Infections & Endocrine Disruption

Various bacterial, fungal and viral infections can cause endocrine disruption and are not commonly evaluated.

I have encountered numerous women who experienced premature menopause or perimenopause because of exposures to bacterial infections like; Lyme disease, mycoplasma and mold toxicity. Rarely do I see any of these conditions evaluated in women who are experiencing hormonal imbalance.

Mold is especially toxic to the endocrine system and often times will cause thyroid disorders that can go undetected for years. Thyroid labs will often be normal, but the patient will be symptomatic. Evaluating for autoimmune thyroid disease can be helpful in identifying these patients and providing treatment. Unfortunately, for many people, they do not receive treatment until the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone or TSH is abnormal. Many people will suffer for 5-10 years before they receive treatment.

When autoimmune disease is an issue, it is a dysfunction of the immune system that is present and support to rebuild the immune system is necessary. Without support, the immune system can often attack another part of the body, such as developing Rheumatoid Arthritis years later.

Chronic bacterial infections cause both men and women to produce fewer hormones. Blood or saliva testing can identify this. A variety of symptoms occurs and both men and women share some; fatigue, decreased sex drive, hair loss, and irritability, loss of creativity and motivation or better put a zest for life! Men can experience loss of muscle tone and strength, erectile dysfunction and loss of their competitive drive. Women will experience irregular periods or loss of periods, PMS, weight gain, bloating, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, night sweats and loss of sexual desire and thinning of the skin. This certainly is not an exhaustive list of symptoms, but you can see the symptoms that can occur.