The endocrine system is made up of all the glands and organs which release hormones into your bloodstream. These hormones travel through your blood, reaching and acting on all the tissues and organs throughout your body. This system controls the release and production of hormones responsible for many important processes and functions in your body, including growth and development, metabolism, reproduction, stress, energy and mood and keeps your body in a state of balance, or “homeostasis”.
By understanding the endocrine system and warning signs you can support optimal health, reproductive function, hormone secretion and many other functions within your body.
The hypothalamus
Your hypothalamus located in the centre of your brain, actively regulates many of your involuntary body functions – including your body temperature, hunger and thirst, sleep patterns, mood and emotions, libido, reproductive cycle and growth. It responds to any signals it receives from your brain or hormones and uses these signals to determine how to best adjust your body’s internal balance to bring you back into a state of homeostasis. For example, if your hypothalamus receives a signal that your body temperature is too high, it will send out endocrine signals to make your body sweat, therefore lowering your temperature back to a “normal” level.
Menstrual cycle regulation
The hypothalamus impacts female health via its role in regulating the menstrual cycle by producing a hormone called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). It releases GnRH at exactly the right point in your cycle to trigger the release of two other hormones: FSH and LH. FSH and LH stimulate your ovaries to produce oestrogen and progesterone, which actively control your menstrual cycle including ovulation and your period. If for some reason your hypothalamus does not produce GnRH at the right point in your cycle each month, your healthy menstrual cycle will be disrupted and won’t trigger the production of FSH and LH. Therefore, your ovaries won’t produce oestrogen and progesterone, meaning you won’t ovulate. If you’re not ovulating, then you’re also not menstruating, which is referred to as amenorrhea (a missing period). When amenorrhea is caused by problems within the hypothalamus, it’s known as hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA). This can be triggered by many factors including excessive weight loss or exercise, inadequate energy/food consumption, eating disorders, excessive stress (psychological or physiological), and some chronic diseases. HA can lead to oestrogen deficiency causing complications for fertility. While many consequences of HA are reversible, recovery requires addressing whatever causes are disrupting your body’s balance and the function of your hypothalamus.
Pituitary gland interaction
Another major function of the hypothalamus is to regulate your pituitary gland, by producing particular hormones which activate your pituitary to create hormones in various hormone-producing centres, including your thyroid and ovaries.
In doing so, together with your pituitary the hypothalamus secretes hormones including reproductive hormones, such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which supports the healthy function of male and female sex organs.
Pituitary Gland
Your pituitary gland is a pea-sized gland located below your hypothalamus at the base of your brain, and is responsible for producing some really important hormones in your body. It plays a part in many crucial functions in your body such as growth, metabolism and reproductive health.
The pituitary produces essential reproductive hormones, including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and lutenising hormone (LH). As we’ve touched on, these help to stimulate oestrogen and progesterone production in the ovaries, facilitating healthy ovulation in females.
Your pituitary is responsible for constantly monitoring your body and its function, and sends signals in the form of hormones to your organs and glands to adjust their functions as needed to maintain optimal health. In this way, it works intimately with your hypothalamus to regulate and control your body’s balance.
Parathyroid Gland
Your parathyroid gland is made up of four tiny glands surrounding your thyroid, located in your throat. Their main function is to produce parathyroid hormone (PTH), the hormone responsible for regulating the levels of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in your bones and blood.
It’s extremely important your body keeps these minerals balanced. Calcium and phosphorus are essential for bone health, and calcium also supports the healthy functioning of your muscle and nerve cells. Magnesium plays a role in more than 300 metabolic reactions in your body, supporting muscle function and recovery, metabolism, sleep, and many other important processes.
The production of PTH and its impact on calcium levels in your body play a key role in women’s health too. Women with absent periods often experience bone density loss, with calcium often being taken from their bones to compensate. Similarly, during menopause lower production of oestrogen leaves women less able to absorb calcium from dietary sources, meaning your body begins to suck it out of your bones to supply much-needed calcium. This can again leave bones weaker, more brittle and at risk of fracture or osteoporosis. Women are at much greater risk of this happening than men, particularly as they age.
Pineal Gland
A small gland found right in the centre of your brain, the pineal gland plays a role in your circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle, as well as bone metabolism, mental health, and other important body processes.
Its main role is to secrete melatonin, a hormone which regulates your body clock or circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm determines your body’s daily rhythm, including when you feel tired and alert. A normal circadian rhythm operates on a 24-hour cycle, meaning you’ll feel tired and ready for sleep, or alert and awake, at around the same time each day. Melatonin has been shown to help support fertility, largely owing to its antioxidative effects. It enhances egg quality, regular ovulation and embryo development, and improves your chances of conceiving, so the pineal gland is crucial for women’s fertility, reproductive health, and ability to fall pregnant.
Long-term problems within your pineal gland can cause hormonal imbalances, with consequences for female hormone production.
Parathyroid Gland
Your parathyroid gland is made up of four tiny glands surrounding your thyroid, located in your throat. Their main function is to produce parathyroid hormone (PTH), the hormone responsible for regulating the levels of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in your bones and blood.
