Recurso para el manejo de los cambios hormonales en la mujer PDF

Preview

Summary

Recurso para el manejo de los cambios hormonales en la mujer...

Description

HORMONES:

Tips + Resources

HORMONES

Why Hormones Matter

According to Dr. Stephanie Estima, women are not little men. Our physiology is unique and different, and in order to fully be female, we have to honor and recognize the ever-changing hormonal milieu. This fact influences how we eat, how we exercise, our stress threshold, how we move throughout the world, and why sometimes, the blanket statement protocols don’t always work the best for us.

Nat Kringoudis says, “Empowering women to understand their body is so important, but we’re so disconnected, especially because we’re busy. We might’ve used birth control. We might not even understand our cycle. And if you can know the ebbs and flows of your cycle, there’s so much wisdom around that, you can bring in not only awareness. Cause I think it first starts with being aware.” Getting to know your hormones and your body’s natural ebb and flow will make you feel more connected and empowered. This is true for young girls, young women, those of us who are trying to conceive, and those of us who are in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.

What Are Sex Hormones?

While there are many different hormones that help regulate different processes in the body, sex hormones are more focused on sexual development and reproduction. In females, hormones are produced in the adrenal glands and the ovaries. Sex hormones are primarily responsible for: • puberty and sexual development • reproduction • sexual desire • regulating bone and muscle growth • inflammatory responses • regulating cholesterol levels • promoting hair growth • body fat distribution

The Different Types of Sex Hormones

Female sex hormones, produced in the ovaries, adrenal glands, fat cells, and in the placenta include estrogen, progesterone, and small quantities of testosterone. Estrogen • produced in the ovaries, adrenal glands, and in fat cells • responsible for sexual development, starting with puberty • regulates the menstrual cycle • impacts the urinary tract, the heart and blood vessels, bones, breasts, skin, hair, mucous membranes, pelvic muscles, and the brain

Progesterone • stabilizes menstrual cycles, the calming, soothing, relaxing hormone • prepares the body for pregnancy Testosterone • impacts libido, menstruation, tissue and bone mass, and red blood cell production

Hormonal Imbalances Hormones are meant to fluctuate, and they can be influenced by various factors, like age, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, stress, medications (especially hormonal birth control), and environment. Some of these fluctuations are a natural process, and others can have adverse effects on the body. Some of the symptoms associated with hormonal imbalance are: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

irregular periods excess body and facial hair acne vaginal dryness low sex drive breast tenderness gastrointestinal problems hot flashes night sweats weight gain fatigue irritability and irregular mood changes anxiety depression difficulty sleeping

These symptoms can help our bodies communicate that our hormones are imbalanced if we learn to listen and recognize the signs. Nat Kringoudis shares this example: “When there’s too much estrogen, our body’s smart, it pulls the handbrake on progesterone. And that can be through a cascade of events, whether it’s high stress or issues with gut absorption or whatever that might be. Bowels as well as another, if you’re not eliminating properly. So in the presence of high estrogen, we are experiencing low progesterone and therefore we’re getting these symptoms. And how do you know if you’ve got high estrogen:low progesterone ratio, using your cycle as your superpower, is generally you’ll have heavy bleeding. So more estrogen, more lining, more bleeding.” The reverse is also true, she explains: “Then the opposite of that would be low estrogen. We need estrogen to make other hormones. And so the cascade or the knock-on effect of that is low estrogen leading to low progesterone, cause there’s just not enough of everything. And how do you know that? That would look, more than likely, like a lighter period, a lighter bleed.” One of the ways we can better listen to our bodies is through cycle syncing.

CYCLE SYNCINg

*Women who are postmenopausal can cycle sync with the moon! More info in Episode 10 of Health Babes Podcast

Menstruation (3-8 DAYS)

Take it easy during this phase, it’s normal for your energy to be low and for you to be a bit more self-critical.

Supplement with B vitamins and enjoy foods like meat and leafy greens. Try to pamper yourself when possible by scheduling breaks, taking naps, and prioritizing rest whenever possible. Take extra care of yourself by practicing light movement, be sure to hydrate, and embrace introspection by journaling or meditating.

The Follicular Phase

(DAYS 1-14)

At this stage, your body is preparing to ovulate. This is where you’ll likely feel your most creative, powerful, and in a flow state. It’s a great time to plan and socialize. Use the introspection from your menstrual phase to set the tone for the rest of the month. Eat broccoli to boost folic acid and focus on light cardio like hiking or an easy run. Now is a great time to focus on setting goals that will support your overall health.

Ovulation (DAY 14)

Your energy should be pretty high this week, feel free to take advantage of it with some high intensity training! With testosterone at its peak, now is the time to get things done. You may want to socialize and connect - you are at your most fertile in this phase.

