Women’s Hormone Health in Elkhorn & Omaha

Women’s Hormonal Imbalance, an Overview

A hormone imbalance means your body is making too much or too little of one or more hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers. They travel through your blood and help run things like your metabolism, sleep, mood, and monthly cycle. The Cleveland Clinic notes that scientists have found more than 50 of them in the human body. For women, hormone levels shift over a lifetime, through the teen years, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause.

Hormones are the harmony of the body. When they’re off, you feel it everywhere. The tired that doesn’t go away. Weight that shows up even though nothing changed. Hot flashes and nights of broken sleep. A cycle you can never predict. Cramps, bloating, and PMS that everyone tells you are just part of being a woman.

We meet women who’ve been told they’re their doctor’s healthiest patient, and that the rest is just part of aging. We meet younger women who were put on birth control as teenagers to fix an irregular cycle, and never found out why it was irregular. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. You can look healthy on the outside and still not feel good on the inside.

Dr. Julie says it best: “Though it’s common, it’s not normal.” Your hormones don’t work alone. Stress, sleep, food, and how hard you push your body all feed into them. So we don’t guess. We test, find what’s actually off, and build a plan for your body.

Below, you’ll find what commonly throws women’s hormones off, how we test for it, and how we help. If you already know what stage you’re in, start with the page that fits you best.

Where are you right now?

Perimenopause & Menopause

Hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, low energy, or sleep that’s fallen apart.

Irregular Periods & Cycle Problems

Cycles that are irregular, missing, or won’t stop. Trouble getting back on track after birth control.

Planning a Pregnancy

Getting your body, and your partner’s, ready before you start trying.

Pregnant Now

Webster-certified chiropractic care for a more comfortable pregnancy.
Explore prenatal chiropractic care.

---

What throws women’s hormones off?

Stress and Cortisol

We’re a very high-stress society. Most of us spend our days in “fight or flight” mode. That shows up in cortisol, your main stress hormone. When cortisol is off, your energy, sleep, and other hormones often follow.

Years on Birth Control

Ten to fifteen years ago, many teens were put on birth control for acne or irregular cycles. It can quiet the symptoms without ever finding the cause. Dr. Julie calls it a band-aid. Some women stop after many years and wait a long time for a normal cycle. One of our patients came off birth control after 14 years and still didn’t have a regular cycle almost a year later.

Pushing Your Body Too Hard

We see this in high school athletes and dancers. Some aren’t eating enough for how hard they train. Others are well fed but pushing to the extreme. Either way, it’s a lot of stress on the body, and the body starts shutting things down. Losing your period is often one of the first signs.

Sleep and Melatonin

Melatonin is the hormone that helps you fall asleep. Some women don’t make it at the right times of day. If it’s still high in the morning, you wake up groggy because your body thinks it’s not time to get up yet. Late workouts and screens at night can make it harder to produce melatonin when you need it.

Inflammation

Inflammation drives a lot of what we see. Food sensitivities and diet can keep it going. Sometimes what looks like a hormone problem also involves the thyroid, including Hashimoto’s.

Normal Life Changes

Hormones are tricky because they change throughout life. The teen years, getting ready for a baby, and perimenopause each bring their own shifts. Changes are expected. Symptoms that keep you from living your life aren’t something you have to accept.

Most women have more than one of these going on. That’s why we test before we recommend anything. We won’t typically recommend hormone supplements until we’ve seen your results.

---

How We Test Women’s Hormones

We start broad, then narrow in on what your symptoms point to.

Full blood panel.
More than 90 markers, which is more than your typical practitioner would run. It includes inflammation markers, vitamin D, thyroid, and autoimmune markers.

Food sensitivity test.
We run this on every functional medicine patient. Foods you eat every day, even healthy ones, can drive inflammation.

Saliva Hormone Test
If you have hormone symptoms, we recommend a saliva hormone test. It measures cortisol at four points in the day and melatonin at three, along with your sex hormones.

Why saliva? Saliva shows what’s getting into the tissues where the body’s going to use it, versus what’s floating around in the blood. There’s a place for both. We find it gives a better picture.

Some women choose to wait on this test for budget reasons. That’s your call. Just know the hormone side of your plan will be limited until we have those results.

Neurotransmitter test.
If anxiety, depression, or mood changes are part of the picture, we’ll run a urine test to see how your brain chemicals are doing. Sometimes we run it alongside the hormone test.

GI stool test.
If you’re dealing with bloating, constipation, or diarrhea, this shows what’s happening in your gut.

Optimal ranges, not just “normal.” Standard lab ranges are wide. You usually have to fall outside them before anyone diagnoses you or prescribes something. We use narrower optimal ranges, so we can catch problems earlier and get you feeling your best.

---

How We Help Balance Your Hormones Naturally

Once we know what’s off, here’s how we help:

• Functional medicine:
  A plan built from your labs. Dr. Julie spends about three hours creating each one, and no two patients get the same supplements.
• Targeted supplements:
  Chosen from your test results, not a one-size-fits-all list.
• Diet and lifestyle changes:
  An anti-inflammatory way of eating, and removing foods your test shows you’re sensitive to.
• Chiropractic care:
  Adjustments help your nervous system shift out of “fight or flight,” so sleep and digestion tend to improve. Some of our patients have seen their hot flashes ease with adjustments alone. [Link: chiropractic page]
• Sleep support:
  Dimmer lights and fewer screens at night, working out earlier in the day, and melatonin at bedtime when it makes sense.
• Exercise that fits your cycle:
  We teach women that some times of the month are for pushing harder, and others are for rest and recovery. That’s totally fine.
• Acupuncture:
  Helps with stress, sleep, and the overall balance that hormones depend on.
• Referrals when needed:
  If your labs show a possible red flag, we’ll refer you to an endocrinologist for a second opinion.

Not sure where to start? We’ll figure that out together. Most women use a mix of these.

Low Testosterone in Women

Testosterone isn’t just a men’s hormone. We see a lot of low testosterone in women. The good news is that we can get it up to where it needs to be with supplements.

Planning a Pregnancy? Start 6 to 12 Months Ahead

More women are coming in to get their bodies ready before trying to conceive. We recommend starting 6 to 12 months ahead, for both partners.

As Dr. Julie puts it, “A lot of the blame gets put on the female,but his part of it is importan too.” Checking and supporting both of you gives you the best start. Once you’re pregnant, our pregnancy chiropractic care can help you stay comfortable. For your partner, see Men’s Health.

What to Expect

Your first appointment is a full hour. You’ll leave with lab orders, get your blood drawn at a local lab, and come back about two weeks later to go over your results and your plan.

How long until I feel better?
It depends on what we find, and on how much of the plan you’re able to follow. Some women respond quickly. One of our patients had gone more than two months without a cycle, and it returned soon after she started a couple of supplements. Long-standing issues like chronic fatigue can take a year or more. We track your progress and adjust as we go.

---

Patient Reviews

Read More Reviews →