Hormones and Adrenals:
It is important to understand that it is pointless to try to balance hormonal issues until the adrenal/blood sugar issues are addressed.
Chronic stress response in your body equals a chronic amount of cortisol being put out by your adrenal glands.
The Adrenals are responsible for making the glucocorticoids cortisol and adrenaline that regulate blood sugar and inflammation and the mineralocorticoids, the main one being aldosterone, that helps to regulate sodium and potassium. They are responsible for our fight or flight response to emergencies. Emergencies perceived by the adrenal glands can be anything from regular sugar consumption to emotional stress, digestive and or nutritional problems and diseases, like Hypothyroidism.
Let me explain briefly how blood sugar and adrenals are connected:
When we are consuming too much sugar, the pancreas pumps out as much insulin as it can to deal with blood sugar spikes in our blood. When this happens, we have a substantial drop in blood sugar after that substantial rise, and our energy production drops dangerously low. This is an emergency situation for the liver, which is trying to convert glycogen back into glucose (glycogenolysis). This takes time, and there is no time, so the adrenals now sensing this emergency put out cortisol and adrenaline to immediately bring up blood sugar levels. Our adrenal glands are meant to be there for emergencies only, but we have put them in the front line, eating high sugar diets and living lives filled with emotional stress, toxins stimulants, digestive issues and nutritional weaknesses. This causes the adrenals to not function as well as they should be.
The liver does many things, it turns off hormones that are in excess or are no longer working. These hormones have to be broken down and joined and removed from the body.
Chronically high cortisol levels inhibit the ability of the liver pathways to join the broken-down hormones and get rid of them.
The Pancreas which puts out insulin as it is needed, has insulin receptors on cells that will not respond properly to insulin when cortisol is chronically elevated. This puts a huge burden on the pancreas to put out even more insulin to be able to transport glucose into cells. Constantly putting out insulin leads to high insulin levels and all the issues that go along with that. Metabolic Syndrome, Insulin Resistance and eventually full-blown Diabetes.
Adrenal function is a priority over reproduction, metabolic rate and other endocrine functions. Because of this, our adrenal glands are allowed to “steal” nutrients and precursors to hormones from other areas of the endocrine system as they see fit.
Precursor hormones like pregnenolone and DHEA, and even progesterone (hormones that can convert into other adrenal and sex hormones) should not be taken when the adrenals are depleted already. It is the adrenal glands that remove and condense pregnenolone from the bloodstream. The gonads (ovaries in women, testes in men) manufacture their own pregnenolone from cholesterol.
Making pregnenolone into cortisol is a catabolic process that requires extreme use of the body’s energy. Only so much pregnenolone can be made by the body.
The gonads will release pregnenolone to help make more cortisol when it is needed, depleting your sex hormones. Taking pregnenolone, progesterone or DHEA at this time will only fuel the adrenal stress response, further increasing cortisol production vie stealing of other hormones.
So, if our adrenal glands have been called upon to handle blood sugar regulation on a regular basis, to function in a constant state of fight or flight, pumping out cortisol and adrenaline on a regular basis, the only hope for them to survive, is to steal from other areas of the endocrine system, leaving the other areas of the endocrine system, depleted.
It is best to work on your blood sugar regulation and adrenals, work on getting your thyroid levels optimal and how you deal with stress BEFORE you begin to work on sex hormones, so that the adrenals have no need to steal hormones from other areas in the endocrine system.
Estrogen
Estrogen is really a general term for three separate hormones:
estriol (E3) dominant during pregnancy
estradiol (E2) dominant when we are cycling
estrone (E1) dominant after menopause
“Estrogen” as is produced by the body refers to all three of the above hormones. Estrogen is produced in three main places in a woman’s body:
the ovaries
the adrenal glands
the fat cells
During the follicular phase (the first phase of a woman’s cycle), the lining of the uterus builds up under the influence of estrogen. It’s called a proliferative lining. Estrogen is the dominant hormone during this phase while progesterone levels are very low.
During the luteal phase (the second phase of a woman’s cycle), the lining stops growing and becomes secretory under the influence of progesterone. Progesterone is the dominant hormone during this phase although estrogen has a second peak midway through.
Normal menstruation cycles last between 26 and 32 days with ovulation occuring 11-21 days after the first day of bleeding. Luteal phases can last between 12 and 16 days. The luteal phase begins at ovulation and lasts until bleeding begins.
We call the days of the cycle, cycle days or commonly abbreviated to CD. They start with CD1 on the first day of bleeding and last until the day BEFORE the bleeding starts again. We do not include spotting as a “first day”. Bleeding should be bright red and copious.
Every system in the body has a feedback loop to keep balance.
Estrogen has a sister hormone called progesterone, whose functions are equally important.
Progesterone
Progesterone is the other primary female hormone. It is produced in the ovaries. It is the one of the precursors for cortisol, testosterone, and estrogen.
You’ll remember that an egg is presented once a month from the ovaries, wrapped in an envelope called a follicle. After the follicle lets go of the egg, the egg journeys down the fallopian tubes on its way to the uterus, where it awaits possible fertilization. The burst follicle becomes the corpus luteum and begins to produce progesterone. Progesterone’s job is to maintain the uterine lining until one of two things happens: pregnancy or no pregnancy.
If pregnancy occurs, progesterone production will be taken over around the 12th week by the placenta. The corpus luteum simply can’t make enough progesterone for the demand, since the uterus will expand from the size of a lemon to the size of a basketball during the next nine months. If no pregnancy occurs, the corpus luteum stops producing progesterone, which then triggers the collapse of the blood-rich lining. This becomes the woman’s monthly flow.
So the interplay between these two hormones controls the entire
infrastructure of reproduction, on a daily basis, beginning with the onset of menarche (first flow) in adolescence. Estrogen creates the lining each month while progesterone maintains it.
Testosterone
This is a steroid hormone found in the androgen group. It is derived from cholesterol (like all the sex hormones) and its immediate precursor is DHEA. Although it thought of as “the male hormone”, testosterone also plays important role in women. In women, it is produced in the ovaries and the adrenal glands. The ovaries function to help produce testosterone even after menopause. Therefore, women who have their ovaries removed are at significant risk for decreased testosterone levels and the subsequent symptoms associated with it.
Testosterone in women has many functions. It is important for bone strength and development of lean muscle mass and strength. It contributes to an overall sense of well-being and energy level. It influences the follicle stimulating hormones responsible for egg production and release in ovulation. It is, perhaps, best known for its role in a woman’s sex drive or libido and more specifically, it is thought to be responsible for the sensitivity of a woman’s nipples and clitoris associated with sexual pleasure. So, testosterone not only enhances the
sexual mood of a woman, but her experience as well.
Similar to other hormones, the onset of perimenopause and menopause can cause the decline in the testosterone production in women. Complete hysterectomies will cause a more significant decline in testosterone levels. In addition, high levels of stress can divert the testosterone precursors (DHEA,
pregnenolone, and progesterone) over to cortisol production which can create a further reduction. These stress levels can also contribute to symptoms like less energy, brittle hair, less bone and muscle strength, and a diminished sexual drive.