Have you felt more sad or irritated lately, but you don’t know why? It could be because of fluctuations in your female reproductive hormones.
Fluctuations in female reproductive hormones may affect your mental health. As women age, we’ll naturally experience hormonal changes, but changes in estrogen and progesterone can lead to mood swings, irritability, anxiety or even depression. Factors such as puberty, pregnancy and menopause along with weight, diet, environment, medication, stress levels and lack of sleep are some of the causes of hormonal imbalances. By changing your habits, lifestyle and diet – you can work on balancing your hormones and improving your mood.
In order to address how female hormones affect your mental health, we’ll go through hormonal imbalances, causes and treatment.
Can A Hormonal Imbalance Cause Mental Health Issues?
If you’re experiencing mood swings, depression or anxiety, your female reproductive hormones may play a role in your mental health and wellbeing. Research actually shows that 1 in 5 people is suffering from some form of mental health problem.
While there are numerous factors that contribute to mental health issues, such as environment, lifestyle and genetics, emerging studies propose that hormonal imbalance is one of the primary contributors.
Hormones are chemical messengers in your body that play a crucial role in regulating several major functions such as cognition, reproduction, metabolism and both physical and mental health. They are produced by endocrine glands and have an impact on your brain and other organs.
Therefore, any kind of disruption in your hormone level, whether it’s an excess hormone production or a deficiency, may disturb these crucial processes, leading to serious aftermath such as mental health issues.
This is why it is important to balance hormones. While it is normal for hormone levels to fluctuate at certain stages of life, there are times when these hormonal fluctuations can be influenced by other factors.
Regardless of the cause, if you do not take steps to balance your hormones, it may affect your mental health.
So, how exactly does hormonal imbalance cause issues in mental health? Well, there are many different hormones whose fluctuating levels can lead to the deterioration of your mental well-being.
Thyroid hormones, especially, T3 and T4, could be one of the possible causes. They play an important role in regulating brain development and metabolism.
Study suggests that hypothyroidism, when thyroid hormone is low, is strongly linked to depression. This means when your body has low thyroid levels, you may experience depressive symptoms.
Another culprit is insulin, a hormone essential for monitoring levels of blood sugar and brain functioning. When your cells become insulin resistant, a condition where they no longer respond to insulin as a result, the pancreas produces more insulin, resulting in elevated insulin levels.Â
While how exactly this happens is still unclear, research shows that an increased level of insulin is associated with a rise in depressive symptoms.
There is a significant link between the hormone cortisol and the effect on female hormones on mental health. In response to stress, your body releases a hormone called cortisol.
Chronic stress leads to high levels of cortisol, which can have adverse effects on your sleep, energy level, digestion and mood. Chronic stress may increase anxiety, irritability or mood swings or even lead to chronic low mood.
Research also proposes that reproductive hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, play a role in mental health.
Fluctuation in your estrogen levels, whether it increases or decreases, may lead to experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is especially seen in women during pregnancy, certain phases of their menstrual cycle or menopause due to fluctuations in hormones.
To ensure a healthy functioning body and mind, it’s essential for you to maintain hormonal balance. You can balance your hormones through a diet suiting your hormone type – in my FREE Hormone Type Quiz you can find your specific diet.
However, female reproductive hormones play a major role in our physical and mental health – but can fluctuations lead to depression?
Do Female Hormones Cause Depression?
As a woman, there are two primary reproductive hormones: estrogen and progesterone. These hormones are not only essential for the menstruation cycle but also play a crucial role in other physiological and psychological functions.
Progesterone assists your uterus by preparing it for pregnancy, while on the other hand, estrogen promotes the development and maintenance of your reproductive organs.
It is normal to experience a slight fluctuation in their levels throughout your menstruation cycle. As a result, you often feel changes in mood and energy levels during this time.
It is important to note that these fluctuations don’t automatically lead to depression. Often, these mild mood swings, commonly known as premenstrual syndrome, should only last for a couple of days and then go away.
However, if the fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone persist for an extended period, they lead to adverse outcomes. These fluctuations may result in various conditions of hormonal depression.
One condition of depression caused by fluctuations in your female hormones is Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) which is a much more serious form of premenstrual syndrome.
PMDD is a chronic disorder in which you experience depressive symptoms that last up to weeks. Study suggests that PMDD occurs when your body has high levels of estrogen and too low levels of progesterone, leading to a deficiency in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that mediates happiness. This deficiency leads to poor mood and other depressive symptoms.
Perimenopausal depression is a condition of depression that is highly prevalent among women. Menopause is when your body naturally stops having a menstruation cycle, accompanied by a natural decrease in the production of female reproductive hormones.
However, before reaching menopause, your body goes through a transitional period – perimenopause. During this phase, there is a fluctuation in the levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Research suggests that women are at an increased risk of experiencing depression during menopause and perimenopause due to low levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Postpartum depression is yet another condition of depression that occurs due to hormonal fluctuations. When levels of progesterone are normal in your body, it triggers your brain to produce a steroid that is essential for regulating emotions, allopregnanolone.
During your pregnancy, allopregnanolone levels gradually increase along with the level of progesterone. However, after giving birth, these levels drop rapidly.
It is worth noting that after childbirth, the levels of allopregnanolone naturally increase. However, in some cases, it fails to rise up, increasing the likelihood of you experiencing postpartum depression.
Study propose that this fluctuation in allopregnanolone contributes to postpartum depression, as it plays a role in regulating emotional behavior.
An imbalance of female reproductive hormones may lead to depression – but you might be wondering about the exact causes of hormonal imbalance.
Root Cause Of Hormonal Imbalance
If you’ve been wondering if your female reproductive hormones play a role in your mental health – yes, they can absolutely have an effect on your mood.
However, finding the root cause of your hormonal imbalance may help you improve your mood – and mental health.
Hormonal imbalances are not uncommon throughout women’s lives. However, identifying the root cause can be challenging as hormonal imbalances can result because of multiple factors.
As a woman, you might undergo the most drastic hormonal fluctuations during the following times:
- Puberty
- Pregnancy
- Menopause
Although these are not the only times you may experience an imbalance in your hormones, there are numerous other factors that can contribute to this imbalance like the ones mentioned below:
- Chronic stress
- Unhealthy diet
- Hormone disruptors
- Environmental factors
- Lack of sleep
- Certain medications
- Hormone therapy
- Medications
- Cancer treatments like chemotherapy
- Tumors
- Injury or trauma
It is important to remember that although hormonal imbalance has various causes and adverse effects, you can seek guidance to balance your hormones.
By changing your habits, lifestyle and diet you can come a long way in balancing your hormones – also as mentioned, eating a diet according to your hormone type.
You can seek guidance for the regulation of hormone balance in your body with the help of my detailed, step-by-step eBook, Kickstart To Hormonal Balance.
Final Thoughts
If you’re experiencing hormonal changes, you may also feel changes in your mood. This is normal to an extent, however, if you get symptoms such as depression or anxiety, I’ll recommend you to check your hormones through a DUTCH test.
