Women's Health at the Center for Integrative Medicine

We can evaluate your hormone balance through an analysis of symptoms and by testing and monitoring hormone levels.

Hormone Balance Leads to Optimal Health

Women who want to feel their best...vibrant, energetic, clear headed and peaceful, should think first about eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise and enough sleep, but right behind those first considerations is hormone balance.

How Do Our Hormones Get out of Balance?

Hormones, naturally produced in our bodies, are wondrous chemical messengers that affect our brain, heart, bones, muscles, and reproductive organs and are an essential part of the workings of every cell in the human body. Hormones work best when balanced. But stress, poor food choices, inadequate sleep, synthetic hormones, and sedentary lifestyles can throw hormones out of balance and create health problems. Restoring hormone balance can be the key to feeling our best and alleviating health problems.

In the reproductive years, a woman's natural estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate regularly as part of the normal menstrual cycle. During perimenopause—the period before menopause, generally in a woman's late thirties and early forties—the natural hormone fluctuations become more uneven and the ovaries gradually produce less estrogen and progesterone until she reaches menopause . Menopause, however, is a technical term that defines the point of your last menstrual period after a year of not having any. The average age for menopause in the U.S. is 51. The reality is that hormones can begin to fluctuate years before the onset of menopause.

Are You out of Balance?

During perimenopause and menopause—when the body produces less estrogen and progesterone—hormone imbalance can be marked by:

• weight gain
• hot flashes and night sweats
• insomnia
• mood swings, anxiety, or depression
• changes in menstrual flow and frequency
• headaches
• vaginal dryness or libido changes
• changes in the skin
• fatigue
• PMS-type symptoms
• foggy thinking, memory changes

If Your Hormones are out of Balance

• Not all women need supplemental hormones, but when needed, choose natural bioidentical hormones.
• Realize that one size does not fit all. Any type of hormone replacement thearapy needs to be tailored to the needs of each individual woman.