Your endocrine system consists of a group of organs that include your pancreas, thyroid, and your testes or ovaries, depending on your gender. They manufacture hormones, vitally important chemical messengers that determine many workings within your body.

When a hormonal imbalance occurs, it can manifest in myriad ways, and badly impact your health.

Dr. Jacob Holdren and Dr. Steven Foley take a progressive approach to caring for their patients and are committed to offering the safest, most advanced treatments, no matter what health condition you’re struggling with.

The entire Regenerative Health & Wellness Medical Center team is well-versed in treating your hormonal imbalance, eliminating its symptoms, and restoring your good health.

What are hormones responsible for?

Think of hormones as your body’s chemical “general managers.” They actually tell your organs and tissues what tasks to perform and when. Hormones rule your:

• Reproductive system
• Metabolism
• Growth
• Organ performance
• Moods

It’s normal for hormones to fluctuate sometimes, like when you’re pregnant, but at other times, imbalance-related symptoms are unwelcome.

Indications of hormonal imbalance

Hormonal disequilibrium emerges in myriad ways and affects everything from how often you eat to your emotional state. Even a slight shift can cause big symptoms.

Here are eight signs that point to hormonal imbalance. We hope the list can help you understand just how influential hormones are.

1. Weight fluctuations: Your thyroid controls how your body uses energy from the food you eat. When it goes out of whack, you can either lose or gain weight.

Hyperthyroidism means your thyroid is overactive and you may have trouble maintaining your weight, while hypothyroidism makes your thyroid sluggish, and you tend to put weight on, even when trying to lose it.

2. Skin woes: If your body makes too much of the male hormone androgen, your oil glands go into overdrive and you suffer acne breakouts. Conversely, lower estrogen levels in later life contribute to skin dryness and a loss of elasticity.

3. Lowered libido: If your testosterone levels are lower than they should be — and this includes women because they make it too — your sex drive can plummet.

For women in perimenopause, lower progesterone levels also contribute to a loss of desire, while low estrogen during menopause causes vaginal dryness.

4. Raised blood sugar levels: A host of hormones contribute to higher blood glucose levels, but the most well-known is insulin, which is made by your pancreas.

If your body can’t produce insulin at all, you’re living with type 1 diabetes; if you still make insulin but your body can’t use it properly, you have type 2 diabetes. Both are major life-altering conditions.

5. Muscle and joint pain and swelling: Estrogen protects against inflammation, so when levels lessen, as in perimenopause and menopause, many women report muscle pain and joint inflammation. Even younger women experiencing premenstrual hormonal changes complain of pain.

6. Persistent sleep problems: If you have insomnia or don’t sleep well night after night, the cause could be hormonal.

Again, these problems pop up during perimenopause and menopause, because estrogen and progesterone are usually in flux before and during menopause. Low estrogen can cause night sweats and all-around fatigue.

This problem is vexing because not only do hormonal imbalances cause sleep problems, sleep problems adversely affect hormonal functioning.

7. Can’t-get-comfortable temperature extremes: Estrogen heavily influences your body temperature. If you’re making more of it, you might feel uncomfortably chilly; when you have lower levels, you’re plagued with hot flashes and night sweats.

8. Emotional wellbeing: Hormonal fluctuations are responsible for feeling more anxious and grumpy. An individual with an overactive thyroid is often restless, while one with an underactive thyroid may feel chronically depressed. Feelings of “spaciness” can also be linked to hormonal imbalance, as can memory problems.

Can you correct hormonal imbalances?

Yes. We treat hormone imbalances of all kinds with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). This treatment works to restore your hormonal profile to the way it looked before a major transition like menopause.

These plant-based hormones are called bioidentical because they’re chemically identical to the estrogen and testosterone your body makes.

When you come to us for treatment to address any type of hormone imbalance, we discuss your medical history and perform blood tests so we can learn as much as possible about what’s going on. Armed with this information, we create a customized BHRT treatment plan for you.

When you receive BHRT, we carefully insert hormones into your body via pellets placed under the skin in your hip or buttocks area, after your treatment area is numbed.

This safe treatment takes just 30 minutes or less, and you enjoy results starting anywhere from a few to 10 days post-treatment. The pellets remain in your body for several months and release hormones gradually over that period.

We track your progress closely and tailor your treatment to your needs.

Call our office or contact us through our website to set up a consultation to learn more about BHRT.