How to Balance Your Hormones
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Medically reviewed by Kelly Wood, MD
Hormones are important chemical messengers in your bloodstream, tissues, and organs that affect sexual function, mood, energy, and development. However, certain medical conditions, lifestyle habits, and natural bodily changes can cause hormonal imbalances—too much or too little of certain hormones. Depending on the hormones disrupted, a hormonal balance may cause symptoms like irregular periods, weight fluctuations, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, mood swings, and skin changes.
Some hormone fluctuations are a normal part of being human and help your body function optimally. As a result, it is not always possible to completely balance your hormones. Balancing your hormones is a complex process that may require medical attention. However, if you have an underlying condition or lifestyle habits causing a hormonal imbalance, some natural remedies can help improve your hormonal balance.
Prioritize Sleep
Sleep helps regulate hormones like human growth hormone (HGH), melatonin, cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin. If you don’t get enough sleep, this disrupts the hormone balance needed to manage stress, appetite, and mood. As you sleep, cortisol (stress hormone) increases to help wake you up in the morning.
Your body also produces more melatonin throughout the day to help you fall asleep at night. If you don’t get enough sleep, this disrupts this sleep-wake cycle and can lead to sleep deprivation. Research shows sleep deprivation elevates your stress response even more and can contribute to weight gain.
Lack of sleep also alters hormones that help regulate your appetite, like ghrelin and leptin. This can increase hunger cues and make you more prone to overeating. To help improve your sleep and balance your hormones, try to:
Go to bed at the same time every night (even on weekends)
Wake up at the same time every morning
Make your room dark, quiet, and cool
Avoid blue-light emitting devices like phones, TVs, and computers before bed
Limit your caffeine intake during the day and avoid caffeine before bed
Reduce intake of large meals and alcohol before bed
Reduce Stress
Constant stress increases the stress hormone cortisol and releases adrenaline, which increases your breathing and heart rate. This puts your body in a fight-or-flight response, making you feel even more overwhelmed and stressed. Some stress-management techniques that can help reduce cortisol levels and improve stress levels include:
Going outside and spending time in nature or sunlight
Engaging in exercises like walking or biking
Practicing deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, or yoga
Spending time with loved ones
Listening to calming music
Creating art
Journaling your thoughts
Taking a warm bath
Exercise Regularly
Moving your body helps regulate blood sugar levels and effectively use glucose (blood sugar). This helps improve insulin sensitivity and prevent insulin resistance, which can lead to hormonal imbalances. A 2021 study found that 30 minutes of treadmill walking also helped regulate and lower the stress hormone cortisol.
Research also shows strength training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) help stimulate human growth hormone (HGH), which helps muscle development and metabolism. HGH also helps children and adolescents grow and develop properly.
To help balance your hormones with exercise, try doing at least 30 minutes of cardio five days a week with two days of muscle-strengthening activities. Cardio activities include walking, biking, running, swimming, and tennis. Muscle-strengthening activities include lifting weights, resistance band workouts, bodyweight exercises, and yoga.
Manage Weight
Weight gain is often associated with hormonal imbalances that affect insulin sensitivity and reproductive health. People with obesity are more likely to have testes that produce lower levels of testosterone, leading to issues with sexual dysfunction. Obesity is also linked to hormonal changes that stop ovulation and lead to female infertility. Studies show that weight management can help improve insulin resistance.
Some tips for sustainably managing weight and treating obesity include:
Exercising regularly
Eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet
Limiting processed foods
Adding a variety of nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, proteins, dairy, and grains to your diet
Preparing your meals at home to avoid eating out
Managing portion size
Reducing alcohol intake
Eat More Healthy Fats
Eating enough monounsaturated fats is essential to help regulate the hormones needed for energy, reducing fat storage, and stabilizing blood sugar levels. If you lack these fats, your blood sugar spikes and you may experience hormone imbalances related to cortisol and insulin. Consuming these types of fats also helps stabilize blood sugar levels and insulin production.
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential for producing hormones called eicosanoids, which help prevent inflammation that may lead to heart disease. Amega-3 fatty acids may improve estrogen levels in postmenopausal women. If you are an assigned female at birth, these hormones affect your mood, menstrual cycle, and fertility. Omega-3s may also help prevent rising cortisol levels during stress.
To help better balance these hormones, try adding foods rich in monounsaturated fats and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Sources of omega-3s include:
Salmon
Mackerel
Tuna
Sardines
Flaxseeds
Walnuts
To add monosaturated fats to your diet, consider the following:
Vegetable oils like olive oil, sesame oil, and sunflower oil
Nuts like peanuts, almonds, pistachios, and macadamia nuts
Get Enough Protein
Getting enough protein through your diet is essential to producing peptide hormones (or, protein-derived hormones) that help regulate blood sugar and control your energy, appetite, digestion, and stress response. Studies show that eating protein helps decrease the hormone ghrelin, which makes you feel fuller and more satisfied while eating. Protein is also essential for avoiding hormonal imbalances that cause you to store excess fat in your body and become insulin-resistant.
