pillar 07
Hormonal and Endocrine
Health
Why hormones control almost everything – and what you can do about it
Hormonal and Endocrine
Pillar 07 of 12 | Reading Time: 18 minutes
Content last reviewed: January 2026.
Based on peer-reviewed research available at time of publication. Medical science advances continuously. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personalised medical advice.
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the messages running your body
Something is happening inside your body right now.
You cannot feel it.
You cannot see it.
But it is running continuously.
Every second of every day.
Tiny chemical messages are being written inside your body.
Sent through your blood.
Delivered to your organs.
And acted upon immediately.
Those chemical messages are called hormones.
Hormones are chemical messengers that your body produces to send instructions from one part of the body to another.
They are the reason you feel full of energy on some mornings and completely drained on others.
They are the reason your mood can shift without any obvious cause.
They are the reason you sleep deeply some nights and lie awake on others.
They control how your body stores fat.
How it builds muscle.
How it responds to a stressful day.
How quickly it ages.
How strongly it desires sex.
How clearly it thinks.
Think of hormones like text messages your body sends to itself.
Different parts of your body write different messages.
Your blood carries those messages to exactly the right place.
When they arrive, the part of the body that receives them reads them and responds immediately.
When the right messages are being sent at the right time in the right amounts, your body feels balanced.
Energetic.
Like itself.
When the messages are wrong, or too many, or too few, or arriving at the wrong time, your whole body feels the disruption.
Not just one thing.
Everything.
Your weight.
Your mood.
Your sleep.
Your skin.
Your ability to concentrate.
Your desire for connection and intimacy.
Your capacity to handle a difficult day without falling apart.
Most people blame themselves when these things go wrong.
They think they are lazy.
Or weak.
Or ageing badly.
But very often the truth is far simpler.
Their hormonal messages are out of balance.
And nobody has ever clearly explained why.
a story about two friends
Picture two women who work together.
Same age.
Same workload.
Same pressures.
Angela is 39.
She has been gaining weight around her middle for two years.
She has not changed how she eats.
She feels exhausted by three in the afternoon.
Even on days when she slept the night before.
Her periods have become irregular and more painful than before.
Her skin feels drier.
She feels more anxious and more irritable than she used to.
She has told herself this is just stress.
Just getting older.
She has accepted it as the new normal.
But she is wrong.
What is happening to Angela has a reason.
Years of pressure and worry have kept her main stress hormone running too high for too long.
She barely moves her body.
She eats mostly packaged food.
Her sleep is broken and shallow.
Her hormonal system is under serious, sustained strain.
And she is living with the consequences every single day without knowing it.
Her colleague Sofia is also 39.
She has hard days too.
She feels stress too.
But she sleeps seven to eight hours.
She moves every day.
She eats mostly real food.
When she feels overwhelmed she does something about it rather than just pushing through.
Her weight has been stable for years.
Her energy holds through the afternoon.
Her monthly cycle is regular.
On most days she feels genuinely like herself.
Not because Sofia has better genes.
Or a better life.
She simply lives in a way that keeps her hormonal system supported rather than strained.
The difference between them is not luck.
It is daily.
And for Angela, it is reversible.
what hormones actually are
Your hormones are produced by a network of glands spread throughout your body.
A gland is a small organ whose job is to produce and release a specific substance into the body.
This network of glands is called the endocrine system.
Endocrine simply means relating to glands and the hormones they produce.
Think of the endocrine system like a very large, very organised postal service.
Different post offices in different parts of your body write different types of letters.
Your blood is the postal van.
It picks up each letter and delivers it to the right address.
When the letter arrives, the organ that receives it reads it and does exactly what it says.
Your main glands include the hypothalamus, which is a small part of the brain that acts as the control centre for the whole hormonal system.
The pituitary gland, which is a tiny gland at the base of the brain that acts as the manager, sending instructions to all the other glands.
The thyroid gland, which sits in the throat and controls how fast the body burns energy.
The adrenal glands, which are two small glands sitting just above the kidneys that produce the stress hormones.
The pancreas, which is a gland behind the stomach that controls blood sugar.
And the ovaries in women or the testes in men, which produce the reproductive hormones.
Each gland talks to the others constantly.
They work in a careful back-and-forth system.
Think of it like a thermostat in a house.
When the room gets too cold, the thermostat sends a signal and the heating turns on.
When the room reaches the right temperature, another signal turns the heating off.
The endocrine system runs dozens of systems like this at the same time.
