Women dealing with weight gain, anxiety, lack of sleep and other woes related to the stress of the pandemic may not realize that the root cause may be a hormone imbalance.
The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on everyone, including women, who juggled work from home, homeschooling and lockdown simultaneously.
While some of the stress may have lifted, its effects may still linger but the reason may not be what you think.
For Anne Doise, her love for tennis has more to do with the physical and emotional benefits.
The pandemic shut it all down.
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"We had to stop and I used it as exercise, but then I realized during COVID, it's really my social network," said Doise.
With her main stress reliever gone and stresses compounding at home, "I could feel I was less patient. The sleep patterns changed. And physically I could feel that," said Doise.
It wasn't just "dealing with life." It turned out to be her hormone levels.
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A mix of stress, bad food choices, an increase in alcohol, lack of exercise and poor sleep led to a hormone imbalance that, according to doctors, can be misdiagnosed as an anxiety disorder, even depression.
"The most common thing is weight gain that I see and then that throws off your hormones," said functional medicine practitioner Dr. Jennifer Engels.
Dr. Engels says pandemic hormones have also disguised what can happen to women as early as their mid-thirties: Perimenopause.
Perimenopause is the transitional time around menopause. Menopause is when a woman's periods stop.
It's marked by changes in the menstrual cycle, along with other physical and emotional symptoms. This time can last two to 10 years
"It's natural for our hormones to start dropping, and usually progesterone is the first one," said Engels.
It can be followed by testosterone and estrogen imbalance. Side effects run the gamut but common ones are anxiety, weight gain and mood swings.
There is good news, according to Engels.
"There are things we can do to make you feel better, to feel more like yourself, and to not feel like you're going crazy or there's something wrong with you," said Engels.
A vitamin D deficiency can wreak havoc on your body's hormone regulation and if your gut isn't "working as efficiently" as it should, then your body isn't detoxifying hormones like it should.
Basic steps like nutrient supplements or just adding whole foods and vegetables could make the difference.
Doise, long with her doctor, determined hormone therapy would be her "ace" against those pandemic hormones and now serves this encouragement to other women.
"People just come from a background where they think this is just how they're supposed to feel. It's just refreshing to know that it's not necessary. Doesn't have to be that way," said Doise.
