Are you a Hormonal Mess ?

My first encounter with hormone testing was in 2007. My husband and I got married the day before his 15 month deployment to Iraq and I was living in NYC with no family support system. There was a lot of crying, I thought that wallowing in my misery for a day or two was what I needed. Sometimes sitting with your emotions and really feeling them and experiencing pain is what we need to help move through it. Two days turned into two weeks and then a month and I just wasn’t snapping out of my funk. I was on extremely high alert waiting for my phone to ring, sometimes wondering why days had gone by without hearing from Andrew. It took a toll on my heart. And on my hormones.

Stress, sickness, heartbreak, a poor diet, they can all wreak havoc on your hormones. Knowing what I know now I probably had hormonal imbalance long before that due to many many years of disordered eating but I didn’t know any better back then. In 2007 my amazing Dr. suggested saliva hormone testing since I just couldn’t get back up and running. My cortisol was at a  sky high level and my neurotransmitters were all over the place. He put me on a protocol and in just a few weeks I was back to feeling great (as great as you can feel when you’re husband’s a combat medic on the front lines in Iraq). Since then I’ve had a few more encounters with stress and have gone back on hormone / neurotransmitter protocols.

Women know that pregnancy and breastfeeding can take a toll on our bodies, a lot of is hormonal trying to create a perfect environment to grow a baby and then being on crazy no sleeping schedules and your body gives as much of your nutrition to the baby as possible through breastfeeding. I knew that once I stopped breastfeeding my first goal would be to get my hormones tested. I didn’t loose a single pound while breastfeeding, no matter what I did, how much I worked out, how I ate it didn’t budge and I know my body well enough to know that something just wasn’t right but I didn’t want to stop breastfeeding because of it. When Annabelle was 25 months I finally decided to encourage her weaning, I was feeling not like myself and something needed to change. My body felt like it went into a bit of hormonal shock when we weaned (because it’s as much a weaning process for mom as it is for baby) and it was hard on both of us, physically and emotionally.

After a few months of letting my body find it’s balance I finally got my hormones checked. And now I can pinpoint exactly why I haven’t been feeling like myself and I’m making it better.

Doctors don’t seem to take hormones into account too much. They’re quick to prescribe a pill but not quick to see if maybe something about your hormones is making you sick. If our hormones are imbalanced it can wreak complete havoc on our bodies. From difficuly losing weight, trouble sleeping, poor concentration, low energy, low libido, anxiety. Many times we think some of this stuff is just part of getting older. Maybe this is how you’re supposed to feel in your 30’s, 40’s and beyond? We blame things on our age but the truth is maybe it’s time to take a look at what’s going on with your hormones. Getting older doesn’t mean you need to start feeling worn down and exhausted and if you do it’s time to find yourself a hormone specialist.

How do you know if your hormones need some help? The only real way to tell is through blood or saliva testing but take a glance at my article “Are your hormones making you sick?” and think about whether or not hormone testing might be useful for you. I really think anyone over the age of 30 should get tested, or anyone who’s had a baby, pregnancy and breastfeeding are very taxing on the body and you owe it to yourself to feel good about yourself and have energy to love life.