Hormones are chemicals that deliver messages telling different parts of your body what to do and when to do it, including most major bodily processes. A hormone imbalance occurs when your body has too much or too little of one or more hormones circulating in the blood. Even small changes in hormone levels can have significant effects throughout your body. Keep reading to learn more about what hormone imbalance is, including its causes, signs, diagnosis, and treatment options.
What Causes a Hormone Imbalance?
Hormone imbalances can affect both men and women. They involve having too much or too little of one or more hormones in your blood. Most people experience natural periods of hormone imbalance or fluctuations in hormone levels at certain times in their lives, such as puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and perimenopause. Because hormones are produced by your endocrine glands, medications and medical conditions that affect these glands can impact hormone levels, such as hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, diabetes, Addison’s disease, Cushing's syndrome, growth hormone deficiency, acromegaly, etc. Other things that can cause a hormone imbalance include chronic stress, poor diet, excess body weight, birth control medications, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), anabolic steroids, ovarian cancer, and exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals like pesticides.
Signs of a Hormone Imbalance
Your body makes more than 50 different hormones, and each of these hormones contributes to important bodily functions. This means you could experience several different symptoms, depending on which hormones are out of balance. Some of the following symptoms can be caused by other conditions and may not necessarily mean you have a hormone imbalance. This is not an exhaustive list, but some of the most common symptoms include:
Female Symptoms:
- Irregular menstrual cycle
- Mood swings
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Pain in abdomen or back during menstruation
- Low sex drive
- Insomnia
- Infertility
- Unexplained weight loss or gain
- Excessive hair growth
- Skin rash
- Brittle bones
- Vaginal dryness
- Acne
Male Symptoms:
- Sexual dysfunction
- Low sex drive
- Loss of muscle mass
- Tenderness in chest area
- Thinning hair
- Reduced body hair growth
- Infertility
- Unexplained weight loss or gain
- Enlarged breast tissue
- Acne
Diagnosing a Hormone Imbalance
If you are experiencing symptoms of a hormone imbalance, your healthcare provider can perform tests to measure your hormone levels and check for irregularities in the body. Blood or saliva tests may be ordered to measure levels of certain hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol. At Phipps Pharmacy, we do saliva hormone testing for both men and women. The lab test is followed by an appointment with one of our Pharmacy Doctors to review the lab results and any recommended lifestyle modifications, natural supplements, or drug therapy with each patient.
Treating a Hormone Imbalance
The best treatment for a hormone imbalance depends on its cause. For women, one of the most recommended treatments is hormonal birth control, which contains forms of estrogen and progesterone to regulate menstrual cycles and hormone imbalance symptoms. Vaginal estrogen can be applied to reduce symptoms as well. Anti-androgen medications or eflornithine may be prescribed to limit excessive hair growth. If PCOS is causing your imbalance, medication that stimulates ovulation can help if you are trying to conceive.
For men with hormone imbalances, testosterone medications can help. You can apply gels or patches that contain testosterone to reduce symptoms of hypogonadism, delayed or stunted puberty, and other conditions that cause low testosterone levels.
Both men and women can benefit from medications containing levothyroxine to improve symptoms of hypothyroidism if that’s the cause of your hormone imbalance. Hormone replacement therapy is also an option for both men and women. This involves taking medications that contain bioidentical formulas of the hormones that you’re missing to improve your symptoms.
Hormone Replacement Therapy at Phipps Pharmacy
Here at Phipps Pharmacy, we understand the unique challenges that come with hormone imbalance. Whether your hormones are fluctuating due to natural aging or various health conditions, we want to help you manage your symptoms and improve your quality of life. As a compounding pharmacy, we offer hormone replacement for women and for men to create tailor-made solutions to help balance your hormone levels. To learn more about how we can help you get back to feeling like yourself, please reach out to us today.
