Heart to Heart with Hads

Why Sex Ed Got Hormones All Wrong (And What You Need to Know)

• Hadlea Shaw

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Hello guys, welcome back to another podcast episode. And welcome back to Heart Heart with Heads. I was like, what are you saying, Hadley? Anyways, let's get into it. Today we are covering everything about sex hormones. So the main three that I'm gonna be covering is testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. These I these three I feel like are the main ones, specifically estrogen and progesterone for female health. So this is gonna be so in depth. You've never heard any of this from your doctor. Explain this in depth, why you feel the way you do. And so I'm gonna explain it in depth, the lab work you need to get done, what each of the what what's the exact function of each of the hormones, why they can be low, why they could be high, how to know if they're low or high, and just so much depth. So I'm super excited for this and let's just roll right into it. I have, I mean, I have my computer out because I wanted this to be very informational outlined, and also just stressing the importance of why sex hormones are so critical for female health. If sex hormones are off, this can cause so many issues within your body and ability to lose weight, which is one of the biggest things I see. Um, also just digestion, gut health, all of these things off. Infertility, obviously, this is super important, menstrual cycle off. The list goes on and on and on. And I think it's really important that women are understanding of what's going on inside of their body. So I'm gonna try and break these down in the most simplest terms for you to understand. And I would come back and listen to this multiple times if you feel like you're struggling with hormones. A lot of the times it's it is your hormones that are off, but it's because of your inputs that are causing your hormones to be off. Hormones are just messengers, just signals for something deeper that could be going on, and that could be just simple as you not eating enough, you not sleeping enough, you not getting enough nutrients inside of your diet, a medication causing issues, and we'll get into all of that. So, and as well, like our overall energy, our well-being, our sleep can all be dictated by how our hormones are. So we'll get into it. So the first one that we're going to start with is progesterone. So progesterone is primarily made by the ovaries and a little from adrenals. So this is now I have to make this a clear point too, that everyone's like, oh, like my cholesterol is so high, I need to eat a low low cholesterol diet. And that is not the case. If cholesterol is too low, if you're not getting enough fat, fat and cholesterol are intertwined. If you're not getting enough dietary fat, healthy dietary fat, that can cause progesterone to be low. And we don't want that at all. And progesterone is only produced in that last half of your cycle, the luteal phase of your cycle, which I will explain the phases of the cycle as well, so that you can understand how your body responds and reacts to things in the different phases of your cycle. So it is produced after ovulation. You have to ovulate for progesterone to rise, which we want it to rise, right? When it starts to rise, this can help with a pregnancy or obviously your period starting, but you have to have ovulation for progesterone to rise. So ovulation is key, and a lot of women are not ovulating. So we need to make sure that we are ovulating. So how it functions, progesterone has a calming effect, right? And if progesterone and estrogen are not balanced, which we'll get into that, if they're not balanced, then you can have some hormonal issues, and I'll explain some of those symptoms. But progesterone is calming, and estrogen is more stimulating, excited. And so that's why that's why when you feel in your menstrual cycle, when you're probably ovulating, when your sex drive is the highest, that's when estrogen is the highest. So estrogen is like, whoa, excited, feel great. And then progesterone is more like a calming, relaxing. And if your progesterone is low, you could feel very anxious in that last half of your cycle. And so I'll go over some things you can do to support your body during that part of your cycle. But it also prepares your body or your uterine lining for implantate implantation. So implantation of the egg if you do get pregnant, it reduces, like I said, the ex excitatory, excited, excitatory neurotransmitters. So it's going to, like I said, bring you to be more calmed down, supports your thyroid, helps reduce inflammation, helps promote the sleep and relaxation, and protects cardiovascular health. So we know that in that last half of your cycle, if you're dealing with insomnia, you know, you can't wind down your HRV tanks, your heart rate is higher, increased, you're not getting as much recovery, your progesterone is low. And so you need to solve that or at least get a balance of