Oct 1, 2022
 in 
Body & Soul

Women's Health and Hormones

H

ormone levels during menopause get a lot of attention and have women asking a lot of questions. But hormones affect all aspects of a women’s health at all ages.

“Your hormones exist in delicate balance, playing alongside one another like instruments in an orchestra. Throughout the day, your hormones fluctuate in rhythm, going up and down like crescendos in a symphony. Each hormone is like a specific instrument that must play on time, at the right volume and in in the correct cadence,” wrote Sara Gottfried, MD, in her book “Women, Food, and Hormones.”

While women may hear a lot about estrogen and progesterone, according to Yale Medicine our bodies have “50 hormones, each of which does important work jump- starting or stopping certain biological functions.”

So, we have 50 hormones that all have to be in a delicate symphonic balance? It’s no wonder hormones and our health are such a mystery.

The main reproductive hormones are estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. They get a lot of attention for how they impact our menstrual cycles, fertility and menopause. But, they – along with other hormones like DHEA, ghrelin and cortisol – also impact our metabolism, sleep, brains and just how we overall feel.

"When your estrogen starts to decline, you become more insulin- resistant.There’s a tie to estrogen declining and becoming more atrisk for diabetes.— Jessica Ham, ARNP

Jessica Ham, ARNP, Regenesis Performance, 100S. Baylen St., Suite A, Pensacola; 850-403-4735.
Photo by Phillip Makselan

ESTROGEN

“Estrogen, like all hormones, is a chemical messenger,” stated the Cleveland Clinic. “It tells your body when to start and stop processes affecting your sexual and reproductive health. These processes cause important changes in your body.”

Estrogen levels rise during puberty and then fluctuate each month during our menstrual cycles. Then during perimenopause, estrogen levels begin to decrease, but it’s not a linear progression. As levels decrease, they go up and down and take how you feel on the ride with them.

“One month your breasts are tender, and then next month you skip a period, you’re having night sweats and because your breasts are tender you don’t want anything to do with sex,” said Jessica Ham, APRN and certified by the American Board of Anti-Aging/ Regenerative Medicine.

PROGESTERONE

According to Yale Medicine, progesterone is “the hormone that helps maintain pregnancy. It is produced in a woman’s eggs, adrenal glands and placenta (when a woman is pregnant). Known as the ‘relaxing hormone,’ progesterone has a mildly sedative

age progesterone begins to decrease in a non-linear fashion.

“The reason women become geriatric pregnancies at age 35 is because we have decreasing progesterone, which is the main hormone in the first trimester of pregnancy,” Ham explained. “So, your ability to maintain a pregnancy significantly declines because progesterone starts to decrease and the correlation with mood is huge in this timeframe.”

TESTOSTERONE

No, testosterone is not just a male hormone.

“Testosterone also varies from one patient to another. For a lot of women, testosterone actually starts to increase in some women after 40, so I would say maybe only about 20 percent of women need testosterone. It is a controlled substance and low libido is the only approved reason for prescribing it. However, it is very helpful in maintaining lean muscle mass,” Ham said.

Estrogen, Ham explained, is also important for improving libido in women, but in general, interest in sex is complex for women, it’s not just physical.

HOMEOSTASIS

Life is all about balance and have the time with each patient to go deep with everybody in such a short amount of time.” She also worked in gynecology when she was overseas with her husband who was in the Air Force and she worked in women’s health when she returned to the U.S. She was the clinical director of the Health and Hope Clinic for five years and then did a fellowship in anti- aging and regenerative medicine. In 2017, she switched to the functional/ integrative health work that she now does.

When Ham works with a patient to assess hormone replacement therapy, she does not use a one-size-fits-all approach. “If someone has a family history of, say for instance cancer in a first degree relative, then I might do some genetic testing, or I might look at the way they metabolize estrogen because that’s where some of the risk factors come in,” Ham said. “So, I might do urine testing to see if there’s different pathways in your liver that you can metabolize estrogen. Some of them are safer than others.”

ESTROGEN

“Estrogen, like all hormones, is a chemical messenger,” stated the Cleveland Clinic. “It tells your body when to start and stop processes affecting your sexual and reproductive health. These processes cause important changes in your body.”

Estrogen levels rise during puberty and then fluctuate each month during our menstrual cycles. Then during perimenopause, estrogen levels begin to decrease, but it’s not a linear progression. As levels decrease, they go up and down and take how you feel on the ride with them.

“One month your breasts are tender, and then next month you skip a period, you’re having night sweats and because your breasts are tender you don’t want anything to do with sex,” said Jessica Ham, APRN and certified by the American Board of Anti-Aging/Regenerative Medicine.


PROGESTERONE

According to Yale Medicine, progesterone is “the hormone that helps maintain pregnancy. It is produced in a woman’s eggs, adrenal glands and placenta (when a woman is pregnant). Known as the ‘relaxing hormone,’ progesterone has a mildly sedative effect.”

During our menstrual cycles, estrogen and progesterone rise, preparing our bodies to ovulate. Those monthly rises in progesterone can contribute to why some women feel more sleepy certain times of the month. But, like estrogen, as we age progesterone begins to decrease in a non-linear fashion.

