Hormone imbalance is linked to different types of events that a woman will experience throughout her entire life and that will have different effects on the body.

In this article, I will share with you how to balance hormones naturally (and my experience after going off the pill) and as a consequence, cure hormonal acne.

Hormonal imbalance

If you already saw my article on what happened when I went off the pill, you would know that my hormones went totally out of whack.

It took me about 2 years to find some balance back.

During these two years, I suffered a lot from hormonal acne, but also amenorrhea, irregularity in my cycles, interstitial cystitis, and PMS (Premenstrual syndrome).

Typically, it is to cure this type of symptoms and to “balance” hormones that doctors would recommend taking the pill for as if it was a miracle remedy…

Actually, what the pill does is masking your hormonal imbalance, not curing it.

Therefore, when you decide to stop taking hormones, the symptoms will come back as quickly as they disappeared in the first place.

This is the reason why I decided to completely ban hormones from my life and tried solving my problems naturally.

Yes, it is possible, since all the symptoms I experienced diminished or totally disappeared.

The causes of hormonal imbalance

The causes linked to hormonal imbalance can be multiple:

• Puberty
• An unhealthy lifestyle
• Going off hormonal contraception
• Pregnancy or menopause
• Stress
• Some diseases

How to recognize hormonal imbalance

Hormonal imbalance can have different effects on every woman.

The most common ones are associated to the menstrual cycle (irregularity or amenorrhea) and/or to acne in the cheeks/jawline area.

Other symptoms include :

• Mood swings
• Weight gain or weight loss
• Low libido
• Constant fatigue
• Hair loss
• Vaginal dryness
• Oily or dry skin
• PMS (Premenstrual syndrom)
• Interstitial cystitis

Those are the symptoms I experienced at one time or another since I started taking the pill, but I didn’t always realize the correlation.

I ended up thinking all of this was normal, or even worse, that something was going wrong with me.

This resulted on having a negative impact on my mental health and relationships.

No, it is not normal to not seeing any sign of libido happening, nor having painful intercourse.

It isn’t normal to see your weight fluctuate for no specific reason, nor having cravings all day long. No, it isn’t normal to have a face covered in acne, irregular periods or menstrual pain that prevents you from living a normal life.

If you are experiencing similar symptoms, don’t be too harsh on yourself and consider checking your hormones with a competent doctor (not a doctor that will prescribe you more hormones!)

How to balance hormones naturally

Yes, it might seem surreal to consider healing without any medicine, but it is possible.

Do not forget that the pharmaceutical industry is a business, and that doctors / gynecologists / dermatologists get a commission when prescribing us medication.

It is then possible (and probable) that some doctors won’t agree when telling them you don’t want to rely on medicine or the pill anymore.

This being said, I am happy to share with you what helped me balance my hormones and as a consequence cure my acne.

However, please keep in mind that everyone is different and that what worked for me might not work for you.

Nutrition

One of the essential points when talking about health and hormone balance is what you eat.

Balanced meals include proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, but also vitamins, fiber, and minerals.

If you want to heal yourself naturally, my greatest advice is to consume natural ingredients with little to no transformation.

This means saying goodbye to convenience food and hello to homemade meals with ingredients coming from the ground or the trees.

I decided to rely on the principle of alkaline and acidic food.

• Acidic foods include red meat, dairy products, refined sugar, alcohol, and coffee

After digesting them, those foods leave an acidic environment in the body which can cause visible inflammation (such as as cystic acne) or invisible inflammation (such as cancer).

• Alkaline foods include vegetables, fruit, and whole grains

Those have the opposite effect since they aim to counterbalance the acidic environment created by acidic foods and therefore lower inflammation.

Even though my diet was already pretty well balanced, I tried my best to improve it even more by lowering my coffee, alcohol and dairy intake.

Those foods had indeed a negative impact on my body given that my acne comes back the day after having a raclette or a few drinks on a night out.

This doesn’t mean you have to totally remove these from your diet, but knowing their impact on your body will allow you to take decisions accordingly.

Food supplements

Before presenting you the supplements I implemented into my diet to help my hormones restore balance, let me emphasize that these aren’t miracle products.

It is important to have a balanced and healthy diet in order for them to be beneficial.

• Omega 3s : a universal anti-inflammatory that can also be found in fatty fishes, avocados, eggs, etc.

• Maca root : this plant cultivated for its medicinal virtues is considered as a “super-food” because of its high content in vitamins and minerals. It is known for its benefits on sexual health (libido, fertility, hormonal imbalance), stress, the immune system, and energy levels.

• Zinc : often recommended for treating skin problems, it helps to lower sebum production and inflammation

• Seeds (flax seed, pumpkin seed, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds) : support hormones during the two-cycle phases and help to keep a healthy balance between estrogen and progesterone. I have an article on how seed cycling helps for hormonal balance, check it out!

Naturopathy

After doing my researches on how to balance hormones naturally and tried my best to improve my diet, I felt completely hopeless seeing that my acne was still present and painful.

At this point, I started to think that my hormone imbalance was probably something that I couldn’t handle all by myself and that external help would be necessary.

Always following my aim to heal naturally, I decided to go see a naturopath.

After asking me 495 questions regarding my lifestyle, diet and approved all of it, he prescribed me an herbal mixture to drink and another one to apply on my acne for 2-3 months.

Only a few weeks went by and I was already seeing results! My skin seemed less and less inflamed and the pimples less numerous.

I didn’t go back to my naturopath as soon as I finished my prescription simply because I wanted to see how my skin was going to evolve on its own, only by taking care of my diet.

Today, my skin is finally breathing again!

Even though it is still not perfect and that some pimples show up from time to time, I can tell that my cystic acne belongs to my past (and will hopefully stay there forever).

Time

And as we all know, time heals everything. The human body is such a complex system that it will need some months or even years to adapt to a new lifestyle or environment.

It is then normal that your body will take some time to adapt when removing something that it has been used to for several years.

In my case, I took the pill for 4 years and it is only 2 years later going off from it that I can consider my hormones back to normal.

Yes, it takes time, but it is worth it.

I am so happy now to have learned how my body functions and to let it live naturally, just how it is supposed to.

If you’re trying to balance your hormones and clear your acne, be patient and trust the process. If I could do it, you can too!