How are hormonal imbalances treated? Treatment for a hormonal imbalance will depend on what's causing it. If you have lower-than-normal hormone levels, the main treatment is hormone replacement therapy. Depending on which hormone is deficient, you may take oral medication (pills) or injection medication.
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of a hormone imbalance. Excess progesterone can make you sleepy. And if your thyroid -- the butterfly-shaped gland in your neck -- makes too little thyroid hormone, it can sap your energy. A simple blood test called a thyroid panel can tell you if your levels are too low.
What Causes Hormonal Imbalance? An imbalance in hormones can be caused by unusually high stress, insufficient sleep, an unhealthy diet, diabetes, menopause, pregnancy, thyroid problems, and other conditions.
Dangers of Hormone Imbalance
Particularly in women, a hormonal imbalance could indicate early onset of menopause, polycystic ovary syndrome, primary ovarian insufficiency and even ovarian cancer, among other conditions. In men, hormone imbalance could indicate any number of conditions, including prostate cancer.
The five most important hormonal imbalances are diabetes, hypo- and hyperthyroidism, adrenal insufficiency, polycystic ovary syndrome, and hypogonadism.
How Long Does It Take to Balance Hormones? As you can imagine, this varies. However, research shows that by taking a holistic, well-rounded approach, you can balance your hormones in less than four months. In fact, you can significantly reduce the amount of chemicals and pesticides in your body, in one week.
Many people first get their hormones tested by their primary care doctor or gynecologist. Others prefer to go straight to a lab facility. While both of these methods can garner accurate results, we recommend getting your hormones tested by a hormone health specialist.
Too much or too little of a certain hormone can throw off your body's balance and have a series of strange effects, including weight gain, depression, anxiety, infertility, thinning hair, or even acne. Thankfully, hormonal imbalance can be treatable.
Natural ways to balance your hormones include eating anti-inflammatory polyunsaturated fats, reducing your exposure to endocrine disruptors, getting adequate sleep, and using supplements to fill in any nutritional gaps related to gut health and vitamin D levels.
There are many ways in which your gynecologist can help get your hormones back on track. There are medications, lifestyle adjustments and alternative therapies that can all aid in improving your imbalance. The most common medication prescribed for treating a hormonal imbalance is a synthetic or bioidentical hormone.
The following foods will also restore hormonal balance by regulating stress, reducing inflammation, and thereby optimizing gut & period heath. 3. Magnesium-rich foods like almonds, pumpkin seeds, spinach, avocados, bananas, and dried figs.
Your doctor will send a sample of your blood to a lab for testing. Most hormones can be detected in the blood. A doctor can request a blood test to check your thyroid and your levels of estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol.
This is why testing is recommended days 19-22 of a 28 day cycle. Even though we're commonly told women ovulate like clockwork on day 14 of their cycle, unfortunately, this isn't always the case.
Most kits allow you to check your hormone levels at home by sending you a kit with a small lancet. This device pricks a small hole in your finger, allowing you to collect a small drop of blood for testing. Some kits may also use saliva or urine samples.
If your doctor suspects that you might have high estrogen, they'll likely order a blood test to check your hormone levels. A trained professional will collect a sample of your blood to be tested in a laboratory. The results will indicate if your estrogen levels are too low or too high.
The only way to confirm a hormone imbalance is to test your hormone levels. Both blood tests and saliva tests are proven techniques in assessing a hormone imbalance. i-screen uses blood tests to accurately determine sex hormone and thyroid hormone levels, but prefers saliva testing to assess cortisol levels.
The most common consequence of aging-related hormonal changes is menopause. Around age 50, women's ovaries begin producing decreasing amounts of estrogen and progesterone; the pituitary gland tries to compensate by producing more follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).