The Blog

 

Stress Can Cause Hormone Imbalances in Women

hormone health stress Jan 04, 2023

If you're new around here, welcome! I'm a menstrual health expert and hormone ND. I have helped thousands of women welcome in healthy periods and balanced hormones with my program Period Reboot! Be sure to hop on the waiting list so you're notified the next time the doors open!


 

Stress is perhaps the BIGGEST cause of hormone imbalances


When our body is in a state of fight or flight, we can see deeper hormone imbalances slowly manifest over time. 

Often when people think of stress, they think of really big things like famine, war or a toxic work environment. But stress isn't always so obvious or drastic. Stress can take MANY different forms and still take its toll on the body.

The human body is brilliant and also somewhat primitive. When the body perceives danger, stress hormones like cortisol are released to prepare the body for its impending need to run away, freeze or fight. This is an excellent response in a state of true danger, say if we were hiking and a bear stepped out onto the trail. This response isn't so great though in instances of modern stress - things that are not quick bursts of stress and instead are ongoing. 

Things like dealing with a difficult boss or being in an unhealthy relationship or even chronically under eating will create the same stress response in the body - but often with no reprieve. 

 

 

There's a LOT of things that can cause stress hormones to rise

All of these items can cause the body to perceive stress in the environment. While some may seem innocent like excessive exercise or intermittent fasting, they can over time cause stress levels to remain high. This is why I am NOT a fan of restrictive dieting, trendy diets, low calorie diets, fasting, excessive exercise or anything that would cause the blood sugar to become irregular. 

 

What happens when the body is stressed for a long time?

When I do DUTCH hormone tests with my clients, I can often see who has been chronically stressed over time and who has not. Women who have been stressed for a long time (whether from external causes like work or relationships or from taxing diet and "health" trends) often present a few key things:

-low progesterone

-high cortisol

-high androgens like testosterone

-high DHEA

 

This is often the result of high stress and anovulation for a season of time. 

Sometimes referred to as the Pregnenelone Steal, high stress hormones can cause the body to stop ovulating and thus create low progesterone. This will create deeper issues down the road like excess estrogen and elevated androgen levels. Women may start to see signs of hormone imbalances or even display symptoms similar to PCOS. 

 

Balancing the hormones

To balance hormones, we HAVE to look at what is causing the hormone imbalance to begin with. For some women, this is stress. 

This is where we have to investigate if it's being caused by an unhealthy work environment, poor boundaries, never resting or another external factor OR if it's caused by under eating, fasting, low carb diets, living on coffee etc. 

Usually, it's a bit of both!

By focusing on the root cause, we can get ahead of these symptoms and start to see long term benefit!

 

Listen to my newest podcast HERE with Signs You're Living on Stress Hormones and also starting points to help your body get out of its stressed state

You can also find the CYCLICAL Podcast on iTunes and Spotify

Do you have a hormone imbalance? Take my FREE quiz!

Take the free quiz now