Thyroid health
Menopause, stress, and thyroid symptoms — which program is right for you?
Marilyn had been planning a trip to France with her husband. It was supposed to
be the experience of a lifetime — museums, wine, food, and a chance to reconnect
with her husband. The problem was that Marilyn felt terrible! Fatigue, weight gain,
hot flashes, dizzy spells, and no desire at all to be intimate with her husband.
By the time Marilyn called us, she’d all but made up her mind to cancel the trip
to France. But as we told her about the natural options available for her symptoms,
she began to reconsider. The question was: which program was best for Marilyn? In
reading about our Personal Program for Hormonal Imbalance, Adrenal Health, and Thyroid
Support, she wasn’t sure where to go.
Since the adrenal glands, our stress responders, are often at the root of many health
problems, we started in that direction. But in our conversation, Marilyn explained
that she’d been doing some reading on the internet and she was suspicious of a thyroid
problem — even though her doctor told her that her thyroid tests were in a normal
range.
If any of Marilyn’s story sounds familiar to you, this article might guide you in
the right direction. If not, we have highly trained women in our Contact Center
right here in Maine to help answer your questions about how you can best find relief.
Common symptoms of thyroid, sex hormone, and adrenal imbalance
As you can see below, there’s lots of overlap between symptoms of thyroid, sex hormone,
and adrenal imbalance. Each one is like a major constellation within the web we
call the female neuroendocrine system. Check the columns below to see how
many of the highlighted features stand out for you — if you notice a cluster
of more under one of these lists, that may be a primary consideration for you.
Common symptoms associated with three forms of hormonal imbalance
with tell-tale features in bold
Thyroid imbalance
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Sex hormone imbalance
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Adrenal imbalance
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- Extreme fatigue, lack of energy
- Unexplained weight gain
- Depression and depressed mood
- Joint and muscle pain, headaches
- Paleness, dry skin
- Brittle nails
- Brittle hair, itchy scalp, hair loss
- Irregular periods
- PMS symptoms
- Breast milk formation
- Cold/heat intolerance (especially when everyone else is comfortable)
- Constipation
- Sleepiness
- Low sex drive
- Heart palpitations
- Hypertension
- Puffiness in face and extremities
- Swelling, tenderness, or feeling of tightness in neck or throat
- Hoarseness or coughing
- Difficulty swallowing or breathing
- Bruising/clotting problems
- Allergies
- Slowness or slurring of speech
- Memory loss, fuzzy thinking
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- Irritability
- Mood swings
- Worsening PMS
- Headaches, menstrual migraines
- Sleep problems
- Irregular periods
- Heavy bleeding
- Uterine fibroids
- Hot flashes and/or night sweats
- Breast tenderness, cysts, or nipple discharge
- Decreased libido
- Joint pain or stiffness
- Vaginal dryness
- Dry eyes
- Skin changes
- Heart palpitations
- Urinary incontinence
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- Difficulty getting up in the morning
- Never feeling well-rested, even after sleep
- Nocturnal waking
- Anxiety, nervousness, mild depression
- Dizziness on standing
- Low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Salt cravings
- Reliance on sugar and caffeine to bolster flagging energy
- Problems coping with stressful situations
- Frequently feeling angry and frustrated
- Struggling to get through the day, but feeling much better after an evening meal
- Frequent infections
- Abdominal/upper body weight gain
- Hair loss, especially outer eyebrows
- Acne
- Cold intolerance
- Lack of mental focus, decreased productivity, absentmindedness
- Feeling like everything’s “too hard” and overreacting to minor situations
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Even if your symptoms seem to run the gamut, don’t worry — we can help you connect
the dots between your symptoms, and design an action plan to fit and reset your
unique hormonal picture. And in the process, you can relax in the knowledge that
you’re creating optimal body-wide health — for good.
What do stress, menopause, and thyroid have to do with each other?
Many women like Marilyn are confused by the fact that symptoms associated with stress,
menopause, and thyroid imbalances can overlap. Imbalances between the adrenal, thyroid,
and sex hormones are connected by their root origins in the parts of the brain known
as the hypothalamus and pituitary. This important duo helps control
the increase and decrease of hormones released by the adrenals, thyroid, ovaries,
and other endocrine tissues.
When one system gets thrown out of balance (for many women this begins with the
effects of chronic stress on the adrenal glands), other systems can become disrupted.
The feedback loops for each system interact with and affect the other two systems,
which sometimes makes symptoms worse.
For Marilyn, things may have begun with her difficult marriage and the stress of
her job as a high school principal. Her adrenal glands, having to respond to long-term
stress, may have become imbalanced, which in turn affected her thyroid hormone and
sex hormone production.
For many years we helped women experiencing all three of these imbalances, simply
by offering nutrient support, Herbal Equilibrium (if needed), deliberate dietary
and lifestyle changes, and emotional guidance. But we’ve worked hard to refine and
improve our Personal Programs, drawing upon the latest science as well as the herbs,
minerals, and other key nutrients that have worked for centuries, so that we can
now offer women an Adrenal Health Program and Thyroid Support Program, in addition
to our Personal Program for Hormonal Imbalance.
Compare our programs for adrenal health, hormonal imbalance, and thyroid support
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Comprehensive multivitamin–mineral support
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Gentle, all-natural symptomatic relief
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Eating and lifestyle plan
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One-on-one support
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Additional guidance
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Personal Program for Hormonal
Imbalance
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- Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential Nutrients
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- Phytotherapeutic endocrine support to help balance your hormones and calm your symptoms
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- A step-by-step guide to healthy hormonal balance through what and how you eat, as
well as how you live.
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- Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom
have been in your shoes.
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- A consultation with one of our professional Nurse–Educators is included in the “Get
Off HRT” program and optional for others.
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Personal Program for Adrenal Health
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- Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential Nutrients
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- One or both of our all-natural botanical solutions for adrenal health, Adaptisol
and Serinisol, depending on your symptoms.
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- A step-by-step guide to healthy adrenal balance through what and how you eat, as
well as how you manage and respond to stress.
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- Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom
have been in your shoes.
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- Optional consultations with professional our Nurse–Educators available to you, whenever
needed.
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Personal Program for Thyroid Support
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- Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential nutrients
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- T-Balance offers mineral and phytotherapeutic support to help balance and support
normal thyroid function
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- A step-by-step guide to healthy thyroid balance through what and how you eat, as
well as how you live.
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- Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom
have been in your shoes.
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- Optional consultations with professional our Nurse–Educators available to you, whenever
needed.
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Additional supplementary support exclusively from Women to Women, tailored to your
personal needs
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- Adaptisol
- Serinisol
- Vitamin E suppositories
- Balanced Biotic
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Just as there are common origins and overlap between many of the symptoms of these
three forms of hormonal imbalance, the solutions can nicely dovetail — so you can’t
make a “wrong” decision.
Determining your best path
In the end, Marilyn felt most comfortable choosing the Personal Program for Thyroid
Support. After doing some more research, she talked to a functional medicine practitioner
and realized her thyroid lab results were indeed moving toward hypothyroidism, though
they were still considered “normal” in conventional medical settings. So she’ll
now be getting the nutrient, herbal, and dietary support she needs to hopefully
turn her thyroid around. By the way, she decided to go to France after all!
The good news is that giving your body the right support can make an enormous difference
to any cluster of symptoms connected to the female endocrine system and whichever
program you choose will help to resolve your symptoms and rebalance your body.
If you have questions about which program is right for you, don’t hesitate to call
our Contact Center. We have a team of highly-trained, experienced women who have
been in your shoes, available to listen and help.
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Last Modified Date: 12/05/2011