When one gland produces too much or too little, the whole system is affected.
The NHS explains that hormonal imbalances happen when the body produces too much or too little of a hormone, which then disrupts many body systems at once.
the main hormones that shape daily life
Cortisol — The Stress and Energy Hormone:
Cortisol is made by the adrenal glands, which are the two small glands sitting just above the kidneys.
Most people know cortisol as the stress hormone.
But it does far more than respond to stress.
It regulates blood sugar, which means it helps control how much energy is available to the cells of the body at any given moment.
It controls inflammation, which is the body’s natural response to injury or infection.
It influences the metabolism, which means how fast the body converts food into energy.
And it plays a central role in the sleep and wake cycle.
Cortisol is highest in the morning.
That morning peak is partly what gets you out of bed.
It sharpens your focus and gives you the drive to start the day.
Through the afternoon it slowly falls.
By evening it is low enough for the sleep hormone to rise.
And sleep to begin naturally.
When this rhythm is broken, almost everything breaks with it.
Insulin — The Blood Sugar Manager:
Insulin is made by the pancreas, which is the gland that sits behind the stomach.
Its main job is to manage blood sugar, which means the level of sugar in the bloodstream after eating.
Think of insulin as a key.
Your cells have tiny doors.
Insulin is the key that opens those doors to let sugar inside, where the body can use it for energy.
But insulin also tells the body where to store fat.
And it interacts with every other hormone in the body.
When insulin stays too high for too long, usually because of a diet heavy in sugary food and processed carbohydrates, it throws the entire hormonal system off balance.
This is one of the most common hormonal problems in the modern world.
Pillar 06 covers this in full detail.
Thyroid Hormones — The Speed Dial:
The thyroid gland, which sits in the throat, makes two main hormones called T3 and T4.
Think of these hormones as the speed dial for your whole body.
They control how fast or slowly every single cell burns energy.
Turn the dial too low and everything slows down.
Your energy disappears.
Your weight creeps up without eating any more than usual.
Your mood drops.
Your thinking turns slow and foggy.
You feel cold when everyone else is comfortable.
Doctors call this hypothyroidism, which simply means the thyroid is producing too little hormone and working too slowly.
Hypo is a prefix that means under or below normal.
So hypothyroidism means the thyroid is working below its normal level.
Turn the dial too high and everything speeds up.
Your heart races.
Your weight drops without trying.
Your anxiety surges.
Doctors call this hyperthyroidism, which means the thyroid is producing too much hormone and working too fast.
Hyper is a prefix that means above or beyond normal.
Both conditions need a doctor to diagnose and treat them.
Oestrogen and Progesterone — The Female Rhythm Hormones:
Oestrogen and progesterone are the two main female reproductive hormones.
Reproductive means relating to the process of having children.
But these hormones do much more than manage reproduction.
Oestrogen keeps bones strong.
It protects the heart.
It supports the brain.
It helps stabilise mood.
It keeps skin healthy.
Progesterone, which is the hormone that rises in the second half of the monthly cycle, supports deep sleep.
It calms anxiety.
It balances the effects of oestrogen.
Together they create a monthly rhythm that shapes how a woman feels, thinks, and functions throughout the entire month.
When that rhythm is disrupted, the effects spread across almost every area of daily life.
Testosterone — The Strength and Drive Hormone:
Testosterone is present in both men and women, though in very different amounts.
In men, it builds and maintains muscle.
It keeps bones dense and strong.
It drives libido, which means sexual desire.
It sustains energy throughout the day.
It supports stable, positive mood.
It keeps thinking sharp.
In women, testosterone plays a smaller but still real role in energy, desire, and bone strength.
Testosterone falls naturally with age in both men and women.
But how fast it falls depends significantly on how a person lives.
Poor sleep, chronic stress, inactivity, and poor nutrition all speed up the fall.
Melatonin — The Sleep Hormone:
Melatonin is made by a small gland deep inside the brain called the pineal gland, which is a tiny cone-shaped structure about the size of a grain of rice.
Melatonin is the hormone that tells the body it is time to sleep.
Think of melatonin as your body’s nightly invitation to rest.
As darkness falls, melatonin rises.
As morning light arrives, it falls.
Bright screens at night, especially the blue light from phones and televisions, suppress melatonin production.
Suppress means to reduce or block.
So screen light at night blocks the body from producing the sleep hormone it needs.
The invitation to sleep is delayed.
The body stays awake far longer than it needs to.
And the sleep that eventually comes is lighter and less restorative.
