Symptoms of Hormonal Imbalance in Women

Some of the symptoms of hormonal imbalances are

• depression,
• extreme fatigue and weariness,
• allergies,
• endometriosis,
• hair loss and probable facial hair growth,
• PMS,
• osteoporosis among others.

Unfortunately, if the symptoms are ignored in the initial stages, then they can grow worse as time goes by.

What Influences Female Hormones?



The amount of these hormones produced in a woman’s body can vary from one month to the next because they are dependent on factors such as stress, nutrition (or lack of it), too much exercise, being overweight, ovulation time or the use of birth control using artificial hormones.

Ovulation As a Decisive Factor in Hormonal Balance

Normal ovulation occurs every month from the beginning of puberty (age 9 to 15) through menopause when it stops. Menopause onset differs for women and may begin in as early as the late 30’s all the way through the early ’50s. The wide variation of time is a strong indicator of what has happened to women related to their hormone balance and the artificial regulation of it through birth control.

When there is no ovulation, the production of progesterone from the ovaries does not happen, and as a direct result, the healthy accepted levels of progesterone start to decline. Making sure your Adrenal Glands are strong and healthy allows for a smooth transition when moving into menopause.

When your adrenal glands are depleted due to chronic stress, symptoms of menopause will begin to occur. These include hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and decreased libido.

Several young women today, some in their early thirties and some even younger, have started to experience the early onset of hormone imbalance symptoms and their associated disorders. This should not be happening and there are various reasons for this new “medical” condition.

There are several contributors to Hormonal Imbalances in both Women and Men. Although the majority of pharmaceuticals are focused on it only being a problem women have, pharmaceutical "remedies" for men are becoming more common. 

Why Do We Develop Hormone Problems?

Before we can identify a problem, let's look at the Hormonal System and the glands involved in their regulation.  Endocrine glands are glands of the Endocrine System that secrete their products, hormones, directly into the blood rather than through a duct.

The major glands of the Endocrine System include:

• the pineal gland, 
• the hypothalamus
• the pituitary gland,
• the thyroid gland,
• the parathyroid gland,
• the thymus gland,
• the pancreas,
• the adrenal glands
• the ovaries, 
• the prostate and
• the testes.

The Major Hormones produced most are aware of are by the following 4 Glands: 

• Pancreas: This gland produces the insulin that helps control blood sugar levels. 
• Thyroid: The thyroid produces hormones associated with calorie burning and heart rate. 
• Adrenal Glands: the Adrenals produce the hormones that control sex drive and cortisol, the stress hormone.  It also produces Aldosterone which regulates sodium and potassium balance associated with Blood Pressure Regulation. 
• Ovaries: The Ovaries produce Estrogen and Progesterone primarily to support a woman and her ability to have a baby. The delicate balance between these two hormones regulates the normal monthly menstrual cycle. 

I think we can all appreciate that if you do not have proper fuel, the system does not go very far or function properly. This is especially true for the Hormonal System. Therefore, we need to go back to the place the body derives its fuel from, the Digestive System and then the Hepatic System, specifically the Liver which regulates hormonal production based on having the required inventory for manufacturing the hormones. 

The Digestive System Connection

Eating quality food is becoming more of a challenge in our country as we consume entirely too much Completely Refined And Processed (CRAP) foods and suffer from Dysbiosis as a result of the Digestive System Disruptors. As a result, we create Leaky Gut Syndrome leading to a circulatory overload of undigested proteins, an appropriate Immune Response is known as an allergy, creating an increase in inflammation heading to the Liver. The Liver, which acts as a filter, must now sift through and sort out what the body needs and what the body can let go of and excrete as waste. The result of this downward spiraling is an overwhelmed Liver leading to inefficient conversion of the food-stuff we take in over to hormonal precursors we require and ends up creating hormonal deficiencies and glandular depletion. Give the person enough years of this cycle and you have the recipe for hormonal problems in multiple systems with far-reaching health consequences. 

