Is Menopause Changing My Hair?
Any woman who’s been through it can tell you that menopause is about more than just your period stopping– it affects your whole entire body, and often not in the most pleasant ways. If you’re currently going through menopause and are wondering if some new change in your body is caused by it, there’s a good chance that the answer is yes! One thing that some women can experience is changes to their hair. You might notice your hair thinning or shedding in large amounts and looking more sparse than it has before. It may also become dry and frizzy where once you had no problem managing it, or you may notice yourself losing hair length as it suddenly becomes brittle and begins breaking. These changes are upsetting and difficult to deal with, but there are steps you can take to help them! Here’s what you need to know.
Hormones and Menopause
At the end of the day, pretty much every change that menopause puts you through comes down to your hormones– specifically, the fact that there are less of them. As your body enters menopause, the levels of female sex hormones in your body (namely estrogen and progesterone) drop far lower than they were during the rest of your adult life. This causes your period to stop, but also impacts many, many other things in your body, like your weight, skin, hair, temperature regulation, and so on. If you can’t pin down any other reason that your hair might be looking so much different at this time in your life, it’s likely that menopause is the culprit!
Common Menopausal Hair Changes
It’s not uncommon at all for women to struggle with hair loss or other changes during menopause– in fact, it’s pretty common! Some of the things that you might notice are heavily shedding hair, where you can find large amounts of hair left in the shower drain, on your pillow and clothes, or on your brush, or thinning hair that you see on your head through bald spots that you hadn’t noticed before or thin, straggly hair lengths and ends. You might also find that your hair and scalp are very dry to the point of itching and flaking, or you may find that your hair breaks very easily now and you’re losing length. These changes can be upsetting and might make you feel insecure about your hair, but try not to panic! There are things you can do to help counteract the process and help you continue to feel beautiful and confident.
What to Do?
Hair Regrowth Treatments
Treatments for hair loss like Rogaine are often seen as something only intended for male pattern baldness, but anyone can use it to help their hair grow back in! Chemotherapy patients have relied on these treatments for many years, and you might get some benefit from them too. You can find these treatments, usually containing the drug minoxidil, over the counter at any drugstore. Use them as directed and you might start to see some good results! If you have any troublesome side effects from these treatments, make sure to talk to your doctor about them.
Diet Changes
Overhauling the way you eat in order to supply your body with much-needed nutrients is often a very important part of addressing a hair loss problem, and it can have many other benefits for your health and wellbeing, so it’s always good to give it a try! Take a look at your typical diet and see if there are any places where you can add in more protein, healthy fats, and colorful fruits and vegetables, as all of these nutrients are important to helping your body grow strong and healthy hair. Even just adding a multivitamin or some fish oil to your daily routine, if you don’t take these supplements already, can help you to see a difference!
Hair Care Changes
Changing the way you look after your hair is always a good place to start if you’re unhappy with the results you’re seeing. As you age, it’s normal to have to adapt your hair care routine to the new needs of your hair and scalp! Washing your hair less frequently, detangling it more gently, and moisturizing it more intensely with oils, deep conditioners, and hair masks are all good places to start. You can also try sleeping on slippery fabrics like silk and satin in the form of pillowcases, bonnets, nightcaps, or hair scarves. This will minimize friction and breakage on your hair ends and help maintain your length. Scalp massage is also something you can try. This technique can help stimulate your hair follicles while also acting as a relaxing habit.
Hormonal Treatments
If you’re really struggling with hair changes during menopause, addressing the root cause of the issue– your falling hormone levels– might end up being the key to solving your problems. Hormone replacement therapy can help alleviate the difficult symptoms of menopause like hair loss, so don’t hesitate to contact us today to set up an appointment at Renewed Vitality. We can help you to start feeling like yourself again!
It’s one of the most common indicators of menopause, one of the most widely discussed, and one of the most fearfully anticipated– the dreaded hot flash. If you’re a woman approaching her menopausal years, hot flashes are probably the first thing that pops into your head when you start to sweat. The majority of women will experience them at least a few times throughout menopause, and there are dozens of products devoted to stopping them in their tracks.
