Hormones, From Puberty to Post-Menopause

By The Society For Women's Health Research If you're a woman, you probably know that our bodies go through myriad changes during the course of our lives. Hormones play an integral role in those changes at each stage of development, from puberty to post-menopause. This is the first in a four-part series the Society For Women's Health Research (SWHR®)will be publishing about hormones across the lifespan -- read on to learn more! What exactly are hormones? The Virginia Women's Center offers a good definition: A hormone is a "chemical communicator or connector" that carries messages to and from all the organs in the body. A hormone acts like a key that fits into a specific lock or receptor site at each organ. This inter-organ communication helps the body to remain balanced and function optimally. At birth, levels of these hormones are high, but they decrease within a few months and remain low until puberty]. During puberty, physical changes in the body are regulated by changes in the levels of hormones that are being produced. In early puberty, hormone levels increase and stimulate production of sex hormones (the hormones in the body that control puberty and reproduction), including estrogen. This increase in estrogen causes the physical changes associated with puberty in girls, including maturation of the breasts, ovaries, uterus, and vagina, as well as a girl's first period. The average age of puberty onset in girls is 10-and-a-half years old, but it can range from seve...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news