Meera was twenty-six. Her cycle had been irregular since she was sixteen. Her skin had been at war since she was fourteen. She had been on the pill, off the pill, on it again. She came to us wanting to feel like the body was hers.
We told her that this was possible. We also told her it would take time.
Insulin, inflammation, and the inner clock
Her labs showed what we expected - insulin resistance, elevated androgens, low vitamin D, low magnesium. We rebuilt her meals around protein and fibre. We taught her to walk after eating.
We also taught her to sleep before midnight, which felt to her, at first, like an affront.
The return of rhythm
By month five her cycle returned. By month seven her acne, which had defined her face for a decade, had begun to lift. By month ten she felt, she said, like a body that belongs to a life.
She still works with us, on and off. The pace is hers now.
"I had stopped believing my body could feel ordinary. Now it does. That is everything."
Meera Iyer continues to work with us, in lighter and lighter rhythms. Their story, like all stories worth telling, is still unfolding.