Female Hormone Imbalance Under 35
Puberty can be a challenging time for teens and their parents alike. It is often fraught with emotional conflict, major mood swings, and changing bodies. For young women, the idea of handling their irregular menstrual cycles may seem like too much to bear.
Until recently, most women believed there was little they could do to manage the painful symptoms associated with their periods. Now, they are discovering that there is some relief in sight, even for those who struggle with major medical conditions that affect their menstrual cycle like PCOS. If you, your daughter, or another woman you know suffers from some of these symptoms, know that this is NOT normal and it is time to dig deeper and get relief:
Irregular periods or no periods at all (amenorrhea)
Difficulty getting pregnant (infertility)
Excessive hair growth on the face, chest, or back
Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
Thinning hair
Oily skin or acne
All of these symptoms are a sign that you might be suffering from PCOS, a treatable condition that can be easily managed with the right tools. Learn more about irregular cycles during puberty, PCOS, stress, and how fertility issues with this condition can affect your menstrual cycle in the sections below.
Causes of Irregular Cycles During Puberty
Defining what is normal
Most women are familiar with the typical menstrual cycle of 28 days, though there is some variation within this normal range. Depending on the individual woman, she may have a period every 24 to 35 days up until the point where she reaches menopause. Puberty is the first time that young women will experience this menstrual cycle, and it is anything but regular.
According to many experts, menstruation can take up to two years to develop a regular and expected cycle. (1) There are several different things that can cause these irregular cycles (oligomenorrhea).
Why periods may be irregular
During puberty, estrogen and progesterone take a long time to balance out. Until they do, most women experience cycles that are anything but regular and the amount of blood they shed can vary drastically.
Beginning certain types of contraceptives can also affect menstrual regularity. Contraceptives and IUDs often cut back on the amount variation surrounding the cycle and on the amount of menstrual blood that is shed.
Other changes during puberty that can affect menstrual regularity include:
Extreme weight gain or loss
Major emotional stress
Eating disorders
Endurance exercise
PCOS
Irregular Periods: What is PCOS?
What is PCOS in women?
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a medical condition where small cysts develop on the ovaries. It is estimated that roughly one in ten women suffer from PCOS. (2) Most women are diagnosed with PCOS during their twenties and thirties when they begin to attempt to conceive. However, even teenagers can be diagnosed with PCOS.
The disorder prevents the woman from ovulating regularly, ultimately leading her to skip some of her cycles. This is one of the main causes of an irregular cycle. Women with PCOS typically have fewer than eight periods each year. Alternatively, they may also have more frequent periods every 21 days or so. Others will cease having their cycle altogether (amenorrhea).
This is caused in part by high levels of the sex hormone testosterone (which should be much higher in males than in females) and can result in other side effects like obesity, acne, and excess hair growth. The hormone imbalance can also lead to massive weight gain or difficulty in losing weight.
Do You Have PCOS?
If you feel like you may have some of the PCOS symptoms, then the best next step is to test. I always recommend testing, as opposed to guessing. It is too easy to guest wrong and end up “treating” the wrong problem. For example, it is easy to think your estrogen is too low, when it is really too high, and vice versa. Symptoms can only tell us so much!
My favorite hormone test, the DUTCH, uses your urine to test for the balance of your hormones within the body and find out whether or not your body is clearing hormones through the correct pathways. It checks how high your levels of testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are, which can be indicative of PCOS.
As coaches, we cannot diagnose PCOS, but we can help you identify diet and lifestyle factors that are contributing to this condition, and help recommend natural remedies to reverse this hormonal pattern.
Once you know where your hormone levels fall, you can correct levels with the appropriate hormone supplements and lifestyle changes.
Fertility and PCOS
Does PCOS cause infertility in women? PCOS does not necessarily have to mean that you will never be able to conceive a child in your lifetime. Many women go on to have babies, but there may be a bit of a struggle compared to a female without the condition.
One of the downsides to PCOS is that it can disrupt ovulation. When you happen to be skipping your cycle for the month, this is likely caused by the fact that your ovaries did not release an egg that became implanted in the uterine wall. Unless the ovaries are actively releasing eggs each month, you will not be able to get pregnant.
By taking the DUTCH test, we can examine which of the hormones is out of balance and could be contributing to your ovulation issues. Once this is pared down, it is easy to come up with a plan that can increase the chances of your ovulation.
Steps to Support PCOS
The way that you treat your body day in and day out plays a major role in how you feel and how your menstrual cycles will come. Diet, hydration, and proper stress management all help to create the proper environment for hormonal healing.
