[mochaccino]

It does make most people sleepy, but if that's a problem you can take it before bed with a little bit of food, such as a yogurt cup. In my experience, it makes me pleasantly sleepy, but unlike with sleeping pills, I don't feel groggy in the morning. The other main side effect of hops is "weepiness". It seems like some people experience the kind of heightened emotionalism some women experience during pregnancy, while others get genuinely depressed. Not everone experiences this symptom, and it may or not be common. I personally never experienced weepiness even at a high dose. I only experienced side effects from hops when I accidentally took an extremely high dose daily, for a week or two. Even then, my only symptom was joint aches around ovulation, which went away after 3 days.

Hops can either tip torwards being mainly an anti-androgen or mainly a phytoestrogen depending on how it's digested. For BE you want it to be mainly a phytoestrogen. It will digest into mainly phytoestrogens if you take it with food as long as you happen to carry plenty of the specific probiotic bacteria necessary. Isabelle recommends Menohop, a pill that contains the right bacteria along with hops and soy. After 2 weeks, your gut will probably be fully colonized with the bacteria,and you can switch back to normal hops.