What Sorts of Health Consequences are We Talking About? 

Health conditions of:

• Adrenal Deficiencies
• Allergies
• Autoimmune Concerns
• Cancer
• Cholesterol Concerns
• Colitis
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Diverticulitis
• Endocrine Disorders
• Fibromyalgia
• Gallstones
• Hiatal Hernia
• IBD-Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• IBS-Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Immune System Weakness
• Kidney Disease
• Liver Disease
• Musculoskeletal Problems
• Obesity
• Pancreas Disease
• Reflux
• Spleen Malfunction
• Thyroid Concerns
• Yeast/Candida

Can you begin to see the importance of addressing this Hormonal Problem at the Source? 



Do not fall for masking symptoms with artificial hormones creating glandular deficiencies and eventual failure. Your Hormonal System is entirely too important to your overall health to allow your Medical Doctor to ruin yours. 

The Medical Perspective

Hormonal Imbalances vary from person to person and there is no one size fits all as explained above. Unfortunately, evaluating the specific hormonal imbalance may be challenging. Your medical doctor should run a hormonal panel specific to your Reproductive System, your Adrenal System and your Thyroid. It may include a Pancreatic profile as well if you have weight management issues. Based on your health concerns, a good Endocrinologist will order the panel designed to give them all the information they need to evaluate you as a person, not a specific gland or a specific hormone.

Many Endocrinologists and/or Gynecologists do not choose to order whole panels if they figure they will just put you on artificial hormones anyway. It would be important for you to ask for the complete hormonal work-up to understand what your hormones are doing so appropriate medications can be prescribed. Quickly reaching for the "standard" hormone prescription without a proper work-up simply because you are in the age of these concerns, should be a red flag. And you may choose to find a different practitioner who will listen and work with you to understand your problem.

What About Bio-Identical Hormones?

Are "bioidentical" or "natural" hormones safer and more effective than hormones used in traditional hormone therapy for menopause symptoms?

Answers from Shannon K. Laughlin-Tommaso, M.D.

No, they aren't. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and several medical specialty groups, the hormones marketed as "bioidentical" and "natural" aren't safer than hormones used in traditional hormone therapy, and there's no evidence they're any more effective.

The term "bioidentical" means the hormones in the product are chemically identical to those your body produces. In fact, the hormones in bioidentical medications may not be any different from those in traditional hormone therapy. Several hormone therapy products approved by the FDA and prescribed by health care providers contain bioidentical hormones.

"Natural" means the hormones in the product come from plant or animal sources; they're not synthesized in a lab. However, many of these products still need to be commercially processed to become bioidentical. Traditional hormone therapies don't necessarily exclude natural hormones. Some FDA-approved products — such as Estrace, Climara and Vivelle-Dot, which contain estrogens, and Prometrium, natural progesterone — also are derived from plants.

Marketers of compounded bioidentical hormones say their products have certain advantages over traditional hormone therapy:

• They're produced in doses and forms that differ from those in FDA-approved products. For many nonstandard combinations, you need to go through a compounding pharmacy — one that specializes in making medications customized for your individual needs. However, products from compounding pharmacies haven't been subject to the same rigorous quality assurance standards that standard commercially available hormonal preparations have to meet.
• They're custom-made for you, based on a test of your saliva to assess your unique hormonal needs. Unfortunately, however, the hormone levels in your saliva don't reflect the levels in your blood or correspond to menopause symptoms.

Some women may benefit from nonstandard doses and forms of hormones in compounded bioidentical hormone preparations, but there's currently no scientific support for an advantage of these compounds over common commercially produced preparations.

The Controversy with Bio-identical Hormones

There are plenty of doctors that say otherwise, which begs the question.  If these bio-identical hormones are processed by

pharmaceutical companies for the medical profession, then why the division within the medical community?

Medicines Two Choices for You