For too long, the conversation around hormones has focused purely on puberty, pregnancy and menopause. Yet hormones can impact your health at any age. It’s important for girls and women to understand their bodies, the impact changing levels of these hormones can have, and how to recognise patterns and symptoms. This isn’t just so we can treat symptoms they may be experiencing today, but to help improve our future physical and mental health.
Hormones are chemical messengers found throughout our bodies, telling it what to do and when. They are involved in our growth and development, metabolism, emotions, sexual and reproductive function, sleep and blood pressure. They help us fall in love, bond with our children, power us to the finish line and make us feel happy, sad, furious and everything in between. The hormones progesterone, estradiol (the strongest and most common type of oestrogen) and testosterone play especially important roles on every cell, organ and tissue in your body.
Impact of hormones in younger women
Many teenagers and young women have an imbalance of their hormones. Low progesterone levels, for instance, can lead to heavy and irregular periods. Low estradiol levels can lead to PMS (premenstrual syndrome). And low testosterone levels have been associated with endometriosis.
PMS is very common and affects most women at some point. PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) is a form of PMS, with similar but more severe symptoms, including mood swings, feeling low or anxious, irritability, sleep problems, bloating, pain, breast tenderness, headaches, skin changes, appetite and sex‑drive changes. Both are often triggered by changes in progesterone levels (especially as it falls before your period), and by fluctuating or lower levels of estradiol and sometimes testosterone, as well as by how quickly your hormone levels shift throughout your menstrual cycles.
Yet girls and women experiencing difficult periods and PMS or PMDD symptoms are still frequently told that this is simply “part of being female”, that they need to just put up with their symptoms. The same messaging goes for the many women with PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, the newly agreed name for polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS), who might also have irregular periods and low progesterone and estradiol. And for the one in ten women globally who have endometriosis, which can cause heavy, painful periods, pain in your abdomen, pelvis, and other organs, and for some women, problems with fertility.
But this isn’t right. All symptoms deserve to be taken seriously, and balancing hormones properly, with natural, body-identical hormone treatments should be considered for first-line treatment. Recognising these hormonal imbalances is therefore crucial, because women can wait years to receive a correct diagnosis, let alone appropriate hormone treatments. Tracking your symptoms and increasing your knowledge can really make a difference.
The importance of testosterone
Testosterone is often described as a male hormone, but it is one of the most biologically active hormones women produce and it works on every cell in your body — yet so many doctors think it is only important for libido.
When your levels of testosterone reduce, you may find that you desire sex less often or find it less enjoyable. Other symptoms of low testosterone include anxiety, physical fatigue, joint pains, reduced motivation, memory problems, worsening migraines and urinary complaints. Testosterone also has important functions in the brain, including effects on mood, cognition and motivation, strengthening arteries that supply blood flow to your brain and reducing inflammation. Testosterone also stimulates the release of dopamine, your reward hormone. Those functions may also be relevant to women with ADHD, though testosterone is rarely discussed when these women seek help and treatment.
Why menopause matters
The average age for a woman to experience menopause in the UK is 51, but many women have an earlier menopause. If you are under 45, it's referred to as an early menopause. If you are under 40, it's then classed as Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI).
But menopause is more than a collection of symptoms: it is a cardiometabolic and inflammatory condition associated with an increased risk of numerous diseases. These include: heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, type 2 diabetes and clinical depression, with researchers actively investigating links to many others, spanning schizophrenia, kidney disease, auto-immune diseases, cancers, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and even earlier death.
Recognising the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, and knowing that it can be experienced in our 40s, 30s, 20s and even teens, is so important. Because while awareness of hormone health is improving, more conversations are being had, and women are educating themselves on the impact hormones can have on their health, access to treatment can still be extremely difficult.
Hormone treatment (HRT) – which includes the key three: progesterone, estradiol and testosterone – is the first-line treatment for symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. Yet only around 15% of menopausal women in England are prescribed HRT, and women living in deprived areas are even less likely to receive it. It’s incredibly frustrating that, despite the increased awareness about perimenopause and menopause, women are still facing significant barriers to accessing the support and treatment they both want and need.
The takeaway
I would like every woman to understand the impact her changing hormone levels can have on her health and to feel confident about asking their healthcare provider for body-identical hormone treatments. While access to evidence-based hormonal health information and treatment can be challenging, there is a growing amount of guidance out there from community groups to articles to books and I've even got my own free app, Balance, with pointers to help guide you on how to ask your doctor or clinicians for hormone treatments, symptom trackers and more. Knowledge is power and I urge every woman to take charge of their hormone health, for today, and for their future.
This piece offers general, evidence-based information, not personal medical advice. Every woman is different, so please talk to your GP or a qualified women’s health specialist about your own symptoms and any hormone treatment before making changes.
References
1. NHSBSA. (2026), ‘Healthcare inequalities - NHS Prescribing of Hormone Replacement Therapy to treat symptoms of the Menopause’ (https://nhsbsadata.shinyapps.io/hrt-inequalities-latest)
2. Brown D., et al. (2024), doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1442767
3. WHO. (2025), ‘Endometriosis’ (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosis
4. Crespi B.J., et al. (2024), ‘Lower testosterone as a cause of endometriosis’, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeud.2024.100063