“The reason women become geriatric pregnancies at age 35 is because we have decreasing progesterone, which is the main hormone in the first trimester of pregnancy,” Ham explained. “So, your ability to maintain a pregnancy significantly declines because progesterone starts to decrease and the correlation with mood is huge in this timeframe.”


TESTOSTERONE

No, testosterone is not just a male hormone. 

“Testosterone also varies from one patient to another. For a lot of women, testosterone actually starts to increase in some women after 40, so I would say maybe only about 20 percent of women need testosterone. It is a controlled substance and low libido is the only approved reason for prescribing it. However, it is very helpful in maintaining lean muscle mass,” Ham said.

Estrogen, Ham explained, is also important for improving libido in women, but in general, interest in sex is complex for women, it’s not just physical.


HOMEOSTASIS

Life is all about balance and homeostasis is when our hormones are in balance. Seems nearly impossible to reach that symphonic balance in our bodies, but there is hope.

Women can work with their family doctor or OB-GYN for help assessing hormone levels and any needed hormone replacement prescriptions. Working with an integrative health specialist like Ham allows for more of a deep dive.

Ham worked in a family practice for 10 years where “you have to know a little bit about a lot and you just don’t have the time with each patient to go deep with everybody in such a short amount of time.” She also worked in gynecology when she was overseas with her husband who was in the Air Force and she worked in women’s health when she returned to the U.S. She was the clinical director of the Health and Hope Clinic for five years and then did a fellowship in anti-aging and regenerative medicine. In 2017, she switched to the functional/integrative health work that she now does.

When Ham works with a patient to assess hormone replacement therapy, she does not use a one-size-fits-all approach.

“If someone has a family history of, say for instance cancer in a first degree relative, then I might do some genetic testing, or I might look at the way they metabolize estrogen because that’s where some of the risk factors come in,” Ham said. “So, I might do urine testing to see if there’s different pathways in your liver that you can metabolize estrogen. Some of them are safer than others.”

She prefers using bioidentical creams as opposed to the pellets that don’t allow for adjusting doses as needed. She avoids pills that have to be processed by the liver.

“When I say bioidentical that just means the same chemical structures as opposed to taking a pregnant horse’s urine, or synthetic estrogen. The bioidentical is usually derived from yams and that has the same chemical structure and that means we can clear it quicker, it doesn’t linger in the body because our body recognizes it and knows how to get rid of it,” she explained.

Based on testing and assessing symptoms, she can help determine which hormones are needed and at what amount. What many women do not realize, is that we do not have to just grin and bear the symptoms we are experiencing for as long as possible, or just go on an anti-depressant which may not get to the root of the problem since hormones have such a big impact on mood (remember to always work with you doctor regarding starting or stopping anti-depressants or any other prescribed medication).

Hormones are also not just impacting our mood.

“When your estrogen starts to decline, you become more insulin-resistant,” Ham said. “There’s a tie to estrogen declining and becoming more at risk for diabetes.”

She explained that estrogen also provides cardiovascular protection as well as being helpful at protecting against cognitive decline. But many women fear hormone replacement therapy due to a Women’s Health Initiative study that began in the 1990s with results reported in 2002. Initial reports stated the risks (e.g. breast cancer and coronary heart disease) outweighed the benefits. However, further analysis has found flaws in the study. The National Institutes of Health has reported that, “a reanalysis of the WHI trial was performed, and new studies showed that the use of HRT in younger women or in early postmenopausal women had a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, reducing coronary disease and all-cause mortality.”

prefers using bioidentical creams as opposed to the pellets that don’t allow for adjusting doses as needed. She avoids pills that have to be processed by the liver.

“When I say bioidentical that just means the same chemical structures as opposed to taking a pregnant horse’s urine, or synthetic estrogen. The bioidentical is usually derived from yams and that has the same chemical structure and that means we can clear it quicker, it doesn’t linger in the body because our body recognizes it and knows how to get rid of it,” she explained.

Based on testing and assessing symptoms, she can help determine which hormones are needed and at what amount. What many women do not realize, is that we do not have to just grin and bear the symptoms we are experiencing for as long as possible, or just go on an anti-depressant which may not get to the root of the problem since hormones have such a big impact on mood (remember to always work with you doctor regarding starting or stopping anti-depressants or any other prescribed medication).

Hormones are also not just impacting our mood.

“When your estrogen starts to decline, you become more insulin- resistant,” Ham said. “There’s a tie to estrogen declining and becoming more at risk for diabetes.”

She explained that estrogen also provides cardiovascular protection as well as being helpful at protecting against cognitive decline. But many women fear hormone replacement therapy due to a Women’s Health Initiative study that began in the 1990s with results reported in 2002. Initial reports stated the risks (e.g. breast cancer and coronary heart disease) outweighed the benefits. However, further analysis has found flaws in the study. The National Institutes of Health has reported that, “a reanalysis of the WHI trial was performed,

and new studies showed that the use of HRT in younger women or in early postmenopausal women had a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, reducing coronary disease and all-cause mortality.”