progesterone and estrogen. This also feeds into other hormones. So cortisol, testosterone, estrogen. Some common reasons for low progesterone. Obviously, an ovulation, not ovulating, amenorrhea. This is not having a menstrual cycle, a consistent menstrual cycle for months at a time. Um, chronic stress, infection, inflammation, poor sleep, overtraining, undernourishment. So in a chronic state of calorie deficit, overtraining, you know, people doing the marathon running, the highrocks, all of that medication side effects. So if you're taking things like ibuprofen or birth control, progestant, IUD, over-the-counter prescriptions, luteal insufficiency. So this means in that luteal phase, you're not having a long enough luteal phase, perimenopause, postmenopause, hysterectomy, and then obviously natural age-related decline in ovarian function. When you hit a certain age of you're no longer menstruating regularly, that's how you know you're entering menopause. And so progesterone declines. That's why a lot of women who, if they do have hysterectomy or they do experience menopause, they get on hormone replacement therapy. And progesterone is one that is highly, highly recommended that an estrogen and testosterone, all the things we're talking about need to be replaced specifically for the women that are menopause. Now, I'm talking to the ones that are primarily in their 20s, 30s, early 40s, and those who can fix these things with lifestyle factors. So things that you can help to make sure your progesterone is higher is eating obviously balanced meals, having protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, lots of micronutrients from fruits, vegetables. I explain all this stuff all the time. The basics that help you lose the weight, build muscle are the same basics that are gonna help you feel better hormonally. And I know that sounds crazy, but everything is all all in one. Hydration, so making sure that you're getting in enough water, right? I would say no lower than 70 ounces of water a day. And electrolytes, so sodium, potassium, getting sodium from I like sea salt, potassium from things like sweet potatoes, spinach, whole foods. I'd rather you do that than to supplement with an electrolyte supplement. And then a stable blood sugar. So how we get our blood sugar stable is obviously by enough fiber and protein and then eating every three to four hours. So my eating window usually looks like 8, 12, 3, 6. Very with much within those 30-minute time increments. That helps a lot. Stress management, nervous system support, making sure that you are decluttering, closing loops, getting that natural sunlight inside of your eyes, not being constantly on the screen, setting boundaries, not like the moment that you lay down at night should not be the only moment where you have just had no stimulation, no stream, no nothing. And I know that it is for a lot of people, you need more stillness, more groundedness in your day, journaling, meditation. I do a 20-minute meditation practice every single day, no matter what. And I it's made such a big difference. Quality sleep and sleep hygiene. So waking up, going to sleep at the same times every day. Doesn't matter if it's the weekend, don't care. Same thing. You don't get to just get sleep in and stay up super late. No, you have to have that same level of discipline. Gut and pelvic health. So supporting your gut health by making sure you're having daily bowel movements. This one is huge and it is crucial. And making sure getting enough fiber will help you have the daily bowel movements along with enough movement, so enough walking and enough water and hydration. Obviously, avoiding overtraining, avoiding the endurance, the running, the high rocks, the things that are like really high stress on your body and the under-eating. So, really, you have to pay attention to what you're eating and how much of it. And the same type of healing and work that goes towards fat loss, like I've already mentioned, is the same thing that goes towards hormones. And then reducing your alcohol and drug use. This is huge. So, some supplements for all hormones. I'm gonna give you a supplement recommendation for all hormones. Write it down: magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin D, and omega-3 fish oil. Could also add in selenium in there too, but or you could just eat a Brazil nut or two every day and you'll get your selenium dose in that. Magnesium glycinate, vitamin B6, which is P5P, and vitamin D. There's a supplement on Amazon that has all uh magnesium, vitamin. I meant to put zinc in there. Magnesium, vitamin B, and zinc all in one, and then vitamin D would get separately. So those are overall hormonal supplementation recommendations, but specifically for lower progesterone is chastry berry, so vitex, uh, chase berry, and evening primrose oil, macaroot, and hormone replacement therapy for the perimenopause, postmenopausal women. So, how you know you have low progesterone is when you get your progesterone tested at the