What is a hormonal imbalance? What does imbalance in our body mean? What are the symptoms we feel? And how do we treat it? Here's your guide to hormone imbalance.
Hormones affect our body with the majority of its organs and systems, and any imbalance in the extent of hormone balance in our body will lead to consequences and symptoms that we feel. Here is everything you need to know about hormone imbalance or hormonal imbalance:
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| Hormone imbalance: causes, symptoms, and treatment |
What is a hormonal imbalance?
Hormones are chemical messengers in our body. They are produced in the endocrine glands and transmitted with the bloodstream to tissues and organs to inform them of their functions. They help the body to control and regulate its main processes, such as metabolism and reproductive functions, for example.
Hormone imbalance or hormonal imbalance occurs when the body increases or decreases the production of a certain hormone, while no matter how small the difference is in terms of the amount of hormone production required, it may have a great effect on the body, and it is worth noting that hormone levels fluctuate in our body all the time during our lives according to stages our growth.
Symptoms of hormonal imbalance
Hormones play an essential role in our health in general, and affect many organs and systems in the body, so the symptoms of hormonal imbalance vary greatly, as the imbalance of hormones occurs in children in the stages of development towards puberty, and it can also occur in more advanced stages of human life. Here are the symptoms of a hormonal imbalance:
1. Common symptoms in men and women
Some symptoms affect both men and women, and they are many, as we said previously:
- overweight.
- Fatigue and extreme tiredness.
- Excessive sensitivity to cold or heat.
- Constipation, or frequent bowel movements.
- Dryness of the skin.
- swelling of the face
- Unexplained weight loss.
- muscle weakness
- frequent urination.
- Constant thirst.
- Pain and stiffness in the joints.
- Hair thinning and brittleness.
- Constant hunger.
- depression.
- Decreased sexual desire.
- Nervousness, anxiety and irritability.
- Sweating.
- Difficulties seeing clearly.
- infertility.
2. Symptoms in women
The natural hormones of women change during the different stages of their lives, and thus they become vulnerable to the risk of hormonal imbalance, and the symptoms of hormonal imbalance in women are as follows:
- Irregular menstrual cycles, stopping or recurring periods.
- Excess hair in areas on the face, chin, or other areas of the body.
- Weight gain or difficulty losing it.
- skin tags.
- Vaginal dryness.
- vaginal atrophy
- Pain during sexual intercourse.
- Blackening and darkening of the skin.
3. Symptoms in men
Symptoms that affect men, which usually result from a decrease in testosterone production, are as follows:
- development of breast tissue.
- Breast softness
- erectile dysfunction
- loss of muscle mass
- Decreased growth of beard and body hair.
- Osteoporosis.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- hot flashes
3. Symptoms in boys
At puberty, the bodies of girls and boys begin to produce sex hormones and growth hormones. However, some suffer from insufficiency in the functioning of the gonads, which leads to different symptoms in both boys and girls:
Symptoms in boys
Symptoms in boys are related to insufficient growth of the male organs, and are as follows:
- Muscle mass does not develop.
- The sound does not deepen.
- Body hair does not grow as it should.
- Poor growth of the penis and testicles.
- Excessive growth of the trunk and stature of the body, arms and legs.
- Breast tissue development.
symptoms in girls
In girls, the symptoms of improper puberty caused by an imbalance of hormones are as follows:
- Menstrual cycle not starting.
- Breast tissue does not develop.
- The growth rate does not increase.
Reasons for hormonal imbalance
The causes vary with the variety of affected glands and symptoms. Here is a list of the most common causes of hormonal imbalance:
1. General reasons
Which consists of the following:
- diabetic.
- Thyroid diseases such as hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
- Hypogonadism.
- Cushing's syndrome.
- Excessive thyroid nodules.
- Hormone therapy.
- Tumors, benign or cancerous.
- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
- Eating disorders.
- Medications affecting hormones.
- Stress.
- Pituitary tumor.
- Cancer treatments.
