15 Signs Of Hormone Imbalance That Most Women Ignore

Quick view: Did you know that over 80% of women throughout their lifetime will suffer from hormonal imbalance? In most cases, the hormonal imbalance becomes chronic and leads to other major health-related issues. Today, we will talk about how to rebalance your hormones naturally and the signs and symptoms so you know if you are suffering from a hormonal imbalance.

What is Hormone Imbalance 

Hormonal imbalance in simple terms is when our bodies are either not producing the right amount of hormones, this could be in the form of an overproduction of hormones known as hyperthyroidism. The underproduction of hormones is known as hypothyroidism, or it is also possible for your hormones to be in proper production but your body is not receiving them. 

I am not a medical professional, I am a normal everyday person just like you who embarked on healing my own hormonal imbalance over 8 years ago now. I saw doctor after doctor, specialist after specialist, who all ran test after test at my request because I refused to accept the idea that I would just suffer with this autoimmune disease and all the horrible side effects and live on medication for the rest of my life. 

I knew if I could find at least one other person who had an autoimmune disease and cured it then damn it I could too! Granted this was back in the day and the internet was not what it is today. But where there is a will there is a way!

What percentage of women have imbalanced hormones?

It is said that over 80% of women in the US suffer from hormonal imbalances throughout their lifetime. The most common reasons triggering hormonal imbalance are menopause, premenopause, pregnancy or post-pregnancy, obesity, and chronic stress or trauma. 

Of course, most of us suffer needlessly having a handful if not all of the symptoms listed below and if this goes on too long before it is corrected it turns into a full-on autoimmune disease. 

15 Signs Of Hormone Imbalance That Most Women Ignore

So after learning what hormonal imbalance is and that it affects over 80% of women, ps sorry if I just scared the sh#$ out of you! Let’s look at the 15 Most Common Signs of Hormonal Imbalance that Most Women Ignore.

1.  Chronic Fatigue
2. Stubborn Acne
3. Irregular Periods
4. Increased Appetite Causing Hormonal Weight Gain
5. Hot Flashes And Night Sweats
6. Hair Loss and/or Changes in the Texture of Your Hair
7. Vaginal Dryness
8. Mood Swings / Anxiety / Depression
9.  Low Libido / Fertility Issues
10.  Sensitivity to heat or cold
11.  Breast Changes (discard)
12.   Insomnia
13.  Memory Problems
14.  Ridges in Fingernails
15.  Extreme Sweating (also known as Hyperhydration can be on the hands, feet, or underarms)

If you are experiencing more than a few of these symptoms odds are pretty good you have some kind of a hormonal imbalance going on. Here is a great at-home test kit you can order right off of Amazon, or see your doctor and request a hormone panel blood work to test your hormone levels.

How long does it take to balance hormonal imbalance?

This varies from person to person. There are many factors at play in healing and rebalancing hormones. It is estimated by holistic medical professionals that it takes around four months on average to heal hormonal imbalances. However, it can take much longer if your hormonal imbalance has formed an autoimmune disease. 

For me personally, it took a little over two years to fully heal my thyroid, and be weaned off of all thyroid medication.

Depending on your level of hormonal imbalance and your commitment to making a lifestyle change to eliminate the foods and chemicals in our everyday products that are known endocrine disruptors will also play into the time it takes to heal your hormonal imbalance.

Related Posts to read next on this topic: 

How to Heal Autoimmune Disease Naturally | Hormonal Imbalance Diet | Estrogen Dominance

How can I permanently cure hormonal imbalance?

Some ways to balance your hormones naturally, however, some may need to consult a doctor depending on the level of hormonal imbalance and use medications for a time while the hormones begin to come back in balance. Maintaining a wellness lifestyle full of nutrient-rich foods, regular exercising, and good quality sleep are among the top ways to rebalance hormones naturally. 

Hormones are like little chemical messengers in our bodies and play a vital role in mental health, physical health, and emotional health. Hormones affect our weight, mood, appetite and so many other everyday essential tasks in our bodies, so maintaining a healthy hormonal balance is key to our overall health and well-being. 

