Hormone health is important at any age

I often hear clients remark: “I didn’t realize that hormones were so important at my age (34, 38, 42, 45, 47, etc.). I thought it was just something to think about during menopause.”

Sadly, to our disservice, we have been informed that hormones are only important for a certain age group even though they are important all throughout a woman’s life.

Hormones affect everything, especially the things that are most important to us. That includes:

• energy & metabolism (as well as our body composition)
• sleep & wakefulness
• clarity, focus, motivation, creativity & memory
• stress, mood, mindset, connection
• skin & hair

We know that these things impact how we make an appearance in the world, that might be around our families, friends, colleagues and communities, but also for ourselves. Moreover how we show up in the world impacts our goals, dreams, contribution, and our vision for our future.

That means hormones are important. When we feel hormonal, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s simply our bodies sending us signals and nudging us to pay attention to our needs or to change course. After all hormones are chemical messengers.

When we ignore these gentle nudges, they can become loud screams. That is to say as our hormones begin to naturally shift in or near our 40’s, these nudges can turn into chaos. We go from thinking hormones aren’t that important to thinking “What the heck is happening to me?” almost overnight.

The thing is, they’ve been important all along. Mainly our doctors, elders, and teachers have often led us to believe otherwise. No one really talks about our hormones and how our lives and choices impact them.

Our bodies and especially our hormones are designed differently than mens.

So what does that mean?

Moreover, just like men, we’ve been taught to work, train, fuel, play and live by a 24-hour clock.

Men have a 24-hour hormone cycle while a woman’s is around 25 to 30 days, when our periods are regular, that is. That also means every day a man’s hormone cycle starts again.

In comparison, women’s hormone cycles look different every single day. In the first week our hormones will look different from the 2nd, 3rd or 4th one. Furthermore as our hormones begin to transition in our late 30s or 40s, our cycles will shift again.

Whilst our hormones fluctuate daily, we have been trained to live by men’s 24-hour clock. This clock sets them up for living, training, working, fueling, even playing a certain way. We, on the other hand, are physiologically designed differently.

Which means that treating everyday like the next can be setting us back or setting us up for not feeling, contributing or performing our best. Living by that 24-hour clock is funking with our hormones, causing unwanted symptoms and altering our ability to be resilient and live more joyfully.

So why don’t we typically train, work, eat, sleep, or play differently?

“The way we exercise, work, eat, move, play, think, sleep and interact all impacts our hormones.”

For years I’ve worked with runners and endurance athletes, and am one myself. Rarely we find running, training or endurance programs designed to support female hormones. In fact these programs tend to weaken our hormone health.

Even popular diets, exercise programs, education or research is often designed by or based on men and their physiology. So much fitness advice is based on scientific studies done on men.

I speak to so many amazing women who find themselves stuck, set back in a big way, or are generally playing small because they just don’t feel their best.

I’m here to change that. Because we deserve better. If you want to get started already you can find some solutions here. 

All in all the way we exercise, work, eat, move, play, think, sleep and interact all impacts our hormones.

Therefore, the better we manage to understand this connection, the better we can navigate our paths to feeling, performing and contributing our best. This way we take back control, instead of letting our hormones control us. That’s golden.

How about you? Have you made shifts in how you train, work, eat, to support your hormones? Would love to hear from you!

Citations:

Stacy T Sims, Alison K Heather: Myths and Methodologies: Reducing scientific design ambiguity in studies comparing sexes and/or menstrual cycle phases, July 2018, doi: 10.1113/ep086797

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, manage, or treat disease or serious conditions. Always check with your doctor before making any changes. It’s important to consult a well-informed health practitioner for personal advice about your situation before relying on general information — we’re all wonderfully unique.