If you’re like most people, you think about hormones and mental health as something that mostly affects women. What most people don’t know is that both women and men are affected by hormone imbalances.
Hormones are chemicals produced by your endocrine system. These hormones affect nearly every aspect of your life: metabolism (weight loss or gain), muscles (strength), nerves (pain), sexual desire, fertility, sleep, and mood, to name a few. The endocrine system is also very important to children for their growth and development.
When your hormones are out of balance, too low or too high, you may feel “off your game.” Minor imbalances are frustrating, but serious imbalances can upset your entire life.
Psychological Symptoms of Hormone Imbalances
Because hormones affect nearly every system in your body, a hormone imbalance can affect your psychological health in many different ways.
Often, our patients at Duke City Health mistake the symptoms of a hormone imbalance for stress:
- Trouble sleeping and/or daytime sleepiness
- Moodiness or irritability
- Headaches
- Trouble focusing
- Difficulty controlling anger
- Decreased or absent sex drive
- Feeling stressed out for no logical reason
- Unexplainable sadness or depression
- Worsening of existing mental health problems
Sometimes people with hormone imbalances avoid going to the doctor because they’re afraid that something is really wrong when a tiny hormone imbalance can be fixed with a simple treatment.
Patients are afraid that they will need expensive or painful tests and treatments. The good news is that hormone imbalances are usually easy to diagnose and treat.
Diagnosing and Treating Hormone Imbalances
Hormone imbalances are usually diagnosed in our offices at Duke City Health with a thorough medical history and a simple blood test. Sometimes, our patients can manage the imbalance with diet, exercise, vitamins, supplements, and stress reduction.
When that doesn’t work, we may recommend bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), which increases the hormones in your blood when they’re too low. Hormone pellets are smaller than a grain of rice and use bioidentical hormones that mimic your body’s natural hormones.
The pellets contain natural plant-based sources of hormones that are gradually released into your bloodstream, just like the hormones your body produces. The dosages are customized to your specific needs. Your provider places them under your skin during an office visit. No surgery is required.
They’re so small, no one will know they’re there. And pellet therapy delivers a constant flow of hormones into your body, so you won’t have a roller coaster of ups and downs in your levels.
If you are feeling off your game, schedule an appointment with your doctor at Duke City Health today. Let us help you regain control of your hormones and your health.
References
https://www.evexipel.com/
https://www.onhealth.com/content/1/hormone_imbalance_signs_symptoms
https://www.healthline.com/health/bioidentical-hormone-replacement-therapy#definition
