3. Common Causes of Hormone Imbalance

This episode was published on 9/27/23.

Click this link to access the episode resource on endocrine disruptors.

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Episode transcript:

Hello everyone and welcome to I’m Hormonal. This is a podcast where we talk about how to support our hormone health, menstrual health, and how to lean into cyclical living. If you want to start understanding the signals that your cycle is sending you then you’re in the right place. I’m Hormonal is here to share practical tips and information with you that will support you on your quest for hormone balance. My name is Bridget–I’m a functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach, and I’m here to guide you along this journey.

(00:47) Hey everybody, welcome back to I’m Hormonal for episode 3, or if this is your first time listening then welcome. I’m really exited that you’re here and listening, and I’m looking forward to talking about common causes of hormone imbalance. We’ll run through three top of mind causes: stress, toxins, and gut/stomach problems. We’ll get to those in a second here. First, two quick reminders: If you want to connect with me on IG then you can find me @bridgetwalton. I’d love to connect with you and hear more about what you want to hear on this podcast in the future. Also, while you’re on IG, if you want to check out any of the free downloads that I have then click on the link in my bio. If you’re someone who’s listening today through my website, bridgetwalton.com, then you’ll see some of those links to downloads on the site there. You’ll also find the transcripts for the episode.

Back to the topic of common causes of hormone imbalance.. why is this important? I think that this is so important because there are so many things that we don’t even know might be having a negative impact on our health. And that’s okay, right? We can’t do much about what we don’t know. But that being said, there are lots of things that we can influence and tweak in order to better support our hormones and have a happier, healthier hormone balance.

My hope for what you’ll takeaway today is that you’ve got a handful of practical ideas for things you can consider changing—or even just consider observing—regarding how you in your daily life interact with these common causes.

As a reminder, the info that tI’m sharing with you today isn’t a replacement for medical advice and nor is it a replacement for working 1:1 with a qualified doctor or practitioner who can help you by understanding your unique body and health situation in order to provide a tailored recommendation. IF you want to, reach out to me and I can help give you a recommendation more tailored to you. 

(3:45) Let’s go ahead and dive in why don’t we? The first thing we will talk about is stress. Stress has a huge impact on hormone health because it elevates your cortisol levels. Cortisol is our stress hormone so when you’re stressed out your cortisol levels go up, also our adrenaline goes up. And this is good, right? Because it helps us to realize that we need to slam on our breaks on the highway and it helps us to—well, you all know about fight-or-flight, right? I think I learned about it in middle school so you should’ve heard of it by now. Maybe it’s new to you to know that prolonged or chronic stress/cortisol can have a negative impact on hormone health because there’s a lot that cascades from irregular cortisol levels. 

(4:53) For example, prolonged stress can impact testosterone production which can be important, yes, for us gals because other hormones are created from testosterone. Also testosterone does support ovulation and it has its role in the ups and down. So we want to make sure that we’re supporting testosterone production. It’s also worth noting that as cortisol goes up and when it’s chronic that can interrupt the communication between our brain and ovaries, or brain and other endocrine gland. That means it might stop or slow the production of LH and FSH which are two hormones essential for ovulation. When you don’t ovulation, that’s going to result in no—or in very low—progesterone. That’s the hormone that’s dominant in the second half of the cycle; that’s between ovulation (the release of an egg) and the start of your next period. 

That’s important to note because there can also be some consequences or repercussions of estrogen dominance that we don’t owe so much. Oftentimes we see estrogen dominant symptoms looking like heavy period bleeding, breast tenderness, migraine, and cramping. Most people like to avoid those, don’t you think? I know that’s kind of in-depth on the hormone specifics but those are the downstream effects. Additionally, when cortisol is raised, that can lead to problems with other endocrine glands that can look like fatigue, anxiety, low libido, or low immunity. We’ve also mentioned PMS and irregular periods, and these things can impact other parts of your life.

(7:23) I want to clarify what I mean when I say stress, and what stress is. Your body can be stressed by running a marathon—that sounds tough and I don’t think my body would be happy with me. Also there’s emotional stress, like long working hours, tough times with your partner, and any other facet of life that can bring you stress. All of these things can compound and result in inflammation in your body that may cloud those communications.

(8:13) The good thing is there is a lot that we can do to minimize the stresses that we have in our lives. Let’s do something here—take a few seconds to think about what are the main stressors that you have in your life right now? Are you not sleeping enough? Are you overworked? Are you not eating enough—because that can be a stressor too. Are you working out twice a day? That can be a stressor too.  So go ahead and take a second to think about what’s relevant in your life now—pause your player and just notice what’s there for as long as you need.

