We often talk about hormones when discussing things like pregnancy, mood, or the unpredictable behaviors of our adolescents. But hormones are always at work in your body as an integral part of your physiological balance.
You’ve probably noticed a societal shift of focus toward personalized nutrition. And many people are asking, what’s my hormone type? Curious about whether your hormones are out of balance? Understanding the major hormones and their jobs can be a great first step to identifying imbalances and finding your hormone type.
What are Hormones?
Hormones are chemical messengers that are produced by your endocrine glands and sent into your bloodstream. From there, they move to various cells and organs where they are responsible for countless physiological processes. One of the main roles of hormones is to help maintain balance within the systems of your body. When they’re out of whack, you feel it.
Hormones are always at work, whether it’s regulating things like growth, reproduction, and metabolism, supporting your immune system, your sleep-wake cycle, balancing mood, or coordinating systems within your body. They communicate with your nervous system as it responds to stimuli.
Think of hormones like keys. They can only act on a part of the body that has a receptor it fits into. If the key fits, the intended message can be received and that target cell can then do what it was asked to do.
The 4 Main Hormone Types
Hormones are categorized into groups depending on their unique structures and functions. The main types include stress hormones, blood sugar hormones, female hormones, and androgens (predominantly male hormones). Let’s take a dive into the hormones that fall into these groups and what their jobs are in your body.
Stress Hormones
Stress hormones are released in response to stressful events to trigger your sympathetic nervous system. They help your body prepare to go into fight-or-flight mode, for example, in response to a potential (real or perceived) threat.
When the threat has passed, your parasympathetic nervous system kicks into gear to help calm you down. This also signals the need to reduce the activity of the stress hormones.
Some of the major stress hormones include:
Cortisol
Considered the main human stress hormone, cortisol prepares you for fight-or-flight. It mobilizes stored glucose to provide you with quick energy, slows digestion, and narrows your arteries so that blood gets to your large muscles and heart faster.
Cortisol is necessary in the moment, but having prolonged high cortisol due to chronic stress is associated with negative health outcomes. Some symptoms of high cortisol might include weight gain, acne, irritability, and fatigue.
Adrenaline
Also called epinephrine, adrenaline helps prepare you for a threat by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, breaking down fat and increasing lactic acid in your muscles, increasing breathing rate, and releasing stored glucose and fat for energy.
Blood Sugar Hormones
Fluctuations in your blood sugar are dependent on your food intake as well as the blood sugar hormones that are released to help regulate it. When you eat, your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose molecules, which are then transported into your cells. From there, glucose provides the energy your brain and body need to function and perform tasks.
Blood sugar hormones work together to maintain balance. If your blood sugar were to become too high or too low, you can experience side effects, which can range from mild to life-threatening, especially if you have a medical condition like diabetes.
The two main hormone players in blood sugar regulation include:
Insulin
In order to move glucose from the bloodstream into your cells, insulin is needed. Insulin is released to make this transport happen by way of insulin receptors, therefore lowering high blood sugar.
Having insulin resistance, meaning your cells are not responding well to insulin, can cause fatigue, mid-section weight gain and food cravings. It’s nearly impossible to lose weight when you have high insulin levels, and over time, high insulin can cause elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure. If you think this sounds like you, it might be time to work with a knowledgeable practitioner to help you manage your insulin.
Glucagon
Glucagon helps keep your blood sugar levels from dropping. It does this by breaking down glycogen, a stored form of glucose, in the liver.
Female Hormones
The female hormones play a big role in reproductive and sexual development. They’re heavily involved in things like puberty, an increase in body fat accumulation in the thighs and hips, growth spurts, and the menstrual cycle.
The following are the two main female hormones:
Estrogen
Considered the major female hormone, estrogen is produced in the ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat cells. It has jobs in the brain, cardiovascular system, hair, musculoskeletal system, urinary tract, and skin.
Having high estrogen levels may lead to breast tenderness, decreased sex drive, headaches, fatigue, heavier periods and changes in menstruation.
Low levels of estrogen may cause hot flashes, tender breasts, moodiness, weak bones, fatigue, and vaginal dryness. Since estrogen helps give us a boost in serotonin and dopamine, having low estrogen can also negatively impact your sleep, mood and energy.
Progesterone
The ovaries make progesterone after ovulation. Its primary roles are to reduce estrogen levels after ovulation, support pregnancy, and prepare the lining of your uterus for a fertilized egg. Progesterone thins your uterine lining, giving you lighter periods.
Progesterone is our calming hormone and helps us release gaba, a calming neurotransmitter. When progesterone levels are too low it can cause you to feel anxiety, mood changes, headaches, and abnormal menstrual periods.
Estrogen and progesterone are like yin and yang – always needing to be in balance with each other so that we can feel our best. When one is too high or too low, we definitely feel the symptoms!
Androgens
Androgens are a group of sex hormones. They are responsible for things like physical maturation and changes involved in puberty.
Androgens are also involved in maintaining bone density, promoting muscle development, regulating sexual function, and producing red blood cells. While both men and women produce androgens, in the testicles and ovaries respectively, males make more.
There are several types of androgens, but the main one is:
Testosterone
Testosterone is considered the main male sex hormone, but it’s important for ladies too! It’s an anabolic-androgenic steroid, which indicates that it builds muscle and promotes lean tissue. I think of it as our huntress hormone – it gives us energy, drive and motivation.
If testosterone levels are too high in women, they might experience symptoms like irregular menstrual cycles, unwanted facial hair, acne, balding, enlarged clitoris, and decreased breast size.
When women have low testosterone, they feel low energy, low libido and struggle with their weight and building muscle.
How to Determine My Hormone Type
Now that you have a better idea of the hormones involved in your everyday physiology, you might be curious about whether yours are in balance. Identifying hormonal imbalances can be the first step in explaining symptoms and feelings that might have otherwise been dismissed. The ultimate goal? Hormonal harmony!
It’s always best to speak with your healthcare provider regarding any hormonal concerns you have. Check out one of our programs that focuses on hormonal health. We run specialized hormone/adrenal testing to dive deep into your hormonal imbalances and gives us the information we need to rebalance your hormones naturally.
In the meantime, to learn more about hormones and how to find your hormone type, take our free hormone balance quiz.
References
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2. Understanding the stress response. Harvard Health Publishing. Published 6 Ju;y 2020. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
3. Schoorlemmer, R. M., Peeters, G. M., van Schoor, N. M., & Lips, P. (2009). Relationships between cortisol level, mortality and chronic diseases in older persons. Clinical endocrinology, 71(6), 779–786. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2265.2009.03552.x
4. Nakrani MN, Wineland RH, Anjum F. Physiology, Glucose Metabolism. [Updated 2023 Jul 17]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560599/
5. Campbell M, Jialal I. Physiology, Endocrine Hormones. [Updated 2022 Sep 26]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538498/
6. Androgens. Cleveland Clinic. Reviewed 24 Oct 2021. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22002-androgens