8 Ways to Naturally Heal Hormonal Imbalance

1. Eating enough protein with every meal. It is said that 80%-90% of women do not eat enough protein. Protein not only provides the amino acids we need, but it also plays a role in our appetite control and digestion. Studies have shown that eating protein lowers our “hunger hormone” sending the brain the message we are full faster.
2. Exercising regularly. We are not talking about killing yourself in the gym for 1-2 hours a day 7 days a week, actually, that would cause more harm than good if you have a hormonal imbalance. We are talking about aiming for 15,000 steps per day, spread out throughout the day, like taking a 10-20 minute walk following every meal. This both aids in digestion and gives your body sunlight which is also sending signals to our brains to help us digest food. Pair this with a good 20-minute-a-day Tabata, HIIT, or Pilates workout at home and you will see a rapid improvement in your hormonal balance restored.
3. Maintain a healthy body weight. Obesity and hormonal imbalance go hand in hand. Whether obesity caused the hormonal imbalance or the hormonal imbalance is causing obesity doing everything in your power to keep your weight where it should be is crucial to getting your hormones back to a healthy hormonal balance. If you are struggling with weight loss keep reading below is the BEST Diet for Hormonal Imbalance that I used to lose and keep off over 50 pounds!
4. Gut Health. Like obesity, if you have any sort of hormonal imbalance that has gone on while one thing you can take to the bank is your gut health is NOT where it needs to be. For that reason, I have already covered that in the post How to Heal Gut Problems Naturally, check that out next.
5. Eliminate foods that are causing the problem. Again I cover this in great detail in the post The BEST Diet for Hormonal Imbalance. In short foods such as gluten, dairy, and sugar are known endocrine (hormone) disruptors it will be near impossible to heal your hormones without eliminating these foods from your diet. 
6. Reduce Stress. Stress is often one of the top causes of hormonal imbalance. Doing things daily to lower if not eliminate stress will be key in healing your hormones. Doing things such as your daily walks outside, the Japanese coined the phrase for this Forest Bathing and have a lot of medical research to back the power of just walking outside in nature. A daily meditation practice, gratitude journaling, and doing an audit of your schedule to eliminate things that have you overextended (yes this may mean your kids are not in 50 sports and activities at once, but they will be fine mom, this does not make you a “bad parent”) 
7. Consuming healthy fat. In his book, “Eat Fat Get Thin” Doctor Mark Hyman, who by the way has been one of my top resources in healing my hormones (autoimmune disease) Dr. Hyman shares the medical sense behind healthy fats and how they can make you lose weight. Contrary to what we have been taught, fat is not the bad guy! Dr. Hyman healed his own autoimmune disease and has spent most of his professional career teaching others the power of holistic medicine. 
8. Getting the right amount of quality sleep. One of the most overlooked aspects of restoring our health is sleep. Did you know that you can go 40 days without food, almost 7 days without water, but 3 days without sleep will cause irreversible brain damage?!? One thing every person who is obese has in common is a poor quality of sleep paired with high inflammation (poor diet or wrong food choices). Food and Sleep are the first place to start when healing the body of anything, but especially hormonal imbalance.

Tips & Tools for Sucess

Cancle that $50 per month gym membership and create your own workout routine at home. Again, over doing it at the gym causes so much stress on our bodies and when you have any kind of issue going on (ie hormonal imbalance) it is important to stay active in ways that help your body heal, no work against it.

Good sleep starts the night before. In his book “Good Night” the Sleep Dr. explains that keeping the same bedtime every single night as well as the same wake up time (yes even on the weekend) is step one to getting good sleep! Step two, again starting the night before is wearing blue blockers 1-2 hours before you go to bed. Our phones, led lights in our homes, TVs, computer screens, etc all have blue light. Blue light is similar to sunlight and singles our brains to “wake-up”.

Obvisously, this is not want we are going for when we are ready to go to sleep.

Dr. Bruce even notes that bluelights can sink into our skin which has the same receptors as our eyes so getting amber or red light night lights and getting your eyes adjusted to the dark is another helpful tip in getting your sleep back to a healthy place.

