The Thyroid and Menopause Connection| Menopause

The Thyroid and Menopause Connection

Post author:Chen Ben Asher
Post published:December 12, 2019
Post category:Estrogen / Female Hormones / Health / Menopause / Thyroid Health
Post comments:0 Comments

There can be different reasons why there is a change in how hormones are produced and distributed through the body.

We can look at menopause that is a biological happening that you cannot escape. There are ways how to make the condition closer to normal and understand that it is essential to draw attention to your health, especially in middle age. Looking at the thyroid and menopause can help understand your condition.

First, we can look at what menopause is and how it happens. According to the Hormone Health Network, menopause is “the process a woman goes through that causes her monthly periods to end.” It means that woman’s eggs stop producing eggs, and also hormone production decreases. This not only means that a woman cannot get pregnant naturally but also that there are other changes in her body like estrogen levels that start to drop. The average age when menopause appears is 47-55 years. Some women have this occurrence even around 40 years of age, but then it is called premature.

Symptoms of menopause

Mental fogginess
Mood swings
Hot flashes
Irregular periods
Depression, anxiety
Worsening PMS

The leading cause of these symptoms is the changing hormones. The body needs to adjust to changes and help to balance everything. There are numerous treatment options available. Low thyroid also has become a topical issue. Additionally, Dr. Kellman, in her research (2010) about low thyroid, said that it is an epidemic in the US, and ordinary blood tests often fail to detect it.[2] An alternative is used TRH (thyrotropin-releasing hormone) stimulation test to diagnose low thyroid.

Adrenals are responsible for various hormones that can be dysfunctional during menopause, but, regarding thyroid hormones, it is thyroid that is located in front of the neck and is much smaller and in the form of a butterfly. The process can occur already in the pre-menopause period.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Another accordance with the increasing number of women after 40 is hair loss. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, around 40% of women in the US, about 40, suffer from this problem. The number can be even bigger because a lot of women don’t take it seriously as thinking that it is a part of a natural process. Studies have shown that there is some connection between thyroid dysfunction and hair loss.

Hypothyroidism or Low Thyroid is one of the most common causes of hair loss, but in many cases, it still is undetected as the thyroid blood test, including TSH, T4, T3, is still failing to find this problem. Thus, it keeps affecting self-image and emotional state as loss of hair can make a person feel more depressed, unattractive, and also stressed.

These are just a few reasons why it is crucial to find out if hair loss is a sign of aging, or it is just a symptom of something more severe that still can be changed for good. Also, stress itself can negatively affect hormones resulting in high levels of cortisol, suppression of thyroid function, low DHEA, and lead to hypothyroidism.

Estrogen and progesterone deficiency

A lot of women who have problems with the thyroid gland also have problems with estrogen and progesterone deficiency. Progesterone deficiency gives additional symptoms like hot flashes, depression, night sweats, and difficulties in concentrating and focus on different things. This has more to do with the adrenal gland that is above kidneys.

It is a rather complex organ that deals with the production of even more hormones than the thyroid gland. There is also a proved connection between estrogen and progesterone imbalance and its effect on the thyroid. This imbalance can suppress thyroid function and cause additional health problems.

The thyroid can also affect weight gain and fatigue. It has already been proved also these are quite common symptoms. If there are such symptoms, a person shouldn’t just let it be but try to find a cause and the most suitable treatment. To obtain a diagnosis of problems with thyroid, in menopausal women, mainly blood and saliva test is performed.

Further, it is possible to proceed to That is enough to measure hormone levels, yet still, it is essential first to understand that there is some problem that is beyond simply getting better. Every menopausal woman should be addressed individually, but some general assumptions are stated and showed to be true in a majority of cases.

Treatment of thyroid dysfunction in menopausal women

Most appreciated therapies regarding hormones are the natural ones. As one of them is “bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.”[3] They are safer and don’t do that much harm that chemical ones that, on the other hand, usually are more effective in a much shorter period. Natural products can take weeks and even months to take effect. There are also numerous syntactic thyroid hormone medications like levothyroxine.

Some people might experience nervousness and chest pain, but otherwise, there aren’t many side effects.[4] Additional attention should be to the fact that this medicine shouldn’t intervene with other medicaments like antidepressants, estrogens, and others as it can cause unpleasant effects. As an alternative solution is a possibility to try different homeopathic mixtures, herbs, some preparation’s based on traditional Chinese medicine. But a suggestion is not to rely only on them, especially in more severe cases.

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