6 Main Hormonal Types
Type 1: High Cortisol
Your adrenal glands produce cortisol in response to acute stressors. We've all heard of fight or flight. Ideally, we use this function when needed and then when the situation resolves, we can calm down and disengage. The issue is we generally do not ever turn this response off. We are constantly stuck in a physiologic fight or flight response.
Symptoms of high cortisol include:
Possible hypertension
Sleep deprivation – feeling wired but tired
Daytime fatigue
Migraines
Moodiness and irritability
Hungry all the time
Midsection weight gain despite eating well and exercise
Type 2: Low Cortisol
This hormonal type evolves out of the High Cortisol type. Your body production of cortisol may be low, or your cortisol maybe being shunted out to your body tissues and not available for use leading to exhaustion all day.
Symptoms of low cortisol include:
Exhaustion that lasts all-day
Emotional fluctuations and heightened emotions
Night waking for no known reason
Low immunity
Increased allergies or new allergies
Brain fog
Type 3: Progesterone Deficiency
This hormonal type is prevalent. Progesterone is a calming hormone for women and helps balance estrogen.
Symptoms of progesterone deficiency include:
Emotional
Night sweats or hot flashes
PMS symptoms
Spotting before your period
Anxiety
Energy lacking
Excess weight around your midsection
Increasing age – progesterone naturally declines at age 35
Fertility issues
PCOS
Type 4: Low Estrogen
Estrogen typically declines with age; sudden drops or change in progesterone's balance is where you'll get symptoms.
Symptoms of low estrogen include:
Hot flashes or night sweats
Vaginal dryness
Low libido
Insomnia
Depression
Memory loss
Joint pain
Bladder issues including incontinence, UTIs, inflammation
Bone loss
Type 5: High Estrogen
This type of imbalance is usually examined as estrogen-related to the progesterone levels. It can be due to high estrogen and low progesterone.
Symptoms of high estrogen include:
PMS
Drastic mood changes
Feeling as if you only have one good week per month
Heavy periods
Cramping with your cycle
Type 6: Hypothyroid
Your thyroid is the master regulator of your body. How "fast" your body runs is dictated by your thyroid function.
Symptoms of low or hypothyroid are:
Loss of eyebrow hair
Slow heart rate
Depression
Skin, hair, and nail brittleness or dryness
Weight gain with difficult weight loss
Cold feelings or inability to tolerate temperature changes
Constipation
Clotting or heavy periods
Dr. Mackenzie works with her patients to help them achieve balance in their lives and their health. Her medicine and health approach involves digging a little deeper and looking for the root cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms.