When seed cycling first came to the mainstream eye, some claimed it was a silly trend that makes no difference to our hormones or cycle what so ever. And before I tried it back in 2018, I actually thought the same thing. It's bizarre but, as a society, we are more skeptical about natural medicine, than a synthetic pharmaceutical drug with 20 different side effects - why is that? Back then, seed cycling was backed only by anecdotal evidence and a few nutritional studies on the hormone-regulating effects of individual seeds. It was easy to dismiss it as just another wellness trend. But it's 2025, is seed cycling still considered a fad? Or have things changed?
What is seed cycling?
It's the nutritional protocol of rotating specific seeds at different times of the menstrual cycle to naturally regulate hormone levels. Read more here
The history of seed cycling
Seed use for hormonal health in Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine dates back centuries. But the first searches of seed cycling on the internet were around 2011 before the hard launch in 2012 by Naturopathic practitioner Lindsey Jesswein. She wrote an article on her now archived blog - Natural Perspectives titled 'Seed Cycling for Natural Hormonal Balance' where she explained the protocol in depth. Practitioners had been prescribing seed cycling to their patients long before the internet got a hold of it. But when it did there was a flurry of social media hype and articles that were either strongly for or against the practice.
Popularity started to climb around 2019 when people like us Seed Cycle Blend commercialised seed cycling with ready to use products. And now the interest for seed cycling has tripled since then. Is that because it's trendy or is it something else?
Why did we start Seed Cycle Blend when there was only anecdotal evidence back then?
Because I trusted my own results, I trusted the nutritional science, I trusted the hundreds of women who had similar results to me and I believed the science would catch up. I suffered my whole menstruating life with debilitating cramps, PMS and mood swings. I tried everything to manage the pain and emotional rollercoasters, but nothing worked long-term. After 3 months of Seed cycling my cramps were gone, poof! Disappeared! And this dread I would feel each month just faded away. To this day I do not experience those debilitating cramps that held me back from so much. It was honestly life-changing. So, making this protocol available to more women made sense to me.
Guilty until proven innocent
Somewhere along the way our collective approach to health flipped from ancient tribes curing and maintaining their communities health with tinctures, foods and plants to big pharma condemning these practices as 'dangerous'. It blows my mind that the definition of pharmacy went from 'the use of natural substances for healing' (in the 1st century) to now 'Profession of preparing & dispensing drugs'. This paradigm shift has lead us to doubt natural medicine as the first point of call and lean heavily on artificial derivatives instead. All of this to say - seed cycling falls under the category of natural or alternative medicine, which means it had to work harder than synthetic pharmaceutical products to be taken seriously.
The clinical trial that changed everything
The missing piece of the 'is-seed-cycling-legit?' puzzle was clinical data. And that's what we got in 2023. This clinical trial of seed cycling proves it's effectiveness as an adjacent treatment to PCOS and a range of other hormonal disturbances. Once this literature dropped, seed cycling went from a wellness fad to a legitimate protocol that can take on some of the heavyweights of hormone regulating drugs like metformin. The literature may have substantiated the protocol, but I always believed in my own results and those of other women.
So, is seed cycling a fad?
Seed cycling is a protocol that got some bad press to begin with, but as more women tried it and the clinical trial matched their claims, it went from fad to fab! (so cheesy, but I'm keeping that)
There are thousands of wellness trends out there as we explored in our previous article 'health hack overwhelm' and sometimes it's too much, sometimes it's life-changing. My top recommendation before doing anything is to get more data on yourself. Maybe that's doing a mini-consult with our nutritionist/naturopath to understand if you need more blood tests. Or maybe that's taking our quiz to see if seed cycling is right for you.
At the end of the day you are your own best health advocate. Who cares what's trending, understand yourself, get insights and safely experiment with whatever you resonate with. That's what lead me to start Seed Cycle Blend to help more women just like you.
Have a great week,
Rochelle x
