Naturopathic Doctors For Hormones & Women’s Health
Our Toronto naturopathic doctors at Bloor Integrative Health in downtown Toronto specialize in hormones, helping patients with a wide variety of common hormonal concerns.
What are hormones and how do they affect our health?
Hormones are chemical messengers that allow your body and mind to communicate and affect different aspects of bodily functions and processes. Various endocrine organs secrete hormones directly into the blood, which carries them to organs and tissues of the body to exert their functions.
Some of the main hormonal functions include growth and development, metabolism, sexual function and reproductive health, cognitive function and mood and maintenance of body temperature and thirst.
Hormones and endocrine glands, like the thyroid, reproductive organs and the adrenals, work together to try and maintain balance in the functions and processes they control. It is important to have proper lab testing to assess hormone levels as many hormones work together and can have similar symptom patterns. Our naturopathic doctor will most likely request some level of hormonal testing to help assess your hormonal health.
Common hormonal concerns and patterns that our naturopaths see in practice include:
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
PMS is a common symptom pattern that aggravates before your period. Depending on your particular hormonal pattern it can include any combination of the following symptoms and others not listed here, including:
sore breasts,
bloating,
increased cravings,
fatigue, acne,
insomnia,
night sweats,
irritability,
depression
and anxiety.
Typically, our naturopath specializing in hormones will help you to balance healthy levels of estrogen and progesterone to improve PMS symptoms although there may be other factors involved such as liver health, digestive health, and the implications of increased stress.
Menopause & Perimenopause
Although menopause is a normal and healthy process it can be symptomatic and disruptive for many individuals. The body and its hormones adjust as estrogen levels decline and these adjustments can be responsible for many symptoms, including: hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, depression, irritability, heavy and frequent periods, and an aggravation of other health concerns.
Perimenopause includes the years leading up to menopause and can start as early as 40 in some individuals. It is typically a period of erratic estrogen levels combined with higher-than-average estrogen levels.
Depending on where you are in this transition there are many evidence-based naturopathic treatments that can be helpful at symptom reduction and supportive in balancing hormones throughout.
Postmenopausal Support
Once menopause has completed (or post hysterectomy) and your body has reached a new level of hormonal balance there are areas of health that are important to support.
Aside from reproductive, estrogen has many other functions including bone health, cognitive health and cardiovascular health (including healthy cholesterol levels). Naturopathic medicine can help support bone, brain and cardiovascular health among other changes in postmenopausal women.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement
Some naturopathic doctors have extra training and a license to be able to provide bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Bioidentical hormones are defined as hormones identical in structure to human hormones. They are used as topical creams in doses that mimic normal physiological levels. Our naturopathic doctors specializing in hormones will be thorough in assessing your hormonal patterns and needs and can determine whether bioidentical hormones may be a useful treatment option for you.
Menstrual Health (Period Pain, Heavy Periods, Irregular Periods)
Menstruation and menstrual cycles can have many different challenges throughout the reproductive years. Common concerns that naturopathic doctors see in practice include painful periods, heavy periods and irregular periods. Our hormones naturopaths will take time to assess all the contributing factors in your situation and will build an individualized treatment plan to address your concerns.
Stopping the Birth Control Pill
Whether for reproductive reasons or other, many women seek the care of a naturopathic doctor when they have decided to stop taking the birth control pill. Naturopathic medicine uses evidence-based treatments to help support the rebalancing of cycling reproductive hormones. And this is where our naturopathic doctors who specialize in hormones come in.