15/09/2025
With so many women telling me their struggles post COVID, I found this share by a dancing coach and midwife. I love her perspective around changing the narrative, from a body shutting down, to the body message to women to slow down.
I wish all of the women who still feel the long lasting affects of COVID, a breath of fresh air and renewal of energy. 🙏
🌿 The Nervous System and Long COVID
Emerging studies show that Long COVID isn’t “just in the mind.” It is linked with changes in immune pathways, inflammation, autoantibodies, and nervous system regulation.
Fatigue and post-exertional malaise (PEM): Energy crashes after even small activities are a hallmark, mirroring conditions like ME/CFS.
Brain fog and memory changes: Many women describe struggling to think clearly or recall words.
Dysautonomia (nervous system imbalance): Rapid heart rate, dizziness, sweating changes, and palpitations suggest the autonomic nervous system is struggling to recalibrate.
Pain, numbness, pins and needles: Peripheral nerves can be affected, causing daily discomfort.
This points to the nervous system being “over-activated,” stuck in survival mode, and needing time and care to recalibrate.
🌸 Women’s Health: Menstrual Cycles and Fertility
For women, Long COVID brings unique challenges that have only recently begun to be studied.
Menstrual changes
Many women report:
Late or missed periods
Heavier or lighter bleeding than usual
Unpredictable cycles
Flares in Long COVID symptoms around menstruation
Why? Stress and illness can disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis—the delicate hormone network that regulates cycles. Inflammation and immune disruption after COVID may also influence ovarian and endometrial function.
Fertility
There is currently no evidence that Long COVID causes permanent infertility. But some research does suggest:
Temporary suppression of ovarian function
Changes in hormone levels such as FSH and LH
Possible short-term impacts on ovarian reserve and endometrial lining
For women planning pregnancy, cycle tracking, fertility awareness, and conversations with healthcare professionals can offer reassurance.
The key message is that these changes are usually temporary, though understandably unsettling.
🌸 POTS and the Autonomic Nervous System
Another striking overlap between Long COVID and women’s health is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).
POTS is:
A rise in heart rate of 30+ beats per minute when standing
Accompanied by dizziness, palpitations, or fatigue
Much more common in women between 15–50
For some women, COVID seems to have been the trigger. Symptoms can be debilitating, yet there are supportive strategies:
Staying well hydrated
Increasing salt intake (if appropriate)
Using gentle graded activity, often starting from lying or seated exercise
Wearing compression garments to help blood flow
Pacing daily activities to prevent crashes
POTS is not new—but in the context of Long COVID, it is now being recognised in many women for the first time.
🌸 Living Through a Nervous System Reset
When your body is experiencing Long COVID, it may feel as though nothing is reliable anymore—energy, memory, emotions, or cycles. Yet what science is showing us is that this is not a failure. It is the body’s protective response, a deep recalibration.
Think of it as the body whispering:
“Please pause. Please soften. Please allow me to repair.”
🌸 Gentle Support and Healing Pathways
Healing is rarely quick, but there are many ways to walk gently with Long COVID:
Medical support: Speak to your GP. In the UK, Long COVID clinics can offer structured help and investigations.
Pacing: Rest before exhaustion sets in. Imagine your energy like a bank account—spending gently prevents overdraft.
Symptom tracking: Keeping a diary can reveal patterns—helpful when speaking with doctors.
Nutrition and hydration: Supportive, balanced meals and hydration are nervous system allies.
Mind-body practices: Breathing, restorative yoga, guided relaxation, or meditation can calm the nervous system.
Holistic therapies: Massage, acupuncture, or gentle coaching can support healing (though evidence varies, many women find comfort here).
Community: Connection with others who “get it” can make all the difference. Women’s health networks, peer groups, and online spaces offer solidarity.
🌸 A Feminine Reframe
Instead of seeing Long COVID as a body failing, we might view it as a body insisting on slowness, softness, and deep care.
For women, this can also mean reclaiming the rhythms of menstrual health, fertility, and hormonal balance—seeing these changes not as flaws but as signals.
🌸 Closing Words
Long COVID may feel like being plunged into the unknown—cycles shifting, dizziness rising, energy fading. But you are not broken, and you are not alone.
Your body is wise. It is protecting, recalibrating, and asking you to meet it with patience.
Recovery is possible, even if it looks different for each woman. Step by step, breath by breath, you can move forward.
🌿 Your nervous system is not failing—it is rewiring. And with time, support, and gentleness, it can find its harmony again. 🌿
