What is hormonal imbalance and what are its symptoms?

We have a few hormones in our body that regulate various mechanisms. Right from your skin to hair, sleep, body weight, to your mood, your sexual health and much more.

Hormones even do more harm sometimes. And most times, surprisingly, they are out of balance even without us knowing them.

Hormonal imbalance causes a lot of unwanted issues in women, especially.

In fact, over 80% of the women live with the symptoms of hormonal imbalance – some knowingly and some unknowingly.

So let’s see some of the symptoms or signs of hormonal imbalance, so you know why something is happening to you in case you are curious or worried.

Irregular periods

This is one of the most common symptoms of hormonal imbalance. The hormones namely, Estrogen and Progesterone are responsible for various sexual functioning of a woman’s body.

When these hormones do their work perfectly, one would have ideal menstrual cycle. But when the hormones are not in balance, periods get irregular.

Irregular periods, can also be attributed to various other medical problems. But not very surprisingly those problems are also related to hormonal imbalance.

Pre Menstrual Syndrome

This is a crazy state of the body and mind that you experience just before your periods.

With your body, you may experience things like tender breasts, hot flashes, headaches, nausea and the like.

And with your mind, you may experience even crazier things like mood swings, irritability, negative attitude, depression and so on.

So if you are experiencing these symptoms, they may be very well due hormonal imbalance. And even if it is not the case, let’s blame in on hormonal imbalance, what say?!

Skin issues

If you are someone who faces a lot of challenges with acne, or have blemishes, breakouts and uneven skin tone, chances are that they are caused due to hormonal imbalance.

In particular, acne is most commonly caused due to this.

When skin issues are caused by hormonal imbalance, unfortunately, those cannot be effectively treated by external treatments.

If you are so worried about your skin issues, and if your skin issues don’t tend to subside with external treatment, you should consult a doctor who could prescribe you meds for the hormonal issues.

Stubborn weight gain

You don’t always have to blame your weight gain on over eating or a lethargic life style.

Hormones play a crucial role in your body’s metabolism as well as weight gain.

If you are a person who has an active life style and healthy eating habits, and if you still find yourself in the overweight regime, it could be your hormones.

Unfortunately, weight gain caused by hormonal imbalance is so stubborn and usually won’t go away with dieting or exercising.

You will have to do more than that do shed your weight if it is due to hormonal imbalance.

You have to resort to diet that promotes hormonal balance, and over the time you can bring things to control.

PCOD and fertility issues

When the hormones are not in right balance, it can throw off many things in your body and mind and even life.

One such thing is the inability to easily and naturally conceive.

The increasing number of couples unable to conceive naturally can be very well attributed to the notorious PCOD which is caused due to hormonal imbalance.

Even though there are medications that can silence PCOD for a while and help one to conceive, the problem can again show its ugly face when you stop the medication.

This is because, it is caused by hormonal imbalance which is something you always need to keep an eye on!

Pelvic pain, and other vaginal issues

Just like issues with periods, hormonal imbalance also causes discomfort and certain unpleasant issues in the pelvis and vaginal region.

Some complain of pelvic pain during or after intercourse. And for some, the libido could be very low.

For some others, the vagina could become so dry and itchy – all due to hormonal imbalance.

Hot flashes, night sweats and more

Things don’t end there.

If you experience a lot of hot flashes and wake up in the middle of the night and feel your sheet is wet due to sweat, then you could very well be experiencing the symptoms of hormonal imbalance.

While there could be other reasons too for night sweats, the most notorious reason is hormonal imbalance.

Headaches also occur for unknown reasons and at random times due to hormonal imbalance.

Heavy and painful periods

While pre-menstrual symptoms are one side of the story, heavy and painful periods are the other side of the same story.

Usually periods get heavier, and painful due to the formation of cysts (usually benign) or fibroids.

Such growth is encouraged or pushed by estrogen.

This issue can be really annoying as women have to go through the heavy and painful bleeding regularly.

Usually this can be treated with medication, or in worst cases, a surgery would be needed.

So hormonal imbalance can cause a variety of issues – and you might not even have a clue as to what’s going on.

But if you have the above mentioned issues, it is better to get it checked with a doctor.

I will share some working home remedies (in an upcoming post) that can help you keep your hormones in balance, so you can avoid a lot of these issues for good!