Your Health

Hormones effect all states of a woman’s and man’s life. In women, before menopause, imbalance of hormones can cause heavy, irregular, painful periods, low libido, depression, anxiety and premenstrual dysphoria syndrome.

Perimenopause, the time when a woman’s hormone productions begin to fall starts around the mid 30s. During this period of time, the ovaries decrease the production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Most commonly, progesterone decreases faster than estrogen and testosterone creating, a syndrome called estrogen dominance. Symptoms of estrogen dominance can include headache, fatigue, irritability, emotional lability, depression, weight gain, insomnia, heavy or irregular periods, fibroids, endometriosis, and abdominal bloating.

As estrogen falls, low estrogen symptoms can include memory loss, fuzzy thinking, changes in hair and skin, vaginal dryness, difficulty with orgasms, loss of libido, Low testosterone can contribute to bone loss, loss of labido, low energy, weight gain, depression, and difficulty with building muscle even with strenuous workouts.

Adrenal gland function, thyroid gland function, vitamin D levels, and body weight, all can further contribute to hormonal imbalance as well.

Traditional hormone therapy in the past mostly gave women estrogen and sometimes progesterone. These were synthetic hormones. Large scale studies done that showed an increase in breast cancer risk, stroke, and heart attack risks were done on women who used synthetic hormones. Further, doctors in the past gave women these synthetic hormones without doing baseline hormone panels and also didn’t do any follow up hormone panels to assess levels of hormones. Testosterone supplementation was all but ignored as levels of testosterone in women just weren’t tested. Women would ask their doctors to have their levels of hormones tested, only to have the request denied, or have the wrong hormones done, or to be told their hormones were in the “normal range.”

The key to hormone profiles besides the levels, is how the levels of each hormone compared with each other. How does the estrogen and progesterone compare with each other. How does the testosterone compare with the other hormones. What phase of a woman’s cycle were the hormone labs drawn? Lots of subtlety is involved..and the key question to answer is, does the hormone profile support the patient’s specific list of symptoms..and what can be done about it.

Dr. Yu, Dr. Jones and Dr. Rice and Ryan Cate does comprehensive hormone evaluations in our clinic. The provider usually sits down with the patient to go over the myriad of symptoms experienced. Then during the proper time in a woman’s cycle if she is cycling, a saliva hormone profile will be done.  A hormone profile can be done anytime on a man.  After the results are received, the provider sits down with the patient again to review the entire profile. Along with the hormones, other labs maybe drawn also to look at the symptoms holistically. Not all seemingly hormonal problems are caused by hormones, sometimes it’s the adrenals, frequently, it’s the thyroid, or low vit D,  depression, dietary problems or some other medical issue. So being thorough is really important and all these systems work together and affect each other.  Our providers have undergone advanced integrative training and have years of experience behind us focusing on hormonal health, we understand how these pieces of the puzzle all fit together.

Once the hormone profile is reviewed, the provider reviews the patient’s symptoms with her labs and will come to a plan and recommendation for how to balance the hormones or treat the underlying problem. She presents the full gamut of treatment options. We opt for the natural and the lowest dose in general.  The provider will review the overall diet, exercise status, supplementation, omega intake status, the amount of anti-oxidants and vitamin D in one’s diet and will recommend a plan.The plan will include all the options including all hormone including bio-identical hormone options, naturopathic remedies, supplements, and weight loss options where applicable.

Bioidentical hormones are hormones extracted from plants then replicated. They are natural estrogen and progesterone from soy and yams. They are identical to what our bodies make, so they do what one’s natural hormones would do.  Besides being able to get it at the standard pharmacy, individual hormone combinations can also be made at compounding pharmacies that can be a mixture of several hormones and be in a form like cream or lozenges that bypasses liver metabolism of orals, thus lower dose and further increasing safety.  This individualizes and specifically each woman’s hormone symptoms and profiles individually.

SFM’s philosophy on hormonal health is an integrative and wholist approach to hormonal care.  “Proper balance is crucial, and the most natural and lowest dose is always the goal.” With this philosophy in mind, SFM has helped thousands of women discover the balance that is necessary through all phases of a woman’s life.

We also specialize in male hormonal imbalances as well, Ryan Cate specializes in male hormonal management.

Additional patient education information on hormones and hormone testing is available at ZRT LABS.