Hormones: Many of us have a love/hate relationship with them, imma right? We love when they’re balanced & in sync, but hate when they’re outta whack.
Throughout your life, your hormones will naturally shift. But if your hormones are imbalanced due to foods, toxic products, or being overweight, you may notice these shifts a little more than others. At some point in time, a woman maybe told they can take hormonal contraceptives, a supplement, or even lose their uterus to get “through” it. But what if your lifestyle choices could help you support these changes, no pills involved?
Signs Your Hormones Could Be Out of Whack
In today’s society, we take some of these for granted & expect them to happen. I dislike using this word, but just become something is “normal” doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
So what are some of these signs?
- Irregular periods
- Not having a period
- Depression/Anxiety
- Low Sex Drive
- Hair Loss or Thinning
- Severe Cramping
- Weight Gain
- Insomnia
- Exhaustion
- Digestive Issues
Balance Your Hormones Through:
Menstruation 
Around you period, you may notice more acne, PMS, or cramping. As women, we’ve been taught this is “normal”, but severe symptoms are not! Ensuring our hormones are balanced can help improve these symptoms or resolve them entirely. It’s so important that at this point in your life that your hormones are balanced as it can affect your overall health, bone health, and fertility, even later in life.
If you’re suffering from extreme stress at this point in time, you may be overworking your adrenal glands which, in turn, throws your hormones off. Extreme stress at this point can also be from overexercising or under eating, even if you don’t think you are!
So often in this stage of life, if you have a problem with anything period related, you’re thrown a pill: hormonal contraceptives. But this only masks the symptoms & doesn’t actually fix anything. This can also cause other health problems that are ignored or brushed off, but need to be addressed. For example, folic acid, vitamins B2, B6, B12, C, E & the minerals magnesium, selenium, & zinc may all be depleted when oral hormonal contraceptives are used. No wonder women don’t feel like themselves & are worn out and stressed on hormonal birth control!
If you’ve been on hormonal contraceptives or feel your hormones are out of whack, ensure you’re eating a wholesome diet. Eating real foods, grass fed meats, and pasture raised eggs are a great place to start. These are packed full of vitamins and minerals our bodies need. I’ve also become a huge proponent of cod liver oil from a trusted source.
The Importance of Your Period
When you get put on hormonal birth control for conditions like amenorrhea (no period), Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), dysmenorrhea (painful cramping), or heavy bleeding, it can actually mask symptoms so you’re unable to identify the problem and work to support the problem to see if it’s getting better. As Lisa Hendrickson-Jack from Fertility Friday says, your period is your fifth vital sign. It gives us valuable and key information about our bodies. When it’s out of whack, so is your body and it should be listened to
If you have the resources, you may want to talk to your provider (preferably a functional medicine practitioner) about getting your hormone levels checked. I often have women ask me “what panels should I have drawn?” First off, I’m a registered nurse so I can only give you suggestions to talk to your provider about. Second, this is why I encourage women to find functional practitioners. There are a range of things to look at, like the liver, thyroid, adrenal glands, nutrition, exercise, etc. (Read more about how liver health can affect your hormones here).
Regardless of if you’ve been on the pill or not, supporting your hormonal health is of upmost importance! Set yourself up for success by the foods you eat. Ensuring you’re getting enough nutrient dense food (fats + protein), maintaining a healthy weight, establishing stress relieving practice, & identifying foods that are causing you problems (like alcohol, coffee, gluten, and dairy) can help you best support your hormones naturally.
Pregnancy & Postpartum
During these two phases of life, your body has different requirements than normal. You need more calories to grow or breastfeed your baby, it’s even more important to ensure your blood sugar stays stable, and that you support the increase in blood volume your body is undergoing. Looking into The Dr Brewer Pregnancy Diet might be right for you as it’s a flexible diet (as in it includes vegan and vegetarian options) that helps to support a healthy pregnancy.
As much as I love the OBs and midwives I’ve worked with, they simply don’t have the training or time to discuss proper nutrition with their mommas, to no fault of their own. (As always, take this info to your OB or midwife to make sure it’s right for you!) If you’ve been on hormonal contraceptives, you need to make sure you replenish any nutrients that have been depleted due to birth control. Ensuring your gut microbiome is thriving and healthy is also important as this effects not only your hormones, but has been shown to affect things such as depression and anxiety (which pregnant women can be more at risk for with fluctuating hormones.)
Pre-Conception
When preparing to have a baby, having your hormones checked can be a great resource to see how everything is going within your body. Requesting a full thyroid panel, checking Vitamin D levels, progesterone, and seeing if you have a MTHFR mutation (which can influence which type of prenatal vitamin is best for you). Make sure these are covered by your insurance if you don’t believe you could afford them without that.