at a lab, and you'll want to do this after you have ovulated, and so about five to seven days after ovulation. So if you ovulate cycle day 14, you'll want to do between cycle day 19 and 21. Now to track your cycle, I would get something like an oral ring. You can check your temperature with the natural cycles app, but you need to see your basal body temperature. You'll know if you've ovulated, if your temperature has risen and fallen. That's how you know ovulation has occurred. So I would recommend a smart ring. Mine is always right on my aura ring. If I when I ovulate, it's always correct. When I've outstarmed my period, it is also always correct. It knows just based off of my uh temperature fluctuations. So that is progesterone, and I think that's everything that I need to cover on that. And so now we're gonna get into estrogen. So estrogen is primarily made in the ovaries, so it supports brain health. If you have too low estrogen, brain well, I remember being in my bodybuilding prep, and estrogen gets so low because I'm training so much, I'm doing so much cardio, not getting enough fat, not getting enough food in general, that can cause it to be really, really low. So my brain, my cognition was not great. So brain and mitochondria health are important for the production of estrogen. Um, and so how it functions. So it drives the female secondary sex characteristics. So your breast, hips, pubic hair, all the things, regulates menstrual cycle, helps with the uterine lining growth during the follicular phase. The follicular phase is the first 15 days of your cycle. So day one is the first day, your period. That's day one you bleed, and then it'll go all the way through whatever your cycle length is. Mine's usually 31, 32, 32. That's how long your cycle is. And then right back to one when you bleed again the next month. Just to help you, I'm just gonna keep reiterating some of the same things. And then impacts extracellular water retention, sex drive, glucose, fat storage. So there are three different types of estrogen, but we're gonna focus most on estradiol. This is the strongest one. Um, this one is most common. And this is what will be when you get lab work done too, unless you're pregnant, they do estriol, and then estrone, they usually do menopause. So, some common reasons for low estrogen. So, adrenal insufficiency, this could be adrenaline sufficiency, is cortisol being so high for so long that it plummets, and now you have no cortisol. When we need cortisol, cortisol is a good one, and we'll be doing a whole nother episode on the stress cortisol hormones. Okay, but for now we're just gonna focus on the sex hormones because that's a whole nother topic. Undereating, underweight can be low estrogen, chronic stress, you know, cortisol being super high or low, like adrenal insufficiency, like we mentioned, and perimenopause, postmenopause, hysterectomy, because it literally all of your sex hormones are like not working anymore. Um, medication, oral contraceptives, any type of fungal, fungal medications can also cause low estrogen. And then some reasons for high estrogen could be estrogen supplementation, poor liver clearance. So this could mean you're not fully getting out your waist, essentially. So you're not having bowel movements every day like you should be. And so this is just estrogen just building up inside of your bloodstream if you're not getting that out. And so some foods and things you can incorporate for decreasing that estrogen is foods that are things like broccoli, they're gonna all these things are gonna help with uh estrogen detox, liver detox, essentially, which will also help with estrogen decreasing as well, which there's a fine balance between low and high estrogen, but we want to be able, if we're not going to the bathroom daily, estrogen is just building up uh gut dysbiosis, right? Like if there's some gut overgrowth going on, then hormones are gonna be impacted by the gut being off. So the biggest thing for estrogen is we want to focus on gut health. If you're constipated, that can lead to dysbiosis, and then it affects estrogen being able to be eliminated, excreted out, liver support. So cruciferous vegetables, like I said, broccoli, spinach, leafy greens, pre-in probiotics, do not just blanketly throw pre-in probiotics on something. I would actually not do that, just make sure you focus on pre-in probiotic rich foods, so things like bananas, you could do, you could try things like kimchi if you feel like you get worse effects from that. Don't do that. And I would find somebody like myself to help you fix those gut issues because that that tells us there's a deeper issue going on if your body responds bad to probiotic rich foods. Fat intake, this needs to be in a good spot. Avocados, fish, like salmon, red meat, olive oil, nuts, seeds, those are my favorite kind of fat sources, healthy fat sources that are not high in saturated fat, stress and adrenal support. So the nervous system regulation, reducing alcohol, this is