The Superwoman Complex: Your Health and Hormones

Superwoman worker working in officeAs women, we tend to think we can do everything. I have this same superwoman complex myself, and I know it has taken a toll on my own vitality at times. Getting a Masters and a medical degree at the same time was quite demanding. I also chose to work 25 hours a week on top of maintaining a great GPA, clinical rotations, and hours in the classroom for my 2 graduate degrees. I found my vitality and health starting to suffer after a few years. This same superwoman complex is what will often bring women to my clinic. They have been doing everything for years, and now they are unable to do it all anymore. Their energy is waning, they don’t have the energy to exercise, coffee is required to get through the day, they are irritable,and now they don’t feel so super. Over time, their periods also become irregular, they start getting more headaches and colds, and quality sleep can feel like an unattainable thing.

 
Chronic stress and overwork takes a huge toll on our hormone system, as it did for me. This presents as anxiety, depression, problems sleeping, low energy, low libido,and poor digestion. How I explain to my patients is that we are a three-legged stool. The three legs represent pieces of our hormone system: our sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, etc), our thyroid, and our adrenals (what produces our stress hormones). If any of these one hormonal systems gets out of alignment, the other systems have to work harder to keep us in line. Then other systems often get taxed as well, making the whole stool unstable and leading us to feel less like a vital superwoman and more like we are surviving our days.

 
When women come in, often saying they don’t feel like themselves anymore, I take the holistic approach of looking at all three of these hormone systems. If you only look at one, you only get a part of the picture. To correct the underlying problem,you have to look at all the hormone systems, and support them all where needed. And it doesn’t just end with hormone support; you also have to find the balance of the emotional and spiritual, and let go of being superwoman. Sometimes this looks like cutting back on work hours, hiring someone to help around the house, and making time for self-care. This could look like an afternoon off from the kids to get a massage or to spend time with friends.

 
We all know that stress is inevitable, and health is about learning to balance it with good nutrition, a support system, and staying connected to your spiritual source. And most important, as women we need to ask for help when we need it and understand we don’t have to be superwomen all the time. Instead, by asking for help and support, we can become supported superwomen instead. We are all amazing creatures who just need a little help and guidance every now and then. What will you do to once again become a vital superwoman?