're working on all the time in trying to make your periods better and your PMS and your mood and your energy and all these things.

But when you don't have this flow coming in, it makes it a little bit easier for your body to be able to detox. So being able to make your own hormones well, and then you have less to detox. It just takes that burden down a notch in a way that. Is a lot easier than some of the other things that we can do.

I really find that this is a pretty vital step, but it's not necessarily the first step because if you are not really nourishing your body and you're not paying attention to your stress and how you're living your life, this is not going to fix everything. But will it bring, your burden down from a 10 to a nine or a 10 to an eight?

It totally could. So I think it can be really important, but it's not something to obsess over because. Nothing will ever be perfect is really the main point that I'm trying to make. If you are in the market and you are ready to change your hormones and you wanna start changing some of your household products, I hope that this has been helpful.

And if you want the bigger picture where we are really looking at, I. Is your food and is your lifestyle affecting you in a positive way so that you can make hormones well, and you can detox hormones? Then reach out to me because nourish your hormones would be a perfect fit for you, and I would love to help you have better periods, more energy and less mood swings, and it is really tangible and possible even if it hasn't happened for you before.  

I would love to help you, love to support you, and I will talk to you soon.