Hormone changes affect everyone, yet 73 percent of women in the U.S. do not seek medical help for menopause, according to the 2021 “State of Menopause Study” by Bonafide. These changes are one of the top reasons women come to see me. As a functional medicine doctor, I’ve helped women manage this stage of their lives for more than 20 years. It’s the visible symptoms that bring them in: night sweats or loss of hair. However, there are silent results of changing hormones that are equally as important to address. Before I explain a solution, I want to walk you through why women experience those symptoms, the different types of symptoms, and finally, what you can do to combat some of the issues.
Changing Hormones
In typical cases, hormones start to change in your early forties. Most women will feel like they have “estrogen dominance” symptoms. This is not because they make too much estrogen, but rather their ability to make enough progesterone which counters the effects of estrogen slows down. The symptoms may be heavy, irregular, and painful periods, breast tenderness and moodiness, insomnia, painful sex, vaginal dryness, and loss of libido. Symptoms tend to be worse, especially just before they start their period.
Several years later, usually between 48-52 years old, woman transition to menopause. This is a particularly difficult time as women may start having heavy periods off and on, worsening mood swings, highs and lows with irritability, insomnia, hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, painful intercourse, vaginal dryness, urinary frequency, loss of libido, hair thinning and loss. Then, when a woman hasn’t had a period for a year, she has officially entered menopause.
Feelable Symptoms
When it comes to hormone changes, women see me for two specific reasons: feelable and invisible symptoms. Feelable symptoms are the ones you can physically feel. These affect your daily life. They can range from hot flashes to night sweats, insomnia to mood swings, irritability to memory loss, and even weight gain and hair loss.
Invisible Symptoms
These are symptoms you cannot feel but greatly impact your life. Hormone changes can wreak havoc on your bones and muscles in the form of osteoporosis or osteopenia, leading to hip fractures which can be life-changing. Your cognitive health can decline as well as increasing fears of memory loss and Alzheimer’s dementia. You may experience heart disease in the forms of high blood pressure and high cholesterol which are leading causes of strokes and heart attacks. Another silent symptom is an increase in insulin resistance leading to “belly fat” weight gain and diabetes.
Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
Many women feel they just have to deal with all of these changes. That could not be further from the truth. The information I’m about to provide can be an absolute game changer in your life.