WHAT QUIETLY DAMAGES HORMONAL BALANCE
Most hormonal disruption does not happen suddenly.
It creeps in slowly.
Over months and years.
And it almost always has the same causes.
Chronic stress:
Chronic means long-lasting or persistent.
So chronic stress means stress that continues for a long time without relief.
Cortisol is designed to rise briefly when you face a threat.
Then return to normal.
When life is stressful for months or years without relief, cortisol never fully falls.
It stays elevated, which means permanently too high.
And when cortisol stays too high for too long, it acts like a loud radio station playing static over every other channel.
The other channels are still broadcasting.
The static just drowns them out.
It suppresses the reproductive hormones, which means it reduces the hormones responsible for the menstrual cycle in women and testosterone in men.
It interferes with the thyroid.
It makes the body less responsive to insulin.
It keeps the body locked in a state of alert when what it needs is rest.
Poor sleep:
Sleep is when the entire hormonal system resets itself.
Growth hormone, which is the hormone that repairs and rebuilds muscles and tissues throughout the body, is released mainly during deep sleep.
Cortisol drops to its daily lowest level during sleep.
Insulin sensitivity, which means how well the body responds to insulin, is restored during sleep.
The reproductive hormones are regulated during sleep.
One bad night of sleep disturbs all of this.
Weeks of poor sleep creates a hormonal environment that quietly promotes weight gain, emotional instability, and faster ageing.
Poor nutrition:
The body needs specific raw materials to produce hormones.
Iodine, which is a mineral found in fish, dairy, and eggs, is essential for making thyroid hormones.
Zinc, which is a mineral found in meat, shellfish, seeds, and legumes, is needed for making testosterone.
Healthy fats from foods like olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, and oily fish are needed to make all steroid hormones.
Steroid hormones are a family of hormones that includes cortisol, oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.
They are all made from fat.
Think of healthy fats as the raw material a factory needs to make its products.
Without the raw material the factory cannot produce anything.
Diets very low in fat leave the body without the ingredients it needs to produce these hormones.
Physical inactivity:
Regular movement helps testosterone stay at healthy levels.
It helps the body respond better to insulin.
It helps cortisol follow its natural daily rhythm of being high in the morning and low by evening.
When a person barely moves, cortisol stays elevated.
Testosterone falls faster than it should.
The body becomes less responsive to insulin.
The whole hormonal system operates under more strain than is necessary.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals:
Certain chemicals found in everyday products can enter the body and mimic hormones, which means they copy the shape of hormones well enough to fit into the same receptor sites in the body.
Or they can block hormones from working by occupying those receptor sites themselves.
A receptor site is like a lock.
The hormone is the key.
A hormone-disrupting chemical is like a fake key.
It fits into the lock but does not open the door correctly.
Your body reads these fake signals and responds.
But the response is based on a false instruction.
These chemicals are found in some plastics, in pesticide residues on food, in some personal care products, and in some non-stick cookware.
The World Health Organisation has identified endocrine-disrupting chemicals as a global public health concern.
You can reduce your exposure.
Store food in glass or stainless steel rather than plastic.
Choose organic produce where possible.
Never heat food in plastic containers.
YOUR THYROID – THE SPEED DIAL FOR YOUR WHOLE BODY
The thyroid is a small gland shaped like a butterfly.
It sits at the base of your throat.
And it controls the speed of every single cell in your entire body.
When it works well, everything runs at the right pace.
When it underperforms, you feel it everywhere at the same time.
Think of it like the central heating system in a house running at half power on a cold winter day.
The house is technically warm.
But never warm enough.
Every room is slightly too cold.
The thyroid is the boiler.
When the boiler underperforms, every room in the house suffers together.
You feel tired all the time.
You gain weight without eating any more than usual.
You feel cold when everyone around you feels fine.
Your digestion slows.
Your skin becomes dry.
Your hair thins.
Your mood drops.
Your thinking turns slow and foggy.
These are the signs of hypothyroidism, which means an underactive thyroid, a thyroid that is producing too little hormone.
The NHS estimates that about one in 70 women and one in 1,000 men in the UK will develop an underactive thyroid during their lifetime.
It is diagnosed through a simple blood test.
The blood test measures a hormone called TSH, which stands for thyroid-stimulating hormone.
TSH is the signal the brain sends to the thyroid to tell it to work harder.
Think of TSH as an alarm clock the brain sets for the thyroid every morning.
When the thyroid is struggling, the brain rings that alarm louder and louder, producing more and more TSH.
