endo-protocols

Week 4 — Integration (Days 22–30)

Goal: Convert the 30-day reset into sustainable maintenance. Reintroduce foods one group at a time to identify your personal triggers. Wind supplements down to a long-term stack you can actually keep.


What you’re doing this week

   
🍽️ Food reintroduction One food group every 2–3 days using the reintroduction tracker. Track reactions with WHOOP + symptom log.
💊 Supplement consolidation Wind down most short-term Phase 2 inducers; keep long-term foundation stack
🔥 Sauna 2–3x this week Maintenance cadence (sustainable forever)
🏃 Movement Resume normal training intensity gradually; layer back in strength
📋 Post-protocol bloodwork Schedule for Day 28–35 to capture biomarker shifts

Why Week 4 matters more than people think

Most “detox protocols” stop at Day 14 or Day 21. The body has reset, but you don’t yet know which foods were actually problems for you. Without structured reintroduction, you’re guessing — and you’ll re-add some foods that quietly drive your inflammation right back up.

Week 4 is where the 30-day protocol becomes a personalized food map. By the end, you’ll know which foods are background-safe, which are occasional-only, and which are worth holding out from longer-term.

This is also where you transition from the high-supplement “active intervention” stack to a sustainable long-term protocol you can actually keep doing.


Daily routine (baseline structure)

The structure of your day stays similar to Week 3 — same supplement timing, same sauna cadence, same sleep routine. The change is which foods you’re testing and what you’re tracking.

Morning

  1. Warm lemon water
  2. AM shake or breakfast (optional now; shakes are no longer required)
  3. Supplements (consolidated — see below)
  4. 30-min walk

Midday

  1. Lunch with cruciferous + fiber emphasis maintained
  2. Sulforaphane source
  3. Optional Z2 cardio or strength session
  4. If a food trial day: introduce the test food at lunch in moderate quantity

Evening

  1. Dinner clean baseline plus any food being tested
  2. DIM, curcumin, calcium-D-glucarate if continuing (practitioner-guided)
  3. Magnesium glycinate
  4. Phone off 8:30, bed 9–10 PM

Sauna (2–3x this week)


Food reintroduction protocol

Use the reintroduction-tracker.md template (in templates/).

The protocol

  1. Pick one food group from the suggested order below
  2. Eat a moderate serving 1–3 times on Day 1
  3. Continue eating it on Day 2 (or stop if you’re already reacting)
  4. Observe symptoms for 72 hours — bloating, gas, skin, sleep, mood, energy, joint pain, pelvic pain, brain fog, bowel changes
  5. Return to clean baseline for 2–3 days before testing the next food
  6. Categorize the food:
    • Cleared — no reaction observed; safe for regular rotation
    • ⚠️ Mild reaction — occasional consumption only; re-test in 4–6 weeks
    • Clear reaction — hold out for 3–6 months before retesting

Suggested reintroduction order (least to most reactive)

# Food Group Example test foods Notes
1 Eggs Whole eggs, cooked plain Nutrient-dense; moderate reactivity
2 Dairy — goat/sheep first Goat cheese → cow yogurt → cow milk Goat/sheep often tolerated when cow isn’t
3 Corn Plain cooked corn, corn tortilla Test before gluten
4 Gluten Sourdough, pasta, oats (if excluded) Highest reactivity; full 3-day window
5 Whole-food soy Edamame, tempeh, tofu Whole form only; refined soy stays out
6 Peanuts / legumes Peanut butter, lentils, chickpeas (if not already) Test separately from soy
7 Red meat Grass-fed beef, lamb Usually well-tolerated once gut is calm
8 Shellfish Shrimp, scallops Lower priority unless you eat often
9 Added sugar One dessert, sweetened drink Save for late — easy to over-test
10 Alcohol One serving of one type Stresses liver post-detox; be slow
11 Caffeine Coffee or black tea Last because it masks fatigue

For endometriosis specifically: dairy, gluten, soy, and alcohol are the four foods most commonly implicated in endo flares in the literature. Take these trials slowly and track WHOOP HRV in the 24–48h after each trial — HRV often drops 24–48h before you consciously feel a food reaction.

How long this takes

You can’t test 11 food groups in a single Week 4. Plan for 8–12 weeks of structured reintroduction beyond the 30-day protocol. That’s actually the point — you’re building a personalized food map over the next 2–3 months, not racing to “be done.”


Supplement consolidation — long-term vs short-term

After the 30-day protocol, taper most of the active stack and keep only the foundation:

✅ Keep long-term (with practitioner approval)

🔄 Cycle (3 months on / 1 month off)

⚠️ Use only periodically (twice a year, practitioner-guided)

❌ Discontinue


Post-protocol bloodwork

Schedule a blood draw for Day 28–35 of the protocol to capture biomarker changes. Match the cycle phase of your original baseline panel if possible (e.g., both draws in early follicular phase) to control for cycle-phase confounding.

Priority panel (~$200–400 out of pocket via Quest or LabCorp direct)

Optional advanced (~$400–800 additional)

What to look for


After Day 30 — what does long-term look like?

The maintenance protocol (sustainable indefinitely)

Daily Weekly Quarterly / Seasonal
1–2 cups cruciferous vegetables 3–4 sauna sessions Pre/post bloodwork panel
30+ g fiber 1 Z2 cardio + 2 strength sessions minimum Symptom + cycle pain review
2.5+ L water At least 3 fish/omega-3 meals Repeat structured cleanse 2x/year (e.g., spring + fall)
Magnesium glycinate evening Sleep ≥ 7.5 h average Update food map (test new foods or retest old reactives)
Vitamin D₃ + omega-3 Restorative movement (yoga, walking) DUTCH or OAT test annually
Clean personal care + glass containers (forever) Cycle-day tracking Update protocol with practitioner

What changes if you do this for 3+ months

What this does NOT do


⚠️ End-of-protocol decision points

After 30 days, you’ll have data. Use it to decide what’s next:

If you’re improving meaningfully

If you’re stable but not dramatically better

If you’re worse


Files referenced from this week


End of Week 4 — congratulations

You’ve completed the 30-day Estrogen Clearance Protocol. Whatever your results, you now have data — a personalized food map, a baseline-and-post-bloodwork comparison, and the protocol skills to repeat or refine this twice a year if it’s serving you. That is a meaningful asset for living with endometriosis.

If you’re willing to share your data (de-identified) for the broader citizen-science effort, see Study 001 (Evvy + WHOOP surgical recovery) for the next call.