Womens Health & Hormones

Menopause, is the time in most women's lives when menstrual periods stop permanently, and they are no longer able to bear children. Menopause typically occurs between 49 and 52 years of age. Medical professionals often define menopause as having occurred when a woman has not had any vaginal bleeding for a year. It may also be defined by a decrease in hormone production by the ovaries. 

Symptoms vary from person to person during peri menopause, leading up to menopause:

• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Heavy bleeding
• Night sweats
• Hot flashes
• Vaginal dryness, itching and pain during sexual intercourse
• Frequent urinary tract infections
• Mood swings
• Fatigue

Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy may be an option to help during this transition.

Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. Produced in the endocrine glands, these powerful chemicals travel around your bloodstream telling tissues and organs what to do. They help control many of your body’s major processes, including metabolism and reproduction.

When you have a hormonal imbalance, you have too much or too little of a certain hormone. Even tiny changes can have serious effects throughout your whole body.

Your hormones play an integral role in your overall health. Because of that, there’s a broad range of symptoms that could signal a hormonal imbalance. Your symptoms will depend on which hormones or glands aren’t working properly.

Some examples are:

• weight gain, rounded or puffy face,
• fatigue
• nervousness, anxiety
• muscle aches, pain, joint swelling

Endometriosis is a disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that forms the lining of your uterus grows outside of your uterine cavity. The lining of your uterus is called the endometrium.  Endometriosis occurs when endometrial tissue grows on your ovaries, bowel, and tissues lining your pelvis. The hormonal changes of your menstrual cycle affect the misplaced endometrial tissue, causing the area to become inflamed and painful. This means the tissue will grow, thicken, and break down. Over time, the tissue that has broken down has nowhere to go and becomes trapped in your pelvis.  

Pelvic pain is the most common symptom of endometriosis. You may also have the following symptoms:

• painful periods
• pain in the lower abdomen before and during menstruation
• cramps one or two weeks around menstruation
• heavy menstrual breathing or bleeding between periods
• infertility
• pain following sexual intercourse
• discomfort with bowel movements
• lower back pain that may occur at any time during your menstrual cycle

Uterine fibroids are tumors that grow in a woman's uterus. These growths are typically not cancerous (benign). 

The exact cause of fibroids is not known.  In women who have symptoms, the most common symptoms of uterine fibroids include:

• Heavy menstrual bleeding
• Prolonged menstrual periods - seven days or more of menstrual bleeding
• Pelvic pressure or pain
• Frequent urination
• Difficulty emptying your bladder
• Constipation
• Backache or leg pains

Fibroids are generally classified by their location. Intramural fibroids grow within the muscular uterine wall. Submucosal fibroids bulge into the uterine cavity. Subserosal fibroids project to the outside of the uterus.