Balancing Hormones
DISCOVER MORE ABOUT BALANCING HORMONES
SUPPORTING YOU IN BALANCING HORMONES
Hormones are our body’s messengers; they are transported through the body delivering messages from our organs to our brains, and vice versa, to perform many body functions.
They tell us when to eat, sleep, and even when to grow. They give us our appetite and sex drive, help us conceive and deliver babies. They help to make us happy, sad and even crazy in love.
While male hormones are pretty stable, female hormone balance is less so, as they ebb and flow through the menstrual cycle. Women may experience a host of unpleasant symptoms for half the month, and then feel more at ease in their bodies.
Our hormones help guide us through the transitions of life including puberty, pregnancy and menopause.
Our team of hormone specialists can support you in balancing your hormones, so you can reduce symptoms and feel better.
SIGNS & SYMPTOMS OF HORMONE IMBALANCE
Our expert team of hormone specialists will ask you a variety of questions to understand your experience of hormone imbalance.
There are many different symptoms of hormonal imbalances, some of which can include:
- Mood swings
- Low mood
- Breast tenderness
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Irritability
- Water retention
- Headaches
- Acne
Menopausal symptoms can also vary in each person, some symptoms may include:
- Hot flushes
- Insomnia
- Osteoporosis
- Depression
- Vaginal dryness
HORMONE EXPERTS & HORMONE SPECIALISTS
Our team of hormone experts and hormone specialists can explore many opportunities to correct hormone imbalances using diet and lifestyle alone.
Hormone imbalances can be as bespoke as your fingerprint, as your health history, current health, diet and lifestyle all contribute to how your body is balancing hormones.
Here are some examples of areas that our hormone specialists can explore with you to improve your symptoms, and help you feel better.
- Your stress response – how much stress you are experiencing, and how your body responds to it – is a critical factor when managing sex hormones. We may implement different strategies to minimise stress in your life, explore how nutritional interventions can support your stress response, and explain how you can improve vagal tone in the body.
- Plant foods have been shown to be hugely beneficial in supporting women’s hormones, such as incorporating phytoestrogens. We can assess whether this would be a suitable approach for you and create a plan to incorporate phyto-rich foods to support your hormones.
- Detoxification plays an important role in balancing hormones. Foods such as cruciferous vegetables contain I3C, a naturally occurring compound which actively promotes the breakdown of sex hormones. We focus on incorporating foods to support your sex hormone detoxification to further balance your hormones and reduce symptoms of excess oestrogen metabolites.
- Our hormone experts do provide hormone treatment, but do not prescribe medication or HRT. Instead we focus on hormone treatment through addressing imbalances using targeted nutritional interventions. This can help you reduce your symptoms and improve your health and wellbeing, including pregnancy health, menopause support, adrenal fatigue and stress support.
FUNCTIONAL HORMONE TESTING
Hormone testing, and a functional medicine perspective to your health, allows us to be more targeted in the support we provide you.
Learning how and when you ovulate, the length of your cycle and the status of your hormones can help our team of hormone specialists in creating personalised nutrition and lifestyle interventions.
The outcome is to help you reduce your symptoms, rebalance your hormones, to achieve your health goals and feel better.
How Can Hormone Testing Help Me?
We are always aiming to get to the root cause of your hormonal imbalance, so test results are considered alongside your presenting signs and symptoms, as well as current diet and lifestyle patterns.
Functional hormone testing helps us identify the root causes of hormonal imbalances in both men and women. It can also help provide useful insights into perimenopause and menopausal symptoms, PCOS, weight gain, fatigue, low libido, premenstrual symptoms and more.
Understanding the status of your hormones helps to target specific and personalised nutritional and lifestyle interventions, to restore balance and help you achieve your health goals.
What Can You Test For?
Functional Testing can give a detailed insight into exactly how your hormones are functioning, assessing sex hormones and stress hormones such as:
- Cortisol
- Cortisone
- Estradiol
- Estrone
- Estriol
- Progesterone
- Testosterone
- DHEA and DHEA-S
- Melatonin
What Sample Do You Need?
