Updated 12-22-17
Certain hormones that exist naturally in the human body may sway, depending on how much you have and in what ratio your hormones are with one another. Different people are born with different body types genetically and have had vastly different life experiences (possibly dating back as far as when we were eggs developing in our grandmother's bodies!) so all people produce different amounts of hormones, but we can still do things to alter our own unique settings.
For DW, higher levels of testosterone and estrogen are believed to sway blue, while lower levels of testosterone and estrogen seem to sway pink. Higher levels of progesterone have also been theorized sway pink but the evidence for progesterone is much sparser than the evidence for testosterone and estrogen.
For DH, higher levels of estrogen seem to sway pink and higher levels of testosterone sway blue.
One method we have discovered that helps us to track what exactly our hormones are doing is by monitoring our temps. Over the course of a few months, you will begin to notice patterns in your own personal average temperatures. Sometimes your temperatures are lower, and sometimes they are higher. (This is completely aside of the fluctuations in temp that occur on a daily basis due to your menstrual cycle - the entire range of your temps will run lower or higher overall.) Some people believe lower-than-average temp range may indicate a rise in boy-friendly hormones, and higher-than-average temp range may indicate a rise in girl-friendly hormones.
Many women have also noticed that they can actually feel and see the changes in their hormones - while swaying pink they are less passionate, less motivated, they may have lower sex drive and less EWCM. Your muscles may shrink, you may find that your skin either clears up or breaks out, you may have less body hair. Some people have even noticed that their clitoris seemed smaller and less sensitive. It may be harder to have an orgasm. Interestingly, even though men produce 40-60 times more testosterone than women do, women seem to be far more sensitive to its effects and respond to very small changes in testosterone levels.
For men, the changes caused by lower testosterone are much the same, only that as their T levels drop, they may also find that they begin to have some trouble getting or maintaining an erection. This can make certain aspects of ttc more challenging, but it may be an encouraging sign that your hormones are getting into a more girl-friendly place.
By dieting and taking your supplements, you are doing a lot to get your hormones into the right zone, but there are still other factors that you can control that can really help to get your hormones into a more girl-friendly zone.
WEIGHT LOSS - There are many reasons why losing weight helps you sway pink. First of all, it sends the overall message to your body that times are hard, and female mammals of every species seem to have more daughters when food is scarce. Secondly, body fat tends to raise estrogen levels, and for women, higher estrogen = more sons, so the less body fat you have, the better. The third reason is that your blood sugar declines as you lose weight.
The fourth reason is much more complicated, but may actually be the most important reason of all. You see, when you lose weight, you don’t just lose pounds of fat, you also lose pounds of muscle.
Studies have shown that the more muscle mass a person has, the higher their testosterone levels, so when our muscles shrink, we’re actively reducing the amount of testosterone circulating in our bodies. Though the mechanism of how this works exactly is not known, it seems that the amount of muscle that you use and how frequently and intensely you use it, signals the production of more testosterone. The more muscle you have, the more you use, and then that sends the signal to your body to produce more testosterone. In short, muscle makes its own testosterone, and the more muscle you have, the more testosterone you will make.
Shrinking your muscle mass and testosterone through weight loss is easy. Cutting your caloric intake by as little as 15% makes your brain think it’s starving, so it begins to cut back on testosterone production. And your body is just as willing to burn off its muscle for food as it is fat, so not only are you making less testosterone because you’re taking in less calories, you’re also making less and less as your muscles shrink.
For best results, you want to lose weight while doing nothing to help your body build that muscle mass back up. (Eating a high protein, high nutrient, high cholesterol/good fat diet actually feeds muscle mass and will help maintain it even if you‘re losing weight). So losing weight on a lower protein, lower nutrient, lower cholesterol/fat diet (such as the Low Everything Diet) will help shrink muscle mass overall and will help lower your testosterone levels. We have a full Guide to Losing Weight for pink here http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...tml#post960313
NOTE - In men, the situation is even more complicated, first of all because men have so much more testosterone and muscle mass to begin with, so just going about their day-to-day lives they use more muscle and way create more testosterone than women do. And secondly because very few men actually want to lose muscle mass and would be willing to do the kinds of weight loss that it would take for their naturally muscular bodies to begin to lower testosterone levels (which would have to be pretty substantial).
Consequently, for DH, it may actually be more helpful for them to be carrying a bit of excess body fat - in men, higher estrogen levels tend to sway pink which in turn lowers testosterone, and since more body fat = more estrogen, this may be the time for us to accept our husband’s beer bellies and love handles!! But at the same time, we can't really have them gain weight for a sway either, because men, rather annoyingly, tend to gain muscle first and then fat. Thus, it's usually best for hubby to just hold steady on weight right where he's at - no gaining, no losing.
