5 Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance

This nutrition bite takes a look into the importance of hormone health, factors that throw hormones off balance and signs of hormonal imbalance to look out for (and remedy) before things get worse.

Ladies, does this sound familiar?

“Take these birth control pills to fix your hormonal acne”

“Difficult and painful periods are just normal hardships that women go through.”

“Sleep problems, here’s some sleeping pills!”

“It will be hard for you to get pregnant and having a baby after 35 is a ‘geriatric pregnancy’?” (an outdated term in our opinion)

“After your 30s, say goodbye to fast metabolism and expect unavoidable age-related weight gain”

You’re not alone!

Millions of women live their entire lives believing these MYTHS and that these issues are something that they can’t avoid and need to ultimately accept and live with.

Pain-free periods? Keeping slim after 35? We understand the skepticism, but hear us out.

Although bodily dysfunctions can have several culprits, we bet that hormone imbalance is a major reason why things are amiss.

Our hormones are so much more than the reason behind mood swings. Hormones are a complex interwoven set of chemical messengers that play a vast and major role in all our bodily functions such as sleep, fertility, metabolism and energy.

Women’s bodies are especially more receptive to factors that can throw hormones out of whack and therefore more sensitive to the ill effects of hormonal imbalances.

While this is an issue in itself, sometimes women don’t even realize that it’s their hormones to blame and assume that things like poor sleep, irregular cycles and weight gain are separate issues.

How Hormones Get Imbalanced

Our hormones are dynamic and always adjusting within our body. For instance, the sleep hormone melatonin rises and falls with our circadian rhythm and estrogen and progesterone rise and fall with our menstrual cycle.

Hormones naturally rise and dip depending on biological processes, but they are also sensitive to external triggers, and when constantly exposed to these triggers, can get too high or too low for a period of time that isn’t supportive to our wellbeing.

Caffeine, drugs, blue light, stressful lifestyles, lack of sleep, over and under exercising, poor nutrition…

All of these and more impact your hormones, greatly.

The truly worrying issue here is that…

By the time you notice something is off by way of persistent symptoms, like illness or pain, it’s likely your hormones have already been unbalanced for a long time.

That’s why it’s so important to tune into your body. Here are some things to consider as you take a closer look to see if your body is telling you your hormones are off.

5 Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance

1. Uncontrollable Weight Gain
You’re controlling your calories, limiting your carbs and hitting it hard and fast at the gym on the reg, but the scale just won’t seem to budge. Or, to your horror, the scale seems to be going up regardless of your hard work. If this sounds all too familiar your hormones might be to blame.

Even the most disciplined workout regimen and healthy diet won’t guarantee weight loss when your hormones are imbalanced.

Issues such as insulin resistance, an underactive thyroid and high levels of cortisol are common hormone balance issues that can contribute to a sluggish metabolism and excess fat storage.

2. Irregular Or Painful Periods
Our menstruation is a wonderful indicator of the state of your body and hormone balance. Contrary to popular belief, periods aren’t meant to be debilitating.

In fact, irregularity, headaches, cramps, and low energy indicate that your hormone health could use some much needed TLC.

It’s common knowledge that irregular periods are a clear indicator of a hormonal imbalance, but what many women may not realize is that irregular periods aren’t necessarily an imbalance with reproductive hormones…

It might surprise you that insulin and cortisol can be culprits contributing, too.

3. Erratic Moods
Most women are all too familiar with how much hormones can affect how you feel. This is why even amidst a stress-free environment, you can still feel anxious.

Just as examples:

Too much cortisol can leave you feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
Too little testosterone can dampen libido.
Sudden dips in serotonin can make you depressed and exhausted.Even external elements like a honeymoon, vacation or a family celebration can’t make you feel happy or eager for intimacy if your hormones aren’t balanced.

If you feel like you’re a regular passenger aboard the highs and lows of an emotional rollercoaster, your hormones could very well be to blame.

4. Chronic Fatigue
If it seems like all the caffeine in the world and a decent night’s sleep doesn’t leave you feeling energized, your hormones could be out of balance.

Adrenal fatigue, elevated levels of cortisol, insulin resistance and an underactive thyroid are just some hormonal issues that could leave you feeling zapped of energy.

And that’s just no way to live, whatever the cause! If you feel like that frequently, you may benefit from finding out more about ways you can optimize your hormones.

5. Constant Hunger
Constant hunger even shortly after a meal or dissatisfaction as you’re eating may not be an issue of food quantity, but a sign of hormone imbalance.

If you have issues with this, your hunger and satiety hormones ghrelin and leptin could be off balance. Similarly you could be exhibiting signs of insulin resistance.

Constant hunger, low energy and weight gain are often linked together and are common indications of poor hormone health.

How To Take Action

For anybody that has experienced a menstrual migraine or cramps, felt the heaviness of depression, suffered through restless nights from insomnia, you’ll know that hormones can cause havoc in your life.

If left untreated, hormone imbalances can lead to other physical issues that have serious consequences. Conditions like obesity, infertility, diabetes, heart disease and clinical depression.

So what can you do?

Most importantly: Keep in tune with your body and remember that feeling awful isn’t normal. Just as hormones are so sensitive and easily affected by negative factors, they are also very receptive to positive changes.