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	Sex hormone imbalance	Adrenal imbalance
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	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	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

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

	Comprehensive multivitamin–mineral support	Gentle, all-natural symptomatic relief	Eating and lifestyle plan	One-on-one support	Additional guidance
Personal Program for Hormonal Imbalance	Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential Nutrients	Phytotherapeutic endocrine support to help balance your hormones and calm your symptoms	A step-by-step guide to healthy hormonal balance through what and how you eat, as well as how you live.	Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom have been in your shoes.	A consultation with one of our professional Nurse–Educators is included in the “Get Off HRT” program and optional for others.
Personal Program for Adrenal Health	Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential Nutrients	One or both of our all-natural botanical solutions for adrenal health, Adaptisol and Serinisol, depending on your symptoms.	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.	Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom have been in your shoes.	Optional consultations with professional our Nurse–Educators available to you, whenever needed.
Personal Program for Thyroid Support	Our doctor-formulated multivitamin and mineral supplement, Essential nutrients	T-Balance offers mineral and phytotherapeutic support to help balance and support normal thyroid function	A step-by-step guide to healthy thyroid balance through what and how you eat, as well as how you live.	Free phone support from our trained Advisors and Wellness Coaches, many of whom have been in your shoes.	Optional consultations with professional our Nurse–Educators available to you, whenever needed.
Additional supplementary support exclusively from Women to Women, tailored to your personal needs	Vitamin D	Adaptisol Serinisol Vitamin E suppositories Balanced Biotic

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.