Transcript
So what do we really mean by hormonal health?
Often when I say hormonal health, people instantly think about things that are connected to reproductive health like menstrual cycles, like pregnancy, like menopause, like breast health.
And whilst reproductive health is certainly a part of hormonal health, hormonal health is actually much bigger than that.
First of all, we have many hormones in the body other than our main sex hormones which are estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
We have stress hormones like cortisol, we have thyroid hormones that regulate metabolism and we have insulin which stabilizes blood sugar levels for us.
But besides this, just our female hormones, estrogen and progesterone don’t just act on the uterus and breast tissue.
We actually have estrogen and progesterone receptors throughout the body as women from the tips of our heads to the tips of our toes.
Our estrogen and progesterone are involved in a whole bunch of functions other than just reproductive functions.
So these hormones have a profound effect on brain health, hair, skin and nails, thyroid health, heart health, gut health, even your joints, muscles and bones.
We know that women who are going through menopause, who are losing their estrogen, suffer more from brittle bones and osteoporosis.
But also, women going through the menopausal transition get more muscle and joint pain, more arthritis, more joint-related injuries.
So our female hormones impact the whole body.
And I love this concept of looking at hormonal health as a whole body concept and a whole woman concept.
So as much as it’s important to look after things like breast health and the health of your uterus, you need to go to your gynae for regular examinations, pap smears, etc.
We need to look after what I like to refer to the health of the womb, the womb of the woman.
But we must forget that there’s a woman who’s housing the womb.
And what about her brain, her mood, her sleep, her cardiovascular function, her weight, her experience of herself?
So it’s really about holding these two aspects in our minds as women when we’re looking for treatment.
I think also really worth discussing is the concept of looking at the hormonal legacy that we’ve inherited from hundreds of years ago.
You know, the term uterus was a Greek word for hysteria, female hysteria.
And from those days, those old taboos of women going through things like mood swings and being labelled as hysterical or crazy or insane, we still see remnants of that kind of stereotyping in society today.
So in today’s world, we’re still stuck with a lot of societal norms and narratives around hormonal health, particularly female hormonal health.
And some examples would be, well, you know, if you have painful periods, that’s just normal, you know, just get on with it, get on with life.
It’s part of being a woman.
You just suck it up and you get on with it.
But we must recognise that common experiences don’t equal normal, and suffering and extreme pain is not normal.
These are things that we need to seek attention for and get help for as women.
Another really sort of societal construct around female hormonal health today is largely around menopause, this idea that once a woman has reached her menopausal years, she somehow passed her sell-by date, or she doesn’t have the same to contribute to society or the same purpose or the same vigor, or she’s not sexy anymore.
And of course, this is all absolutely untrue.
In fact, every single day in my practice, I see women in their midlife transition, in their perimenopausal and menopausal years, absolutely thriving, stepping into the best versions of themselves that they’ve ever been, emboldened by a wisdom and a courage that comes with years of experience.
So it’s time to reframe a couple of concepts around the concept of hormonal health.
The first being that there are many hormones in the body that work very much like an orchestra.
Female hormones like estrogen and progesterone are a part of that, and the whole symphony needs to play really, really well together.
So don’t look at hormones in isolation.
See them as a symphony.
Number two, your female hormones act on every tissue in your body, not just your reproductive organs.
And number three, it’s time to really challenge and change some of the stereotypes and narratives that we have around hormonal health.
We need to respect and actually celebrate the diversity of experience.
In my practice, no two women with hormonal problems present the same.
We all experience symptoms completely uniquely, and instead of being dismissed or judged for this, we need to have this embraced, accepted, and in fact celebrated.