A high TSH reading in your blood test means the thyroid needs help.
Treatment is a simple daily tablet that replaces the hormone the thyroid is not making enough of.
It works very well.
But a diagnosis must come first.
If you recognise those signs in yourself, speak to your doctor and ask for your thyroid to be checked.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STRESS TAKES OVER
Think of your adrenal glands, the two small glands sitting just above the kidneys, as two small factories.
Their main product is cortisol.
Under normal healthy conditions they make just enough to power you through the day.
Cortisol peaks in the morning.
It gets you out of bed.
It sharpens your focus.
It gives you the drive to start.
Then it falls through the afternoon.
By evening it is low enough for sleep to begin naturally.
This daily rhythm is one of the foundations of a healthy life.
But modern life is very effective at breaking it.
Constant pressure at work.
Money worries.
Difficult relationships.
The endless scroll of social media and news.
Poor sleep.
Not enough movement.
All of it keeps the cortisol factories working long after they should have shut down for the day.
And when cortisol stays too high for too long, it starts damaging the very systems it was designed to protect.
It suppresses the reproductive hormones, meaning it reduces the hormones responsible for the monthly cycle in women and testosterone in men.
It makes the thyroid less efficient.
It makes the body less responsive to insulin.
It keeps blood pressure, which is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the blood vessels, higher than it should be.
It weakens the immune system, which is the body’s defence system against illness and infection.
It shrinks the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory and calm thinking.
The American Psychological Association has documented how chronic stress disrupts virtually every hormonal system in the body.
Managing stress is not just about feeling calmer.
It is about protecting the entire hormonal system.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STRESS TAKES OVER
Think of your adrenal glands, the two small glands sitting just above the kidneys, as two small factories.
Their main product is cortisol.
Under normal healthy conditions they make just enough to power you through the day.
Cortisol peaks in the morning.
It gets you out of bed.
It sharpens your focus.
It gives you the drive to start.
Then it falls through the afternoon.
By evening it is low enough for sleep to begin naturally.
This daily rhythm is one of the foundations of a healthy life.
But modern life is very effective at breaking it.
Constant pressure at work.
Money worries.
Difficult relationships.
The endless scroll of social media and news.
Poor sleep.
Not enough movement.
All of it keeps the cortisol factories working long after they should have shut down for the day.
And when cortisol stays too high for too long, it starts damaging the very systems it was designed to protect.
It suppresses the reproductive hormones, meaning it reduces the hormones responsible for the monthly cycle in women and testosterone in men.
It makes the thyroid less efficient.
It makes the body less responsive to insulin.
It keeps blood pressure, which is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the blood vessels, higher than it should be.
It weakens the immune system, which is the body’s defence system against illness and infection.
It shrinks the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory and calm thinking.
The American Psychological Association has documented how chronic stress disrupts virtually every hormonal system in the body.
Managing stress is not just about feeling calmer.
It is about protecting the entire hormonal system.
HORMOMAL HEALTH IN WOMEN
The female hormonal cycle is one of the most intricate rhythms in nature.
Over roughly 28 days, oestrogen and progesterone rise and fall in a carefully choreographed pattern.
Think of it like a piece of music.
Different sections have different moods and different tempos.
In the first half of the cycle, oestrogen rises.
Energy often increases.
Mood often lifts.
Thinking often feels sharper.
Many women feel most like themselves during this phase.
Around ovulation, which is the point in the cycle when an egg is released from the ovaries and becomes available for fertilisation, oestrogen peaks.
In the second half of the cycle, progesterone rises.
Energy usually settles.
Many women feel more hunger, lower energy, and greater emotional sensitivity during this phase.
This is completely normal.
It is the cycle working as it should.
But when this rhythm is disrupted, the effects spread widely.
Chronic stress disrupts it.
Eating too little disrupts it.
Poor sleep disrupts it.
Significant weight changes disrupt it.
And so does the natural hormonal shift that comes with perimenopause.
Perimenopause is the period of transition leading up to menopause.
Peri is a prefix meaning near or around.
Menopause is the point at which a woman’s monthly cycle ends permanently, usually in her early fifties.
So perimenopause simply means the time around menopause, usually beginning in the mid to late forties.
During this time, oestrogen levels become less predictable.
Sleep is often disrupted.
Mood swings become more pronounced, which means more frequent and more intense.
Hot flushes can appear.
Hot flushes are sudden waves of intense heat spreading through the body, often accompanied by sweating and a fast heartbeat.
