If your hormones do not communicate properly, or your body makes too little or too much hormone, this is called hormonal imbalance. Additionally, when a single hormone in any of your body glands is in disarray, it usually affects others.
When this occurs, you would feel off about your body. Usually, these imbalances result in symptoms like mood changes, fatigue, digestive issues, and sometimes unexplained weight loss and weight gain.
Find out below what you should do when you experience hormonal imbalance.
Get Tested
Before engaging in any treatment method to regulate your hormones to their normal state, you need to have certain basic information about your body’s health. For instance, hormone testing for women or young ladies is the first step you should take as it will allow you to fully understand what type of treatment procedure to follow.
Diagnosis is the primary method of detecting hormone imbalance, and doctors can detect these imbalances from the symptoms. Usually, hormone levels are detected through running blood tests. A blood test will show your thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, and estrogen levels.
Based on your symptoms, your doctor might suggest you undergo an ultrasound. This will check your pituitary gland, ovaries, testicles, uterus, and thyroid. As a naturopathic doctor in Honolulu, Hawaii, Dr. Diana Joy Ostroff believes in identifying and treating the underlying condition which may be leading to your disease, rather than chase symptoms.
Additionally, your doctor might also offer a pap smear test to detect cysts or tumors. Based on your needs, your doctor might perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), sperm count, X-ray, thyroid tests, and biopsy. For more detailed imaging, you might consider getting a sedation MRI in Hackettstown, NJ, or your local area, to ensure accurate results.
Hormonal Birth Control
If you are not trying to get pregnant, you can use medications containing progesterone or estrogen to help regulate your irregular menstrual cycles and the symptoms. In addition, you can find birth control as an intrauterine device (IUD), shot, patch, ring, or pill.
Also, hormonal birth control can help reduce hair on the body or face and improve acne.
Vaginal Estrogen
If you experience vaginal dryness and this change can be connected to your estrogen level, then directly applying creams having estrogen to your vaginal tissues can reduce this symptom. Additionally, you can use rings and estrogen tablets to alleviate vaginal dryness.
Eat Healthy
Sometimes, the food you eat is as important as how and when you eat it. So to maintain balanced blood sugar, you must eat every four hours.
In addition, maintaining your blood sugar level means keeping your blood sugar at a certain level instead of having ups and downs throughout the day that can affect your mood. This is why you shouldn’t wait till you are hungry before you decide to get something to eat.
Take Anti-androgen medications
Androgens are male sex hormones. However, you can find them in the body of every gender. So, if you have high androgen, you can treat it by taking medications capable of blocking androgen effects. These effects can include acne, facial hair growth, and hair loss.
Hormone Replacement Medications
Another effective method of dealing with hormonal imbalance is to use hormone replacement medications. You can take several medications to lessen symptoms connected to night sweats, hot flashes, and menopause.
- Letrozole (Femara) and Clomiphene (Clomid)
Letrozole and clomiphene are medications that help to stimulate ovulation in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This is only for women who want to get pregnant. Additionally, some doctors might give those with infertility or PCOS a gonadotropin injection, which helps increase the chances of pregnancy.
- Thyroid Hormone Therapy
If you have an underactive thyroid and want to get the hormone levels back to normal, you can take the synthetic version of levothyroxine. It can include Unithroid, Synthroid, Levoxyl, or Levothroid.
- Hormone Replacement Therapy
If you experience hot flashes or other menopause symptoms that make you uncomfortable, your doctor might recommend you take a low dose of estrogen. But you have to understand the benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy. It would be best to discuss this with your doctor to understand the benefits and risks.
- Bremelanotide (Vyleesi) and Flibanserin (Addyi)
The FDA approves Vyleesi and Addyi as medicines for treating low sexual desire for premenopausal women. You can self-administer these medications. However, these medications can cause side effects like blood pressure changes and nausea. So you must consult your doctor immediately if you notice these side effects.
- Metformin
Metformin, medication for type 2 diabetes, might help women with PCOS symptoms. It also helps in lowering and managing sugar levels and encouraging ovulation.
Final Words
Hormones are powerful and quite complex. When your hormones are in disorder, they can create symptoms that make your body out of control. If you notice some signs and they are persistent, you should speak with your doctor.
They will perform tests to determine if the cause is due to hormone imbalance or other conditions. The sooner you get help and treatment, the faster you begin to feel normal again.
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