huge, toxins, endocrine disruptors, endocrine disruptors like scents and cleaning products and stuff you use on your face, your skin, all of that. And there's a whole list of things or like alternatives that I have for that, healthier alternatives that you can help with that. Eating in glass, not plastic, not drinking out of plastic, cleaner water, things like that. And then other things you can do to help with the estrogen detox sauna, right? Sweat. We want to sweat out any toxins that can help a lot, a lot for detox. All right, let's get into testosterone. We're not gonna get into supplements for estrogen. We'll stick to the lifestyle and nutrition support that we need. Another reason, another thing too is if estrogen is too high and maybe you are overweight, that could just simply be decreasing your food intake, but making sure your micronutrient quality intake is in a good spot. So making sure we're eating a lot, a lot of clean, healthy food. And then if estrogen is too low, we maybe need to increase food because you have you're not getting enough nutrients. So there it's kind of like a two different two different things we're dealing with here. All right, let's get into testosterone. So how testosterone is made 25% from ovaries, 25% from adrenals, and all the rest periphery. And so the pathway for that is cholesterol, pregnantolone, DHEA, androsin and dione. I don't even know how to say that. Just it doesn't matter. That stuff doesn't matter. You don't care about that. Basically, what you need to know is it supports your energy, bones, mood, muscle development, key for female libido. Um, and so some reasons that it could be low is poor sleep, under eating, overtraining, medications, same medications, over counter prescriptions, birth control, same thing as the one that we mentioned on estrogen, high sex hormone binding globulin, too many androgens, so or high aromatase, so androgens to estrogen, estrogen having higher estrogen. And then some things we can do to help support during or support testosterone is obviously circadian rhythm, so sleep for sure, stress reduction, sunlight in your eyes, going to sleep when it's dark, waking up when it's sunny, anti-inflammatory foods. So this looks like a Mediterranean kind of style. So getting most of your carbs from fruit and vegetables, limiting things like highly processed, refined carbohydrates, like cereals and breads and things like that, very anti-inflammatory, high fat, more of a higher fat, moderate protein. So getting things from like eggs, seeds, beans, meats. Yeah. Strength training exercise is huge. If you're strength training in the gym, your testosterone is going to go up, getting stronger, testosterone is going to increase. Healthy fats, like I mentioned, is part of a part of anti-inflammatory, zinc-rich foods, pumpkin seeds, beef, fantastic, which can go into kind of some seed cycling. And I need to mention how you know some of these things are off, and I will just like symptoms that you can experience on all of these, because I didn't, I realized that I didn't put that in my outline, so that's fine. But and then blood sugar balance. So this one goes back to the progesterone and estrogen one, making sure that you're eating fiber and protein and your meals together. Don't just have like a carb without any protein because then your blood sugar is gonna go up, whoop, down really fast. Obviously, every time you eat your blood sugar is gonna go up, but it's gonna be more stable when we have fiber, protein, and a little bit of fat in there. So when you can do that for all of your meals, your blood sugar is gonna be stable, it's predictable. So things you Can supplement with uh again maca, DHEA, boron, tonka, ali, all these things. This is all for women, by the way, to help support testosterone levels, but also really, really focus on the basics first. So, some things to remember and consider is the estrogen and progesterone um relationship. Estrogen excites and ex and stimulates, and progesterone is a calming and inhibiting. The balance is very, very crucial to feel your best throughout all parts of your cycle. Fertility, mood, sleep, cardiovascular, bone health. So the optimal PE ratio is 100 to 1 when measured in the luteal phase. So you want to test, want to test this five to seven days post-ovulation, progesterone, and estrogen and testosterone. Let me make sure that that that ratio is right. Give me one second. I'm pretty sure that's right, but I want to just double check. Okay. Do to do to do do to do to do do to do to do. Okay, so for example, we'll just do this. So if next time you get your labs done, you can you can know. So example, your estrogen is 120 picograms, progesterone is 0.9 nanograms. So you're gonna want to do 0.9 times 1000, so you can convert into the picograms, right? So that will be 900. Then you do the 900 for progesterone divided by 120, which is 7.5, and we want the PE ratio to be between 300 and 500. So that 7.5 would be way not how we want it. That would be estrogen is way too