However random they may seem, hot flashes actually do have some common triggers that can bring them on! Avoiding these triggers may help you to more easily manage the discomfort of your hot flashes, and reduce how often or how severely they occur. Here’s what you need to know!
Heat
It makes sense that when your environment is hot, you feel hot, but when you’re suffering from menopausal hot flashes, the heat can end up feeling much more intense, and it can be hard to cool down, even after you’ve exited a hot and stuffy environment. Planning your day to avoid putting yourself under excess heat is just a fact of life when you’re in menopause, so try to dress in light, loose layers that are easy to take on and off, plan your travel and events accordingly with the weather, and bring a fan or cool drink with you to help you beat the heat!
Spicy Foods
If you’re a lover of cuisine with a kick, this trigger will be a hard pill to swallow, but spicy food can commonly trigger a hot flash. If your dinner is hot enough to get your forehead sweating, it’s probably going to lead to you being uncomfortably warm down the line! Switching to foods that are a little more mild in the heat department can help keep your hot flashes at bay while you’re going through menopause.
Caffeine
Your daily latte or cup of joe may feel vital to your morning routine, but unless you want that routine to include a regular hot flash, it might be best to reduce your caffeine intake. Caffeine affects the body in all kinds of ways, and is a common hot flash trigger. Switching to a decaf version or eliminating your caffeine intake altogether can be a challenge, but if it helps your hot flashes, you might find that it’s worth it!
Alcohol and Smoking
Notice yourself checking the thermostat after a nightcap or a quick drink with friends? It’s not a coincidence. Alcohol has been known to trigger hot flashes for women with menopause, and you may even notice through your own observations that certain types of alcohol, like wine, may trigger them more easily than other types. Smoking can also trigger a hot flash, so cutting back or eliminating both of these substances is not only good for your health, but can help keep you feeling cool!
Tight Clothing
A snug-fitting dress or tight top and skinny jeans are a great fashion statement, but they might end up making you more uncomfortable than you bargained for as the day goes on. The restriction of tight-fitting clothes is a very common trigger for hot flashes, and on top of that, wiggling your way out of a tight garment while you’re trying to fight a hot flash is an exercise in frustration! As good as they look, it might be best to ditch some of your more tight-fitting outfits while you’re going through menopause. Choosing clothes that are more lightweight, flowy, and loose-fitting will keep you much more comfortable, and you might even find that you like the style too!
Avoiding these common hot flash triggers can make a big difference for some women, but if you find that you’re still struggling with hot flashes and other unpleasant symptoms of menopause, seeking out hormone replacement therapy like the kind we offer here at Renewed Vitality can get you feeling like yourself again!
Your body is a complex organism full of systems that interact and affect each other in intricate ways, sometimes in ways that don’t make a lot of sense to us modern humans on the surface. We tend to think of the mind and body as two separate entities, and because stress is primarily a mental state for people today, it seems like stress shouldn’t have much of an impact on the physical health of the body.
However, this couldn’t be further from the truth! The body affects the mind and the mind affects the body in turn, and if you’re under high levels of stress, it’s likely that you’ll notice it affecting your wellbeing and how you feel on a daily basis. In fact, a lot of the physical signs of stress, like weight gain, sleep and energy problems, and even menstrual problems, share common ground with the signs of hormonal imbalance. That’s because your stress levels are affecting your hormones! It all comes down to a little chemical your body makes called cortisol. Let’s take a look at the ways it is affecting you!
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a hormone– more specifically, it’s a steroid hormone– that the human body produces in the adrenal glands, which are located near the kidneys. Cortisol is naturally occurring and every human body needs it! In the right amounts, it helps to regulate your blood sugar, reduce inflammation, and keep your blood pressure at an optimal level, along with many other jobs.
The issues arise when stress is introduced to the situation. Cortisol plays a vital role in the body’s “fight-or-flight” response. This is actually the reason it’s often referred to as the stress hormone. When your system is triggered by a stressor, whether it’s an actual physical threat or an anxiety-inducing modern threat like a deadline you forgot about, your body is flooded with high levels of adrenaline to prepare you to respond to the stressor. If the stressor goes away, these levels drop off, but if it stays, the body starts producing high levels of cortisol as well, releasing blood sugar to give you energy and slowing down the digestive and immune systems to conserve effort. Once you are no longer being confronted by a stressful situation, these levels will go back down to normal and your body will start to function as it usually does, but if you’re dealing with chronic, ongoing stress, your cortisol levels stay elevated, leading to a whole host of health problems.
