7 Signs Your Hormones are Out of Balance
Lets start with the basics….
What is a hormone? It is a chemical messenger produced by your endocrine system that helps to regulate your metabolism, your sleep, your cycle, your mood, your energy, and your skin (can we just emphasis here HOW important these are as they truly affect EVERYTHING).
Anytime that we find hormones out of balance, symptoms will begin to manifest. The symptoms are not the problem, they are the result of the problem. These symptoms are specifically designed to be signals to you that we should never normalize.
7 SIGNS YOUR HORMONES MAY BE OUT OF BALANCE
Constant fatigue (YES, even after sleeping all night)
Do you wake up already feeling exhausted or like you need to drink coffee all day just to make it through? This is never normal. That sluggish feeling of never being able to recharge your battery can be associated with different hormones including:
a high cortisol to DHEA ratio which can lead to adrenal fatigue
Hypothyroidism which can slow down your metabolism and energy production
Poor blood sugar control which can cause energy crashes
An imbalance in the sex hormones which can lead to brain fog.
2. Issues Losing Weight or Unexplained Weight Gain
How many times have we been told that this is just something to expect when you get to menopause? It is true that your hormones directly impact your metabolism, but it is not true that you have to settle for the imbalance that occurs as we age. Instead we can absolutely be proactive about it!
Insulin resistance can lead to fat storage especially in your abdomen.
Increased cortisol puts the fat loss process on hold in order to support the body with stress management.
Thyroid hormones can create a sluggish metabolism if imbalanced.
Estrogen imbalance can increase fat storage especially in the hips and thighs area.
3. Mood Swings, High Anxiety or Depression
Do you find yourself more irritable, anxious, or feeling more emotional than normal? Do you find yourself jumping quickly from one emotion to the next? You know your baseline and it feels abnormal, then you should listen to your body because it is. Hormones that can contribute to this are:
Estrogen and progesterone as they regulate your cycle, perimenopause, menopause and play a big role in mood changes.
Cortisol impacts how your brain functions when under chronic stress
An underactive thyroid has been linked to depression and anxiety
Testosterone levels can also impact irritability and anxiousness.
4. Feeling Tired but Wired, Unable to Fall Asleep or Find yourself Waking at 3 AM for no reason
Sleep can be impacted heavily by your hormones and your circadian rhythm. Being exhausted at the end of the day, but unable to fall asleep can show dysfunction with your circadian rhythm which is impacted by your cortisol levels. If cortisol is too high at night, it can prevent you from falling asleep and if it is too low in the morning it can make you feel very groggy. If you find yourself waking in the middle of the night, this could also be attributed to blood sugar dysregulation and insulin resistance.
Melatonin, your sleep hormone, could not be pumping at its normal capacity.
Progesterone, your rest and relax hormone, could be deficit.
Or estrogen could be imbalanced which regulates your REM sleep. This could lead to insomnia and night sweats.
5. Irregular Cycles or Fertility Struggles
Your cycle is one of your biggest vital signs that something is not working properly. Irregular cycles, missing cycles, or heavy cycles could all be signs of hormonal imbalance.
Estrogen and progesterone are responsible for regulating your cycle and if imbalanced this is where missing periods or irregularity come into play.
Testosterone levels can impact period irregularity which can also lead to conditions such as PCOS
Thyroid hormones can disrupt the menstrual cycle and ovulation
6. Low Libido
Loss of sexual desire is not a symptom of a busy season, it is a driver of hormonal imbalance. This imbalance can happen in both men and women. Low libido heavily correlates with low testosterone, low estrogen, and low DHEA.
7. Skin Issues Such as Acne
Breakouts can be hormonal especially if you find them around the jawline or chin. These breakouts can be dependent on our sex hormone pathways and how they are functioning as well as our overall cortisol levels which can increase inflammation in the body. You guessed it, inflammation in the body manifests differently for everyone and skin issues can be one of those detoxing pathways.
If you are experiencing any of these 7 symptoms or even a multitude of them, hormonal imbalance could be a reason why you feel the way you do. You know what is “normal” for your body and when things are operating or feeling differently, you need to listen. Things finally started changing for me when I stopped guessing and normalizing these symptoms and did some testing and created a tailored healing approach. You do not have to accept that these symptoms will be part of your daily routine for the rest of your life. Your body will actually love for you to do something about them so that you could get back to feeling like yourself again.