Hormones have a huge effect on your moods and physical state, and any imbalances can cause a host of problems such as strange emotions, anger, sadness, happiness, etc. It can also affect your body’s ovulation, fertility and health.
Hormonal imbalances are often caused by puberty, perimenopause and menopause. However, pregnancy, birth control pills, stress, menstrual cycles and lifestyle habits can cause hormonal imbalances as well.
It’s not just the person suffering from hormonal imbalances that suffer but also the people around them. How do you know if your body is undergoing a hormonal imbalance?
Always Hungry – People with an imbalance of their hormones often gain weight because they’re craving certain kinds of food – generally sugar. This causes the ghrelin hormone to raise, which leads to an increase in eating.
Gaining Weight – If you continue to exercise, eat right and still gain weight, your body’s hormones may not be in balance. A hormonal imbalance causes the body to improperly burn calories and be resistant to weight loss. Most fat is seen in the stomach region.
Mood Swings – Hormonal imbalances can cause mood swings. People may feel angry, mad, happy and sad for very little reason at all. These mood swings will appear during menopause and a woman’s menstrual cycle but with less intensity.
Tiredness – Always feeling tired is due to the higher levels of cortisol, which is the stress hormone.
Loss of Sex Drive – It’s not uncommon for a hormonal imbalance – usually thyroid, testosterone and estrogen – to cause a woman’s sex drive to decrease. Along with the loss of interest to have sex, a woman’s vagina could become dry, which makes sex difficult and painful.
Insomnia – Hormonal imbalances often cause people to have problems sleeping, especially between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. It’s usually the result of higher cortisol levels and lower progesterone and estrogen levels. It’s not uncommon for some sufferers to have night sweats.
Sources:
Women In Balance