It’s extremely important your body keeps these minerals balanced. Calcium and phosphorus are essential for bone health, and calcium also supports healthy functioning of your muscle and nerve cells. Magnesium plays a role in more than 300 metabolic reactions in your body, supporting muscle function and recovery, metabolism, sleep, and many other important processes.
The production of PTH and its impact on calcium levels in your body play a key role in women’s health too. Women with absent periods often experience bone density loss, with calcium often being taken from their bones to compensate. Similarly, during menopause lower production of oestrogen leaves women less able to absorb calcium from dietary sources, meaning your body begins to suck it out of your bones to supply much-needed calcium. This can again leave bones weaker, more brittle and at risk of fracture or osteoporosis. Women are at much greater risk of this happening than men, particularly as they age.
Thyroid
Your thyroid gland plays a role in almost all the metabolic processes your body performs, making it an extremely important endocrine organ. Its main role is to produce thyroid hormones such as T3 and T4, both of which regulate your growth, metabolism and reproductive system. If your thyroid is under or overactive, this can have severe consequences for your menstrual cycle, fertility, and general health and wellbeing.
Hypothyroidism refers to a condition where your thyroid gland is producing too much of your thyroid hormones, while hypothyroidism means your thyroid is underactive and not producing enough of these hormones. Women are much more likely to experience thyroid complications throughout their lifetime, with dysfunction leading to problems with menstruation, falling pregnant, and complications during pregnancy.
Menstruation
Your thyroid plays a key role in regulating your cycle, so if it’s producing too much or too little of your thyroid hormones you may notice changes to your regular period. Thyroid dysfunction can make your periods extremely heavy or light, or cause them to become irregular or disappear altogether for months at a time (amenorrhea). If thyroid disease is affecting your menstrual cycle, it’s likely also impacting ovulation, meaning you may struggle with problems falling pregnant until the issues are resolved. Thyroid complications can also cause difficulties during pregnancy for both mother and baby, particularly given the thyroid’s role in supporting healthy growth, development and metabolism.
Adrenal Glands
Your adrenals are two endocrine glands that sit on top of your kidneys. They produce a bunch of hormones including cortisol and adrenaline. The hormones produced by your adrenals play an essential role in supporting important body functions such as sexual development, pregnancy, and sex hormone balance.
If your adrenals make too much or not enough of one or more of the hormones they produce, this can again have a range of consequences for your health. For example, if your adrenals produce too much cortisol, this can keep your body “stuck” in a state of fight-or-flight, sometimes interfering with a healthy menstrual cycle and compromising your fertility and chances of falling pregnant. Cortisol imbalances have flow-on effects for other hormones, for example, if you’re over-producing cortisol, your body attempts to sustain this by producing less of other important hormones like your reproductive hormones. This can impact menstruation, fertility, and other body functions and processes.
Ovaries
The ovaries make up a vital part of a female’s endocrine system. These small, oval glands are located on each side of your uterus, and are responsible for developing and storing your eggs for fertilisation, as well as producing the important reproductive hormones oestrogen, progesterone and androgens, which control menstruation and pregnancy.
During ovulation in each of your menstrual cycles, one of your ovaries releases an egg, which goes on to either be fertilised by sperm and begin a pregnancy or be shed by the body in the form of your period.
Not only do your ovaries produce your eggs, they also make the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, in fluctuating amounts throughout your cycle depending on what your body and reproductive system needs. Your ovaries produce the most oestrogen in the first half of your cycle leading up to ovulation, while progesterone increases in the second half of your cycle to prepare your uterus to support the implantation and growth of a fertilised egg – should fertilisation occur.
Oestrogen is one of the main hormones controlling your menstrual cycle, as well as the developmental changes your body undergoes from puberty right through to menopause. Progesterone has a similarly important role, responsible for preparing the lining of your uterus to allow a fertilised egg to implant, and maintaining the early stages of pregnancy if this occurs.
If the ovaries aren’t functioning normally, this can result in a number of different symptoms including pelvic or abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, irregular bleeding, period pain, discharge, irregular or absent periods or vaginal discharge. These symptoms can be caused by a range of conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), ovarian cysts or tumours, or endometriosis, each of which can affect the hormone balance produced by your ovaries.
The system as a whole
As you can see, the entire endocrine system is intricately linked, with each key organ or gland playing a vital role in maintaining homeostasis, or balance, in your body in order to support female health and reproductive function. Each link in the chain that is your endocrine system needs to be functioning healthily in order to allow the other links to do the same. In order to keep your hormones balanced, and support your menstrual cycle, fertility and general health, each endocrine organ needs to be fully functioning.
If you’re concerned about anything happening in your own body which may be symptomatic of imbalances or impaired endocrine function, book a consultation with me today! We’ll get to the root of the problem so you can rectify any issues, and ensure you’re experiencing optimal health, hormone balance and fertility. If you’re worried about your endocrine health, this isn’t something to sit on or delay – it’s important for your general health and wellbeing to take action, and give yourself the best chance at feeling happy and healthy!