high compared to progesterone. So what do we need to do? We need to bring that progesterone up a little bit. So that's just an example for that. And then the optimal ranges for your testosterone, estrogen, it's gonna depend on when you get it done. And so you'll likely be getting it done like early luteal. So you'll want estrogen to be between 70 and 250, and then progesterone, you'll want it to be between 15 and 30 in that in that luteal phase of your cycle. Since we're doing it five to seven days post-ovulation, testosterone, total testosterone between 45 and 65. That's like on the a good higher end, but a lot of women's natural testosterone is genuinely not that high unless you have PCOS. So that is the optimal ranges for that. Um, and now we're gonna talk a little bit about menstrual cycle and hormones, like how to go about the menstrual cycle, what it is. So menstrual phase is usually days one through five, one through one through seven, however long your period lasts. This is when obviously your bleeding, uterine lining sheds. Follicular phase is starts the same time as your period starts. So follicular phase, or so in your menstrual phase and then all the way up to like cycle day 14 or whenever you ovulate, right? For me, I think my ovulation, since my cycle length is usually like 31, 32, I think I usually ovulate cycle day 16, 17, something like that. And so in the follicular phase, your estrogen will rise, follicles will start to grow, right? So day 14, whenever if you if you ovulate on day 14, that would be like a perfect 28-day cycle. Amazing if that's you. Now, just to take into consideration, all of this does not happen if you are on hormonal birth control. This this will not apply to you because hormonal birth control suppresses your natural hormones. So none of this is gonna be happening, none of these fluctuations are gonna be happening, okay? So say you ovulate cycle day 14, the LH surge triggers the egg release. Okay, and then the luteal phase would be after ovulation all the way up until right before, so say cycle day 28, right before you start your next bleed. So progesterone is going to rise to support implantation. Now, if progesterone doesn't rise, it's a cycle where we see a lot of infertility issues because progesterone is not rising. So we want to get our natural production of progesterone up while we can do it. We can do it with a lot of those lifestyle changes that I mentioned. And remember that if you do not ovulate, there's no progesterone. So you get a lot of the symptoms like PMS, the poor sleep, the low thyroid activity. So we really, really, really want to make sure that we are ovulating. And this starts with the first phase of your cycle. This starts with estrogen being in a good spot. Estrogen has to be great so that progesterone can be solid. Okay. So this means like the no overtraining, the no under eating. Like we have to eat sufficient amount of nutrients for our body to be able to use these nutrients to support our hormones. So just some lifestyle and nutritional strategies across all hormones that I'm going to reiterate. Sleep, quality sleep. This means we're not scrolling on our phone in our bed. Get your phone out of your room. Matter of fact, like you have to be disciplined with these things. If you want to feel better, heal your hormones like you say you do. Stress management, right? We need to lower that cortisol in the best way that we can. The meditation, the breath work. Sometimes before bed, I will sit there and I will do breath work. I will focus on my breathing for 20 to 30 minutes because I am in such a state of like, oh, like today was really heightened. I worked all day. I didn't slow down at all. So this is really, really important. Setting boundaries. You can't do it all. You can't clean it all. You can't do everything with the kids. Like, you have to ask for help. That is the biggest thing. Ask for help. I cannot stress this enough. And then exercise. Obviously, regular strength training three to four times a week. Avoid doing that. Plus hit, plus training. Like, you don't need to be doing all of that. Guaranteed. Then obviously, diet, balanced macronutrients, micronutrients, adequate fat intake. I would not do any fat under 50 grams for a period of time. I like to keep mine steadily around like 70, 75. I think this is solid for hormonal health. And then gut and liver health, right? Making sure you're going to the bathroom daily if you feel like you have some gut dysbiosis. You need to get that figured out so that your hormones can reflect that so that they can, your body can absorb the nutrients instead of your gut being uh out of whack. And so I will just slightly mention some things you can do to help support your gut lining, which is really important to help with getting rid of or reducing the leaky gut symptoms, which can play a part in hormones being off. So glutamine 20 grams, zinc carnosin capsules, aloe vera juice, and mix this all together and drink this every day. Apple cider vinegar could