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Hormones play a major part in a woman´s life, altering at different ages and stages. Mother Nature designed us perfectly and the myriad changes that take place throughout a woman´s life are (if all is in balance and your health is good) orchestrated to perfection for a body that is designed to reproduce. Yes, at times we may curse our hormones and their fluctuations may cause us some discomfort, but this is all part of a perfectly natural process and we can take perfectly natural steps to help us with it.
Even before a girl is born her ovaries contain around seven million egg-forming cells! This number drops to about two million at birth and decreases further still to an estimated 300,000 cells at puberty. Between puberty and the menopause about 500 of these eggs mature and are released by the ovaries - approximately one per month. Puberty is a time when major changes take place in a young woman´s body and most of the changes are triggered by the body´s production of hormones.
This whole process begins when a part of the brain known as the hypothalamus (sometimes referred to as the conductor of our hormonal orchestra) sends a message to the pituitary gland (a small piece of tissue about as big as a cherry situated at the base of the brain), telling it that it is now time to start releasing hormones. Two of these hormones, FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinising hormone), then go on to stimulate the ovaries to start producing the hormones whose names you will be more familiar with: oestrogen and progesterone. Oestrogen comes first and is responsible for the enlargement of the ovaries; preparing them to start producing and releasing eggs. Progesterone encourages growth of blood vessels and glands so the womb is prepared to receive and support a fertilised egg. If conception does not take place, the lining of the womb is shed to produce the monthly period of vaginal bleeding. And so the amazing cycle of menstruation begins. It is something women simply have to learn to live with and is a big part of our lives for thirty-plus years.
It is hardly surprising then, hormonal influences apart, that when such a regular cycle starts to change it can have a major influence on us. Menstruation is just one event in the monthly hormonal cycle. There are a multitude of effects on other areas of the body that are also under the control of the hypothalamus. And the familiarly named oestrogen and progesterone do have roles other than reproductive ones. For instance, oestrogen helps to maintain the body´s supply of collagen (vital for the maintenance of skin elasticity and hair thickness) and it also plays a role in maintaining healthy blood vessels. Progesterone plays a role in improving the functioning of the immune system and also helps to maintain the correct balance of salt and water in the body.
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It is also worth noting that hormones are not only unbalanced by or during menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. In addition, a variety of factors such as stress, nutrition, ill health, exercise, environmental and pollution issues can affect the amount of each hormone that the body produces from month to month, and year to year. And the great news is there is much you can do to help achieve the optimum natural balance - including wearing your LadyCare.
More on hormones…..
…….. Menopause occurs because of hormonal changes.
At the onset of the menopause the production of oestrogen decreases and the production of progesterone virtually halts altogether. The resulting shift in
the fine balance between oestrogen and progesterone (a balance your body has been attempting to maintain for years) can lead to the symptoms that may afflict some women during
their menopausal years. Remember though, as mentioned earlier, in some countries women do not suffer so many symptoms, giving weight to the argument that lifestyle, diet and psychology
(what we are programmed to expect!) are major players, too. In the healthy body, once the ovaries stop producing the female hormones, Mother Nature has something else up her sleeve:
the adrenal glands produce a form of oestrogen and take over production to maintain a comfortable balance. However, if the adrenal glands are stressed they may not work optimally and may
fall short on compensating for the ovaries. Oestrogen is also produced from fat cells, so this is no time to go on a crash diet and become skinny…a little overweight is your best option.
During this transition period - as the body works to regain its hormonal balance - menopausal symptoms may.
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