For women, hormone imbalance is nothing new. We experience it every month as our sex hormones ebb and flow during our menstrual cycle. Hormone imbalances are what allow us to get pregnant and what support our pregnancies.
But the naturally occurring hormone imbalances that come with menstruation, puberty, pregnancy, and menopause can often get out of hand, and when they do, the symptoms can become unmanageable.
You’ll remember that hormones are the chemical messengers that deliver information from one part of your body to another. Over 50 hormones make up your endocrine system! Each has its job to do. But each relies on the others to keep the communication flowing.
So, if even one hormone level is too low, others can be affected. This can lead to a domino effect of symptoms as in the chart below.
Did a few symptoms jump out at you as ones you’ve heard about or experienced yourself? Perhaps others are new to you? And of course, if you have a hormone imbalance, that doesn’t mean you’ll experience all of these symptoms!
However, if you think you have any kind of hormone imbalance, the natural question is: What causes it?
What Causes Hormone Imbalance in Women?
Hormone imbalances aren’t just limited to sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. They can also include imbalances in insulin, steroids, growth hormones, and adrenaline. That’s why there’s such a variety of symptoms and causes.
So – aside from your typical causes of hormone imbalance like menopause (when a woman’s ovaries stop producing estrogen), there are plenty of other factors that can cause or contribute to hormone imbalance.
Firstly, certain medical conditions like diabetes, pancreatitis, ovarian cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), early menopause, and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) affect hormone levels and cause imbalances.
Secondly, our habits and lifestyle choices can contribute. For example:
- eating an unhealthy diet,
- carrying excessive weight and body fat, and
- enduring stressful work situations.
Thirdly, in addition, certain medications, surgeries, and treatments like birth control, hormone replacement, chemotherapy, radiation, and hysterectomy can cause hormone imbalance in women.
Lastly, environmental conditions that contain toxins, pollutants, herbicides, pesticides, and excessive stressors can also contribute to hormone imbalance.
That’s quite a list! So what can we do to sort things out?
How to Rebalance Hormones
Here’s the good news – many hormone imbalances are easily treatable.
For example, you may not have thought of diabetes as a hormone imbalance, but it is. Diabetes results when your body doesn’t produce enough of the hormone insulin or when it can’t use insulin properly. Low insulin levels can be brought back into normal range by administering insulin shots in measured doses.
Similarly with sex hormone imbalances. Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) uses bioidentical hormones derived from natural, plant-based substances. These increase sex hormone levels using customized dosages, and bring your hormones back to optimal levels.
You can read my post about BHRT pellet therapy here.
Let the good times roll!
Are you ready to take control of your health? There’s no need to suffer from the effects of a hormone imbalance. We have highly trained BHRT professionals in the clinic and we’d love to help you. Contact us for a consultation today!