Every woman needs to understand the importance of having hormonal balance. Sadly this is not something that your primary care doctor or your typical OB/GYN is going to discuss with you- the concept of hormonal imbalance and how to address it. More often, what happens is, a woman will start to experience health issues like weight gain, headaches, body temperature changes, skin conditions, mood swings, trouble sleeping and more. She’ll ask her doctor “what is wrong with my body?“- or “why can’t I seem to lose weight like I used to“- and “why am I suddenly having problems falling asleep or staying asleep” – or “why am I having acne problems when I’m 38?” and maybe “I’m embarrassed at my lack of sex drive, what’s wrong with me?” etc. etc. Unfortunately, what I hear time and again (and it’s what I experienced before I made the big step to see a specialist!!) is that a doctor will often tell a woman who complains about these things that “Well, you ARE {insert whatever age she is here} years old, this is just nature…..your time is past, enjoy the golden years of getting older!!” – or they’ll suggest “Why don’t you try going on a diet and exercising more?” or they’ll say “It sounds like you are just depressed about aging. You need to accept that this is part of life. Here let me prescribe you some {insert anti-depressant here}” OR- some OB/GYNs or Endocrinologists are known to prescribe ONLY PROGESTERONE for women- often without doing any bloodwork. So they are just applying a bandaid to a gash that really needs surgery.
The bottom line is this. None of the above are appropriate answers- and most women don’t know that. They’ll accept whatever line is given to them by the OB/GYN or primary care doctor because- that’s what we are conditioned to do; trust doctors. I’m not suggesting doctors are untrustworthy, mind you- not at all. What I will tell you is that the majority of them are not trained in integrative medicine and they are trained in prescribing drugs. Lots of drugs. They aren’t trained to find the source of your symptoms and solve the whole issue- they are trained to give you a prescription to address the symptom. Often, the prescription won’t do anything but make matters worse.
All of this sounds depressing right?
Don’t be depressed. Be excited. GET HOPEFUL. Why? Because I am publishing this blog post as the introduction to a series I am doing on this topic because it is now in the top 3 topics of all time that I get asked about- and it’s the area there is the least amount of easily accessible information about online or in books. Women are in the dark and so are a whole lot of medical professionals. The more we can spread the word on what to do when your body starts to seemingly revolt against you- the more women we can help.
Who needs hormonal balance help? Guess what? This is no longer just a thing for “older” women. Far from it. More young women- even in their twenties, are experiencing hormonal imbalance- it can be due to many causes and combinations of causes. You should take a listen to my podcast interview with Laurie Christine King (click here to do so) — she’s an example of a healthy, fitness fanatic young woman who figured out her hormones were jacked and started getting the right help- she’s been on BHRT (bio identical hormonal replacement treatment) for some time now and doing really well.
How do you get started on this journey- and how do you know you need to? Consider this post an introduction, a trailer of the series I’ll be publishing on this topic. And I’ll be going deep dive into these topics on my new Patreon Channel– launching officially next week (subscribe now over there to become my early patrons– this is a private member only community!) So- if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms on an ongoing basis: Weight Gain, Lack of Libido, Headaches, Migraines, Mood Swings and Irritability, Skin Rashes/Hives/Breakouts/Acne, Body Temperature Changes, Night Sweats, Heavy Bleeding, Lack of periods, Lack of Energy, Inability to lose weight, Insomnia, etc. — it’s likely you have some jacked hormones. If you have been on The Pill or any hormone altering birth control- your hormones are likely in trouble. If you’ve been a yo-yo dieter, overtrainer, experienced a high stress life, have been on a lot of antibiotics, have consumed a lot of packaged food– yup- those all contribute to hormone issues and poor health (duh).
So, if you have experienced the above- and you are not getting anywhere with your current doc, it’s time to step up and as my business coach says “start driving the bus in your life, stop letting others drive your bus”. It’s time to become your own health advocate. It’s time to embrace the idea of learning and learning and learning because I will warn you and at the same time entice you: WARNING: hormones are COMPLICATED. There is no one solution for all women. It takes a lot of tweaking. It does not happen overnight at all. But it IS doable and when you start fixing your hormones, YOU WILL FEEL LIKE A NEW PERSON. You will be amazed at how much you look forward to LIVING again!! Trust me. Before I started getting bloodwork and started bio-identical hormonal replacement treatment I had most of the above symptoms. Now I am 51– 5 years later- and look and feel better than I did 20 years ago. I embrace my age and aging. I look forward to the decades to come. I’m not exaggerating.
Ladies, in my next post (live in 2 days) I’ll go into the first step of your journey– how to get started where you are- with your current doc or OB/GYN — what questions to ask, what to expect, what to request, and how to move forward if they don’t comply with what you need. We’ll talk about bloodwork- the right kind- because most docs won’t order the right ones – and then how to connect with the best integrative medicine practitioner who can help you.
Until then- TELL ME WHAT QUESTIONS YOU HAVE. Leave a comment or fill out the contact me form. I’m here to help you in this series on balancing your hormones to get your body BACK and get your sex life thriving and get your sleep vibes in a happy place and more. Tell me about your symptoms, your experience, your confusion, ANYTHING. I’ll make sure I address it.
In the meantime, I have a ton of episodes already on the podcast about hormones and cortisol– with my Austin doctor Dr. Lane Sebring, plus Dr. Anna Cabeca and others.