When we travel by car or train on a literal journey, we sometimes need to stop and look at a map or ask for directions, depending on our style. You’ll get your bearings on your path through the hormonal landscape, where you’re in charge of navigating, where the map is unique to you, and where you decide which steps are best for you.

A basic understanding of how our hormones work is necessary to be able to interpret the changes we experience, explain them to our families, and evaluate our choices thoroughly and carefully. After all, the more you know about how your body matures, the more secure you’ll feel that nothing is going “wrong” with you, and the better equipped you’ll be to form an effective support system with your family, friends, and health care providers.

Of course, to explain all of the complex interactions our hormones have with each other and with other chemicals produced in our bodies and brains, I would have to write a weighty medical textbook. Instead, my purpose here is to give you a basic overview of the subtle and elegant ways our bodies produce and use hormones. “Just the basics” will help you understand how our bodies work hormonally and allow you to be your own best friend as your hormonal functions change.

Hormones are chemicals that are produced by our endocrine glands (like ovaries). They have an intimate relationship with chemicals produced by our brains, called neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. We’ve all heard the negative expression “raging hormones,” but let’s not lose sight of the fact that our female hormones enhance our physical and mental well-being, help our bodies perform all kinds of elaborate functions, and nourish not only our reproductive organs but our skin, hair, bones, heart, and brain! As women’s health expert Michelle Harrison, M.D., says, “Our hormones don’t make us sick. Our hormones keep us well.”

Our bodies are very sensitive to hormonal effects, and if our hormones are out of balance, the hormonal wellness that Dr. Harrison talks about can be threatened. We may feel as if we’re roller-coastering up and down steep cliffs, or trying to keep our footing on some very rocky ground while wearing three-inch heels.

As we view the hormonal landscape, we’ll pay special attention to four key hormones: estrogen and progesterone, which are produced by the ovaries; and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), both produced by the brain. We tend to think of the path through our hormonal landscape as beginning at menarche (when we had our first period). The first information many of us received about our hormones may have been in that discreet little booklet about menstruation handed out in grade school. It may surprise you, but in fact our journey through the hormonal landscape starts at birth.

Female infants are born with approximately two million potential eggs (follicles) in our ovaries. By the time we reach puberty, usually at age 12 or 13, we have only 400,000 follicles left. No one understands where these follicles go or exactly why eighty percent of them vanish, but they do.

As adult women, we fully understand the value of preparation and planning ahead, organizing dozens of things on a daily basis for our families, jobs, and other commitments. The same advance planning occurs in nature as our bodies prepare to reach our biological milestones. Our hormonal changes over time are neither sudden nor precipitous but gradual.

Like menopause, menarche, the onset of our first period, is not a sudden hormonal event but one outcome of a very deliberate process. Our ovaries were already producing estrogen during our prepubescent years, at ages 9, 10, and 11, to get our bodies ready for the reproductive years ahead.

Sharon was startled when her daughter, a third grader, started to develop breasts. “She’s only nine years old. I can’t believe it! The other day we ended up sharing the bathroom as she was finishing her shower. I noticed the beginning of breasts, and it really took me by surprise. Does this mean she’ll start menstruating soon?” Sharon asked me.

Sharon’s young daughter’s body was definitely showing signs of early hormonal stimulation. But it didn’t necessarily mean that she would start her period any day. Sharon herself had experienced menarche at age 10. Chances are her daughter would follow that pattern fairly closely. In fact, most women’s reproductive history (the timing and pattern of menarche, perimenopause, and menopause) is very similar to their mothers’. Sharon and I also talked about how this would be a wonderful time for her to discuss menstruation with her daughter.
At 48, Sharon’s own body was changing along with her daughter’s, at a different point on the same female developmental arc. As her body gradually wound down its reproductive function, her once-predictable menstrual cycle had become irregular. In fact, her daughter’s changes tuned her in more closely to her own changed relationship with herself as a perimenopausal woman.

“There’s a bittersweet feeling about seeing my daughter start to mature at the same time I’m observing my own body changes,” Sharon said. “The timing seems appropriate, though. It makes sense that I’m about to pass the torch to her, even though I find myself deep in thought as I watch her growing up.”

Related posts:

1. The Basics of Perimenopause – Low Estrogen Equals Different Symptoms

2. The Basics of Perimenopause – The Arc Bends toward Maturity

3. The Basics of The Menstrual Cycle During Perimenopause

4. The Basics of the Therapies and Treatments for Perimenopause – Trust Intuition and Technology

5. The Basics of Hormone Testing During Perimenopause – Old and New

6. The Basics of the Relationship Between Progesterone and Perimenopause

7. The Basics of Sex Drive Hormones During Perimenopause

8. The Basics of Signs of Perimenopause – Guilty of Depression

9. The Basics of Dueling Mood Swings During Perimenopause

10. The Basics of Hormones For Perimenopause – Natural versus Synthetic