FEMALE HORMONES
One of the stereotypical views of women portrayed us all as creatures thank you to our hormones. Our hormones undoubtedly have a huge influence on our lives, but there is no reason for that were to become slaves. The more we understand how hormones can affect the female body, mind and emotions, the better we will be able to minimize the negative effects and enhance positive effects.
Infancy
Although we tend to think that hormones occur at puberty, they affect our bodies from earliest childhood. Newborn babies, girls as well as boys, have breasts slightly swollen, sometimes with small flow of milk because of the female hormone estrogen, which is transmitted from mother to child through the placenta and stimulates breast development of the baby. This usually disappears after a few weeks but in babies girls that push the breasts may reappear in the first two years this time because of the hormones the baby himself. This swelling of the breasts can come and go several times over the months or years and eventually disappear during childhood.
Puberty
At puberty, hormones will start to produce major changes and lasting body of the girl. Her breasts will grow up and take the shape of the breasts of an adult woman. She'll see you grow hair pubic and axillary and a significant growth spurt will occur. Finally the rules will begin around the time that its growth will slow. From beginning to end, puberty usually takes four years. It is not surprising that some girls find it difficult to adapt to their changing bodies, their new sexuality, fertility and some emotional turbulence as they pass from childhood to adolescence.
All necessary mechanisms to cross puberty are present at birth but the body keeps them off for years. At some point, the mechanism that prevents the start of puberty starts and hormones which have so far held in check can begin to exert their influence on the body. Part of the brain called the hypothalamus starts to release hormones spurts about every 90 minutes which stimulates the pituitary gland (also in the brain) to produce luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone ( FSH) which, in turn, trigger the production of other hormones by the ovaries.
Female sex hormones
The most important hormones produced by the ovaries are known as female sex hormones (sex steroids) and the two main ones are estrogen and progesterone. The ovaries also produce somewhat of male hormone, testosterone. During puberty, estrogen stimulates breast development and maturation causes the vagina, uterus (womb) and fallopian tubes (egg cells that lead to the matrix). Estrogen also plays a role in the growth spurt and alters the distribution of fat in the girls' bodies, so that, typically, more is deposited in the side of the hips, buttocks and thighs. Testosterone contributes to the growth of muscles and bones.
From puberty, LH, FSH, estrogen and progesterone play a vital role in regulating the menstrual cycle of women and the resulting rules. Each individual hormone to its own pattern of operation, rising and falling at different points in the cycle but together they produce a chain of events all to predictable. An egg (among hundreds of thousands in each ovary) becomes "ripe" and is released from the ovary to begin its migration through the fallopian tubes toward the uterus. If the egg is not fertilized, the levels of estrogen and progesterone produced by the ovaries begin to fall. Without the action of these hormones, the inner wall of the matrix which is filled with blood is removed and comes off, resulting in the rules.
Pregnancy
If the egg released from the ovary is fertilized and a pregnancy ensues, the woman's hormones change dramatically. The regular fall of estrogen and progesterone at the end of the menstrual cycle does not occur and there are no rules. A new hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) produced by the placenta during development stimulates the ovaries to produce more estrogen and progesterone that is needed to maintain pregnancy. Most pregnancy tests are designed to detect hCG in urine, and many of these tests are able to detect even tiny amounts a day or two after the cessation of menses.
By the fourth month, the placenta takes over the ovaries to become the largest producer of estrogen and progesterone. These are hormones thicken the lining of the womb, increasing the volume of circulating blood (mainly to feed the matrix and breasts) and relax the muscles of the matrix to make room for the baby grows. When the birth approaches, other hormones are involved who are contracting the matrix during and after labor and stimulate milk production by the breasts.
After childbirth
After the birth of the child, what happens then? Levels levels of estrogen, progesterone and other hormones drop rapidly, which leads to a number of physical changes. The matrix shrinks to its pre-pregnant size, pelvic muscle tone and resume the volume of circulating blood returns to normal. These sudden changes in hormone levels may also play a role in postpartum depression. It may be that some women are more easily affected than others by these hormonal fluctuations.
About hormonal fluctuations, although they have been studied for many years, we still do not know if they are responsible for a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms we call PMS (premenstrual syndrome) . Nobody doubts the fact that some women experience breast tenderness, bloating, irritability, depression and other symptoms at the approach of their rules but these effects are due to hormonal fluctuations, changes chemicals in the brain, problems of social background or emotional or a combination of these factors is controversial.
The Menopause
The hormonal changes following matters to women, occurs in the final rules: menopause. Over the 3-5 years leading to menopause in women, the functioning of her ovaries begins to deteriorate. This makes her menstrual cycles shorten or lengthen or become erratic sometimes. The rules may become more abundant or less abundant on the contrary. Then eventually the ovaries produce so little estrogen that the lining of the womb thickens more and do so that there is simultaneously more rules.
During the greater part of the life of a woman, estrogen helps protect the heart and bones and also help maintain healthy breasts, uterus, vagina and bladder. Marked loss of estrogen around menopause and thereafter may therefore have negative effects on her health and that can both cause uncomfortable symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats and lack of estrogen may increase the risk of heart disease and bone problems like osteoporosis. There are still other problems such as vaginal dryness, discomfort during intercourse, recurrent urinary tract infections and incontinence. Menopause can also contribute to depression, irritability and poor concentration that some menopausal women experience. But menopause is not to be a disastrous period for women: if the decrease in hormones causes unpleasant symptoms, treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is often effective. The HTR and other types of medications can also be used to prevent certain health problems especially if the woman has an increased future risk of osteoporosis or heart disease.