Effects of High Cortisol
High cortisol from long-term stress can really wreak havoc on your physical health. Some symptoms of high cortisol are frequent headaches, digestive problems, low sex drive, appetite changes leading to overeating or undereating, brain fog, and anxiety. If it goes on for long enough, high cortisol can also cause heart disease, depression, and can affect your menstrual cycle. Basically, cortisol levels that are too high for too long have a waterfall effect on all of the systems in your body, telling them to constantly be ready to fight or run from an incoming threat. Your body moves resources away from less essential systems like digestion and reproduction to focus on keeping you ready to act at any moment. When your body is in this state for a long time, it can be bad for your health in both the short term and the long term!
How to Regulate Your Stress and Hormones
Regulating your hormone levels when you’re dealing with chronic stress and high levels of cortisol is something that it’s wise to consult a doctor about. However, there are some healthy lifestyle changes that you can easily make on your own that can help you to start feeling better! Eating right, exercising enough (but not too much– you don’t want to overtax your body when it’s already stressed!) and making sleep a priority will help put you on the right track for recovery.
Additionally, taking measures to reduce your stress can help pull your body out of that constant fight-or-flight state. If you’re able to remove external sources of stress, like cutting down your hours at a difficult job, that’s a great place to start, but not everyone has that option. In both cases, it can also be beneficial to use techniques that talk to the base systems of your body and tell it that it’s not in danger. Meditation can be a great way to do this, and so can deep breathing exercises and mindfulness practices that focus on stopping stressful thinking patterns. Basically, anything that you wouldn’t be able to do if there was a tiger or a bear right in front of you is a good way to tell your body’s primal stress response system that it’s ok to calm down and relax. Any activities that increase endorphins, the feel-good hormones, are also great to counteract high cortisol, like dancing, spending time with friends and loved ones, cuddling a pet, or even just laughing!
These techniques are a great way to help address hormonal imbalances caused by stress and high cortisol, but what about other kinds of hormonal imbalances? For more information, you can learn about your hormonal health and how to improve it by reading our blog here!
The human body is full of hormones. They’re the sophisticated message system that your body has in place so that all of your different organs and systems can communicate properly. Most people know about hormones in the context of their reproductive health– estrogen, testosterone, and other names will probably sound familiar to you. However, there are far more hormones at work in your body that can be helpful to learn about! Ghrelin is one that you might or might not be familiar with, but you feel its effects every single day. It’s the hunger hormone! Let’s take a closer look at how ghrelin works inside your body.
What is Ghrelin?
Ghrelin is a hormone produced in your body that mainly affects your digestive system. Unlike neurohormones, which work in your brain, or sex hormones, which work in your reproductive system but have jobs all over the body, ghrelin is a hormone that’s pretty directly focused on your hunger, digestion, and eating habits.
What Does Ghrelin Do?
Ghrelin is called the “hunger hormone” because its main function is to do just that– make you hungry! It’s what gives your body feelings of hunger and creates the drive to eat and seek out food. In prehistoric humans, ghrelin was what drew you out of your safe, protected dwelling to hunt and seek out sustenance. In modern times, the only places ghrelin is likely to drive you are to the fridge or the grocery store. However, the function is the same. The human body needs fuel, and ghrelin is what makes you seek it out.
Ghrelin works in tandem with another hormone called leptin. One of leptin’s main functions is to make you feel full, so when you eat, your ghrelin levels go down and your leptin levels come up, letting you know that it’s time to stop eating for now. After a meal, your leptin levels gradually come down again as your ghrelin levels come up, increasing your feelings of hunger the longer you go without eating.
Ghrelin also plays a small role in your sleep/wake cycle, or circadian rhythm. Ever had trouble sleeping when you had a light dinner and are really hungry, or when you’ve eaten way too much before bed? Blame ghrelin for that. It also has to do with your reward-seeking system, your taste sensation, and the way you metabolize food. If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know the feeling of ghrelin making it hard to stick to that low-calorie plan!
