Most of our clients come to see us because of hormonal imbalances: bad PMS and mood swings, difficulty sleeping, erratic periods or menopausal symptoms of hot flashes and night sweats. On top of that many of you are suffering from fatigue, mild depression and other symptoms.
The important thing to understand is no one “pill “ is going to “fix” the problem. ALL organ systems in the body are related and influence one another–so it’s really important to look at the “big picture”.
Surprisingly enough, small changes in several different areas can make big differences in symptoms.
The first thing we do is assess adrenal health and gastrointestinal health. Disturbances in these systems play a huge role in hormonal balance.
How much stress are you under? For how long? In what ways? What are your coping mechanisms and tools?
What are you eating, drinking, or lacking in your diet which influences hormones?
How is your bowel function? Irritable bowel symptoms (Gas, pain, bloating, constipation)?
What toxic exposures have you had to antibiotics, medications, environmental factors?
How well is your thyroid working? (i.e. Hair falling out, depression, dry skin, brittle nails, cold hands and feet?)
Hormonally, because of environmental and dietary factors, most women are estrogen dominant (lacking enough natural progesterone to balance excess estrogen); leading to heavy bleeding, erratic periods, PMS, endometriosis, fibroids, bad cramps, breast tenderness and even breast cancer.
Testing and monitoring hormone levels (we use saliva and urine tests),then treating imbalances with bio-identical progesterone or estrogen, can make a huge difference. It is also critical to test thyroid function both with blood testing and body temperature charting. There is a difference between the “normal“ range of most laboratories and the “optimal” range, particularly for thyroid.
PMS symptoms tend to be particularly common for women in their thirty’s and forty’s. Most often related to lack of self-care, inadequate sleep and missing nutrients. Menopausal symptoms can occur over ten years before your cycle stops. During this “perimenopause”, it is normal to experience fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone, leading to all kinds of physical and emotional ups and downs.
From an emotional/psychological standpoint, menopause is like “reverse adolescence”. Dr. Christiane Northrup articulates how emotional issues and trauma, buried in adolescence, will resurface in menopause, triggered unexpectedly by words or incidents, such as dealing with your adolescent children or aging parents.
This is a time when issues return to be healed by awakening and tapping into your body wisdom. See our resource list for many helpful books.
What to do next?