Ways To Balance Hormones From Getting Off Birth Control to Menopause
What woman at some point in her life doesn't battle with a hormone imbalance?
There are so many reasons why our hormones can be too high or too low such as stress, pregnancy, going off birth control, and transitioning into menopause.
Getting off birth control
THe goal is to nourish and support the entire hormonal feedback loop because the body has adjusted to external synthetic progesterone and estrogen over the years. Symptoms can include weight gain, acne, depression, irritability, irregular periods, and anxiety.
Vitex
it works on normalizing progesterone levels in the body through the endocrine system. Progesterone is a female sex hormone that can sometimes be unbalanced causing symptoms like PMS and acne when estrogen levels are too high.
DIM
Diindolylmethane is a compound derived from the digestion of indole-3-carbinol, found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale. Diindolylmethane encourages estrogens in the body to select certain enzymatic pathways that result in break-down products that are actually balancing for hormonal health.
Milk Thistle
Supports liver health and all detoxification pathways including the metabolism of estrogen.
Menopause
Is the point in time when a woman's menstrual periods stop. Menopause happens because the ovaries stop producing the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Common Symptoms: Hot flashes, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, night sweats, difficulty concentrating, depression, weight gain, and anxiety.
Pomegranate Seed Oil
Contains phytoestrogens that has been proven to reduce hot flashes.
See Dr. Tori Hudson's article on it.
Soy nuts have also shown an effect to reduce hot flashes.
Red Clover
Has shown to be effective at reducing depression and anxiety related to menopause by it's ability to bind to specific estrogen receptors from the phytoestrogen effects of isoflavones and others.
Adaptogenic Herbs
Specifically panax ginseng, has been shown to decrease fatigue, improve the body's stress response, and treating vaginal atrophy.