One day, you feel healthy, normal, and fit. Especially if you’re a kid.
Until life gets you tested. It lets you experience having a weight increase, moody days, and feeling low in energy.
That’s what I experienced as I transitioned from my teenage years to my early twenties. I thought it was normal and had something to do with age.
But my thought doesn’t add up. Until I was diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance. My body was already yelling, yet I remained inattentive.
Just like me, you need to know about the six signs that you might have a hormonal imbalance.
Sign 1: Tired and Restless
It’s the feeling where your energy easily depletes, sleep does not maintain or recharge your energy, and you are constantly foggy.
This has something to do with your fluctuating levels of testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, and thyroid hormones.
If your morning coffee does not recharge your energy levels, that can be a sign that your hormones are involved in this anomaly.
Sign 2: Changes in Weight
If you happen to realize why your weight might be going up or down, that can be an indication of a hormonal imbalance.
Although not automatic, hormones play a vital role in fat storage, fullness signals, hunger levels, and speed of metabolism.
When your cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormone levels are imbalanced, it can affect the weight around your belly, regardless of how consistent your routine is.
So be sure to check your weight anytime.
Sign 3: Unexplained Mood Swings
Hormones are directly responsible for your mood swings. This is because you have brain chemicals that are tied to your stress and mood levels.
Maybe people might notice that you are being sensitive to things, but that’s just your hormones telling you that somethings shift on itself.
When your hormones are imbalanced, it makes you feel frequently irritated, low-motivated, easily overwhelmed, and nervous or anxious.
Sign 4: Trouble in Sleeping
Sleep and hormones have a husband-and-wife relationship. They can be the best partners, but they can also be the worst pair.
If your hormones, such as your progesterone, cortisol, and melatonin, are affected. It keeps your brain alert at night, when all you need is to sleep well.
When your hormones are imbalanced, you may experience waking up in the middle of the night, feeling tired after waking up, or can’t fall asleep.
Sign 5: Unusual Hair or Skin
Hair and skin are the parts of your body where hormonal balance can be visibly observed.
This is because hormones affect your skin renewal, hair follicles, and oil gland production.
Other signs include hair thinning, hair loss, adult acne breakouts, and unusual hair growth.
Sign 6: Problematic Digestion
A hormonal imbalance can cause digestive and appetite problems, affecting your craving levels.
Hormones are directly responsible for your blood sugar, fullness, or hunger.
When your hormones are not stable, your body might be confused about the need to crave sugar or not.
It’s not because you lacked self-control on your cravings, but because your body is in trouble with what to do.
Why Hormonal Imbalances Happen?
Having a hormonal imbalance has numerous causes. Neither men nor women are exempt from such a problem.
It happens to you or to someone else because of poor sleep, dietary problems, medication effects, underlying conditions, stress levels, or aging.
This is a health issue that has internal and visible changes that one must take heed of.
What Must Be Done?
When you are having or suspecting of having a hormonal imbalance, panicking or self-diagnosing is not a solution to the problem.
Here are the wise steps you must take immediately:
- Eating balanced meals regularly.
- Manage your stress.
- Attain quality sleep.
- Track any hormonal-related signs or symptoms.
- Consult your situation with a health professional.
It’s Not Being Dramatic, But Be Attentive
When you have a hormonal imbalance, the signs appear in small changes. They appear major when you are not being attentive to your body.
What you are experiencing is not for a show, but to look at it through the position of medical attention without judgment.
Your body communicates when it feels something wrong. An early medical checkup or listening to your body’s condition are two ways to make sure you are bodily attentive.