Your Hormonal Cheat Sheet
What Your Symptoms Are Trying to Tell You
Hormones are the silent conductors of your body’s internal orchestra. When they’re in sync, you feel balanced, energetic, clear-headed, and emotionally grounded. But when one (or more) fall out of line, it can cause ripple effects across your entire system—often in the form of frustrating, confusing symptoms.
Whether you're in your reproductive years, perimenopause, or postmenopause, this cheat sheet can help you decode what your symptoms might be saying about your hormone balance.
Remember, these are just indications and don’t CONFIRM anything but can help point you in the right direction.
🌸Estrogen: Too Much or Not Enough?
Estrogen is your body’s growth and stimulation hormone. It gives you your womanly flare and shape but is still present in men to a much smaller degree. It supports the uterine lining, breast tissue, bone density, skin, and even mood. But more isn’t always better. Let’s break it down:
🔺 Estrogen Excess — Common Symptoms
Estrogen dominance is often really “estrogen excess relative to progesterone.” You might notice:
Heavy or clotted periods
Sore, swollen breasts
Bloating and puffiness (especially around ovulation or before your period)
Worsened PMS
Headaches or migraines (especially mid-cycle)
What it might mean: Your estrogen is too high (often from slow detox pathways, a lack of clearance due to constipation, inflammation or insulin resistance) or your progesterone is too low to keep it in check.
🔻 Estrogen Deficiency — Common Symptoms
Low estrogen can happen during peri-menopause, post-menopause or due to stress, overexercising or under-eating.
Vaginal dryness or pain
Night sweats and hot flashes
Dry skin, joint pain
Low mood or brain fog
Irregular, very light or missing periods
Recurrent UTIs or bladder symptoms
What it might mean: Estrogen is too low to support tissue health, especially in the brain, bladder, and skin → commonly to do with under-eating, over-exercising or that you’re moving toward menopause and your estrogen is naturally dropping.
🌙 Low Progesterone — Common Symptoms
Progesterone is the calming, anti-inflammatory hormone that rises as a result of ovulation. It’s getting your body ready to conceive and if that doesn’t happen it’s the drop in progesterone that triggers your next menstrual bleed.
PMS (especially mood swings, irritability, or crying easily)
Anxiety or waking in the night - particularly pre-menstrually
Short luteal phase (less than 10 days between ovulation and your period)
Spotting before your period
Breast tenderness (not always, but especially if combined with high estrogen)
Cyclical headaches or migraines
🧠 What it might mean: You may not be ovulating consistently (often due to stress, PCOS, thyroid dysfunction, or under-eating), or your body is struggling to sustain progesterone after ovulation.
**High Progesterone? This is rarely an issue so I didn’t feel the need to include it in this blog!
🧔♀️ High Testosterone — Common Symptoms
Though often thought of as a “male” hormone, women need testosterone for muscle, motivation, and libido. But too much—often seen in PCOS—can cause:
Acne (especially along the jawline, back and chest)
Excess facial or body hair
Hair thinning at the crown
Irregular or absent periods
Insulin resistance or weight gain (especially around the middle)
🧠 What it might mean: High testosterone is often driven by elevated insulin, stress hormones, or poor clearance through the liver.
⬇️ Low Testosterone — Common Symptoms
Low testosterone is common in perimenopause and menopause, but it can happen earlier too—especially with overtraining, stress, or low DHEA (an adrenal hormone).
Low libido
Muscle loss or difficulty building strength
Fatigue and low motivation
Mood changes or mild depression
Poor stress resilience
🧠 What it might mean: Your ovaries or adrenal glands aren’t producing enough testosterone, possibly due to aging, stress, or nutrient deficiencies (especially zinc and B vitamins).
Final Thoughts: Start With What You Notice
This cheat sheet is a great starting point to reflect on your symptoms and identify where your hormonal imbalances might lie. But remember—your hormones don’t exist in isolation. They interact with your gut health, liver function, blood sugar balance and stress levels - these areas are typically what we focus on to bring your hormones back into balance.
The good news? With the right testing, nutrition and lifestyle support most hormonal imbalances can be rebalanced naturally with time and consistency.
📩 Want Help Figuring It Out?
If you're nodding along to half the symptoms on this list, it might be time for a deeper dive. Book a 1:1 session to get started: https://www.phenonutrition.com/book-a-practitioner