For adults, your protein intake should include 10% to 35% of your total calorie needs. So, if you follow a 2000-calorie diet, you need about 200-700 calories or 50-174 grams of protein daily. To incorporate more protein in your diet, try eating more of the following protein-rich foods:
Dairy products like cheddar cheese, kefir, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt
Meat and fish like chicken, turkey, beef, organ meats, shrimp, tuna, and salmon
Plant-based proteins like tofu and tempeh
Seeds like hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds
Peanut butter
Bone broth
Pea protein powder
Be Mindful of Added Sugar
Diets high in added sugar appear to cause imbalances in hormones related to stress, sex, and your thyroid function. Eating large amounts of sugar also spikes blood sugar levels, which releases insulin and can make you more insulin-resistant over time, which increases your risk of diabetes.
Common sources of added sugar typically include processed foods and beverages containing brown sugar, cane sugar, raw sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, and maple syrup. Added sugar does not include sugars found in fruit or dairy.
Decreasing added sugar intake can help you balance your blood sugar levels and insulin production. It may also help reduce your risk of hormonal imbalances that affect sexual function and how your thyroid and adrenal glands release hormones. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting added sugars to 10% of total daily calories. If you eat a 2,000-calorie diet, this would be about 12 teaspoons (50 grams) of sugar per day.
Improve Gut Health
Your intestines, or gut, are full of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that make up your gut microbiome. If these bacteria become imbalanced, harmful bacteria can wreak havoc on your body systems, including your hormones. Gut dysbiosis, or an imbalanced gut microbiome, can disrupt gut hormones needed for nutrient absorption, digestion, and insulin release. Gut hormones are also linked to the brain and help regulate mood.
To help improve your gut health and balance gut-related hormones, try increasing your fiber intake and eating more fermented foods. High-fiber foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans help beneficial gut bacteria thrive. Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir are full of beneficial bacteria that can also help restore gut health.
Consider Dietary Supplements
While there are no supplements proven to treat hormonal imbalances, research shows some vitamins and minerals may help specific hormonal imbalances—primarily imbalances caused by nutrient deficiencies. Dietary supplements that may help balance your hormones naturally include:
Magnesium: Helps produce and secrete thyroid hormones. Low magnesium levels are associated with insulin resistance and increased testosterone levels in people with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Vitamin D: Important for creating sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone.
Zinc: Affects insulin, human growth hormone (HGH), and thyroid hormones. Zinc deficiencies can lead to developing endocrine diseases that affect growth and testosterone levels.
B Vitamins: B vitamins like Vitamin B2, B4, and B5 help regulate thyroid hormones, steroid hormones, and melatonin, respectively. B12 may also help improve thyroid function in people with vitamin B12 deficiencies.
Folic acid: Increases progesterone levels, which may help irregular periods and ovulation.
Some herbal supplements may also help hormonal imbalances. Taking ashwagandha may help balance cortisol and testosterone levels. Studies have found that men taking ashwagandha extract helped increase dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone levels, while also decreasing cortisol. Studies including perimenopausal women found taking ashwagandha helped increase estradiol, a type of estrogen.
Taking DHEA supplements may also help balance sex hormones. DHEA is a hormone that can convert into sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. This may help relieve symptoms of hormonal imbalances like erectile dysfunction, muscle loss, and vaginal dryness. However, it's worth noting that DHEA supplements are banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Try Medications
During menopause, periods stop and the ovaries create significantly fewer sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone. This can lead to uncomfortable symptoms like hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and pain during sex. For assigned females at birth, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help replace estrogen and/or progesterone with pills, skin patches, vaginal creams, topical gels, or vaginal rings.
Other medications that may help assigned females balance hormones include:
Hormonal birth control: Oral contraceptive pills, patches, and vaginal rings containing estrogen and/or progestin (a synthetic form of progesterone) can help manage hormonal balances affecting the female reproductive system.
Vaginal estrogen: Applying estrogen creams or suppositories into the vagina can help treat low estrogen levels that lead to vaginal dryness.
Metformin: This type 2 diabetes medication helps improve insulin sensitivity and is sometimes used off-label to help manage polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptoms like insulin resistance, excess hair growth, weight gain, and acne.
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA): Taking this prescription hormone converts into female sex hormones to help treat thinning vaginal tissue during menopause.
Assigned males at birth with male hypogonadism can also benefit from HRT. Male hypogonadism causes the testes to produce little or no hormones like testosterone. This can affect sex drive, sexual performance, and muscle mass. HRT can help replace testosterone via oral medication, injections, or topical gels or patches.
Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Safe?
HRT helps replace hormones lost due to menopause or male hypogonadism. This can help rebalance estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone levels.
While HRT can help balance hormones, it does come with some risks. Research shows short-term HRT for assigned females at birth is typically safest, especially when done before age 60 or within 10 years of menopause. However, HRT can increase the risk of:
Blood clots
Uterine cancer
Research on the risks of HRT is conflicting among assigned females at birth. Some research has found testosterone therapy increases the risk of heart disease, while others have found no correlation. However, HRT is not safe for those with a history of prostate cancer, breast cancer, and uncontrolled heart failure.
A Quick Review
Hormones are crucial in regulating mood, energy, digestion, and sexual function. When hormone levels become imbalanced, you may have trouble with fatigue, appetite, and sexual performance. Lifestyle changes like getting enough sleep, reducing stress, and exercising may help balance hormones naturally. A diet with enough protein, healthy fats, and fiber may also help regulate hormones.
If you think you have a hormonal imbalance issue, your healthcare provider can also help. Depending on what’s causing your hormonal imbalance, they may suggest treating underlying vitamin deficiencies or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to treat low estrogen or testosterone levels.
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