How Hormonal Imbalance Affects Fertility, Mood and Sexual Desire

Forum 7 years ago

How Hormonal Imbalance Affects Fertility, Mood and Sexual Desire

For seven years, Mrs Obioma Nwachukwu has been married without a child. She suffers irregular menstruation. Often, when she is in her period, it is with unbearable pain. It is so sharp to the extent that she sometimes needs drugs for a relief. Recently, her last menstruation landed her in the hospital .

She said, “The pain was so unbearable that my husband rushed me to the hospital. I was asked some questions and the answers I gave made the doctor refer me to the laboratory for hormonal profiling. Before now, I had no knowledge of what hormones were or what they do and that they can even affect my health. I learnt that if one’s hormones are not balanced, it could lead infertility. I am currently undergoing treatment, I am hoping to take in while on medication, I feel different, I am positive.

“I dread being on my period, it drains me. When it comes, I am afraid it may never stop, I bleed and bleed and bleed, I can use one pack of pad in three days, I soil my bedsheet every night, on many occasions I have got myself stained and embarrassed because of this, I don’t sleep much. Its so annoying,” another sufferer, Modupe Akintoye (not real name), lamented.

“I am aware of my condition, my hormones seem to have a mind of their own. I am on medication, I am hoping that the medication would work for me, I am honestly very tired, I can’t wait to start living a normal life.”

These cases and many others out there show the importance of hormones and how they function in the body. Hormones are special messengers in the body that are created in the endocrine glands; they are secreted directly into the blood which carries them to the organs and tissues of the body to exert their functions.

According to Dr Agumah Nnabuife, a microbiologist at the Ebonyi State University, “hormones are biochemicals secreted by glands and transported by the circulatory system to parts of the body where they carry out physiological functions. They are directly responsible for various forms of behaviours exerted by multi-cellular organisms.”

There are many types of hormones. They act on various aspects of our bodily functions and processes. They control simple bodily functions like hunger, thirst to complex ones like reproduction, development and growth, metabolism of food items, sexual function, maintenance of body temperature, cognitive function and even your mood and emotions.

They are of different types and they play a major role in the body’s health and wellbeing. The key to managing and protecting our health is to understand the various roles that they play.

Different glands secrete hormones in the body. They include pituitary gland, pineal gland, thymus, thyroid, adrenal gland, pancreas, testes and ovaries. Nnabuife explained that these glands make up the endocrine gland.

“The pituitary gland is considered as the master control gland, it controls other glands, secretes the insulin which regulates the glucose metabolism. It also controls hormones that trigger growth. The pituitary gland(posterior) secretes oxytocin which is responsible for the release of breast milk in females, it also secretes prolactin which is responsible for the production of milk by the mammary gland in females.

"The pineal gland also called the thalamus is the gland that secretes serotonin derivatives of melatonin which affects sleep. The testes which is only found in males is responsible for the testosterone (development of sexual features in males and libido) and sperm. The ovary which is only found in the females secretes the estrogen which is responsible for the formation of female sexual characteristics. The thyroid gland secretes thyroxine, which increases metabolism.”

Hormones play a very important role in the life of a woman; virtually everything is blamed on hormones, from loss of hair to bad skin to change in voice. Hormones affect the mood, fertility, sexual desire and ovulation in a woman. They are important chemical messengers that affect the many aspects of our overall health.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Cardiothoracic Surgeon said, “hormones are like musical instruments in an orchestra. Each plays its own part in creating a prefect concert, until the day one is out of tune and throws off the entire melody.”

The work hormones do may seem subtle and little, but when it falls out of balance, the effects it could create may impact negatively on how a women’s reproductive system functions.

Reasons for hormonal imbalance

Hormonal imbalance is a global concern, naturally, women are more likely to feel and face the effects of hormonal imbalance as they grow old, their bodies undergo different changes, they notice some hormonal changes. These changes present themselves during puberty, on the onset of menstruation. That is when they are about to start their menstrual cycle as women, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and even menopause.

During all these stages of their lives, different hormones step in and take responsible for these changes. The problem begins when these hormones that are responsible for these changes start to misbehave, then there is an imbalance somewhere.

There are multiple reasons responsible for imbalance of hormones, but the most common of them all is the lack of accurate balance between the progesterone and estrogen level in the body. Any change or variation in the balance between the progesterone and estrogen can affect a woman’s health, causing symptoms like depression, extreme weakness, hair loss, irregular menstrual cycle, abnormal bleeding, menstrual cramps, weight gain, infertility, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, low libido, changes in appetite, digestive issues, PMS symptoms and facial hair growth.

According to Dr. Chinwe Okafor, “The symptoms could be endless, little wonder women blame all their problems on their hormones.”

Aside from the imbalance between the progesterone and the estrogen, other causes include poor nutrition, lifestyle, stress, exercise, using hormone replacement therapy and birth control pills. “The strangest thing about hormones is that it depends on nutrition, exercise, your lifestyle, amount of exercise for the hormones to function properly.

"So, invariably the amount of hormones a woman produces may vary from month to month. She definitely needs to keep herself in a perfect healthy condition. Birth control pills, drug use, stress, frequent use of coffee change the proteins in the brain and this not allow the body to ovulate properly.”

Women of all ages may experience hormonal imbalances during their premenstrual cycle with symptoms becoming evident in their late 20s and throughout their 40s.

“Every month, the female body produces the estrogen and the progesterone, sometimes it could be that the level of estrogen is high compared to the progesterone, this condition is referred to as estrogen dominance, other times it could be that the progesterone is high and the estrogen is low.

"There is another hormone called androgen which is converted to estrogen, this hormone influences and regulates the functions of most organs like the kidney, liver,reproductive system and whether it is imbalanced, that is, high or low can have a drastic effect on a woman’s health.

“Since most women suffering hormonal imbalance are estrogen dominant, they find out that their breasts seem bigger, tender or sometimes hurt. They also battle with irregular periods, painful periods with large clots of blood present and sometimes, they miss their periods.

"There may be hair loss also, frequent headache, memory problems, skin problems, the presence of fibroids, endometriosis, and growth of cysts, they become angry and suffer mood swings, they may be depressed too.

“When the level of progesterone is higher than normal, the symptoms to look out for are excessive sleepiness, vaginal dryness, scanty bleeding. When the progesterone level becomes low, it could result to weight gain, water retention, and low blood sugar.

“Hormonal imbalance of androgen could result to lower sex drive, tiredness and feeling sick, excessive acne, excessive hair growth on the face and arms, putting on weight around the stomach, thigh and hips,” Dr Okafor said.