Where is Ghrelin Made?
Ghrelin is produced in your digestive system, mostly in your stomach. An empty stomach is what triggers the production of this hormone. Once it enters your bloodstream and makes your way around your body, ghrelin eventually finds its way into your hypothalamus, the part of the brain that helps to control and regulate your appetite. That’s where it works to trigger feelings of hunger and that thought of “it’s time to eat something!”
What Causes High Ghrelin?
Ghrelin levels are found to be high in people who follow restrictive diets for one reason or another. People who suffer from eating disorders like anorexia tend to have high ghrelin, as do people who are frequently on yo-yo or fad diets. High ghrelin is also sometimes found in people who restrict their diets for health reasons, like those with celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease.
What Causes Low Ghrelin?
While it might sound counterintuitive, people who struggle with obesity often have low ghrelin levels. Scientists are still working to understand this, but one theory is that overweight or obese people are more sensitive to ghrelin, and can feel its hunger-causing effects even at lower levels. Low ghrelin is also associated with conditions like chronic gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, and infections like H. Pylori.
How Does Ghrelin Affect Me?
For the most part, your ghrelin levels are something that naturally fluctuates with your diet and eating schedule. If you’re trying to lose weight, however, you probably feel like you have a pretty antagonistic relationship with your hunger, and so, by association, your ghrelin hormone. Try to think of it this way– in this day and age where we have access to more food than we can possibly eat, ghrelin may seem like a simple annoyance, but in the early days of humanity, ghrelin was what helped us protect ourselves from starving. It helped humans maintain healthy fat levels that would sustain them through times of scarcity.
If you have abnormally high or low ghrelin levels, there’s probably an underlying cause like a digestive disorder that should be treated by a specialist. However, if you’re otherwise healthy with no additional symptoms but you’re struggling with your feelings of hunger, it’s likely that you’re just feeling the effects of ghrelin doing its job and trying to keep you fed.
You can help to keep your ghrelin levels more balanced and manage your hunger by eating a healthy diet full of satiating foods like protein, fats, and healthy carbs, as well as adding in high-volume foods like vegetables. Try to get an adequate amount of sleep and stay hydrated as well– these things can help to regulate your appetite!
Ghrelin and your digestive system don’t exist in a vacuum within your body, and all of your hormones and body systems are connected. Imbalances in your sex hormones have the power to affect your appetite, so if you’re struggling with too much or not enough hunger along with other symptoms, seeing the hormonal specialists at Renewed Vitality might help you! Talk to our team today to learn more.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month has drawn to a close, but the time to be paying attention to the health of your breasts isn’t just during October, it’s all year round. While breast cancer is more treatable and has a higher survival rate than ever before, it’s still best to catch it as early as possible, meaning you should be extremely conscious of any potential symptoms, including pain and changes in your breasts.
The symptoms of menopause and the signs of breast cancer can occasionally overlap. As your body enters the early stages of this transition, changes to your breasts are common, and it can be hard to tell what’s normal and what is a cause for concern. To be safe, it’s best to make sure you get your regular mammograms and perform your monthly self-exams. These are some normal breast-related symptoms of menopause, and some other ones that should warrant a check with your doctor!
Normal Menopause Symptoms
Pain or Tenderness
Any time your hormones get out of balance, whether for an oncoming period, a new pregnancy, menopause, or a whole host of other reasons, your breasts can feel sensitive and sore. During menopause, it becomes less predictable than it was with PMS. Take note of any pain or tenderness for good measure, but unless it’s severe or persistent, it’s usually not anything to worry about!
Changes in Size and Shape
The dropping levels of estrogen in your body as you enter menopause can affect the size, shape, and look of your breasts. You may notice that they lose density and fullness, and they may appear to be a completely different size or shape than they were when you were younger, especially if you’ve breastfed children in the past. These changes are normal and many women experience them during menopause.
Lumps or Masses
Feeling a lump or mass in your breast is enough to get any woman’s heart racing, but not every lump means cancer. Cysts are a common cause of breast lumps and are nothing to be concerned about, especially if you’ve been performing your monthly self-exams over the years and you know that you’re prone to this kind of mass. Lymph nodes also might feel like a small lump but are perfectly normal. However, other kinds of lumps can be dangerous– keep reading below to learn how to tell the difference.