Hormones can be tested in blood, urine and saliva and each sample type provides different information. Our hormone specialists will discuss the options available, and recommend the ones most suited to the symptoms and health picture you are presenting with.
- Blood profiles may be available from your GP and we always aim to work alongside your medical team. They can also be run privately if necessary.
- Saliva samples enable us to measure the bioavailable fraction of the hormone and is useful for taking multiple samples like tracking the daily circadian rhythm of cortisol in an Adrenal Stress Profile.
- The gold standard test for a full hormone panel uses urine samples, which can be done from the comfort of your own home.
The DUTCH Profile
One of the most comprehensive hormone profiles available is the DUTCH Profile which utilises a urine sample to look at hormone pathways and the metabolites – how the body has processed hormones through the liver.
Metabolism and excretion of hormones is an important, and sometimes overlooked, part of hormone balance – and ties into gut function.
The results from the DUTCH Profile provide a detailed insight into the main hormones, including progesterone, oestrogen and its metabolites, as well as the androgens including testosterone and DHEA, and the stress hormones cortisol and cortisone.
Click on the boxes below to see some sample reports from the DUTCH profile. This gives you an idea of the depth and breadth of information functional testing can provide.
Sample Report
TARGETED SUPPLEMENT PROTOCOLS
Everyone is different, and sometimes it can be difficult for you to meet your nutritional needs through diet alone. This can be due to food preferences, absorption issues, nutrient status of the foods we eat or for other reasons.
Our team of hormone experts can offer personalised and targeted supplement protocols to ensure you are getting your nutritional requirements to support and balance your hormones.
Some examples of supplements we may recommend are:
- Omega-3: This essential fatty acid is important for balancing hormones. Inflammation is one factor that can lead to hormonal imbalance, by driving an increase in oestrogen. Omega-3, in particular EPA and DHA, have anti-inflammatory properties that help to manage this inflamed response. This is why omega-3 is also particularly beneficial for managing acne.
- Myo-inositol: This is a sugar alcohol that is found in foods such as beans, grains, nuts and seeds, and is related to the B-vitamins family. Research has shown that supplementing with myo-inositol can help to manage PCOS symptoms due to its effects on improving insulin resistance and as well as reducing androgens.
- Magnesium Glycinate: This is an essential mineral for our bodies, not only is it naturally calming, but it plays an important role in balancing hormones. One of the important roles magnesium plays is by supporting our adrenal glands, which in turn helps to manage our stress hormones. In addition to this, magnesium is an important cofactor in our detoxification system, which needs to function efficiently in order to eliminate waste, such as metabolised oestrogen, from the body.
- Taurine: This is an essential amino acid that, together with magnesium, has been shown to support peri-menopausal symptoms such as night sweats, brain fog, and hot flashes.
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FAQs
Everyone is different, and the number of consultations can depend on the length of time you have had symptoms, how motivated you are for change, and how regularly you want your sessions. On average we recommend an initial consultation and 2 to 3 follow-up sessions over a 3 month period. Many of our clients choose one of our Online Health Packages.
Yes, certainly. Your hormone specialist will take a detailed health history and assessment of your current medications and supplements during the initial consultation, and will take this into consideration when suggesting any hormone testing, and when interpreting your results.
No, we do not prescribe medications. At the HealthMatters Group we are a team of nutritional therapists and dietitians, and work using nutritional and lifestyle modifications, as well as working with supplements and functional testing. If you have been prescribed HRT by an endocrinologist or functional medicine doctor, our team of hormone experts can work closely with them to support any changes to your diet or lifestyle.
Our prices vary depending on which practitioner you see and the length of the consultation. We like to be transparent about our fees, and you can take a look here.
NEXT STEPS
If you resonate with any of these symptoms and would like some support, please book a complimentary call with our friendly assessment team.
They will talk through your health goals and symptoms, and recommend one of our nutrition team that specialises in balancing hormones.