The major hormones for females are estrogen and progesterone. These hormones start playing up as women reach midlife. The hormone levels begin shifting at an early age even as early as 10-15 years from menopause onset. Most women never realize that the noticeable physical and even emotional problems could be the symptoms of menopause. Any early onset of menopausal symptoms is called perimenopause.
Such hormonal imbalance can be noticed by many common symptoms include weight gain, fluctuating moods, memory loss, night sweats, lack of interest in sex and several others. These are indications that the basic female hormones are becoming imbalanced.
When women face the condition of progesterone being in short supply, then estrogen begins to dominate, which is considered to be toxic to the body. When estrogen takes over, it can damage the pituitary gland and put stress on the liver function. The liver detoxifies estrogen and converts thyroid hormone to its active form. If the liver is not functioning well, it will let estrogen to build up.
There are many unpleasant side effects associated with estrogen increase. Estrogen is manufactured and stored in body fat, which links this hormone with weight gain. When there is too much estrogen, more of the energy derived from food is converted to fat instead of burning as metabolic energy. Women with excess estrogen levels also retain fluids and salts as well as have a craving for carbohydrates, which can lead to several complications such as insulin imbalances and blood sugar problems.
As if these problems are not enough, estrogen excess can also interfere with the thyroid functioning and the thyroid hormone functioning, which causes loss of energy, fatigue as well as a drop in metabolism – all of which help with weight gain.
What causes this increase in estrogen? There are several factors that contribute to estrogen increase, such as eating a diet high in estrogen, which includes meat from animals that are given hormones, milk from such animals or eggs. Even vegetables and fruits that are grown with hormones and antibiotics increase the estrogen levels in the body. This is the reason, it is always advised to eat meat or vegetables and fruits grown organically. Even the air we breathe and water contain several environmental estrogens.
Once environmental estrogens enter the body, they are treated as normal estrogen and affect the normal endocrinal and hormonal functioning.
Progesterone usually balances the negative effect of excess estrogen by neutralizing it; however, when there is chronic stress, all the progesterone is used and there is no more progesterone left to balance the effects of estrogen.
Women have to be careful not to be stressed out and ensure they reduce any worries and tensions they may have, as the adrenal glands produce adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones when a person is under stress, and use up progesterone for making cortisol, which is one of the adrenal hormones. This is the reason, when there is more stress, more adrenaline is needed, the more adrenaline, the more progesterone is used up and this leads to progesterone deficiency.
When hormone levels are not balanced, several emotional disorders can occur as well as there being a weight gain.