What is your body feeling right now? Any discomfort, happiness or stress? Maybe you’re on your period or maybe you’re moody from it. Are you hungry and waiting for your order number to be called? Are you happy because you just survived a kickboxing lesson? However you may be feeling, it’s thanks to hormones, those special messengers in your body.
According to the Hormone Health Network, hormones are chemical messengers that control major bodily functions, from basic needs like hunger to complex systems like reproduction and even your emotions. As a woman, it’s important to understand your hormones because you have about 50 of them in your body that help shape the person you are today. Here is a collection of 10 hormones to help you better understand your physical and mental health.
This is a powerful sex hormone in women. According to Web MD, estrogen regulates many aspects of a woman’s body and influences emotional well-being. It initially allows a girl to go through puberty and develop into a woman. It stimulates breast growth, regulates the menstrual cycle and promotes ovulation. Estrogen’s effects on the brain are very complex and not fully understood by researchers, but it is probably to blame for your PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) symptoms.
According to Healthy Women, testosterone is considered a “male organ” or androgen. Higher testosterone levels are associated with an increased sex drive in both women and men. Health24 says that although young women have about 10 percent the amount of testosterone that men have, women over 40 have about half and after menopause, they can even have higher levels than men of the same age. Along with influencing the libido, it also plays a role with bone and muscle densities.
This is the fertility hormone that literally translates to “promoting gestation.” Progesterone signals the uterus to prepare for pregnancy and helps support the fetus’ growth. Healthy Women says that progesterone is produced in the ovaries, the placenta and the adrenal glands. It not only prepares the body for pregnancy, but plays an important role in the nervous system. According to Women In Balance, Progesterone helps protect against brain damage and also helps repair the brain tissue after injury. So not only is it essential to reproduction but also to brain function!
Cortisol is the stress hormone. It is made in the adrenal gland and is released as a natural response to stress. BodyLogicMD states that women can be more susceptible to higher levels of stress and in turn, more likely to have a cortisol imbalance. According to the Hormone Health Network, cortisol is more than just a hormone released during stress. It can also help control blood sugar levels and regulate metabolism while lowering inflammation. Cortisol even helps the fetus during pregnancy.
Mayo Clinic states DHEA, the parent hormone, comes from the adrenal gland but is also made in the brain. It allows the production of the male and female sex hormones, but can treat a wide array of conditions. Web MD notes that DHEA supplements can be taken to improve thinking skills in elders, slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, or even to improve an athlete’s physical performance. Women can even use DHEA inside their vaginas to strengthen its walls, to increase bone mineral density, or to treat precancerous cervical dysplasia.
You can find insulin in your pancreas. This hormone is responsible for regulating the blood glucose levels in the body. You probably hear this hormone come up a lot in discussions about diabetes. The Hormone Health Network reports that diabetes occurs when the body doesn’t secrete enough insulin or doesn’t use it effectively.
This is the sleeping hormone. According to Health Guidance, melatonin acts as a neurotransmitter that is responsible for regulating the sleep-wake cycle and your internal clock, known as your circadian rhythm. Andrew Westwood, M.D. at Columbia University says that usually around 8:00 p.m., our bodies produce more melatonin until about 3:00 a.m. when it peaks and then drops. Simply put, this hormone signals your body when it’s nighttime and time for sleep. Taking an occasional natural melatonin supplement when jet-lagged may be a better option than those potent prescription sleeping pills.
Oxytocin is nicknamed the “cuddle hormone” and the “love hormone” because it is released when people are intimate, snuggle, bond and even orgasm. According to Live Science, oxytocin is found in the pituitary gland, which is located in your brain. It can promote relationship bonding, mother-child bonding and father-child bonding. Loretta Graziano Breuning, Ph.D. says that “oxytocin is a mingling of trust and physical touch, as well as love-making.” It may also be to blame for your habit of “falling for the bad boys,” as the release of oxytocin through love-making and orgasm could trigger misleading feelings of trust for that person. According to The Babble Out, this hormone might have the potential to be used as various forms of treatments and can even affect our physical traits.
According to Your Hormones, CCK is a gut hormone released after a meal that helps digestion and reduces your appetite. It signals to the brain that you are satiated and also stimulates your body to release bile from the gall bladder. Next time you refrain from taking another slice of pizza, thank your body’s CCK for telling you, “nah, I’m full.”
Know that euphoric feeling you get after a long run? Endorphins are to thank for that! Endorphins are chemicals that are released when you exercise; they interact with the receptors in your brain that help block pain. According to Everyday Health, endorphins trigger positive feelings and induce feelings of pleasure or euphoria.
As Elle Woods from Legally Blonde explains, “exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”