Memory and concentration can feel different.
None of this is inevitable.
And none of it simply has to be endured.
The NHS provides guidance on the full range of options available.
Hormone replacement therapy, which means taking hormones as medication to replace the ones the body is no longer making enough of, as well as lifestyle changes and professional support, are all available options.
If you are experiencing significant symptoms, speak to your doctor.
You deserve proper help.
HORMAONAL HEALTH IN MEN
Testosterone is made mainly in the testes, which are the male reproductive glands.
It builds and maintains muscle.
It keeps bones dense and strong.
It drives libido, which means sexual desire.
It sustains energy throughout the day.
It supports stable, positive mood.
It helps the mind stay sharp.
It helps the body produce red blood cells, which are the cells that carry oxygen from the lungs to every organ and muscle in the body.
Testosterone falls naturally with age.
Most men lose about one to two per cent per year from their late thirties onwards.
This is normal and expected.
But how fast it falls is shaped significantly by how a man lives.
Research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism followed men of the same age and found that those who were overweight, not exercising, and sleeping poorly had testosterone levels significantly lower than men who stayed active, slept well, and maintained a healthier weight.
Same age.
Vastly different testosterone levels.
Because of lifestyle.
Not genetics.
The signs of low testosterone include persistent tiredness, reduced libido, losing muscle even while exercising, gaining fat around the abdomen, which is the area around the stomach and middle, low mood, and less sharp thinking.
If you recognise these signs, speak to your doctor.
A simple blood test measures your testosterone level.
If it is clinically low, which means below the range considered healthy, treatments are available.
For many men whose testosterone is lower than it could be, lifestyle change is the most powerful first step.
Sleep more.
Move regularly and include some resistance exercise, which means exercise that puts the muscles under load such as lifting weights or doing push-ups.
Eat whole food with enough healthy fat.
Work toward a healthier body weight.
These four changes consistently produce real and measurable improvements.
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR HORMONS EVERYDAY
Sleep seven to nine hours every night:
The entire hormonal system resets during sleep.
Every hormone that matters is either produced, regulated, or restored while you sleep.
Seven to nine hours is the minimum for most adults.
Not the ideal.
The minimum.
Think of sleep as the overnight shift that keeps the hormonal system running properly.
Skip it and the system falls behind.
Skip it for weeks and it starts to fail.
Move your body every day:
Regular movement reduces cortisol over time.
It supports testosterone.
It makes the body more responsive to insulin.
It helps the thyroid work well.
You do not need to run marathons.
A daily walk is a powerful and genuine start.
Eat enough healthy fat:
All steroid hormones, which include cortisol, oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, are built from fat.
Without enough fat from olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, and oily fish, the body cannot produce them properly.
Very low fat diets consistently lower both testosterone and oestrogen.
Eat enough protein:
Protein, which is the building material found in eggs, meat, fish, legumes, and dairy, helps the body produce many hormones.
It also keeps blood sugar stable.
Stable blood sugar means less demand on insulin.
Less demand on insulin means a healthier environment for every other hormone.
Reduce refined carbohydrates and sugar:
Every time you eat sugary food or white bread or processed snacks, your blood sugar spikes sharply.
Insulin surges to manage it.
When this happens repeatedly over years, insulin stays chronically elevated, which means permanently too high.
And chronically elevated insulin throws other hormones out of balance throughout the entire system.
Eating less refined carbohydrate and less sugar reduces that burden significantly.
Manage stress actively:
Not by pushing through it.
Not by waiting for it to pass.
Actively.
Regular movement, good sleep, honest conversation with people you trust, time outdoors, and breathing exercises all bring cortisol down over time.
When stress is severe and persistent, professional support through a counsellor or therapist is the most effective tool available.
Reduce your exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals where practically possible:
Store food in glass or stainless steel rather than plastic.
Choose organic produce for the most commonly sprayed foods where possible.
Do not heat food in plastic containers.
Check the ingredients of personal care products for known hormone disruptors.
Get your levels checked:
You cannot improve what you do not know.
Ask your doctor to check your thyroid, your testosterone or oestrogen depending on your symptoms, your fasting insulin, and your long-term blood sugar.
Fasting insulin means a blood test taken after not eating for several hours, which shows how much insulin the body is producing at rest.
These are simple, accessible tests.
They give you a clear picture of exactly where your hormonal health stands.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
✓ Hormones are chemical messages that control your energy, weight, mood, sleep, libido, stress response, and how fast you age. They do this every second of every day.
