Are Hormones Ruining Your Relationship?

Your hormones have a powerful effect on how you feel about and relate to your romantic partner. Testosterone, estrogen and oxytocin are particularly important hormones when it comes to relationship satisfaction because they affect your mood, your sense of connectivity, your patience and perhaps most importantly, your sex life. A healthy sex life is associated with greater happiness between couples and problems in the bedroom can spill over to every facet of your relationship. Below is an explanation of the causes and effects of hormone imbalances, and how you can prevent them from ruining your relationship.

Men

Testosterone Deficiency

A testosterone deficiency can shut-down a man’s sex drive, make it difficult to enjoy sex, and lead to erectile dysfunction and infertility. When this happens, the negative impacts extend far beyond a lack of physical intimacy. The absence of sex can harm both partners’ self-esteem and make the woman fear that they are no longer attractive or that they are being cheated on. Low testosterone can also cause moodiness, irritability, and depression, and those negative emotions can be unfairly projected onto the partner, causing frequent arguments and an emotional rift.

Common Causes

Testosterone naturally declines with age, and many men in their 40’s suffer with the consequences of low testosterone. Additional causes include type-2 diabetes, trauma, chronic stress, pituitary gland problems, and estrogen dominance.

Estrogen Dominance

Modern living subjects us to an excess of estrogen-like compounds (xenoestrogens) which build-up in the body and can cause estrogen levels to become too high in relation to other sex hormones. When this happens, it can cause decreased morning erections, erectile dysfunction and feminine attributes such as man boobs, muscle loss and body hair loss. It can also cause fatigue, depression, difficult urination, moodiness, self-esteem issues and a lost since of virility. Unfortunately, these estrogen dominance side-effects can lead to more arguments or trigger emotional despondence.

Common Causes

The leading cause is overexposure to xenoestrogens such as factory farmed animal products, pesticide sprayed foods, contaminated tap water, plastics, personal care and cleaning products, paint and flame-retardants. Excess body fat, a low-fiber diet, and an overburdened liver can also lead to estrogen dominance.

Imbalances in Women

Estrogen Deficiency or Dominance

Estrogen helps to rev up desire and passion, and makes a woman want to feel closer to her partner. Low estrogen can vastly reduce sex drive, prevent a woman from feeling sensual, cause vaginal dryness, and make sex painful. Estrogen is also required for energy and to boost feel-good brain chemicals and without enough estrogen irritability, impatience, and criticalness may arise. An excess of estrogen is equally problematic for relationship health because it can lead to fatigue, headaches, bloating, water retention, hair loss, and weight gain – which can make a woman feel cranky and anything but sexy.

Common Causes

Estrogen deficiency is most often caused by menopause, pre-menopause, oral contraceptives, eating disorders, thyroid problems, and over-exercising. Estrogen dominance is caused by xenoestrogens, too much body fat, low progesterone, stress and toxicity.

Testosterone Deficiency

Contrary to popular belief, testosterone is not a male-only hormone, it plays a key role in mood, desire, sexual responsiveness and sensitivity in women as well. When testosterone levels are healthy a woman will desire more sex, and the sex will be more enjoyable. When testosterone is low, sex will become far less appealing and orgasms may become difficult. Low testosterone can also compromise a woman’s self-esteem, cause fatigue, anxiety, depression, and weight gain; and these effects can lead to emotional reactivity.

Common Causes

Aging, ovary removal, the birth control pill, estrogen dominance, estrogen therapy, adrenal gland issues and early menopause can all lead to a testosterone deficiency in women.

Oxytocin Imbalances in Men and Women

Oxytocin is the love hormone that fuels romance and chemistry, helps to form deep and lasting bonds, and enhances connectivity. Oxytocin also releases the feel-good, natural-high inducing hormone dopamine, which helps you to feel pleasure and to experience relationship satisfaction. An oxytocin deficiency can lead to irritability, anxiety, poor communication, disconnected sex, a lack of affection, sleep disturbances, a lack of joy for life, difficulty achieving orgasm, and vaginal dryness in females.

Common Causes

Social isolation, a lack of physical touch, grudge holding, and a lack of affection during childhood can all compromise oxytocin levels. Although stress and anxiety actually increase oxytocin, they can be problematic for relationships because they somehow prevent oxytocin from producing its beneficial effects.

The Solution

Test Your Hormones Together

If you or your partner have a loss of interest in sex, or have been unusually fatigued, argumentative, disconnected or moody, then hormone levels should be assessed using a combination of saliva, urine and blood tests. It is important for the health of your relationship that you both have your hormones checked and optimized. The reason for this is that having sex boosts sex hormones, and when sex is infrequent it can cause a reduction of important hormones in both partners. If only one partner is tested and treated, the treated partner may go from wanting sex almost never, to being interested in it daily; while the untreated partner may not feel the same way. Also, the partner who does not actively optimize his or her hormones may be unable to experience optimal pleasure, be unable to perform sexually, or may find sex painful. The resulting discrepancies can cause bitterness and resentment and cause an emotional disconnect between partners.

Make Lifestyle Changes

To encourage hormonal balance, consume a wholefoods, organic, plant-based diet, void of sugar, vegetable oils, processed and fried foods. Make sleep a priority and minimize stress with activities such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing, relaxing baths, and proper time management. Exercise regularly and detoxify with saunas, skin brushing, rebounding and herbal blends such as LivD-Tox https://unitynaturals.com/product/liv-d-tox-2/. Finally, if you feel an emotional rift between you and your partner, boost oxytocin by touching, hugging, cuddling, kissing, spending time together in a warm climate, getting a massage, and/or having sex.

Take Supplements and/or Bioidentical Hormones

Most people can safely and effectively balance their hormones with high quality supplements and you can access a range of proprietary blended supplements with clinically effective ingredients here: https://unitynaturals.com/shop/. If imbalances are severe, or they don’t respond to lifestyle and supplement modifications, then short-term therapy with bioidentical hormones may help.[/fusion_text][/fullwidth]