Female Hormones: What They Are and How They Change
Hormones play a crucial role in women’s bodies throughout their life, but as women age, these hormone levels change. Fatigue, difficulty sleeping, hot flashes, and low sex drive are just a few of the effects that a hormonal imbalance or change can have on your body. Too often, women can chalk it up to a “bad day” and learn to live with these symptoms more than they should. Women must be empowered with the knowledge of what their body goes through and know how to identify severe symptoms so that they can seek medical help.
So let’s dive into a bit of Hormones 101!
The main female sex hormones are estrogen and progesterone, which affect women’s bodies from puberty to menopause. These and others can impact your energy, weight, mood, sex drive, and more.
Estrogen
Estrogen is responsible for bringing about the physical changes that turn a girl into a woman during puberty and later plays a vital role in becoming pregnant. Aside from estrogen’s obvious importance to becoming pregnant, it also helps to keep cholesterol in control, protects bone health, and even affects your brain, heart, skin, and other tissues throughout the body.
Estrogen moves throughout your body in your bloodstream and acts everywhere throughout your body. Throughout the month, estrogen levels are the highest in the middle of your menstrual cycle and hit their lowest during your period. When a woman hits menopause, estrogen levels drop.
Progesterone
Progesterone is another key hormone at play. Its central role is to prepare the lining of the uterus for the possibility of pregnancy after ovulation. Progesterone works to encourage the lining to accept a fertilized egg. If a woman does not become pregnant, the progesterone levels decrease in the body, releasing the egg and then causing menstruation. If and when you do become pregnant, progesterone contributes to stimulating blood vessels in the endometrium that help the baby to grow.
However, a low progesterone level has its effects on the body. When you hit menopause, these levels also drop, similar to estrogen. Most common psychological and emotional issues can include irritability, depression, anxiety, fatigue, memory lapses, and more.
Testosterone
When you hear testosterone, you probably think of men. While that’s a fair assumption, many don’t realize the role testosterone plays for women. Small amounts of testosterone are produced in the ovaries and adrenal glands and released into the bloodstream, where it contributes to a woman’s sex drive, bone density, and muscle strength.
Women with high testosterone levels may struggle with infertility and commonly suffer from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). When women go through menopause, and the ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone, testosterone levels also decrease but at a slower rate.
Perimenopause
The average age of puberty onset in girls is 10-and-a-half years old, with her first period occurring around 12 to 13 years old. After this, monthly periods continue until perimenopause, the phase when a women’s body begins transitioning to menopause.
Perimenopause typically starts when a woman is in her late forties, but remember, everybody is different! Perimenopause has a wide age range of when it can occur, which is why it’s so important to be in tune with your body and have these discussions with a doctor. Once your enter perimenopause, you’ll expect your period to become less regular and experience symptoms commonly associated with menopause like sweating, hot flashes, trouble sleeping, and mood changes.
Menopause
It’s no secret that the most common culprit of aging-related hormonal changes is menopause. Menopause officially begins 12 months after a woman’s last period. Around age 50, women’s ovaries produce decreasing amounts of estrogen and progesterone.
Hormonal changes associated with menopause can impact a woman’s quality of life or even lead to more severe health issues. Despite it being a normal part of life, the lack of estrogen and progesterone hormones being produced can take a toll on the body. Did you know that postmenopausal women lose an average of 25 percent of their bone mass by age 60? This is in large part due to the loss of estrogen.
Be Proactive!
Women must listen to their bodies and seek medical advice if they suddenly notice a drastic change in their physical body or mood. While you cannot avoid the cycle of menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause, you can be proactive about your health and ensure you are doing all you can to feel your best.
While these changes and hormone shifts are entirely normal, the slightest imbalances can set you further off track. Statistics show that 80 percent of women suffer from hormonal imbalance, with many living with these imbalances without even realizing it.
At Blue Coral, I want to provide women with the information and resources necessary to understand their bodies better. You should never accept feeling poorly as normal or a new way of life. If you’ve noticed recent changes in your body or a sudden onset of symptoms, let’s chat! I offer a free virtual consultation that can be the first step to a new and healthier you.
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