Are you feeling stressed out?
Your hormones may be out of balance. As women age, their hormones naturally change as they approach their 40s and early 50s.
Many of us start to notice some changes in our bodies. Our hormones may begin to shift, which can lead to increased stress levels and other health issues. Thankfully, there are many things we can do to rebalance our hormones and reduce stress.
In this blog, I talk about a topic that is especially relevant for women in their forties or early fifties. If you’re a woman in this age group, thus this blog is for you. It’s the age group that I usually work with my clients.
Stress as the Cause
Women in this age group tell me stress is one of the main drivers of their hormone imbalance symptoms. They don’t know how to get out of the pattern of stress. They feel depleted all the time and don’t know what to do about it.
These women feel like they’re stuck in a rut. They’re pulled-in multiple directions where they have to work, take care of their family, and deal with extended family members. They also have to worry about aging and their social life. It seems like there’s always something going on. They never get a chance to relax and take a breath. I can understand this because I’m also in this period of life.
What You’re Going Through
I also have a busy life. I know that sometimes stress can feel like it gets the better of you. But if this is happening all the time or more often than not, you’re not recovering from it. You’ll likely feel burnt out, exhausted, and fatigued always. It is true no matter what you do or how much sleep you try to get.
If you’re feeling irritable, short-tempered, and impatient with your close family and friends, it’s possible that you’re feeling overwhelmed. Stress can harm your ability to focus and get tasks done at work. You might not be performing as well as you usually do.
There are many different ways that this stress can affect you. If you are busy and overwhelmed all the time, your hormones can shift and start to change. These things can happen to women in their forties and early fifties. The symptoms can also become worse. I know many women also tell me about this stress and overwhelm.
Top Three Strategies for Managing Stress
Many women feel a lot of anxiety. This kind of anxiety is hard to control or manage no matter what you do. It feels like there’s something wrong with your body, and it can sometimes feel like a panic attack, which is scary.
They don’t want this to happen again and have to find a solution. What can we do to help us manage the stress and the changes happening to us as our sex hormones lower our female sex hormones, estrogen, and progesterone?
We are going to be less resistant to stress. It is unfortunate. We will be more prone to some of the symptoms mentioned previously. What can we do to manage and buffer this? How can we make it through and return our bodies and minds to feeling optimal and well again? I have used three strategies with many women over the years and want to share them with you. These strategies have worked consistently well for me.
Step 1: Write Down Primary Stressors
The first step is to take your time to write down what you perceive as your primary stressors in your daily life. What are the things that cause you to stress regularly? Write them down in a journal, even if they happen at different times in the day or every day of the week. You check the consistency of this stressor. You may need to do this for more than one day to get an accurate picture.
Step 2: Identify Stressors You Can Take Away
The second step is to understand those primary stressors. The things that stress you out can be work, family, or life-related. They can also be something going on outside your family or friend with an illness. One of these stressors might be a reason you are too busy, and that’s why you’ve got too much on your plate.
Identify one of the primary stressors that you have the opportunity to take away. It is one of the things you need to look at carefully. The first thing you did was identify the sources of stress in your life every day. After that, you can see if there’s anything you can do to take away so your life will be less stressful. Often you’re doing too much but don’t even realize it.
I find women are guilty of saying yes to everything, and they end up with schedules too full. There is too much on their plate because they’re too nice. You’re saying yes to too many things. Sometimes you have to learn how to say no. It’s good to prioritize.
Step 3: Identify Stressors You Can’t Take Aside
The third step is to look at the things you can’t take away from a stress perspective. Some things will always be there for you, like if you have a busy high-paced job you like. You’re going to stay at your work. It’s not something that you can make go away. We need to think of strategies to have some resilience to this daily stress. If it is happening daily for you, then what are you doing about them? Do you have some strategies?
Applying the Strategies
Are those strategies working for you? By going through these three steps, we can start to understand how to customize some strategies to help you potentially lower your stress in some categories of life. It won’t be all. We can create a path composed of all strategies we developed for managing those stressors which constantly affect you in everyday life. Using this path, you understand how to adapt and become more resilient to some of these stressors in this time of life.
You are busy, on the go, and pulled in multiple directions and aspects of your life. With these conditions combined with the fluctuation and changing levels of your sex hormones, you become less resilient in managing stress and make you more prone to anxiety, possibly panic, irritability, and tendencies of these kinds. All of those are not-so-fun.
Stress and Perimenopause
With your situation plus the changing and fluctuating hormones, you get into the time of transition into menopause. I hope that helps you to understand that there are some strategies or ways through the stress. The situation is one of your primary concerns that affect your health and hormone balance during this period.
It is a two-way street. The hormones can cause you to be less resilient to stress, but the high-stress load is unmanageable. They can also cause the hormones to become more out of balance. It’s essential working on how to manage this stress to help you feel better in your everyday life and function around those stress by keeping your hormones more balanced. As a result, you will not be symptomatic and happier in your life. Your relationships will also improve inside and outside your home, especially in the workplace and socially anywhere.
There’s a positive spinoff when you learn how to identify your top stressors. Once these stressors are known, you learn how to adapt to and manage those stressors. Potentially, you can take away the top stressors or the most stressful events in your life.
Your reactions to stress are common for women to feel that way. You don’t have to be captivated by this hamster wheel of managing the overwhelming stress and burnout all the time. There is a way through it. It’s more common as you hit your forties and early fifties as the primary stress and sex hormones begin to fluctuate and change for females. You need to develop a strategy.
An Invitation For You
If you’re interested in learning more about how to develop strategies around stress, I can help you. I can help you identify the top stressors that are going on for you. I can even conduct a LAB TEST on how stress affects the hormonal pathways in your body. Please feel free to reach out because I’m a functional medicine practitioner and healthcare professional.
If you want to reach out to me, I can potentially help you. CLICK HERE.
I have worked in women’s health for more than 20 years now. I have a strong passion for working with women like you to help uncover the root cause of your primary reasons for hormone imbalance symptoms and also how to develop a plan that will help you.
Temporary Remedy or Long Term Solution
Getting rid of your present symptoms is not enough. It is vital to help your body heal for the long term so that you will no longer have those symptoms cropping up and returning. It is because if the stress is not solved, it’s most likely your hormones will continue to get more out of balance. You will become more symptomatic, which leads to the worst conditions and diseases. You certainly don’t want that to happen.
I would be happy to have a conversation with you about your health for free. It is a chance for us to talk about where you are right now and how I could help you develop a plan for lifelong healing. It includes your hormone imbalance and the rest of your life. Don’t hesitate to contact us now.
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DISCLAIMER: The information in this email is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content is for general informational purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional.
