What Yeast Infections May Be Telling You About Your Hormones

If you’re a woman, you have most likely been there before. It begins with a sudden beginning of feeling not so happy in your lady parts. Yes, specifically, your vagina. You have probably felt that itching or burning sensation alongside seeing the tell-tale vaginal discharge, and then just knew that you had a yeast infection. Most of us have been there not just once before, but for many, it’s a chronic issue we have been battling for years.

What Is A Yeast Infection?

So, just what is a yeast infection?

Our vaginas contain a balance of beneficial bacteria and yeast at all times. And when the yeast begins to overpopulate and overgrow in the area, a yeast infection will occur.

Some of the main symptoms include:

Itching of the vagina
Redness and swelling of the vagina
Burning or irritation during sex
Vaginal discharge that can be thick and many times similar to cottage cheese consistency

Hormones & Yeast Infections

One of the reasons that yeast infections occur in women is because we might be producing too much estrogen in our bodies. In fact, estrogen dominance is one of the main reasons for chronic yeast infections. This could be due to taking hormonal birth control (like the Pill), pregnancy, or hormone replacement therapy. The reason that excess estrogen in the body plays such a big role in contributing to yeast infections is because estrogen controls levels of glycogen in the vagina. So, the more estrogen in the body that’s produced, the more it will feed yeast production and overgrowth. Yikes!

Some of the leading causes of excess estrogen in a woman are exposure to xenoestrogens, being overweight, adrenal imbalance, and a poor diet.

Xenoestrogens are chemicals in our environment which mimic the effects of estrogen inside the body. For more information on how to detoxify your home to reduce your xenoestrogen exposure, see my article here. One of the main ways we are exposed to xenoestrogens in our environment is through heated plastic-like heating plastic containers containing food in the microwave or storing your warm/hot food in plastic containers. So, just switching to glass food containers is really a great start.

Carrying around extra pounds on our body can also contribute to estrogen excess. Since estrogen is partially made in our fat tissue (in addition to our ovaries), those of us who carry around more weight may be also unknowingly producing more estrogen.

Another reason for chronic yeast infections? Stress and adrenal imbalance. Let’s break down the how and why. When you are under stress for a period of time, your body begins to shunt it’s production of making more progesterone to instead making more cortisol to help in dealing with all that stress. (For more information on this stress-low progesterone relationship, see here. What happens then is that less progesterone in the body produced. Lower progesterone levels are then not able to balance the strong effects of estrogen in the body, and you are left with a state of estrogen dominance and the symptoms to go along with it. Yeast infections are one of the symptoms.

A poor diet can also contribute to estrogen excess as well as yeast infections. The liver is the organ that metabolizes and breaks down estrogen. It is then transferred to the bowels to carry this used estrogen out of the body. A poor diet can disrupt the process of estrogen being metabolized properly in the liver. Additionally, it contributes to estrogen not being properly and quickly eliminated from the body. When a woman has constipation, estrogen that is supposed to be removed in her bowel movement will ultimately be taken back up by the body and taken back into circulation throughout the body. Diets low in fiber, high in animal products, low in fresh vegetables and fruit all contribute towards excess estrogen in this way.

Yeast Infections & Fertility

One of the questions I always ask the women coming to see me for fertility help is if they have a history with yeast infections. After everything I just listed out above, you can probably guess why! It is a huge indication of possible estrogen excess and needs to be addressed before fertility can be optimal.

Other Reasons For Yeast Infections

If you suspect or know you have thyroid issues, this can also be another reason for chronic yeast infections. Why? If you have too much estrogen in your body, it can end up blocking your thyroid from properly functioning and lead to low thyroid. If you have chronic yeast infections with low thyroid symptoms (such as hair loss, weight gain, low energy, feeling cold, and depression), make sure to have your doctor run a full thyroid panel on you if you haven’t had one in the past year.

Antibiotics are a big reason yeast infections occur in women. Antibiotics kill all of the bacteria in your digestive tract, both the good and the bad. So, what happens when all of the bacteria are killed? The balance between bacteria and yeast is tipped in yeast’s favor and boom, yeast overpopulation occurs. For many women, chronic urinary tract infections go hand in hand with chronic yeast infections since antibiotics are used to treat chronic UTI’s.

Heavy metal toxicity is another root reason for possible hormone imbalances leading to yeast infections. With mercury toxicity, in particular, adrenal or thyroid disruption from this toxicity can lead to an overgrowth of yeast.

Persons with diabetes (high blood sugar feeds the yeast) and lowered immune systems can also disrupt the friendly bacteria-yeast balance which can cause more yeast infections to occur.

Also, since higher levels of estrogen are produced in the body during pregnancy, this makes pregnant women much more susceptible to yeast infections.

Testing

To confirm the presence of yeast, I recommend going into your gynecologist or naturopath to get a vaginal swab. There are some other vaginal infections that might masquerade as a yeast infection, so it’s important to confirm first before moving ahead with any type of treatment.

If you are experiencing chronic yeast infections, I would recommend taking a deeper dive into some testing to get to see if indeed a hormonal imbalance is at the root. Here are four tests I recommend:

The DUTCH Complete or Plus Test - this is an extremely comprehensive hormone test that looks at your sex hormones (including 3 types of estrogens!) and your adrenal hormones (your stress hormones) to see if an imbalance in any of these could be causing the problem. It is either just a urine test (you pee on a strip and that’s it!) or a combined urine/saliva test over a 24-hour period of time. See more information on this test here.

Adrenal Cortisol Test - This will take a look at how your adrenals are doing in response to stress. Are they in overdrive or essentially burnt out? Either could be contributing to hormone imbalance and chronic yeast infections. This test is included in the DUTCH test so not necessary to take if you are doing that test. On its own, it is a collection of saliva samples over a 24-hour period and super easy to do.
Thyroid Panel - Ask your primary doc or functional medicine/naturopathic doctor to run a thyroid panel IF you have yeast infections and also have low thyroid symptoms (listed above). The panel should include at the very least a TSH, Free T4, Free T3, and thyroid antibodies.
Heavy Metal Toxicity Test - Great Plains Labs offers a heavy metal test by looking at a sample of your hair. It can be ordered through your functional medicine or naturopathic doctor. There are definitely some pros and cons to this test, but unfortunately, there’s not just one really good test out there for assessing heavy metal toxicity at the moment.

Natural Treatments for Yeast Infections

The usual over-the-counter yeast infection treatment of choice is Monsistat. Unfortunately, it is a hormone disruptor and contains parabens. So, if you are looking for an alternative, start with the suggestions below:

Find the root cause: Sometimes this is difficult to do on your own, but for example, if estrogen excess is what is driving your yeast infections, they will keep coming back unless this hormonal imbalance is fixed.
Probiotics: Lactobacillus has been shown to inhibit yeast production and biofilm production. Probiotics can be a great way to introduce help support the healthy growth of your microbiome and shift the balance away from yeast overgrowth. My probiotic of choice to begin with is Megaspore.
Diet: Avoid sugar, alcohol, and refined carbohydrates. Eat lots of fresh vegetables and shift towards a whole foods plant-based diet overall.
Vaginal suppositories: Boric acid suppositories kill yeast and can help to rebalance the vaginal PH.

Are you a woman trying to get pregnant and looking for more personalized guidance and support into natural ways to increase your fertility? Book a FREE Fertility Audit call with a member of our team here.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360257/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16202729

Laurie TerzoOctober 31, 2019