Unfortunately, many women are stressed out a lot of the time. What makes this constant stress even worse is that for some reason, we feel like we should feel stressed and that stress is normal. But even though stress is a common problem, it’s still a problem. In fact, stress can do some serious damage to your hormones. 

Acute stress is normal. In fact, stress is a hormonal reaction in your body to what’s going on in and around you. But when stress becomes a chronic issue, it disrupts many key areas of your health.

Stress disrupts blood sugar levels

Too much stress will make your blood sugar levels skyrocket and then plummet. This makes your body produce cortisol, but when there’s too much cortisol in your body, other hormones suffer. For one thing, too much cortisol means not enough progesterone and that can delay your period and worsen PMS symptoms.

Stress leads to nutrient deficiencies

Too much cortisol also means that you won’t have enough key nutrients, like B vitamins, magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids. And without these nutrients, the adrenals have a difficult time slowing down the production of the stress hormone, cortisol.

Stress disrupts gut health

A group of gut bacteria called estrobolome produce an enzyme that helps your body metabolize estrogen. Without this good gut bacteria, estrogen remains in the body, which can increase PMS symptoms and other menstrual problems.

Stress can compromise ovulation and fertility

During stressful times, the body can actually stop ovulating. That’s because the progesterone that’s normally used for your fertility is used to produce cortisol instead. So, to protect your fertility, it’s crucial to reduce stress levels.