How Trauma Affects Hormone Health in Women| Connecting the Dots

It’s no secret that hormone health is a major concern for many women, particularly those who suffer from conditions such as PCOS, fibroids, PMS, heavy periods, painful period cramps, hormonal acne and more. While there are many contributing factors to consider when addressing these issues (as I discussed in THIS previous post), one of the lesser talked-about elements is unresolved trauma. In this blog post, we’ll explore how unresolved trauma can impact women’s hormone health.

Unresolved trauma has a direct impact on both stress hormones and sex hormones in our bodies. Studies have shown that traumatic experiences can cause long-term changes in brain structure and chemical responses–changes that can then lead to hormonal imbalances. But how does this happen?

How Trauma Impacts Hormones?

One way is through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This is the system in our bodies responsible for releasing hormones related to stress levels. Adrenaline and cortisol are key players here, with adrenaline being released in response to intense physical or emotional stressors while cortisol helps regulate the body’s response to them. When unresolved trauma is present, however, the HPA axis becomes dysregulated–it overreacts or underreacts–causing an imbalance between these two hormones. This can lead to further symptoms such as period problems, fatigue, low libido, mood swings, insomnia, weight gain/loss, etc., all of which can be associated with hormone imbalances.

Another way unresolved trauma affects hormone health is through its effects on the nervous system. The hypothalamus–which controls hunger levels and body temperature–and the pituitary gland –which releases growth hormones–are both part of the nervous system and therefore affected by unresolved trauma as well. In fact, one of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. This disruption can then lead to even more problems like infertility or irregular menstrual cycles as well as depression and anxiety.

What is Unresolved Trauma?

As Gabor Mate says, trauma isn’t about what happens to us, rather what happens inside of us as a result of what happened to us. Trauma can include certain things that happened to us, things that we needed but didn’t get (attention, love, safety, sense of worthiness and more), and it can be passed along from generation to generation. So we actually don’t have to go through a traumatic experience per say for it to be impacting us. There are a growing number of studies that support the idea that the effects of trauma can reverberate down the generations through epigenetics. Life is traumatic. So even with clients that don’t believe trauma is part of there story once we dig a bit deeper we usually see it playing in their lives and health in some way.

Unresolved trauma isn’t something that should be overlooked when it comes to discussing women’s hormone health; it’s an important factor that needs to be addressed if we want to truly understand and address our symptoms effectively. For women struggling with hormonal imbalances due to unresolved trauma, seeking professional help from a women’s wellness practitioner that is trauma-informed and utilizing a mind, body, and spirit approach may be beneficial in order to provide targeted treatment tailored specifically for you.

How to Get Support?

If you are a women’s wellness coach or practitioner then it is important to become trauma informed. Wellness Code Academy practitioner certification program is a dynamic, trauma-informed, beyond-the-biochemical, and truly holistic coaching system that takes…

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Learn more about my approach with clients: My Health and Healing Philosophy

I believe ANY HEALING JOURNEY ultimately needs to involve addressing BOTH the body and the mind in the proper way and in the proper order which will be highly individual.  

It also is a HUGE reason why I see many feel stuck on their own healing journeys because this concept hasn’t been adequately acknowledged, understood or addressed.