PCOS Support 1: Proper Diet and Nutrition
Diet: Extreme dieting is one of the leading causes of poor nutrition. This can cause your periods to go dormant for a while. And even if you are not doing extreme dieting, it is all too easy to have a diet that lacks the proper amount of vitamins and minerals. This can easily disrupt your hormones and lead to issues such as PCOS symptoms.
—> We recommend avoiding processed foods and eating an abundance of nutrient-dense foods such as nuts, avocados, greens, berries, beans and wild fish.
Essential Nutrition: The vast majority of us are not able to get enough vitamins and minerals from the food we eat, unfortunately, so I always recommend taking a daily vitamins to make sure that your body receives everything that it needs to build and clear those hormones correctly.
—> We designed our Foundations Collection to give you a daily dose of high-quality, hormone-boosting nutrients.
PCOS Support 2: Hydration
It is important to drink enough good, clean water for your body. Most water is chock full of contaminants, so it is important to get a good quality water filter and drink enough water.
—> A good way to get started on your day is to drink a glass or two of clean, filtered water early in the morning to keep yourself hydrated.
PCOS Support 3: Stress Management
Can stress cause irregular periods? This is one of the most popular questions from women! The answer is resoundingly yes. Stress can starve hormonal production in your body and lead the body away from a regular cycle.
Even for young women who are just entering into puberty, extreme stress can cause major issues for a regular menstrual cycle. Young women who face major academic stress can also experience issues with their cycle.
Study #1: One study looked at recently incarcerated women to determine whether the stress of their current situation would result in a difference in their menstrual cycles. After a year and a half of collecting data, researchers were reported to have found that nine percent of the women experienced amenorrhea (absence of a menstrual cycle) and thirty-three percent reported irregular periods. (3)
Study #2: In another leading study, young women ages 18 to 25 were surveyed about their self-reported stress levels and any issues they experience with their cycle. The results were relatively shocking. More than one-fourth of the population had irregular menstruation, nine percent had amenorrhea, and 89 percent had dysmenorrhea (painful periods). (4)
—> Make sure you are taking steps to alleviate stress in your life. Try some relaxing essential oils, soak in a Epsom salts bath, and remember to take your magnesium! (Magnesium, included in our Foundations Collection, is a crucial mineral for relaxation and stress control, but unfortunately, most people are severely deficient.)
Find out what’s going on: Your DUTCH Complete Test
It’s great to support your body with diet and lifestyle changes, as outlined above, but if you are dealing with a hormonal condition, I ALWAYS recommend that you get tested. The same symptoms can surface for both high estrogen and low estrogen, for example.
I believe Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones (DUTCH) is essential if you want to make sure that your body is properly balanced. It provides a comprehensive insight into your body that you just can’t get any other way.
A DUTCH test is a great thing to order for a younger woman who may be in her teens or early twenties. During this period of life, many young women resign themselves to teenage menstrual cramps, period pain, and irregular cycles.
Once we learn what’s really going on in your body, we can quickly create a plan to bring everything into balance.
My favorite way to do this is with the DUTCH Complete test. It tests for:
Estrogen
Testosterone
Progesterone
DHEA
Cortisol
Melatonin
Some vitamins
Neurotransmitters
Oxidative stress markers
Based on the results you receive, we can meet with you in a private session and help you come up with a unique regimen of supplements that can make you more comfortable and establish a more routine menstrual cycle. You don’t have to suffer through painful symptoms! Instead, let us help you to live a better life with this one simple test.
My Hormone-Support Specials
Foundations Collection
Check out our Foundations Collection, a collection of high-quality supplements
Magnesium
Fish oil
Vitamin D
Multivitamin
That will give you the micronutrients you need to build and balance hormones at any age.
DUTCH Complete Hormone Test
Our most popular test is suitable for all adult women and men. It’s an easy, at-home, one-day test that will give you a clear picture of your hormonal status.
As mentioned above, it includes:
Estrogen
Testosterone
Progesterone
DHEA
Cortisol
Melatonin
Some vitamin markers
Some neurotransmitters
Oxidative stress markers
Plus a private consultation with our functional health coaching team to help you understand your results and make your best plan.
‘Big Three’ Testing Package
We used to offer ‘Big Three’ testing package, which includes our three most popular functional tests to provide a clear snapshot of how your body is working overall:
the DUTCH test
the GI-MAP test (digestion)
a complete thyroid panel
You will have the option to get your results reviewed with our custom consultation. You’ll get an individualized treatment plan with food and supplement recommendations designed to bring your body back into balance.
Free shipping applies to all orders over $97 in the US.
Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc and FunctionalDetoxProducts.com.
Check our her easy 5-Day DIY Detox Guide here!