Alright, so now that you’ve thought of that—maybe you have some ideas, but of course there are obvious things you can do like rest, relax, and get more sleep (which is probably super specific and also unique and you’re never heard of that before **insert sarcasm** but let’s be real. Just think of how you can alleviate some of the burdens in your life. What are the projects that you can remove from your mental to do list because you don’t need to… learn Spanish this winter, or whatever it is.

Something that’s relevant for me in my life, especially this week given that I’ll be traveling and on a cross country flight. In order to support my body and hormones, I really try to make sure that I’m hydrated, getting as much sleep as possible, and avoid alcohol. I know alcohol can be a burden on my liver and we’ll talk more on that soon. Also just keep in mind that when it comes to endless scrolling and content consumption or watching TV/reels while eating meals. That’s another stress on the body because when you’re watching those things, you can’t access the rest and digest part of your digestive system. That can lead to insufficient stomach acid which has other negative downstream effects.

(10:50) Overall the takeaway when it comes to stress: we’re always going to have stress in our life, but what can we do to mitigate some of those things as we’re able to so that, again, we can help to support our hormone balance and keep inflammation down.

(11:12) The next thing we’ll talk about are environmental toxins. These could be products of chemicals that you come into contact with or ingest, and they can negatively impact your body by confusing it and making your estrogen receptors think that the chemical is a hormone, or because it’s something that hinders your liver’s ability to detox your hormones.

What do I mean by that? Let’s start by talking about two specific types of toxins, the first of which are xenoestrogens. These are different types of foreign estrogens or substances that are close enough in molecular structure that these chemicals can bind to estrogen receptors, and that can have a potentially hazardous outcome. So when it comes to anything that’s binding to estrogen receptors, that can make your body think that you have more estrogen than you actually do. That can lead to symptoms of estrogen dominance that we don’t like so much, like heavy periods, cramping, etc. 

Xenoestrogens are often found in plastics, pesticides, chemicals, and water systems. One type of xenon is..  okay think of BPA or PFAS. PFAS are forever chemicals, and I don’t mean to say that in a scary way but they don’t leave your body. BPA is a common toxin and, for example, the receipts that you get at the store oftentimes use BPA. Any type of receipt for which they use the heat printer thing—you guys know wha tI mean right? So you want to be careful if that’s something that you touch often. Oftentimes now you’ll see that water bottles or other plastic containers will say “BPA free” and again it’s a chemical used in a lot of plastics that has a negative impact on your body.

(14:04) Similar but different are phytoestrogens, and so phytoestrogens are similar to xenon but they’re not quite as strong although they still bind to estrogen receptor sites. Soy has phytoestrogens that can bind to receptor sites that can cause you to present with estrogen dominant symptoms. There are lots of nuances and caveats to that, and we won’t go into huge depth on them, but get some deeper consultation if you’re like—oh my gosh, I eat tofu three times a day or something. This is all just to say that it’s not just chemicals—there are some foods that have phytoestrogens too that can impact your hormone balance, and that’s nothing to be afraid of… just something to be aware of. 

(14:55) So what are some things that we can do to mitigate the impact of these toxins from our lives?

1. 1. Swap out beauty products and cleaning products with cleaner options. I use an app called Yuka and ThinkDirty—there are lots of options out there, so pick what’s best for you. When I go to buy a new shampoo, mascara, etc. then I scan the barcode of th product in the store and the app will tell me if it’s a clean product or if there’s something that I should be concerned bout. This helps me to make an informed decision about whatever it is that I want to put on my skin for the next 60 days or however long I’m using that new sunscreen (or other product) for. So this is something that I recommend and remember that you don’t have to throw out all of your products immediately, but it’s something that you can change over time and swap out as you finish your current product. 

   2. Drink filtered water

   3. Avoid non-stick pans because of the chemicals that they have on them. 

   4. Use glass storage containers and plates instead of plastic.

   5. Eat whole, organic foods in order to avoid lingering toxins.

   6. Buy food that’s in minimal packaging.

   7. Use a menstrual cup, or cleaner pads and tampons. Cora is a company that makes clean pads and tampons. My favorite product to use is Nixit’s menstrual cup and always recommend it. I love it. Reach out to me if you have any questions on it and if you want to try it out, use my code for a 15% discount.

So I guess all in all, similar to stress, you’re never going to be able to avoid all of the toxins that are surrounding us everyday. There’s nothing like the great outdoors, some clean air, some natural products, and just—you can only do what you can do. Make some changes little by little and hopefully you’ll find that all of these things work better for you and you feel better too.

(18:40) Next we’re going to talk about gut health and how that can impact your hormones. Basically it all boils down to: gut problems are normally leading to an inability to eliminate hormone metabolites (which are the byproducts of our hormones) which can lead to those metabolite recirculating in your system instead of being eliminated. So, this is the long way to say that it’s really important that you poop everyday because if you’re not having regular bowel movements then estrogen can be higher in your system and recirculating. This can lead to cramps, heavy periods, etc. So just being aware that that’s something that you need to do is the first step.

