Balance Hormones

What do hormones do?

Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers. Glands such as the thyroid, the adrenal glands, the ovaries and the testes release them into the blood, and they guide growth, how your body turns food into energy, sexual function, reproduction and mood. Because so much depends on them, a change in one hormone can show up in several places at once.

What are the signs that hormones may be out of balance?

The signs depend on which hormone is involved. Some of the most common are:

• Weight gain or loss without a clear reason
• Feeling unusually hot or cold
• Irregular periods, hot flashes or night sweats
• A lower sex drive, or erection problems
• Tiredness, trouble sleeping or changes in mood

Nearly every one of these can have other causes as well, which is why doctors check hormone levels with blood tests and read the results alongside your symptoms.

How do hormones change with age?

For women, the years leading into menopause, called perimenopause, last about four years on average and can last up to ten. Menopause is reached after twelve months in a row without a period; in the United States the average age is 52. The change in hormones can affect sleep, mood, bones, joints, muscles, the bladder and weight, and hot flashes and night sweats last seven to twelve years on average.

For men the change is gradual: testosterone tends to fall by about 1% a year, although not for everyone.

How are hormone levels tested?

Most hormone tests use a blood sample, and for some the timing matters. Testosterone is highest early in the day, so the American Urological Association recommends measuring it in the early morning, on two separate occasions, before low testosterone is diagnosed. It uses a total testosterone level below 300 ng/dL, together with symptoms, as its guide.

Why is the thyroid part of hormone health?

The thyroid sets the pace of your metabolism. An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease, up to 60 percent of them without knowing it, and women are five to eight times more likely than men to have thyroid problems.

• An underactive thyroid can bring tiredness, weight gain, trouble tolerating cold, dry skin, thinning hair and low mood.
• An overactive thyroid can bring weight loss despite a bigger appetite, a fast or irregular heartbeat, nervousness, trouble sleeping and trouble tolerating heat.

Many of these symptoms are shared with other conditions, so a blood test is part of finding the cause.