Are your symptoms caused by a hormone imbalance?
Your hormones naturally fluctuate at different times of your cycle all which influences your energy levels, your sleep, your appetite, your resilience to stress and even your ability to focus.
Whilst it's natural to experience subtle changes in how you're feeling physically, mentally and emotionally at different phases of your cycle, subtle changes ideally doesn't result in symptoms.
As you move through life, heading towards your late 30s, 40s and 50s things can begin to change. Your hormones tend to become more easily influenced by everything that is going on in your life, including your diet and especially, your stress levels.
Symptoms of hormone imbalance can become much more common because your hormones naturally begin to shift and become more sensitive to stress and other factors in your life.
Whilst changes to your period or the days leading up to your period make it easy to see that something might be out of balance with your hormones, other less obvious signs of a hormone imbalance particularly during the perimenopausal years (from late 30s- early/mid/late 40s because it can be different for all of us) include:
- an increase in PMS before your period eg cramping, bloating, fatigue, emotional sensitivity
- a change in body shape with a tendency to store fat around your belly/middle
- hot flushes and night sweats
- joint and muscle pain
- fatigue and brain fog
- mood swings, irritability, increased anxiety or low mood or depression
- sleep problems
- food cravings particularly sugar and carbs
- skin problems including dryness, acne or rashes
- hair loss or thinning
-digestive issues, especially bloating or reflux and bowel changes
- changes in libido (most often a decrease)
-frequent UTI or thrush
Should you have your hormones tested?
Hormone testing can be really helpful BUT it needs to be done at the right time of your cycle (and the ideal timing can vary for each woman depending on your average cycle length). Random hormone testing is unlikely to provide the most accurate picture. We also need to see a variety of your hormones in ratio to each other.
I use salivary hormone testing taken at the right time of your cycle (via a test kit which you use at home and then post to pathology). Sometimes we also look at your adrenal hormones as well to get an idea of how your adrenal glands are functioning as this can also have a big impact on your hormones (especially during perimenopause).
The cost of these tests vary from $138 for female hormone testing to $217 for combined female hormone plus adrenal function/stress testing.
Once we know what is going on with your hormones, there are a variety of effective options to support hormone balance which can be individually tailored to you based on your hormone levels and symptoms.
