Do you spend your days feeling tired, irritable, and unmotivated? Or, maybe you can’t focus or have mild, nagging muscle pain. You don’t feel up to par, yet you’re not sick.
When ongoing generic symptoms define your life, it’s time to meet with Chetanna Okasi, MD, and her team at Women’s Wellness MD in Columbia and Greenbelt, Maryland, to learn if you might have a hormone imbalance.
Hormone imbalances can strike at any age and affect every part of your body. Though these imbalances can cause distinct symptoms, most women initially experience mild, nonspecific problems.
In this blog, you’ll learn about the most common hormone imbalances in women and how they affect your body.
Hormones regulate every function in your body. They activate your immune system and control your nervous, digestive, and reproductive systems. Hormones control everything, from metabolism and heart rate to muscle growth and hunger.
Since life-supporting functions hang in the balance, your body works hard to keep blood levels in a precise range. If any hormone falls above or below that range, you have an imbalance capable of affecting your emotional and physical health.
Women experience natural changes in their reproductive hormones. They stop producing estrogen and progesterone at menopause, throwing them into a dramatic hormone imbalance.
Reproductive hormones also fluctuate throughout each monthly cycle. These changes don’t cause health problems as long as they’re in the expected range and keep your cycles regular.
However, any hormone in your body can become imbalanced, often due to:
Hormones other than estrogen and progesterone can also decline as you age.
Imbalances can affect any part of your body and cause many problems. However, the following hormone-related health conditions are the most common in women, and they highlight the many ways imbalances affect your body.
PCOS is among the most common hormone imbalances in women. This condition involves high levels of two hormones: androgens and insulin.
High androgens disrupt ovulation. Your periods may stop or become irregular, and many women have heavy periods. Androgens cause acne and excessive, dark hair growth on your face, chest, and thighs.
Many women with PCOS have ovarian cysts. You may struggle with chronic pelvic pain, depending on the number and size of the cysts.
PCOS is a top cause of infertility. It also makes you gain weight and raises the risk of chronic health conditions. You may develop high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Like all endocrine glands, the thyroid can become overactive or underactive, causing hormones to be too high (hyperthyroidism) or too low (hypothyroidism).
Hypothyroidism generally slows your metabolism, causing:
Low thyroid hormone levels also raise the risk of infertility, nerve damage, and heart disease.
Hyperthyroidism leads to symptoms such as:
An overactive thyroid may cause heart failure, osteoporosis, and thyroid eye disease (TED).
Chronic stress triggers high cortisol levels, and when this hormone stays high, it can cause serious health problems. High cortisol levels may lead to Type 2 diabetes, weight gain, insomnia, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and muscle weakness.
The hormones you lose at menopause — estrogen and progesterone — are known for their roles in your reproductive health, but they also affect nearly every part of your body.
Without these hormones, many activities slow or stop. For example, low estrogen means your skin produces less collagen and fewer new bone cells. As a result, skin aging accelerates, and bones become brittle and weak (osteoporosis).
Cells in your brain have special receptors where estrogen and progesterone connect and trigger nerve activity. That’s why you may have mood swings, anxiety, and memory loss after menopause.
Menopause-related hormone imbalances also cause:
Hot flashes and night sweats eventually improve. All the other changes need treatment.
We find the reason for your symptoms, identify hormone imbalances, and recommend customized treatment to restore your health. Request a consultation online or call Women’s Wellness MD today to start the path toward hormone balance.