✓ The WHO has identified endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which are substances that interfere with the body’s hormonal system, as a global public health concern.
✓ Chronic stress suppresses reproductive hormones, disrupts the thyroid, worsens insulin response, and impairs sleep according to the American Psychological Association
✓ About one in 70 women will develop hypothyroidism, which means an underactive thyroid, during their lifetime according to the NHS. A simple blood test diagnoses it.
✓ All steroid hormones including cortisol, oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are built from dietary fat. Very low fat diets impair their production.
✓ Men who were overweight, sedentary, and sleep-deprived had significantly lower testosterone than active, well-sleeping men of the same age according to research in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
✓ When insulin stays chronically elevated from a diet heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates, it throws other hormones out of balance throughout the entire system.
✓ Sleep, daily movement, enough healthy fat, enough protein, less refined carbohydrate, and active stress management are the most powerful daily choices for hormonal health.
✓ If you suspect a hormonal imbalance, ask your doctor for blood tests. Hormonal conditions are diagnosable and treatable.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I know if my hormones are out of balance?
The most reliable way is a blood test.
Common signs worth investigating include persistent unexplained tiredness, unexplained weight changes, irregular or painful periods, persistent low mood or anxiety, significantly reduced sexual desire, hair thinning, dry skin, or feeling cold when everyone else feels comfortable.
These signs do not automatically confirm a hormonal condition.
But they are worth taking to your doctor.
Ask for hormonal tests relevant to your specific symptoms.
Can stress really affect hormones that much?
Yes.
Enormously.
Chronic stress, which means stress that continues for months or years without relief, keeps cortisol permanently too high.
When cortisol stays too high, it suppresses the reproductive hormones, makes the thyroid less efficient, worsens the body’s response to insulin, and disrupts the overnight hormonal reset that normally happens during sleep.
Managing stress is one of the most powerful things anyone can do for their entire hormonal health.
Do men have hormonal cycles?
Yes.
Not monthly ones the way women do.
But testosterone follows a daily rhythm.
It is highest in the morning.
It falls gradually through the day.
It also follows a longer pattern shaped by how well a man sleeps, how active he is, how much stress he carries, and his body weight.
Disrupted sleep, high stress, and inactivity all flatten that rhythm over time.
Is hormone replacement therapy safe?
This is a question for your doctor based on your personal medical history.
Hormone replacement therapy, which is sometimes shortened to HRT, means taking hormones as medication to replace the ones the body is no longer making enough of during and after menopause.
The evidence on HRT has changed significantly in recent years.
For many women experiencing significant menopausal symptoms, modern HRT is considered safe and effective when used correctly.
The NHS provides current guidance on HRT including its benefits and risks.
Speak to your doctor about what is right for your specific situation.
Can I raise my testosterone naturally?
For many men whose testosterone is lower than it could be but not at a clinically low level, yes.
Clinically low means below the range considered healthy by medical standards.
Sleep more.
Exercise regularly including resistance exercise, which means exercise that puts the muscles under load such as lifting weights or doing push-ups.
Work toward a healthier body weight.
Eat enough healthy fat and protein.
Reduce chronic stress.
Reduce alcohol.
These steps consistently produce real and measurable improvements.
If levels are clinically low, speak to your doctor about treatment options.
What are endocrine-disrupting chemicals?
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are substances that enter the body and either mimic hormones or block them from working correctly.
Endocrine means relating to the glands and hormones of the body.
So endocrine-disrupting means interfering with those glands and hormones.
Think of them as fake keys being inserted into the body’s locks.
The lock accepts the key because it fits.
But it does not open correctly because the key is not real.
The WHO considers them a genuine public health concern.
You cannot eliminate all exposure.
But you can reduce it meaningfully.
Store food in glass or stainless steel rather than plastic.
Choose organic produce for the most commonly sprayed foods where possible.
Never heat food in plastic containers.
Check the ingredients of personal care products for known hormone disruptors.
MEDICAL REFERENCES
World Health Organisation. (2023). Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.
National Health Service. (2023). Underactive Thyroid (Hypothyroidism).
National Health Service. (2023). Menopause.
National Health Service. (2023). Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
National Health Service. (2023). Hormone Tests.
Travison TG et al. (2007). A Population-Level Decline in Serum Testosterone Levels in American Men. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 92(1):196-202.
American Psychological Association. (2023). Stress Effects on the Body.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
Leproult R and Van Cauter E. (2011). Effect of One Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men. JAMA. 305(21):2173-2174.