Hormonal Balance with Hormona
Hormona is a female founded company, created to help women understand and live in balance with their hormones throughout all stages of life. It was initially a result of the founders personal experiences with hormonal imbalances, but grew to become bigger than that. Our mission is to combine technology and medicine to help women all over the world to live in harmony with their hormones, understand their bodies and be aware of the impact hormonal fluctuations have on us.
Today we have the honor to interview Hormona about hormone health and what you can do to balance your hormones and create a life in flow with your body.
What are the symptoms of hormonal imbalances?
Hormones play a crucial role in many bodily functions, and imbalances can lead to a wide range of symptoms. As chemical messengers, hormones tell your body how to function properly, and without them, nothing would work the way it should. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your hormones are balanced and functioning properly since it’s vital to your continued well-being.
Although our different hormones have different functions, they all work together and affect one another, which is why you can experience symptoms that seem unrelated. Common symptoms of hormonal imbalances can be divided into different categories; psychological, physical, reproductive, and metabolic.
Signs of psychological symptoms:
Mood swings
Irritability
Depression
Anxiety
Insomnia
Memory loss
Brain fog
Irritability
Concentration issues
Negative thoughts
Feelings of hopelessness
Signs of physical symptoms:
Low energy
Acne or oily skin
Rashes or huves
Breast tenderness
Water retention
Puffy or swollen face
Excessive hair growth
Hair loss
Constipation or diarrhea
Muscle aches
Signs of reproductive symptoms:
Uterine fibroids
Irregular periods
Painful periods
Vaginal dryness
Cramping during periods
Heavy bleeding during periods
Infertility or difficulty getting pregnant
Loss of libido/difficulties during sex
Signs of metabolic symptoms:
Weight gain
Difficulties losing weight
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Blood sugar imbalances
Experiencing hormonal imbalance is something that every woman will do at some point during their life and it’s especially typical during puberty, pregnancy, menopause, breastfeeding, periods of stress, diet changes, etc. Female hormones fluctuate at all times and can therefore cause hormonal imbalances. However, when the symptoms of an imbalance start to affect your health and well-being, it becomes atypical.
What can be the cause of the hormonal imbalances?
Hormonal imbalances can be a result of a physical condition, different types of medications, and/or environmental changes.
Physical conditions, such as Thyroid and Adrenal issues, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), or Diabetes, can all cause hormonal imbalances. In these cases, the symptoms increase and can sometimes be hard to identify at the beginning. Slowly they can increase in severity and cause a lot of damage if they’re treated.
The side effects of different medications and steroids can also disturb your hormone balance. In this case, it’s important to talk to your doctor to have them put you on an alternative medicine or adjust your dose to balance it out.
Then we have environmental changes that can put your hormones out of balance. Common things that can lead to hormonal imbalances are stress, diet changes, eating disorders, exhaustion, gut/microbiome imbalance, overexercising, etc.
What can you do to balance your hormones?
First of all, you need to narrow it down and understand what the root causes of your hormonal imbalances are. Treating the cause, and not only the symptoms, of the problem is vital for your continuous well-being.
We are all different, and so are our “normal” hormone levels. What’s typical for one, is not certain to be typical for another, which is why it is so important to understand yourself and your own body.
The best way to start is by tracking your symptoms. In this way, you can easily get an overview of your experiences and feelings, and understand how they may be connected to your cycle. By tracking your symptoms, you’ll have a lot of leverage and data to show your doctor, which can be key to getting a diagnosis and being taken seriously.
Thereafter you’ll probably get to have your hormone levels and blood work tested to confirm what may be causing your imbalances. Depending on the results, you can take different actions to make your hormones get back to balance again. You might also get ordinated to see an endocrinologist, someone who specializes in hormones, to help you further.
There are a lot of things you can do by yourself as well if you want to boost your hormones and keep them healthy and happy. Most important is making sure that you get enough nutrition and sleep, lower your stress levels, and avoid hormone disruptors.
For someone struggling with hormonal imbalances and new to the hormonal topic, where to start?
It can seem overwhelming and difficult to know where to get started, so here is a quick step-by-step guide to get you going:
Step 1: Start tracking your cycle. Always start by getting to know your own body and its signals. Track your cycle, symptoms, and routines. This can easily be done in the @hormona.io app.
Step 2: Educate yourself. Make sure to find trusted sources that provide tools and information to support your needs.
Step 3: Start A/B testing your body. Every body is different. To know what works for you, test and keep track of your progress.
Step 4: Have patience. Everything doesn’t happen overnight. The key to a balanced lifestyle is continuity and trusting the process. Don’t stress!
What are Hormonas 3 feel-good habits for your hormones?
There are so many things you can do and habits you can introduce in your daily life that will make your hormones happy and healthy, and which will also help regulate your hormone levels to keep them balanced.
Eat breakfast! This is crucial for hormonal well-being. Always make sure to begin our day with a nutritious and savory breakfast, especially high in protein, healthy fats, and carbs. Aim for a savory instead of a sweet breakfast. A balanced and blood-sugar-friendly breakfast will make our hormones feel safe, and prevent our bodies from going on a glucose rollercoaster during the day, and keep our energy on a steady level. This also means, NO caffeine before breakfast.
Daily movement. We can’t promote this enough. Moving your body 30 minutes a day will help to lower your stress hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol, but also stimulate your happy hormones, such as endorphins. Further daily movement is important for your digestive system and weight management, mood regulation, brain function, and crucial for bones and muscles. Movement can be anything from a walk in the park, strength training, yoga, pilates, etc. Taking a daily walk outside will also provide you with your daily dose of D vitamins and support your circadian rhythm which regulates vital functions in your body, such as sleep, hormone release, temperature, and hunger.
Prioritize your sleep. Sleep is crucial for our overall well-being and especially our hormone health. If we don’t get enough quality sleep, our bodies and hormones will quickly be negatively affected by this. During the time we sleep, our bodies repair, rebuild, and restore itself. Make sure that you have a good sleep schedule, try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, expose yourself to sunlight as soon as you wake up, avoid blue light and caffeine close to bedtime, and take magnesium supplements to improve your recovery. Sleep supports stress management, metabolism, hormone reproduction, etc.
And, of course, we always track our symptoms in the Hormona app to help us understand ourselves and our hormones better.