Not eating more than 2 hours before bed, not drinking coffee or caffeine after 2:00 pm, and establishing a consistent routine just like having babies or toddlers are other tips listed in his book. Monitoring your sleep with the FitBit versa linked above, which also monitors your step count (2 birds, one stone) will help you see the progress.

What happens when a woman’s hormones are out of balance?

Hormonal Imbalance affects a whopping 80% of women in the US during their lifetime, most of which are not even aware they have a hormonal imbalance. The most common age for hormonal imbalance to start rearing its ugly head in our lives is between the ages of 40-50, which is right around pre-menopause or menopause age for most of us. The second most common time hormonal imbalances occur in women is during pregnancy or post-pregnancy when our hormones are wreaked from 9 months of being completely out of balance. 

Odds are if you are reading this post then you most likely fall into one if not both of these age ranges and thus are part, have been a part, or possibly will be a part of those 80% of women in the US with hormonal imbalance. I have some great posts you should read next to see if you might be suffering from a hormonal imbalance, and I share how I healed my own hormonal imbalance, weaned off all thyroid medication, lost over 50 pounds, and kept it off all naturally and at home and you can too!

Medical Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am a normal everyday person just like you who had a hormonal imbalance that I was told was incurable by a medical professional. I refused to believe it and took my health into my own hands. Healing my autoimmune system (hypothyroidism) and weaning off all medication naturally, losing over 50 pounds in the process and keeping it off for over 6 years now! The information I share is based on my own journey and is not medical advice, but it is meant to help you find your own answers and solutions in your healing journey. 

Hormones and Weight Gain and Hormonal Imbalance Diet are great next reads if you are suffering from hormonal weight gain or have had difficulties losing weight and want to see if it might be a hormonal imbalance issue and how to fix it. 

If Weight Loss with Hormonal Imbalance You Have to Get Your Food Right

Odds are pretty good that if you have gained weight and not been able to easily lose it, or have been overweight for more than a year then there is a hormonal imbalance involved. Regarding the question of whether being overweight or obese causes a hormonal imbalance or does hormonal imbalance cause obesity the simple answer is yes!

It doesn’t really matter which came first if you have one the other is soon to follow. 

The best diet for hormonal weight gain in my own personal experience, and in helping so many heal their hormones as well is hands down the Clean Keto Diet. 

Clean Keto is essentially the keto diet minus dairy and avoiding highly refined processed foods I like to call Frankin’ Foods. Foods that are not real, are cooked up in a lab somewhere using God only knows what, and they are made to last on the shelf for years and be highly addicting so that you buy more. 

When I started Keto almost six years ago now it was the school of hard knocks for me. I spent months researching and meal planning trying to figure it all out myself. Now, I can recommend to you the Custom Keto Meal Planner for weight loss as the big red easy button to start Keto. 

Custom Keto Meal Planner quizzes you on your taste buds and weight loss goals and then formulates the perfect done-for-you meal plan to fit your needs. It even emails you the shopping list every week for less than a dinner out with friends (it’s under $40 per month).

Hormonal Harmony Supplement

If you are really serious about hormonal weight loss you can combine the keto diet with the right supplements to give you a boost right out of the gate.

Hormonal Harmony HB-5 is an all-in-one supplement to support resetting your hormones. Formulated with all-natural ingredients and is essentially a multivitamin for your hormones. 

For my full review and in-depth research on this supplement check out this post next Hormonal Harmony Supplement Review

Conclusion

Having a hormonal imbalance is frustrating until you discover the root cause. When you identify what is causing the problem it gives you the power to correct course and fix it. It took me personally several years of patience and consistency but I was able to heal my autoimmune system by following the steps outlined in this post and working with my doctors who closely monitored and helped me wean off of the Hypothyroid medication because my body healing and becoming able to produce all it needed itself agin. 

Again, I am not a medical professional. This post and blog are my way of sharing my own personal experience in my healing journey, as a normal everyday person just like you, who has spent the last 6 plus years researching and applying what I learned to heal my body. 

My hope is that the information I provide can help guide you and save you the time it took me in navigating your own healing journey. 

XOXO,

K’Lee