How Women's Hormones Contribute to Anxiety

When it comes to women’s health issues, anxiety is a pretty common psychiatric occurrence. Roughly one third of women will experience some form of anxiety during their lifetime.

Anxiety for women looks a little bit different compared to their male counterparts.

Women have an earlier onset of anxiety and have a greater likelihood of developing multiple mental health disorders. These disorders can compound the anxiety, making symptoms more severe. Not only that, women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety from adolescence to roughly 50 years old.

The root cause of anxiety can come from multiple sources, but hormones definitely have a seat at that table worth noting. While women and men have the same types of hormones, women experience greater fluctuations and have different interactions with hormone production.

Periods of Hormonal Changes

Women may experience a wide array of symptoms while on their journey through the reproductive cycle. There are premenstrual symptoms (or PMS), perimenopausal mood and physical changes, menopausal symptoms, and postmenopausal symptoms. For women going through childbirth, they face a whole different level of hormonal changes.

Once menstruation begins, through the time women reach menopause, the hormone cycles occur at a greater range.

Any and all of these periods of hormonal change can contribute to the development of anxiety. Chemical fluctuations in the body have a significant link to anxiety in women.

The Key Hormone Players

There are over 50 hormones in the human body in charge of controlling your metabolism, homeostasis, sexual function, reproduction, mood, sleep cycle, and overall development. Any minor fluctuation in your various hormone levels can result in a rather large bodily change.

When it comes to anxiety, you’ll want to pay attention to estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin, cortisol, and adrenaline hormones.

Estrogen is produced in both men and women but in greater amounts in women. It’s responsible for sex and reproductive health, as well as breast health, cognitive functioning, and cardiovascular functioning.

Progesterone helps prepare your body for pregnancy or each menstruation cycle. It also helps regulate your mood and supports thyroid functioning, which also controls many bodily functions.

Testosterone, while typically thought of as the male sex hormone, is also present in women and aids in the maintenance of reproductive tissue and mood and behavior along with oxytocin.

Cortisol and adrenaline are both stress hormones produced in your adrenal glands when your body is under stress.

The Relationship Between Hormones and Anxiety

When you experience your menstrual cycle, your estrogen and progesterone levels drop towards the end of the cycle. Similarly, each of these hormones also decreases during perimenopause. As this decrease happens, it can impact your mood and trigger some feelings of anxiety.

If your body’s testosterone levels become too low, you may experience panic or worry, which can contribute to anxiety you may already be having. If oxytocin levels are lower, it’s common to feel irritability, some feelings of detachment (both affectionately and sexually), and sleep disturbances. Each of these symptoms can fuel existing anxiety or cause an onset of new anxiety.

And you can’t forget about the stress hormones. During periods of stress, your body releases cortisol and adrenaline to prepare your body for whatever threat is perceived. The problem lies in producing stress hormones when there isn’t actually anything for your body to do. This can result in feeling anxious.

Aside from that, these hormones can lead to decreased testosterone production, which can cause more anxiety. Plus, testosterone is linked to cortisol production, so lower testosterone can cause an increase in cortisol and the cycle of anxiety.

Managing Anxiety During Hormone Shifts

Many aspects of hormones are uncontrollable, but how you manage your lifestyle can help better control anxiety. Getting proper quality and quantity of sleep, exercising, nutrition, and establishing healthy coping mechanisms can all help.

If you’re interested in taking a deeper dive into your anxiety and management options, contact us for an appointment today.

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