Female Hormones: Achieving Balance

Why You Want Balanced Hormones 

Hormones are critical to the function of virtually every system in the body, specifically: 

• Estrogen and progesterone help brain function, reduce brain inflammation and help with cognitive function. There is also evidence that estrogen may prevent Alzheimer’s. 

• There is an intimate relationship between hormones and neurotransmitters; which means hormones can have a major impact on mood, will power and motivation. 

• There is a strong correlation between hormone and bone metabolism. 

• Thyroid hormone, your metabolism hormone, works better when progesterone is functioning optimally. 

• Estrogen protects cardio. function in women. 

• Progesterone helps regulate the immune response. 

Most importantly, the beneficial effects of hormones occur when they are in balance. In excess or in deficiency, all hormones can have negative consequences. 

What To Do 

It is easy to say, “Everyone needs chaste tree berry or black cohosh,” or “Every woman needs progesterone cream.” But that would be wrong, very wrong. 

Instead, if you have hormonal symptoms, you need to get tested. When it comes to testing, you have a few different options – blood, saliva and urine. 

• Urine hormone testing measures hormone metabolites and not the hormones themselves. It is great for looking at what hormones are being converted into, but not good at evaluating precise hormone levels. 

• Blood testing can measure two types of hormones – free and bound. Free hormones are considered to be “active” hormones, in that they can enter into cells and impart their metabolic effects. Bound hormones on the other hand are attached to a protein molecule and are therefore unavailable for use in the body until they detach from their carrier. 

• Lastly, salivary hormone testing only measure free hormones. 

All tests are valid, but have a different place clinically. 

When it comes to female hormone testing, I believe the only option is salivary testing. Reason being, you can inexpensively take multiple samples throughout the month and evaluate the entire month of hormones, rather than simply taking a single blood draw and making assumptions about what hormones are doing the other 27 days of the month. The lab I particularly like is Diagnostechs simply because they also include pituitary hormones in their samples.