The Weston A Price Foundation also advocates for mother’s cracking down on their nutrition 6 months before conception. They advocate for mother’s to start taking cod liver oil and eating grass fed butter (along with some other things of course!) If cod liver oil is unappetizing to you, try taking it in a small amount of orange juice in a ‘shot’ style.
Postpartum
During the fourth trimester (postpartum or after you have your baby), your body is undergoing a lot of changes. Whether or not you breastfeed can also affect your hormonal shifts during this time. It’s so easy to have a baby and only focus on them – but you need to give yourself some love too. Getting your Vitamin D levels check, a full thyroid panel, and cortisol (stress) is also important here. Babies need adequate levels of Vitamin D to prevent bone deformities and support a healthy immune system. If you’re getting to 15-18 months of amenorrhea (no period), it would also be a good idea to head to your doctor and get your thyroid checked and your overall well-being.
Because vitamin A and D requirements remain high, eating grass fed butters, pasture raised eggs, shellfish, and, you guessed it, cod liver oil.
Perimenopause
Women hit this stage of life around their 40s. This is the point in time when the body begins to shut down ovulation & hormonal shifts are occurring. During this time, you may notice: night sweats, hot flashes, mood changes, vaginal dryness, and irregular periods. It’s so important to support your body with a healthy diet and lifestyle at this time.
Something I have found interesting is that some cultures, namely Japanese, rarely experience hot flashes. It is hypothesized that is it due to them eating whole soy bean products (so not the processed soy you’ll find in chocolates or other plant based [or non plants based] processed foods.). Eating more plants and whole grains mean that they have a lower percentage of body fat cells. These cells can produce estrogen. So, when you go into a perimenopause and you are overweight or obese, your fat cells are still producing estrogen even though your ovaries stopped.
Eating more plants, such as fiber filled whole grains, the healthy fats in avocado, not to mention the array of vitamins and minerals in plants, help to support a healthy perimenopausal period (here’s a brief list of foods to eat and avoid). Also, make sure you’re getting quality sleep (here are some tips and tricks for that!)
Many women in this stage have belly fat they can’t lose, hot flashes, and other new and-not-so-great things going on. You may have had your thyroid checked but are unsure what your doctor ordered. Make sure to always ask exactly what they’re ordering, even if you don’t know what it is so you can look it up later. Having a full thyroid (not just TSH and T4) panel done along with checking your cortisol (stress) levels, and other hormones can give you insights on your liver health too.
Menopause
Menopause is when your body hasn’t has a period in over 1 year and your ovaries are no longer producing estrogen. This means, you may experience unwanted weight gain, an inability to sleep (insomnia), hot flashes, food cravings, and anxiety.
Through any stage of life, meeting with a functional medicine practitioner or naturopath can be helpful, but this stage more so as many women have a hard time with the transition. You can also meet with one of these practitioners, figure out what needs to be done, then schedule a time to chat with me. We can go through your health goals, figure out how to achieve them, and get you feeling better sooner rather than later.
Although there’s not a one size fits all approach to anything, a Mediterranean diet may help with menopausal symptoms that pop up. As always, practice healthy sleep hygiene practices, ensure your liver is functioning optimally (as it affects hormones!), and eat nutrient rich foods.
Steps to Take Through Any Period of Life
As you can see, eating nutrient rich foods, supporting your hormonal health, and lifestyle habits can affect any stage of your life. Keeping your blood sugar balanced, maintaining a healthy body weight, limiting alcohol and caffeine, and balancing stress levels in your life affect your health more than we realize! Fats are not the enemy as we’ve been told, but you do have to watch from where they are sourced. Grassfed butters, raw milk, pasture raised eggs, and finding a local farmer for your meats is a great place to start. Begin soaking grains like oatmeal and start your own sourdough to make gluten more digestable for your family. Head over to the Weston A Price Foundations website or look for Sally’s book Nourishing Traditions.
In order to find the root cause of issues you maybe facing (or to prevent them!), find a functional medicine practitioner or naturopathic doctor. They tend to order labs that are more in depth and look for the root cause of your problems. Another interesting point is that many offer virtual consults where they can order labs at a place near you and then have the results sent to you and them.
*This article is for informational purposes only and should not be used as medical advice. This information is NOT a substitute for advice giving to you by your own healthcare provider. Do not use this to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or illness. Information on supplements haven’t been evaluated by the FDA and shouldn’t be used to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. Always speak with your healthcare provider before implementing any new dietary, exercise, medication, nutritional, herbal, homeopathic, or any treatment for a health problem.
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