Our ovarian hormones – estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, and DHEA – can be both marvelous and maddening.
Marvelous when they allow us to create new life and function at our best. Maddening when they trigger unexpected physical or emotional symptoms because they are too high, too low, or just falling at various times of our cycle.
Anxiety, which is often mistakenly blamed on stress, is one of the surprising yet common side effects of out-of-whack hormones.
Rebecca’s ‘Panic Attack’
When I saw Rebecca, she was 48 years old and going through a difficult time. “Out of the blue, I felt like I was going to fly out of my skin,” she told me. “I was anxious and nauseated; my skin was cold and clammy.
“I had wild palpitations as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I thought ‘Am I having a panic attack? A heart attack? I’m too young.’
“I saw my family doctor, and he didn’t do any testing. He just said I was stressed and had a panic disorder. So he gave me Xanax and said I needed to reduce my stress.
“I went about my work and seemed OK. A few weeks later, it happened again. This time I was on a plane for a business trip. It kept getting worse, and I began to think I had a phobia of flying, and I feared I might have to give up my business.
“But I began to notice a pattern: These episodes of anxiety seemed to happen when my period started. I began to think it might be my hormones.”
The Hormone-Anxiety Link
Ovaries and their hormones are intimately linked to all of our body systems. Estrogen alone is involved in more than 400 functions in a woman’s body. No wonder women have so many problems when ovarian hormones go awry at puberty, following pregnancy, a tubal ligation, hysterectomy, or during menopause.
Hormone changes cause more than just hot flashes. Anxiety, rapid heartbeat, irregular “flutters” can hit out of the blue when brain centers are affected by falling or low estradiol just before onset of menstrual bleeding or around ovulation.
Doctors too often tend to dismiss “anxiety” as purely a response to stress, or as a psychiatric disorder. Women rarely get proper testing for the many endocrine causes of anxiety, such as excess thyroid, testosterone, or DHEA, or falling progesterone just before menses. All of these, plus falling estradiol, can cause the symptoms we call “anxiety” or “panic attacks.”
The limbic system of the brain regulates emotional states like anxiety and depression. It is rich in hormone receptors. Abrupt changes in estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, or thyroid hormones cause a release of our “flight or flight” chemical messengers – norepinephrine and dopamine – in these brain centers. These chemical messengers in turn fire off other brain centers that regulate heart rate, blood pressure, and our emotional feeling of “alarm.”
Testosterone, in particular, has a potent stimulating effect on brain pathways much like the stimulant amphetamine. This is one way testosterone improves a woman’s sense of well-being and energy level.
If you lose optimal testosterone, you lose your sex drive and feel sluggish. Too much testosterone, however, can cause nervousness, agitation, anxiety attacks, insomnia, and restlessness in the same way amphetamines do.
Restoring Balance
While doctors often misinterpret hormone test results and often treat women’s anxiety with antidepressant drugs, I prefer to get to the bottom of the underlying triggers, and then help women find ways to restore healthy hormone balance.
For example, instead of taking an antidepressant every day, talk with your doctor about trying an estradiol patch (i.e.,Vivelle DOT or Climara) just for the low estrogen days of your cycle. Or try eliminating foods that can disrupt your hormone balance. More on this topic in next week’s blog.
If you’re experiencing anxiety like Rebecca’s, I recommend these steps:
1. Keep a journal of when in your menstrual cycle the symptoms occur.
2. Make a note of any dietary triggers that make symptoms worse.
3. Read the free booklet on my Web site that outlines the medical tests that can help you get answers.
4. Ask your doctor to check your ovarian hormones at the times of your cycle when your symptoms are the worst.
5. Review the chapters in my book, It’s My Ovaries, Stupid!, that describe ways to balance your hormones.
Disruptive symptoms or health problems can seriously get in your way when you are holding down a full-time job in addition to being a wife and/or mother. You don’t have to suffer silently, or risk side effects from psychiatric medicines. Get tested, get answers, and get on the road to hormone health.
For more information about Dr. Vliet visit www.herplace.com.
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