STRESS AND M.I.A. FEMALE SEX HORMONE

The female body – such a delicate and exquisite thing! From our boobs and bums to our ever complicating thought process we have men both begging for more yet so perplexed. It is our complexity that is both our greatest asset and for most our greatest health hurdle.

For centuries females have been the carer of many – from family to community. Gathering, preparing, sacrificing are inherent to our nature. This has extended into modern day living – only now external pressures are far greater. The end result is a society of burnt out beautiful women.

The chronicity of stress is the real enemy. Our bodies are more than equipped to deal with acute bouts of stressful situations and this is of course of benefit when dealing with a stressful situation such as running from danger or preparing for a presentation. Our pupils dilate, our heart rate increases, digestion is slowed, blood flow increases to our skeletal muscles, our blood glucose rises – we are focussed, sharp and ready to handle the situation at hand and conserve energy away from non vital survival activities like digestion, reproduction, repair, growth. But living in a state of chronic stress has devastating effects on our body and is the root cause of most women’s health complaints.

The problem for a female is two fold (well it is never that simple for us but for the purpose of me working on my simplicity lets say its twofold) –

1. Our inherent nature to care for others before ourselves
2. Our intricate hormonal set up that makes us sensitive to the effects of chronic stress, be it perceived or actual.

Let’s look at the first point shall we –  1. Inherent nature to care for others before ourselves.

Far too often we put the need to keep others happy above our own; be it children, partner, family, friend, boss, work, strangers, society. We care to please; avoid letting people down; avoid hurting people often at the expense of our own happiness and health. We then put further pressure on ourselves to perform a certain way, to look a certain way, to behave a certain way and then beat ourselves up when we cannot achieve ALL we set out to. It is no wonder we feel exhausted at the end of each day! And that is just considering the emotional stress we put onto ourselves (fear, worry, anxiety, lack of purpose).

This leads to mental, emotional and physical exhaustion -. And worse we become so disconnected from who we really are. Each of us are so intricately and uniquely designed, not to deal with the chronic onslaught of expectations, pressure, self hatred, bitterness and judgement that we engage in . But rather a desirable trait to be caring and nurturing. What I have discovered is the ability to care for another comes from the ability to care and appreciate oneself. This is not selfishness. This is caring for another. Caring so much you want to be the very best version of yourself. You want to be vibrant, fun, energetic, full of life, kind and present for the people you love the most.

To all women, I urge you to start looking after yourself, really looking after yourself. Start finding time to nurture yourself. Ask for help. Change your circumstance. The longer you leave it, the further your disrupt your delicate hormonal network and your inner light. The one that only you hold and have the ability to control how bright it shines.

Point number 2. Our hormonal set up.

Let’s look at this somewhat complex scenario that goes on when we are exposed to chronic stress in the diagram below. Take note of how integrated and complex the whole system really is and know that this understanding is just the tip of the iceberg.

You have probably heard by now about Cortisol – our stress hormone. It gets a pretty bad wrap however it’s really just doing its job and helping us to survive. Cortisol gets secreted from the adrenal gland in response to stress.
Ideally this process would be short lived, the body would provide us with the necessities to deal with the stress at hand and then things would return back to normal. The issue is when the stress is not removed and the body still perceives it is under threat and directs its resources to producing cortisol to survive.
This process is termed the “Pregnenolone Steal”. In order to supply the body with cortisol it has to steal it from the master steroid hormone, Pregnenolone. Interesting to note is that Cholesterol is the precursor to Pregnenolone. Cholesterol plays some other pretty important roles in the body too.. possibly not the villain its made out to be?

But back to Pregnenolone. Pregnenolone can get converted into Progesterone or Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). DHEA is the precursor to all the other sex hormones (Oestrogens and Testosterone). So when there is a demand for cortisol it diverts production towards the progesterone to cortisol pathway and away from production of sex hormones. Overtime this becomes the preferred pathway and sex hormone production takes a hit.
For post menopausal women, the adrenals become the primary producer of sex hormones. So it is even more crucial to manage stress and find pleasure (stress antidote) to keep this production happening.

For pre-menopausal woman you may be thinking, luckily I still have functioning ovaries. This is a good thing however the system is very integrated. And whilst it is true that the ovaries do produce most of our sex hormones the impact that stress has on the overall production is still very real. The production of sex hormones from the adrenal system is so important for achieving hormone balance throughout the body. The adrenals can respond immediately to fluctuating levels of sex hormones, providing more or less when functioning adequately. High levels of cortisol actually signals the brain to tell the ovaries to reduce production of sex hormones, that is, if it is under stress it is not concerned with harvesting another human being. Also for women, testosterone production is primarily produced by the adrenals and only a small amount via the ovaries – hence stress will have a significant impact of libido, muscle mass, fatigue.

So where does that leave us?

Well in a pretty common situation unfortunately. We get elevated Cortisol which eventually will progress into Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Insufficiency aka Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome AND lowered levels of Oestrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone.

How does this situation look?
• weight gain in waist, inflammatory hormonal fat
• blood sugar swings and cravings
• increased inflammation
• reduced thyroid hormone function
• reduced melatonin and sleep disturbances
• bone loss
• increased cardiovascular disease risk
• reduced memory, reduced mood (tearful, depressed) and reduced will power
• loss of muscle mass, poor muscle tone
• increased risk of infection
• menstrual abnormalities or no period
• low libido, vaginal dryness, incontinence

NOT A PRETTY PICTURE LADIES!!!!

I also want to point out that stress on the body is not just mental and emotional stress. Other stressors can include:
• pain in the body
• intense or prolonged exercise
• inflammatory foods
• food additives, pesticides, herbicides
• drugs, alcohol, caffeine
• blood sugar issues
• sleep deprivation
• chemicals, metals, radiation, electromagnetic fields (iphone etc)
• allergies, over active immune response
• exogenous hormones like birth control and antibiotics
• infected with parasite, bacteria or viruses
We need to realise that what we think, do and feel drives our hormones and hormone balance is so important for our vitality, longevity and overall health. Understanding the effects of stress on our hormonal system is crucial. The simple notion of exercise more and harder and eat less food (both of which can be perceived as further stress) does not hold true and can actually lead to further hormonal imbalance.

The key to getting your hormones back on track is:

1. Recognising you are surviving on stress. This looks like – lack of sleep, feel exhausted when waking, coffee to get you started, rushing around in the morning, barely time to eat let alone enjoy it, disliking your body or yourself and constantly having negative thoughts around this, no time to stop or switch off, tired all the time but pushing through, easily angry or upset, less enjoyable to be around, very little left to give to others.
2. Take action (small or big) to remove those things that are stressing you out. Be brave and know that you are doing it for your health and happiness.
3. Ask for help. Work with someone or at least work with yourself.
4. Give it time. The longer you have been persevering and struggling the more damaged your inside network. It will take time to reestablish normal functioning.
5. It is never too late to invest in yourself.

If there is only one thing you do today for yourself, please spend time to LISTEN TO THIS FANTASTIC TED TALK on “The pace of modern life vs our cavewoman biochemistry” by Dr. Libby!!!! Life changing.

Love

Chantel