Harry K-P | Shes Not Crazy :
📌 The biology:
🧬 Luteal phase length 12-14 days: Reed & Carr, 2018, Endotext
🧬 Second progesterone crash 3-5 days before menstruation: Bäckström et al., 2011, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
🧬 Misreading of neutral faces as negative during the luteal phase: Derntl et al., 2008 and 2013
🧬 Luteal negativity bias in body image, eye-tracking to least-preferred areas: Derntl & Kimmig, University of Tübingen
🧬 Luteal phase as a protective circuit rather than dysfunction: Sundström Poromaa & Gingnell, 2014, Frontiers in Neuroscience
🧬 Progesterone raises core body temperature by approximately 0.3-0.5°C: Baker et al., 2020, Journal of Physiology
🧬 Increased resting metabolic rate and appetite in the luteal phase: Solomon et al., 1982, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
🧬 Sleep architecture disruption across the luteal phase: Baker & Lee, 2018, Sleep Medicine Clinics
📌 Two honest notes:
🧬 I say “nothing’s changed” about her body in this and that’s not accurate. Progesterone drives fluid retention, so bloating is real. Falling estrogen reduces skin hydration and barrier function, and the shifting progesterone-to-estrogen ratio can increase sebum (Raghunath et al., 2015, International Journal of Women’s Dermatology). The physical change is real. The perceptual amplification is much larger than the change. She’s seeing a ten as a hundred.
🧬 “Protection mode” is my plain-English version of the Sundström Poromaa reading. The perceptual findings are solid. The evolutionary interpretation is an interpretation, and I’d rather say that than dress it
2026-08-10 10:43:40