If you experience any discomfort, be sure to stear clear from alcohol and sugar, especially if you are dealing with histamine intolerance. With estrogen peaking, it’s important to support the liver.

The Luteal Phase

(DAYS 14-28)

At the beginning of the luteal phase, you may have more energy. As you move deeper into this phase, it’s normal to want to slow down and be more introspective as your body prepares for menstruation. This is a good time for strength training and Pilates. If you find your energy lacking, try to focus on magnesium-rich foods like spinach, dark chocolate, and pumpkin seeds. Try to stay away from alcohol, dairy, and red meat.

Hormonal Birth Control

Women can take hormonal birth control for a variety of reasons, and while everyone is entitled to make decisions about their own health, it’s important that providers support patients with all of the information available. This doesn’t always happen with birth control.

Nat Kringoudis explains, “Whilst we’re on the pill, the pill flat lines our hormones. You know, I’ll never forget when I heard somebody use the terminology of ovarian castration or really stopping, really coming along ... And I know that that’s really, it’s a severe term, I guess, but you’re shutting down the function of your ovaries and the production of hormones. And you’re not just shutting down one, production of one. And as we’ve just briefly discussed, you need one to make the next, you can’t make, especially progesterone without the estrogen or other hormones as well. It’s very important that you have that balance there.” Dr. Carrie Jones explains how hormonal birth control works: “The birth control pill is a synthetic or fake estrogen and progesterone that comes in and takes over at the brain level. So it basically shuts down the hormones that come from your brain to your ovary and everything drops down. As a result, your own estrogen and your own progesterone will be near zero, menopausal levels.” Taking the pill will NOT balance your hormones, she explains, “No, it won’t balance your own hormones your ovaries would make because it takes over for them and pushes them down to near zero. However, it also depends on your definition of, I guess, of balanced, yeah. Of what you think balanced means.” “If you’re only taking it for pregnancy prevention, then no, it’s not ‘balancing you.’ It’s completely suppressing ovulation, it’s completely suppressing your own hormone production. But let’s say you have severe, severe, severe 10/10 endometriosis, and you are on the birth control pill, maybe even temporarily just to get some control of your pain. Like just to knock it down several levels so that you can function in life while you’re working on what you’re going to do about your endometriosis. It’s not balanced, but it’s definitely helpful.“ Nat Kringoudis says it’s important to thin about the lasting impact of the pill, because it can distance us from a lot of our innate body wisdom. “If you’re going on the pill when you’re 16 and you just need to come off 30 years of age, you’re sexually mature as your 16 year old self. And this is why we see a lot of problems with women, and especially in my clinical practice, I see a lot of infertility. And I did, I had an epiphany one day. I’m like, we need to fix this before it’s broken. We need to educate the 16 year old and the mother of the 16 year old so we’re not making these choices that have lifelong impact. The research seems to show when it comes to the oral contraceptive pill, that the longer that you can take to use it, so the older you are to actually utilize birth control, the less impact it seems to have on our hormones. And so what if knowing this information, we could encourage our daughters to wait, to understand and learn your cycle, to watch the phases, to be empowered with that gift of cycle awareness.”

She continues, “It comes back to using your cycle as a superpower and really being able to understand those phases and those ebbs and flows as just body awareness and body wisdom and knowing that.”