also throw in there if you'd like every day to help start healing that gut lining. But you also focusing on eating real whole foods plus enough fiber, 25 plus grams a day is the normal recommended amount. Plus, doing that will help so much already. Just start to heal your gut lining. But if you're already doing that, that will not hurt anything at all. The little supplement that I mentioned. So micronutrients, magnesium, zinc, B6, vitamin D, selenium. I already mentioned this. Omega-3 fatty acids. These are like the main things for overall hormone, hormone health in general. Avoid chronic stress, poor sleep, alcohol, alcohol, alcohol, alcohol, endocrine disruptors. So like scents and candles and a bunch of these things that are just over like overwhelming our system. Low fat diets, please, overtraining. And so all of these things are gonna help so much support your hormones in general. So I needed to mention the let me go back. I need to mention some of the quote unquote symptoms that you might face with feeling these with all of these hormones. So we're gonna go back to each of them so that I can explain what symptoms that you might feel. Okay. Some symptoms you might have because of because of your hormones is difficulty sleeping, difficulty orgasming, diminished libido, night sweats, brain fog, hair thinning, increased belly fat, sugar craving, burnout, migraines, can't concentrate, can't focus, weight gain, weight loss, endometriosis, PCOS, mood disorders, painful heavy periods, thyroid issues, sleep quality, energy levels declining, all these things can point back to okay, cool. I may have some hormonal issue going on, but I know now after going through this, what lifestyle factors I can incorporate in to make sure that I am doing everything that I can to diminish me having these hormonal symptoms and these hormonal issues. So those are a lot of the kind of symptoms that you can that you can face. Now we're talking about estrogen, too much estrogen, PMS, painful breasts, heavy periods, cramps, moodiness, migraines, a lot of anxiety in the second half of the cycle. This doesn't mean that you have too much estrogen necessarily. It could just mean estrogen is too high in comparison to progesterone. So supporting progesterone support. Supporting yeah, supporting estrogen support. That does not even make sense, I think. Anyways, so that is for too much estrogen, right? Now when we get into what the heck, what the heck? That's not what I wanted. When we get into sorry, sorry guys. I'm trying to find my specific notes for some symptoms. Some additional symptoms. I'm trying to find the symptoms for low progesterone. Which I think I'd already mentioned some of them before, but I want to make sure. Yeah, I did. So, like I said, the poor sleep, the not having a menstrual cycle, not being able to get pregnant, really anxious in the last half of your cycle, can't calm down, anxiety, poor sleep in the last half of your cycle, all these things can be common things of low progesterone. Um, high estrogen could be can't lose weight, digestion is off, things of that nature. So I think that's all that I want to cover on the sex hormones. I believe. Let me go back to my outline to make sure. Yes, just remember that everything is all interconnected, right? Your cortisol, your thyroid, your gut, your liver, stress are all gonna influence your sex hormones. So if one thing is off, know that you gotta kind of go back. Okay, is my gut off? Is my stress really high? You know, am I even eating enough? All the things. So you can support your hormone balance through ovulation, cycle tracking, right? Obviously, nutrition and lifestyle and the supplemental support, and then making sure that you're testing at the right time in your cycle. Remember, five to seven days post-ovulation. So you need to be tracking your cycle to know when you are ovulating. And then you understand the different hormone patterns and how your estrogen rises and how it decreases a little bit. And progesterone rises. We need progesterone to rise. If it doesn't rise, you're gonna feel like shit in your luteal phase. So we need to be calm. We need that calming feeling, that relaxing feeling. But that starts with the stress management and the things that we're talking about. So, also too, remember like understanding these hormone patterns is going to help you so much feel better. Like, why would you not want to feel better as a woman, right? Your energy, your mood, your overall health is gonna increase as a byproduct of you taking care of the hormone health. So, hope you guys enjoyed this episode. And if I need to do an even more in-depth episode on each specific hormone, I can do that. But yeah, I hope you guys took a lot of great things away from this. And I'll see you in the next episode, which we're gonna be talking about the stress hormones and impact of stress hormones on your body and fat loss and just overall hormonal health in general. So hope you guys enjoy it, and I'll see you and talk to you soon. Bye.