Understanding Hormonal Imbalance
Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. Produced in the endocrine glands, these powerful chemicals travel around your bloodstream instructing tissues and organs on what to do. They help control a lot of your body’s major functions, including metabolism and reproduction.
When you have a hormonal imbalance, you have too much or too little of a particular hormone. Even tiny changes can have serious effects throughout your entire body. Think of hormones like a cake recipe. Too much or too little of any one ingredient affects the end product. While some hormone levels go up and down throughout your lifetime and might just be the result of natural aging, other changes occur when your endocrine glands get the recipe wrong.
Signs or Symptoms in Females
In women of reproductive age, the most common hormone imbalance is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Your normal hormone cycle also changes naturally during these stages:
Symptoms of a hormone imbalance specific to females include:
- heavy or irregular periods, including missed periods, a stopped period, or a frequent period
- hirsutism, or excessive hair on the face, chin, or other parts of the body
- acne on the face, chest, or upper back
- hair loss
- darkening of the skin, especially along neck creases, in the groin, and underneath the breasts
- skin tags
- vaginal dryness
- vaginal atrophy
- pain during sex
- night sweats
Causes Unique to Women
Several causes of hormonal imbalance in women are related to reproductive hormones. Common causes include:
- primary ovarian insufficiency, which is also known as early menopause
- hormone medications such as birth control pills
Treatment Options for a Hormonal Imbalance
Treatment for a hormonal imbalance will depend on what’s causing it. Some common treatment options are explained below.
If you’re dealing with hot flashes or other unpleasant symptoms of menopause, your doctor may recommend a low dose of estrogen
Be sure to talk about the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with your doctor.
If you’re experiencing vaginal dryness or pain during sex, you might want to try using an estrogen cream, tablet, or ring.
Using this local therapy treatment helps eliminate a lot of the risks linked to systemic estrogen, or estrogen that travels throughout the bloodstream to the right organ.
Hormonal birth control
Hormonal birth control can help regulate your menstrual cycles. Sorts of hormonal birth control include the:
- birth control pill
- birth control patch
- birth control shot
- vaginal ring
- intrauterine device (IUD)
It may also help improve acne and reduce extra hair on the face and body.
Androgens are male sex hormones that exist in both women and men. Women with high androgen levels may choose to take medication that blocks the effects of androgens.
These effects include:
- hair loss
- facial hair growth
Metformin is a type 2 diabetes medication that might assist some women with PCOS symptoms. The FDA hasn’t approved it to treat PCOS, but it may help lower androgen levels and encourage ovulation.
Flibanserin (Addyi) and bremelanotide (Vyleesi)
Addyi and Vyleesi are the only medications that are FDA approved for the treatment of low sexual desire in premenopausal women. Addyi is a pill, and Vyleesi is a self-administered injectable medication.
These drugs might include some serious side effects, such as severe nausea and changes in blood pressure. Talk to your doctor to see if either one could be right for you.
This prescription cream is made specifically for excessive facial hair in women. Applied topically to the skin, it helps reduce new hair growth, but it does not remove existing hair.