Hormonal Imbalance: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Many women’s health issues, such as cysts or infertility, are often attributed to genetics. However, hormonal imbalances, which can be caused by a variety of factors, are frequently the culprit. These factors include sudden hormone deficiencies, tonsillitis, being underweight, and even smoking. In this article, we’ll explore these connections and discuss the regular tests women should take, as explained by gynecologist-endocrinologist Oksana Ledoshchuk.

The Surprising Impact of Smoking on Fertility

Many reproductive issues in women begin during the prenatal period, according to Oksana Ledoshchuk, a first-category gynecologist-endocrinologist. She starts our interview with a surprising fact: smoking reduces the chances of conception not only for women but also for their children.

If a mother does not take care of her health before pregnancy (if she is obese, has high blood sugar or high blood pressure), or if she smokes or spends a lot of time around smokers, she may pass on these problems to her fetus and endanger its future reproductive function.

For example, consider smoking. The sex cells in boys and girls are formed during the prenatal period, quite early on. If the mother smokes during this time, nicotine tar can destroy the future egg cells or sperm of the fetus.

In girls, due to a reduced number of egg cells, or ovarian reserve, ovarian hypofunction may occur prematurely. This means that such a woman may enter menopause earlier than her peers. Thus, her period of quality health is shortened, and the problems that accompany women during menopause begin at a younger age.

Among our patients, there are girls aged 15-17 who already have a small number of egg cells and require hormone replacement therapy. Unfortunately, this is the reality of our time.

A large number of women who smoke during pregnancy, or men who smoke around pregnant women, do not think about how this can terribly affect the development of the future person. Moreover, mothers and fathers do not think about the fact that children in a smoking family are forced to constantly inhale nicotine tar, which is harmful to the entire body, including the reproductive organs.

Other Causes of Hormonal Imbalances

In addition to smoking, other factors can lead to a decrease in the ovarian reserve, including:

Childhood diseases such as rubella or mumps
Autoimmune processes (autoimmune oophoritis)
Endometriosis
Surgeries on the ovaries
Cancer treatments involving radiation or chemotherapy

Sometimes, even with a sufficient number of egg cells, problems can occur due to thyroid diseases, chronic illnesses such as tonsillitis, chronic inflammatory diseases of the pelvic organs, and frequent viral infections. All of these can affect the hormonal background. Often, the problem is related to weight, both excess and deficiency.

The Role of Leptin in Menstruation

An illustrative example is girls on diets. They not only invent diets for themselves but also find reasons for them, considering themselves imperfect and refusing foods that contain even a small amount of fat.

What do they achieve? Their menstruation stops. It is very difficult to work with such girls—they do not listen to either their parents or doctors, and psychological trauma often plays a role here. In these cases, a comprehensive approach is important, involving a gynecologist, gynecologist-endocrinologist, dietitian, and psychotherapist. Some patients can be cured in six months, while others may require several years of treatment. In any case, this is a long-term effort not only by a group of specialists but also by the parents, who need to rethink almost everything: their behavior, lifestyle, and eating habits in the family.

As long as a girl’s body mass index remains low, and the fat layer does not reach the required level, the problem with menstruation is not eliminated.

Fat tissue is an independent organ of the endocrine system. It produces many biologically active substances, including the hormone leptin, which in a person with normal weight sends a signal to the brain about satiety, hence it is also called the satiety hormone. When do adolescent girls start menstruating? When the level of leptin reaches a certain threshold, which happens at a certain weight.

In overweight girls and women, leptin is produced in excess, which also leads to ovarian dysfunction. We equally often see both thin and obese patients.

Obese, to put it mildly, means weighing 100 kilograms or more. It is extremely rare for this obesity to be caused by some disease; it is mainly a consequence of lifestyle.

Many people are used to blaming their excess weight on genetics.

Genetics only affects the body structure and figure type. It is known that Armenians, for example, have wide hips… But weight really has little to do with it. Lifestyle is what matters, as with many other things.

If generation after generation in a family has type 2 diabetes, then this, excuse me, is a lifestyle, not genetics. Type 1 diabetes is different. It is an autoimmune disease that does not occur in everyone and has specific provoking factors. Everything else that we are used to blaming on heredity actually depends only on how much we eat and how actively we move.

Why did I start our conversation with the prenatal period? Often, girls with excess weight from birth are victims of their mother’s incorrect eating behavior. As a rule, they are more plump than their peers throughout their childhood because they are fed more caloric dishes and foods. This includes a bun when you can do without it, excessive portions, and parental strict “eat” in response to a child’s “I don’t want to.” It is harder for a full child to move, so they do not run around the yard with friends but choose passive games. Moreover, the lifestyle of modern children is not what it was 30-50 years ago, so now parents should think much more about what their attitude towards children, their nutrition, and behavior can lead to.

Mothers often bring us full girls whose weight can be 70, 80, or 90 kilograms at a height of 152 centimeters. This is obesity, a serious diagnosis.

Too little fat is bad, but too much fat is also bad: such girls have a disrupted menstrual cycle and develop the so-called polycystic ovary syndrome. As a rule, full women who have problems with their ovaries also have problems with their reproductive function—they cannot get pregnant, desperately looking for reasons and ways, while the solution is simple: change your lifestyle and eating habits. Lose weight by changing your outlook on life.

This is difficult. It is indeed difficult because there are often powerful psychological barriers at play. Everyone has their own, but we see such patients every day.

For more information on hormonal imbalances, you can visit the Office on Women’s Health website.