Inflammation & Hormones

Are you a woman who struggles with hot flashes way past menopause? Or you struggle with hot flashes and you aren’t anywhere near menopause yet?


Are you a woman who struggles with heavy periods? Or struggle with painful periods and need ibuprofen to help ease your symptoms?


Today I am talking about 2 topics I am very passionate about: Hormones & inflammation!


Many women come in to see me for help with hormone balancing. We often discuss hormone testing and how to eat a balanced diet for hormonal health. But testing hormone levels are not the only important labs to consider running. Many women underestimate the importance of testing for inflammation when looking at hormonal symptoms.


Inflammation is best described as a “fire from within”. It causes heat and redness of the tissues and can cause us to actually feel “hot and bothered”


As naturopathic doctors, we always do our best to treat the “root cause” of symptoms. When it comes to treating hormones, if chronic inflammation is present then this can make hormonal symptoms significantly worse than they would be otherwise.


For this reason, I often run lab tests to screen for inflammation with patients:

• ESR
• CRP
• ANA (autoimmune screening)
• hs-CRP (more sensitive inflammatory marker if CRP is normal)

Though I don’t recommend testing inflammatory markers to every patient with hormonal imbalances, I think it is especially important when patients have one or more symptoms of inflammation:

• Hot flashes (even if in menopause)
• Night sweats (even if in menopause)
• Heavy periods
• Painful periods
• Feeling “hot” (you’re in a t-shirt and everyone else is wearing a sweater)
• Joint pain(s)
• Bowel issues (ie. diarrhea, mucus/blood in stool)
• Chronic fatigue
• Muscle or tendon pain(s)
• A diagnosed chronic inflammatory condition (i.e. endometriosis, type 2 diabetes, etc.)

If you are someone who struggles with hormonal issues and have any of the symptoms above, you might want to have some inflammatory testing done with your naturopathic doctor.


If you are experiencing unwanted hormone or inflammatory symptoms — there is hope! There are many steps you can take to get both your hormones and inflammation under control.


Your partner in health,
Noelle