Talk to Your Doctor
Hard or Fixed Lumps
Lumps in your breast that are soft, have defined margins (i.e. edges that are regular and easy to feel) and are mobile, meaning they can be moved around by touch, are usually benign and not dangerous to your health. You should still discuss them with your doctor if they concern you, but they don’t typically indicate cancer.
Lumps that are hard, have irregular borders, and are fixed (meaning they can’t be easily moved by touch) can be signs of breast cancer. If you find a lump, mass, or growth in your breast that fits this description, you should inform your doctor of it right away.
Nipple Changes or Discharge
Changes in the shape and size of your breast are normal during menopause, but you should be very aware of changes in your nipples, particularly if your nipples invert suddenly (or start pointing inwards when they used to point out). Unexplained nipple discharge is also a sign that something is amiss and should be discussed with your doctor.
Skin Changes
A skin effect called “orange peeling” is a common sign of breast cancer. This means that the skin on a particular area of your breast takes on a dimpled appearance, like the skin of an orange. This is something you should look out for when you perform your regular self breast exams. You should also keep an eye out for any redness, rashes, or irritation on the skin of your breasts. Some kinds of cancer won’t cause a lump but will present with these symptoms instead, and any unexplained skin irritation on your breasts is something to tell your doctor about.
Lopsided Size or Shape Changes
For the most part, as long as changes in the size, shape, and appearance of your breasts are symmetrical, they’re not anything to be too worried about. However, if you notice a sudden change like a swelling or shrinkage of the breast on one side but not the other, it’s definitely something to make a note of and get checked out.
The changes that occur in your body during menopause are easy to get scared by. It’s a time when a lot is shifting and altering, and it’s only natural to be concerned about your health. However, if you keep in mind what’s considered a normal breast change and what’s not when it comes to menopause, it should help to set your mind at ease. If you want to learn more about women’s health and taking care of yourself during menopause, continue to read our blog here at Renewed Vitality!
There’s a reason that we associate menopause, PMS, and adolescence with moodiness. There’s a genuine link between your hormone levels and your mood or mental state. While your hormones are far from the only thing affecting your moods, their balance (or lack thereof) can lead to you feeling better, energized, and more positive, or sluggish, cranky, and more susceptible to negative moods. Unsurprisingly, this means that long-term hormonal issues can show up in what your mental health looks like. The coming winter months are a time when a lot of people struggle with their mental health, and if yours is already in a place that’s less than ideal, now is a good time to be looking at contributing factors that you could fix to help yourself start feeling better, and your hormones might be one of them! Here are some of the ways that your hormones affect your mental health.
Mood Swings
Mood swings, or sudden and unpredictable shifts in a person’s mood, are common symptoms of any body state that puts your hormones out of whack. Teenagers, PMSing women, and menopausal women are often written off as “hormonal” any time they’re a little less chipper than usual, but mood swings caused by your hormones can be a legitimate problem for some people. If you’re finding yourself surprised by your own mood changes and feeling as though you have little control over how you feel throughout the day, this might be the reason.
Low Mood and Low Energy
The sex hormones in particular (mainly estrogen and testosterone) play a very significant role in your energy levels. If your levels are off-balance, particularly if they’re lower than they should be, you might find yourself struggling with fatigue, sluggishness, brain fog, and other low-energy related problems. This low energy can lead to low mood as well. Depression and fatigue are very closely linked, and if you don’t have enough energy to be happy and engaged in your life, you’ll certainly struggle with feeling sad or numb for long periods of time.
Anxiety
Hormone imbalances can also have a negative effect on the way your body handles stress and worry, leading you to deal with pounding heartbeats and racing thoughts anytime you start to fret about something. Some people struggle with anxiety that is completely unrelated to their hormones, but others might notice it getting worse during times when their hormone levels are changing, such as prior to a period. Additionally, if you’re developing new anxiety alongside other symptoms of a hormonal imbalance, the two issues are likely to be related.