(19:50) So while there are some foods (that I’ll mention in a second) that are inflammatory, it really is about the whole digestive process that’s essential. It’s really a top-down process, so if your mind isn’t quite ready to eat then that can impact what happens in your stomach, small instestines, large intestine—you see where I’m going with that. Basically it’s important to be calm when you eat so your nervous system can be in rest and digest mode, which helps you to produce enough stomach acid and get the whole digestive party started and start the good digestive process. If the pH is a bit off in your stomach due to insufficient stomach acid then that can impact what happens in the small intestines. Without going into too much detail on it, it can lead to not killing off some of the things that need to get killed off in the stomach. Or, if we go bak earlier, if you’re not chewing your food properly then you may not be able to breakdown that red pepper or whatever it is IOT get the nutrients that you need. Now this is a whole other tangent, it’s important to make sure that you have all necessary vitamins and minerals. This can be really essential in things like mitigating some symptoms you may have. So, being able to actually digest and absorb nutrients is really helpful.

(22:15) One problem with stomach problems ties back to stress. If you’re eating pancakes and strawberries for breakfast and then for lunch you’re having a smoothie and.. I’m just trying to think of things that are really high in sugar and/or carbs, and lacking in fats/proteins. This can lead to big blood sugar spikes and dips that ultimately causes stress on the body. And just to clarify, that’s normal—to some degree—for our bodies. Our bodies are designed to handle what happens when our BS goes up after we eat an apple or grapes or spaghetti. But if you can keep a blood sugar that’s more stable then that will help you to feel more full throughout the day… you won’t have energy drops like you would if BS was low. So it’s good for the mood and sustained energy.

(23:39) I’m going to quickly mention some of the most inflammatory foods for you to consider. The first two, no surprise, are sugar which I just mentioned. If you can avoid some sugar then that will help your blood sugar and system. Next I’ll mention alcohol which can also be a big problem when it comes to your liver’s function. Your liver’s job is to filter out the things from your blood that don’t need to be there anymore. So this can be estrogen or estrogen metabolites… it can also be alcohol. When you drink alcohol, your liver has to prioritize getting those toxins out of your body which can inhibit your liver from processing out the hormones that it normally needs to. Alcohol can also just be inflammatory for the digestive system as a whole.

(24:55) The final three things to consider are: dairy, processed oils, and wheat. Consider how you feel after consuming any of these products (dairy, fried foods with processed oils in them, and wheat). About 10% of women—per Dr. Lara Briden—should avoid gluten altogether. What’s gluten? It’s a protein found in wheat and other grains, but basically 10% of women should avoid gluten. About 6 in 10 women are sensitive to gluten, so maybe you can enjoy it sparingly. And the remaining 3 in 10 women are good to go and have no adverse reaction to gluten. For whatever it’s worth, think about how these foods impact your body because again, having a health/smooth GI system will support the elimination of hormone metabolites which means a natural hormone balance.

(26:25) Let’s talk about a couple of things you can do to support some of these GI system components. 

1. Eliminate inflammatory foods that may make you feel bad.

2. Exercise regularly which is helpful for blood sugar.

3. Mitigate stress.

4. Don’t smoke.

5. Check out the Bristol stool chart and be aware of if your stool is normal and what’s atypical. Maybe you do or don’t talk about poop with your friends a lot, but it could be something that we all think is normal just because we assume it’s normal for everyone.

(27:56) Okay guys, we’ve almost made it to the end. In summary, avoiding stress, toxins, and supporting your gut health will all be helpful in supporting a good hormone balance. There are so many small steps that you can take to support your hormone balance—don’t let that intimidate you. I’d encourage you to look at it with the perspective that there are so many things you can do to start and so many ways that you can support your health which is really great. All of the options in the world.

For this week’s practical tip: download an app that you can use to scan products (skin care, cleaning products, etc.) to determine whether or not it’s a clean product. Again, I use Yuka and ThinkDirty but find whatever works best for you. If it’s in your budget, consider buying cleaner products next time you’re out of mascara, Windex, or anything else. You can also just make your own deodorant—follow your heart, but I’ve been making my own deodorant for a while and I think it’s great. 

(29:25) One final thing that I have for you—if you’re interested in learning more about the toxins that we talked about today then go to my IG bio/website/or the show notes and you can download a free guide that shares more about the toxins we come in contact with frequently. With that said, thanks for listening. I hope you join me again next week when we talk about the impact of birth control on our hormones. I can’t wait to see you there! Thanks again you guys—I really appreciate you and I can’t wait to talk to you soon. Alrighty—bye everybody!

(30:17) (Blooper) So, maybe you’re like me and probably in eighth grade—was this a rumor that went around everyone’s high school that eating soy made boys grown boobs?