How I Examine My Hormone Imbalances
My physical symptoms of hormonal imbalances present themselves primarily as breast tenderness and breakouts around my chin area. If I’m experiencing any of these symptoms before my menstruation period, this usually tells me that my estrogen, relative to my progesterone, is too high. I then look at a few factors to try and correct the imbalance:
Diet
What have I been eating the past several weeks?
Have I been eating enough leafy greens or cruciferous vegetables?
The answer is usually no. I make a conscious effort to eat lots of greens and cruciferous vegetables on a daily basis, but let’s be honest, life happens and this just isn’t always possible. I find this harder during the winter months when my body craves soups and not salads.
Less leafy greens = less magnesium (among many other important nutrients) = increase in estrogen in the body.
Less cruciferous vegetables = increase estrogen in the body
Your liver needs magnesium in order to excrete excess estrogen properly.
Exercise
Have I been exercising enough? It’s so easy to get too little exercise. Not enough exercise will increase stress, reduce vital blood flow to all organs, tissues, and reduce toxin elimination. Taking a daily walk is a great way to increase exercise without taxing your adrenals. If your healing any major issues, rest and sleep will be incredibly important. For example, anyone suffering with adrenal exercise should avoid intense exercise and just stick to walking.
More exercise = increased lymph flow = increased toxin and estrogen elimination = better hormonal balance.
Write down your exercise schedule! There’s a power to putting pen to paper.
Find something that you love, then it doesn’t become such a chore.
Bowel Movements
Am I having daily bowel movements? Estrogen is primarily excreted by the stool. If it sits in your intestinal tract too long, estrogen gets reabsorbed. It’s that simple.
Drink lots of water. Water and hydration promote peristalsis. Trying drinking 1L of room temperature water with some lemon first thing in the morning. This works great for me. Try this for several days and see if there are any improvements.
Eat fibre rich foods.
Add chia and flax seeds whenever you can
Remove dairy. Dairy can be constipating as well as contain high levels of disruptive hormones.
Stress
Have I been stressed recently? Stress is HUGE and will deplete important vitamins and minerals very quickly which can lead to a hormonal imbalance .
Stress depletes magnesium which promotes relaxation.
Increased cortisol will lead to increased estrogen levels.
Support your adrenals with siberian ginseng, vitamin B (all of the Bs), C, magnesium and zinc. And no sugar as it depletes the adrenals.
Stress can be emotional, nutritional, environmental, psychological and physical
My endocrine system is quite sensitive and it doesn’t take much stress to throw my system out of balance, unless I’m managing it appropriately. As someone who’s had years of excess estrogen accumulate, which led to fibroadenomas, keeping my stress in check is crucial.
Sleep
Lack of or poor quality sleep will increase stress by depleting key nutrients like magnesium which in turn increases cortisol, which may increase estrogen.
Travel
Flying can be very stressful on the body and again, depletes those important nutrients and is incredibly dehydrating. If you travel a lot, supplementation will be very supportive for you.
We are all so different, so you might exhibit different or similar symptoms which might indicate a hormonal imbalance, for example:
Bloating (water retention)
Breast swelling and tenderness
Fibrocystic breasts
Fatigue
Foggy thinking, memory loss
Fatigue
Trouble sleeping/insomnia
PMS
Acne
Irregular cycles
However, it’s important to remember that just because you exhibit some of these symptoms doesn’t mean that you automatically have a hormonal imbalance. We are all very different and what affects someone one way might affect someone else completely differently.
Are you starting to see the link between these systems? It’s ALL CONNECTED!
Looking at these factors helps me to re-evaluate where I need to make changes. Maybe I need to go to bed earlier, eat more cruciferous vegetables, take some adaptogenic herbs to ease my stress, exercise more, etc. Our lives are always evolving and so is our health. Things will come up, but if we have the right tools, then we are better able to navigate these tricky periods and maintain health and balance.
Tip
If you want to increase your vegetable intake, exercise more, start a meditation practice, drink more water, or bring in a new practice into your life, WRITE IT DOWN! As I’ve said earlier, there’s a magic in writing things down. Give it a go, and let me know what happens.
Shop