- Injury from an accident or trauma as a result.
2. Reasons pertaining to women
Some of the causes of hormonal imbalance are limited to women only:
- menopause.
- pregnancy.
- Breastfeeding.
- Polycystic ovary syndrome.
- Early menopause.
- Primary ovarian insufficiency.
- Hormonal medications such as birth control pills.
Diagnosis of hormonal imbalance
Since the state of hormonal imbalance would stem from many and varied causes, this leads to a variety of ways to diagnose it, so there are several examinations that the doctor may ask you to conduct.
When you go to the doctor, you must provide him with a list of the names of the medicines, vitamins, and nutritional supplements that you use, and be prepared to answer a set of questions related to your symptoms. Depending on your answers, the doctor will determine which tests and diagnoses you need and direct you accordingly to conduct them.
1. Blood test
It usually starts with a blood test, as a blood test helps detect most hormones and their levels in the blood. Through this test, the doctor studies the level of functioning of the thyroid gland, estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol.
2. Inspection of the pelvis
If you are a male, your doctor may look at your scrotum to check for the presence of follicles. If you are a female, your doctor may look at your cervix to check for any unusual fibroids, cysts, masses, and tumors.
3. Ultrasound
Ultrasound examination is usually used to draw an image of the organs inside the body, so the doctor may order this examination to obtain a better picture of the status of the uterus, ovaries, or testicles, and to ensure the extent of the functioning of the thyroid and pituitary glands.
Depending on some of the previous examinations, the doctor may ask you to conduct some of the following examinations:
- biopsy.
- MRI.
- X-ray imaging.
- Thyroid scan.
- sperm count
Treatment of hormonal imbalance
Depending on the diagnosis you get from your doctor, he may prescribe the following treatments for a hormonal imbalance:
1. Estrogen
If you're experiencing uncomfortable symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, your doctor may prescribe low-dose estrogens.
2. Vaginal estrogen
If your symptoms include vaginal dryness or pain during sex, your doctor may prescribe an estrogen ointment or ring.
3. Birth control
If you intend to become pregnant, you can use hormonal birth control treatments to regulate menstrual cycles, and these types of methods of monitoring and contraception include:
- Contraceptive pills.
- Contraceptive patch.
- contraceptive injection
- vaginal ring.
- IUD.
- Antiandrogen drugs.
- hair loss
- Facial hair growth.
- Stop acne.
4. Testosterone
This treatment aims to reduce the symptoms of low testosterone levels in men, especially in adolescents, as it stimulates the onset of puberty for those who are late.
5. Parathyroid hormone
People who suffer from hypothyroidism need to consume the hormone as an external treatment, in order to restore the balance of the hormone in their body.
6. Flibanserin
This treatment fights low libido in premenopausal and postmenopausal women, and this treatment also has some serious side effects, so consult your doctor and ask him before adopting it.
7. Elfornithine
This treatment is a topical ointment applied to the facial skin of women who suffer from excessive hair growth, and the treatment slows the growth of new hair, but does not remove the existing hair.
Prevention of hormonal imbalance
There are many nutritional supplements on the market that claim to treat menopausal symptoms and hormone imbalances. Some contain plant-derived hormones, sometimes called biohormones. Because they are similar to the body's natural hormones, but none of these products have proven their real effect on what they claim.
Some assert that practicing yoga has contributed to treating the symptoms of hormonal imbalance, and yoga is an excellent sport for your structure, flexibility, and balance, and it will help you lose weight, which really helps regulate hormones, and you can also make changes to your lifestyle that will help regulate hormones, It is as follows:
- Losing weight, a man losing 10% of his weight would improve his erection process, while in a woman it might make her menstrual periods more regular.
- Eating a healthy diet is very important for the general health of your body.
- Treating symptoms of excessive hair growth by removing hair using special creams, lasers and other methods.
- Reducing vaginal pain by using sexual lubricants, oils and moisturizers free of parabens, glycerine and petroleum.
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