FEMALE
HORMONE
HEALTH
Thyroid
What Does Thyroid Hormone Do?
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Thyroid hormone helps the body convert food into energy, regulates metabolism, and body temperature. It also assists in the proper functioning of the brain, memory, and mood. Millions of Americans are affected by thyroid dysfunction. Many people have clinical symptoms of thyroid dysfunction but have not been diagnosed.
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What Caused My Thyroid to Become Imbalanced?
The thyroid may become imbalanced for many reasons such as autoimmunity, including Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Grave’s Disease, medications, aging, food intolerance, chemical exposure, and nutritional deficiencies.
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What will I notice if my thyroid is not functioning normally?
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Fatigue
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Constipation
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Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
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Dry skin
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Feeling cold
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Depression
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Hair loss
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Memory issues or cloudy thinking
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Irregular menstrual cycles
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Elevated cholesterol
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Lowered libido
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Diminished growth of the outer one-third of the eyebrows
Our approach to treating thyroid imbalance
Unlike the Western medical model, we do not rely solely on TSH to determine the health of the thyroid. We run a complete panel including antibodies to determine what treatment is needed. We are also guided by clinical symptoms and not solely bloodwork.
Adrenal Health
Patients with adrenal fatigue experience a group of symptoms that conventional medicine neither recognizes nor treats.
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Adrenal fatigue is not a disease, but a collection of symptoms that are classified as a syndrome. This syndrome occurs when the adrenal glands are not functioning at their normal level. In contrast, when the adrenal glands do not function at all, it causes Addison’s disease. When they are hyperfunctioning or there are adrenal or pituitary tumors, there may be Cushing’s disease.
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At our clinic, we treat adrenal fatigue syndrome with natural hormonal treatments, herbs, and other remedies.
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What Causes Adrenal Fatigue?
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Many different types of stressors can contribute to adrenal fatigue, such as:
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Physical Injury
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Emotional Distress
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Long-term Inflammation due to Food Intolerance
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Long-term Illness
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Environmental Exposures
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Cortisol, the stress hormone made by the adrenal glands can become dysregulated under many different circumstances.
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Most often the cortisol has become low by the time a patient seeks out help, but occasionally the cortisol is too high, or the cortisol rhythm will be reversed. We use an ASI (Adrenal Stress Index) test to determine what is happening with the cortisol levels so that we can choose the appropriate treatment.
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What are the symptoms of adrenal fatigue?
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Anxiety
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Fatigue
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Weight gain
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Infertility/miscarriage
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Low Libido
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Dizziness/Lightheadedness
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Hypoglycemia
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Low blood pressure
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Depression
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Headaches
Perimenopause
& Menopause
This period of time in a woman’s life comes with many changes, some welcome and others not so much!
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Perimenopause can begin a full ten years prior to menopause. During this time, the production of progesterone by the ovaries declines and menstrual cycles begin to have some irregularity.
This decrease in progesterone causes symptoms of estrogen dominance along with hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, anxiety, mood swings and weight gain in the mid-section.
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Healthy adrenal function can help a woman transition through this period much more gently.
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We can help you make a smoother transition with healthy lifestyle changes, exercise recommendations, herbs, supplements and bioidentical hormones.
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Estrogen declines as we move into menopause, and this may be accompanied by increased hot flashes, dry skin, vaginal dryness, urinary tract infections, lowered libido, bone loss and memory issues. We use natural hormones and vaginal creams to alleviate these symptoms.
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As the female hormones decrease, the male hormone testosterone may become dominant or elevated and may cause hair thinning, unwanted coarse facial hair, and abdominal obesity.
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With proper testing of the hormones and correcting of the levels we can help you get back to your normal.
Infertility
Are you struggling with infertility? If you and your partner are struggling to have a baby, you are not alone. One in eight couples in the United States have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant
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Fertility challenges can be caused by poor egg quality, hormonal imbalances including cycle abnormalities, improper signaling from the pituitary gland, polycystic ovarian syndrome, obesity, and more. Some root causes are linked to lifestyle and environmental factors, and Dr. Marcia is trained to uncover the underlying issues.
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There are many safe, natural, and effective lifestyle modifications and therapies that can address these problems, strengthen your overall health, and improve your chances of getting pregnant.
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Dr. Marcia uses specialized tests, including a month-long hormone panel, to find hidden hormonal and cycle issues which may be contributing to infertility.