Sleep
The amount of sleep you get and the quality of your sleep are absolutely vital to every aspect of your health, including your mental health. Poor sleep and struggling with your mental health go hand in hand, affecting each other in a vicious cycle– being sad or anxious makes it harder to sleep well, which in turn makes you more sad and anxious. Imbalances in your hormones can also make it hard for you to get to sleep or stay asleep, leading to a whole host of unpleasant physical and mental health symptoms.
What to Do?
Eat Well
Taking a look at your diet is a good place to start when trying to make positive changes to your physical or mental health. Eating balanced meals full of nutritious, nourishing foods throughout the day gives your body the necessary tools to function properly!
Get Enough Exercise
The feel-good hormones that get released in your brain when you’re physically active can be incredibly helpful in combating mental health issues like anxiety or depression. Regular exercise also helps you to regulate the various rhythms and functions of your body, including your hormonal levels.
Consider Mental Health Treatment
If your moods, emotions, and thoughts are starting to affect your life, work, and relationships, it’s time to seek out professional help. Therapy and medication can help people make incredible changes and move towards happiness and positivity in their lives. They might help you, too!
Consider HRT
If you suspect that your hormone levels are playing a role in your mental health struggles, it’s a good idea to seek out a specialist like the ones on the team at Renewed Vitality for help! They can address these symptoms and others that you may be having and propose treatment plans that can help you to start feeling like yourself again. If you’re interested in learning more, make sure you contact us today!
Hormones are responsible for nearly everything that goes on in your body. They are the courier service that delivers messages to every organ and system, letting it know how to function and what to do and when. When you have a better understanding of these hormones, what they are, and how they work, you can come into a better understanding of your body and health as a whole! With that goal in mind, let’s keep learning about the many different hormones in the human body, focusing on progesterone.
What is Progesterone?
Progesterone, like testosterone and estrogen, is a sex hormone. This means that its primary functions have to do with the reproductive system and sexual health.
Similar to estrogen, progesterone is considered a largely “female” hormone, because its most vital functions are in the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. However, both men and women have some amount of progesterone in their system, just like estrogen and testosterone! In males, the levels of progesterone are simply much lower than in females.
What Does Progesterone Do?
Progesterone plays a big role in the formation and function of the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus. This lining is what builds up throughout the month and then sheds during a period if a woman does not become pregnant, and it becomes the placenta if a fertilized egg implants and the woman becomes pregnant. Rising progesterone levels cause the endometrium to thicken in preparation for fertilization and implantation, and if this doesn’t occur, progesterone levels drop off, causing the shedding of the endometrium and the monthly period.
If a fertilized egg does implant, progesterone also plays a role in the early stages of pregnancy. It helps to encourage the endometrium to form the placenta, stimulating blood vessels so that it can nourish the growing fetus. Progesterone levels stay high throughout pregnancy, preventing any more eggs from being released, and it also is one of the hormones that stimulates lactation after the baby is born.
In men, progesterone plays a role in the regulation of testosterone levels and the formation of sperm. It also has an impact on mood, sleep, libido, and bone density!
Where is Progesterone Made?
Most sex hormones are made in the primary sex glands– the ovaries for women and the testes for men. This is partially true of progesterone, however, it’s a bit more complicated.
In males, progesterone is just produced in the testes. In females, it’s actually produced in a temporary gland called the corpus luteum. Here’s what happens. Inside the ovary, a structure called a follicle releases the egg into the fallopian tube, where it is either fertilized or dissolves. After the follicle releases the egg, it forms the corpus luteum. This is the gland that produces progesterone to help the uterine lining thicken up in preparation for a potential pregnancy. When the egg isn’t fertilized and breaks down, the corpus luteum breaks down too, and progesterone levels fall, causing the period to happen. Basically, each time you go through a menstrual cycle, your body is creating, using, and breaking down a new gland!
If a woman does become pregnant, the corpus luteum doesn’t dissolve. Instead, it keeps pumping out progesterone to create the placenta. Eventually, once the placenta is large and developed enough, it starts to create progesterone on its own, becoming the major producer of this hormone in the body throughout pregnancy to keep the fetus nourished and prevent both ovulation and premature uterine contractions that might cause early labor.
What Happens if You Have Low Progesterone?
