Everything You Didn't Know About Your Hormones

There are about 50 identified hormones in the human body, and these tiny chemical messengers regulate or influence just about every area of your health. While sex hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, are critical for reproductive function, their influence extends far beyond this one area.

At Advanced Aesthetics Lopez Plastic Surgery, Dr. Manuel Lopez and our team understand the wide net that reproductive hormones cast and we want to share some fascinating facts about these hormones here.

Females first

A female’s reproductive health and sexual characteristics are largely governed by estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen hormones are produced by your ovaries, but a smaller number can be produced by your adrenal gland, fatty tissue, and even your brain.

Progesterone, which is a steroid hormone, is produced by the corpus luteum — a cyst that forms on your ovary after releasing an egg. The corpus luteum produces progesterone to prepare your uterus for pregnancy.

While reproduction is the primary mission of these hormones, they also influence other areas of your health and wellness, such as:

• Bone growth
• Epithelial function (the linings of your blood vessels)
• Brain function
• Mood regulation
• Libido
• Weight management

When a woman passes through menopause, their ovaries shut down, and the levels of these reproductive hormones drop considerably. Not only does this signal the end of your ability to have children, but you may also deal with other changes in your health, such as bone loss, hot flashes, declining vaginal health, mood swings, and brain fog.

Males up next

A male’s sexual characteristics and reproductive health are largely governed by testosterone, which is an anabolic-androgenic steroid. Androgen hormones are those responsible for male characteristics and the term anabolic refers to muscle mass.

Testosterone is produced in your testes and smaller amounts are produced by your adrenal gland.

Outside of the reproductive and gender characteristics roles, testosterone also influences:

• Muscle mass
• Body fat
• Production of red blood cells
• Libido
• Mental well-being

While males don’t go through the same sudden drop in reproductive hormones as females do, their testosterone levels gradually decrease with age. In fact, between 10-40% of men in the United States have lower-than-normal testosterone levels.

Treating hormone imbalances

No matter your gender, if you have low reproductive hormone levels causing significant quality-of-life issues, the good news is that there are solutions. At our practice, we offer a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy called Pro-Pell®.

The term bioidentical refers to the fact that these hormone replacements are chemically identical to your natural hormones, but they come from plants.

To deliver the hormones, we implant slow-release pellets that deliver the replacement hormones for 3-6 months, at which point we insert more pellets.

If you’d like to learn more about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, contact one of our San Antonio locations (Stone Oak ) or Boerne to schedule an appointment.