Male Hormone Imbalance

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance!

Male Hormone Imbalance

Male hormone imbalance is a growing problem, I am testing more and more men with less than optimal testosterone results, often combined with high estrogen

There are some simple diet, lifestyle and supplement options that you can do to help optimise your hormonal health, but the first thing I recommend doing is testing your hormones.

Signs and Symptoms of Excess Estrogen

You do not need to have all of these symptoms if you have excess estrogen, these are the most common symptoms that men experience with male hormone imbalance.

  • Low testosterone and excess estrogen can cause similar symptoms in men
  • Excess estrogen can cause excess weight, especially around the breasts, hips and abdomen and is the most common male hormone imbalance in overweight men.
  • Excess estrogen can lead to low libido, infertility and erectile dysfunction
  • Increased risk of stroke and heart attack because of an increased risk of clotting
  • Increased risk of prostate cancer

Signs and Symptoms of Low Testosterone

Low testosterone has many similar symptoms to excess estrogen, with more muscle weakness and fatigue being the main difference, whenever you think of male hormone imbalance you usually think low testosterone is the cause.

  • Similar to excess estrogen, low testosterone can cause low libido and erectile dysfunction.
  • Muscle weakness and poor recovery from exercise.
  • Fatigue and lack of energy, this can be caused by many things and low testosterone is one of them.
  • Mood changes and depression.
  • It can lead to weak bones and osteoporosis as you age.

What Causes Low Testosterone and Excess Estrogen

There are many different causes of male hormone imbalance and here is a list of the most common ones.

  • Stress can cause many different health problems and hormone problems are no different, adrenal fatigue will up-regulate an enzyme called aromatase leading to low testosterone and high estrogen.
  • Diets high in refined carbohydrates will lead to insulin resistance and problems with the sex hormones.
  • Excess weight leads to excess estrogen, many men with excess abdominal weight will be high in estrogen.
  • Personal care products can be high in chemicals which contain xenoestrogens.
  • Other chemicals in the environment and plastic containers also contain xenoestrogens leading to higher estrogen levels and lower testosterone levels.
  • Excessive amounts of cardio/ endurance exercise will lead to a drop in testosterone and higher estrogen, strength and high intensity interval training is a better option.
  • Excess alcohol will lead to lower testosterone.
  • EMF's in the environment, this does not mean you have to give up your smart phone but there are steps that you can take to mitigate the risks, this article on testosterone and EMF's gives a lot more details or check out the Faraday Boxer Shorts which can protect your balls from EMF exposure.

Supplements

These are some of the supplements that I recommend and that I have seen client get good results with, the supplements that you need will depend on whether you have high estrogen levels or low testosterone. There are also different causes of the hormones going out of balance which is why I recommend the DUTCH hormone test to help identify exactly what is going wrong.

Supplements to increase testosterone

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance! 1

Test Worx this helps to boost testosterone and lower SHBG which leads to a boost in free testosterone

Vaso Worx

Nitric Oxide booster the nitric oxide boost can help with muscle growth, and for guys with performance problems can help to increase blood flow to improve erections.

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance! 2

DHT Block to improve the metabolism of testosterone, this can help prevent acne, hair loss, prostate cancer and mood swings

Supplements to increase testosterone

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance! 3

Estroblock Triple Strength using DIM and Indole-3-carbinol to help estrogen metabolism in the liver

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance! 4

Thorne Research Calcium d glucarate to help decrease beta-glucuronidase and improve estrogen metabolism through the intestines

Male Hormone Imbalance – How do you know if you’re out of balance! 5

Thorne Research Double Strength Zinc Zinc is important for so many functions in the body and can help to inhibit the aromatase enzyme as well as improve testosterone production.

How To Test Your Hormones

Hormones can be tested in blood, urine or saliva and I prefer to use  urine testing as it measures the free bioavailable hormones plus the levels of adrenal hormones throughout the day (which is not possible in a blood test).

Saliva testing is the cheaper option and is easy to do at home without going to a lab or having to visit a doctor, and for some people this will be the best option. I recommend a combination of adrenal and sex hormone testing, this test measures 4 different samples throughout the day to identify the natural diurnal rhythm of cortisol (cortisol levels change during the day) and the best option for this is the DUTCH Hormone Test, if you would like to find out more information then read the DUTCH hormone test review.

adrenal and sex hormone testing

Noteworthy:  Urine testing is also an easy option to do at home, it is more expensive but goes into more detail about the hormones and the hormone metabolites and this is my preferred option for testing hormones.

This extra information tells us about the precursors to the hormones which can help to identify the cause of the hormone imbalance.

This test is called the DUTCH hormone test and it stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones.

It gives us your levels of free testosterone, and also the metabolites of testosterone which show if your metabolizing testosterone down the 5b-DHT pathway or the more potent 5a-DHT pathway.

It also tells us how the estrogen is being metabolized, there are 3 different pathways estrogen can be metabolized down and they are the 2, 4 or 16 hydroxyestrone pathways ..... the 2 hydroxyestrone pathway is the healthy pathway while the 4 and 16 pathways are associated with cancer and other health problems.

Noteworthy:  The saliva and urine tests are both available throughout the world and a test kit can be posted to your home, the kit is then sent back to the lab for analysis.

Once the results are in we can go through them via video consultation or phone and work out a treatment plan to optimize your results.

If you would like to order a test kit go the the DUTCH Hormone Test order page, you also have the option of scheduling a 30 minute consultation to make sure this is the right test for you, and I can help guide you on the right path to balance your hormones.

About the Author Michael

Michael is head consultant at Planet Naturopath - Functional Medicine and Nutrition Solutions. He is a registered naturopath with the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA) and works with clients from all over the world via video or phone consultations. He is a degree qualified naturopath from the Endeavour College of Natural Medicine in Australia with 18 years of experience. He uses advanced testing methods, nutritional medicine, herbal medicine, and lifestyle advice to help you stay healthy. He is a Kalish Method-trained practitioner that keeps updating his education with Chris Kresser. Michael completed Dr. Terry Wahls practitioner training program, a 12-month program with ongoing training that helps understand the underlying cause and treatment of MS and autoimmune conditions. He keeps up to date with the latest research into health and natural medicine through the Metabolic Fitness Pro course with Dr. Bryan Walsh.

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