Low progesterone is often associated with fertility problems and trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term. If you aren’t pregnant but you have low progesterone, you might have irregular periods, headaches, mood swings, mood difficulties like anxiety or depression, trouble sleeping, or hot flashes. If you are pregnant and you have low progesterone, you can be at risk for ectopic pregnancy, preterm labor, or miscarriage.
Progesterone levels, like estrogen levels, also drop off as you age and begin to enter menopause, and this decrease in progesterone is associated with the common symptoms of menopause, like night sweats, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and mood swings.
What Happens if You Have High Progesterone?
High progesterone levels aren’t often seen outside of pregnancy, but they are to blame for some of the common unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy, including nausea, breast tenderness, and fatigue.
If you do have high progesterone levels when you’re not pregnant, you may notice these symptoms, as well as anxiety or depression, low sex drive, or bloating and weight gain. These elevated levels might be due to hormonal birth control that you’re taking, or it could be a sign of an ovarian cyst or another abnormality with your reproductive system. If your blood work shows high progesterone levels without any other explanation, your medical provider should discuss these possibilities with you.
What to Do About Progesterone Imbalances?
The most common reason people have trouble with progesterone imbalances is menopause. The dropping levels of this hormone can make life extremely difficult for some women! If this is true for you and you’re interested in feeling better, hormone replacement therapy might be the right path for you. Make sure you contact the team at Renewed Vitality to learn more!
When it comes to understanding your body and how it works, understanding your hormones is very important. Hormones are the chemical messengers of your body. They tell each organ, system, and structure what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. That’s a big job, and if one of your hormone levels is out of balance, it could cause things not to work right all over your body.
Understanding your hormones, however, is a little easier said than done. There’s a lot of them, and they have complex and varied jobs that are hard to keep track of. To help you get a better handle on your hormones, the team at Renewed Vitality is breaking down what you need to know about these major body chemicals. Today, let’s take a look at testosterone!
What is Testosterone?
Testosterone is a sex hormone, meaning that its primary functions are related to the reproductive system. It’s largely known as the male sex hormone since it performs lots of very important functions in a man’s body, but just like estrogen, everybody has some level of testosterone in their body, regardless of sex or gender.
What Does Testosterone Do?
As a male sex hormone, testosterone is vital to a man’s sexual development and function. Testosterone levels in the body start to rise around puberty, and contribute to increasing height and muscle development, the development of the penis, testes, and prostate, and body hair growth.
In maturity, testosterone plays an important role in sperm production and libido. Aside from this, it also affects your blood health, signaling the body to make new red blood cells, and is important to the health of your bones and muscles. Testosterone levels can even affect your mood and how your body stores fat!
Where is Testosterone Made?
Testosterone, like the other sex hormones, is produced mainly in the “gonads,” or the primary reproductive gland of the body. For men, testosterone production takes place in the testes. For women, the ovaries make the levels of testosterone they need.
What Happens If You Have Low Testosterone?
Low testosterone is a common complaint among men in their later years. While the symptoms of falling testosterone levels as you age are difficult to deal with, they’re not uncommon or unnatural. Testosterone levels naturally start to drop off as you age, but especially low levels can lead to symptoms like decreased sex drive or erectile dysfunction, low energy, low mood, memory problems, weight gain, thinning hair, and thinner or weaker bones. These effects of low testosterone can happen in women with an imbalance in the hormone as well as men, although they are much more common in males. The condition is often abbreviated to “low T,” but you might also see it referred to as “male hypogonadism.”
What Happens If You Have High Testosterone?
Unhealthily high testosterone levels can lead to acne, weight gain, high blood pressure, increased risk of heart attack or blood clots, low sperm count, and mood swings, among a number of other side effects. High testosterone in men is often seen as a result of steroid use, but it can also be a sign of tumors or genetic mutations.
In women, high testosterone levels can lead to increased hair growth, weight gain, reduced fertility, and other symptoms. It’s most commonly a sign of PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, a fairly common reproductive condition.
What to Do About Testosterone Imbalances?
If you suspect you may be suffering from an imbalance in your testosterone levels, HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, might be a good option for you! At Renewed Vitality, we offer highly advanced bioidentical hormone replacement therapy that can help you feel more like yourself again! Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.