Perimenopause

According to Dr. Carrie Jones, “Perimenopause is a transition period, I call it reverse puberty. It’s the transition period out of your reproductive years, headed towards your menopausal years. But instead of being this like nice, smooth decline, it’s more like the wildest roller coaster you’ve ever been on. And so our hormones, they come and they go and they’re there, and they’re not. And as a result, our symptoms happen, all those symptoms that I just, and more, happen. And so the common age is in the forties, it can be as young as 39. Some people say it could even be in the mid-thirties, depending on your health. But on average, the average woman’s probably mid to late forties. And then gradually will hit menopause in her fifties.” She then goes on to explain some of the common hormonal changes, “Because you’re hedging out of the reproductive part of your life, you stop ovulating or releasing an egg normally. So instead of like every month, righty or lefty ovary pops out an egg, that kind of stops happening consistently. And when you don’t ovulate, you don’t make progesterone. And so in perimenopause, women start to notice the progesterone going down, down, down, and staying down, or maybe blipping every couple of months. What that translates to is heavier periods, worse PMS, worse sleep, worse anxiety. Because progesterone is generally considered our calming, relaxing, “everything’s going to be okay” hormone, and it helps counter the effect of estrogen. We need estrogen as women, it’s what makes us women, but it’s like Goldilocks: we need so much at certain times. And when it’s sort of unopposed from progesterone, then estrogen gets to run free and give us the PMS and give us the heavy periods and give us all this crazy symptoms. And then on top of it, we feel more anxious and don’t sleep. So that’s probably the biggest hormone loss that happens right away.” “Now, speaking of estrogen, what happens is the ovaries aren’t really listening as well anymore. The brain is saying to the ovaries, ‘Hey, do your thing, follow our rhythm, follow our cycle. Why aren’t you syncing anymore? Like, what is your problem?’ And the ovaries are like, ‘Look, I’m in my forties. Like, I’m retiring soon.’” Ovarian retirement does not match the retirement United States, right? Like the ovaries can totally retire in their forties, and so they don’t listen and they don’t want to listen and they don’t want to do what the brain says, but because the brain keeps talking to them, estrogen will still listen. Estrogen is easier to be made, compared to progesterone. And so women will get these surges of estrogen, and then it’ll go down. And then they’ll get these surges of estrogen, and then it’ll go down. And she feels it, she’s like, I feel like I’m on a hormonal rollercoaster, way more than I was in my thirties or my twenties or my teens. What’s this about? Well you’ve lost progesterone and you’re getting these crazy up and down surges of estrogen to go with it. And so that’s why you feel like you do.” When it comes to transitioning from perimenopause to menopause, Dr. Carrie says taking care of yourself should be the number one priority, but it can be really difficult for woman at this stage of life with so much transition and stress. Ther is no magic fix. “You have to put yourself first. You have to

really dial in on how you eat, and how you hydrate, and how you sleep, and how you exercise, and saying say no, and setting boundaries, and taking care of yourself. And I know it’s not nearly as sexy as ‘Here, take this pill,’ but you have to lay that groundwork, because you are literally becoming a whole new version of you. So that’s my foundation for all perimenopausal, menopausal women.”

Transitioning from Perimenopause to Menopause

Like Dr. Carrie says, the key to perimenopause is priortizing your own wellbeing by staying hydrated, getting quality sleep, eating enough healthy food, and managing stress. While there are additional tools that can help with the transition from perimenopause to menopause like supplements, herbs, and medications, those protocols would have to be tailored to your unique hormonal balance based on bloodwork. The Dutch test is a great option, but again, the root of hormonal imbalance has to be addressed with a complete lifestyle change, stress being the biggest obstacle. One of the ways we can transition smoothly from perimenopause to menopause is by incorporating a few stress management techniques. With a decrease of progesterone, our bodies need help getting into the parasympathetic state. Dr. Carrie Jones shares the importance of supporting your nervous system: “The vagus nerve is our big rest and digest nerve, it’s our parasympathetic nerve. And it starts in our brain and it wanders kind of like behind our head, down our throat, down our neck, down into our lungs, down into our GI area, down around our heart. And so the vagus nerve is long and involves a lot of things. And when the vagus nerve is activated, it primarily pushes us into calm, rest, digest, and out of fight or flight or freeze, that sympathetic sensation. And so activating the vagus nerve is one of my favorite things to help with the stress response.” Dr. Carrie also shares some of her favorite stress management techniques, in addition to meditation and mindfulness: • gargling • humming • singing really loudly • engage oxytocin by orgasming, spending time with friends, petting your favorite animal, or even holding a cuddly baby • taking cold shower • chanting • limiting blue light • prioritizing sleep hygiene • supporting the mitochondria (more in Episode 12) For more information on how to further support your hormones, check out Episode 16 with Lara Adler: How to Address Environmental Toxins.

MORE FROM THE HEALTH BABES:

• Listen to The Health Babes Podcast: • Episode 8 with Dr. Stephanie Estima: The Orgasm Effect • Episode 10 with Nat Kringoudis: How to Best Support Your Cycle • Episode 12 with Dr. Carrie Jones: The 3 Ms: Menopause, Men’s Hormones, and Mitochondria • Episode 16 with Lara Adler: How to Address Environmental Toxins • Episode 21 with Tallene and Sirak Kalaygian: Conquering PCOS • Find more from Dr. Becky Campbell and Dr. Krystal Hohn at DrBeckyCampbell.com • Consult with us one on one HERE • Follow on Instagram @drbeckycampbell, @drkrystalhohn, and follow the Health Babes Podcast @healthbabespodcast • Find us on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube • Get resources on how best to support your thyroid HERE • Wondering if you have histamine intolerance? Take THIS QUIZ and receive a free histamine guide • Get answers to your health questions HERE

Want to win a PRIZE? Leave a review for the Health Babes Podcast and you’ll be entered to win 1 of 2 prizes each episode! CLICK HERE to leave your review, and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the podcast!...