I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

Which Hormone is to Blame for Your Yeast Infection? | Ep. 106

• Bridget Walton, Women's Hormone Coach • Episode 106

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Still wondering how your hormones influence potential infections, and how you can get to the bottom of it all? Vaginal health is influenced by multiple factors beyond hormones, including blood sugar, gut health, estrogen levels, vaginal pH, and immune function. Understanding these connections can help address and prevent recurrent infections or irritations.

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• Blood sugar spikes provide food for yeast, making glucose stabilization key for preventing infections
• Gut microbiome health mirrors vaginal microbiome health, making digestive issues important to address
• Antibiotics can wipe out beneficial bacteria along with harmful ones, creating imbalances
• Both high and low estrogen can increase infection risk through different mechanisms
• Vaginal pH can be disrupted by menstrual blood, certain products, and sexual activities
• Menstrual products and synthetic underwear can cause irritation and micro-tears
• Stress compromises immune function, making infections more likely
• Most immune function is housed in the digestive system, creating another gut-vaginal connection

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Speaker 1:

So there is a hormone that can set you up for yeast infections, but it's probably not the one that you think, and it's also not working alone. Your gut microbiome, your blood sugar and your menstrual cycle are all in the mix too. If you have an itch that you just can't ditch, stick with me to learn about the top factors influencing yeast infections. Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hello out there all of you hormone mavens. Welcome to episode number 106 of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton. I'm so glad that you are here listening. Welcome, if you are listening for the first time today. Thank you to all of you who have subscribed to the podcast, who have shared it with your friends, with your coworkers, with your sisters, whoever it is out there. I also got to say thank you for sticking with me through the itch ditch rhyme in the intro there. I honestly just couldn't help myself. But I'm really excited to share some information with you today about this connection between infections or vaginal irritation. Whatever is going on for you will be kind of in specific so you can just understand what actually influences infections or comfort or discomfort down there. Because you may like I did for most of my 20s I thought, okay, well, if I'm having some vaginal irritation, then that has to be related to my hormones. Right, there has to be like one hormone, is it estrogen? Is estrogen doing something weird and this is what's causing my irritation. Let me figure this out right, the bottom line or the through line being, if there's something off with my vagina, this has to be because of my hormones, and that's not a completely wrong assumption, right? But there are also these other factors, non-hormonal, that influence how your vagina, how your vulva, is going to feel. So I'm going to say vagina and vulva a lot during this.

Speaker 1:

I was about to say this call during this episode, so I don't know why I felt like I needed to give you a disclaimer on that. You already know that because you're here listening to. I'm Hormonal. So, anyway, this is going to be helpful for you. If you're somebody who does experience recurrent infections and you're like all right, let me get the lowdown on what could be a contributing factor here. Also, if you're somebody who would love to maybe avoid infections in the future, then these will be good tips for you to take away some good nuggets to put in your toolkit Real quick.

Speaker 1:

Before we dive into the real meat and potatoes of the conversation today, I do just want to say another quick welcome and just for those of you who are newer because I see that there are a lot of you, new folks listening to the podcast I want to share with you a little bit about how the podcast started, which is that a little over a year and a half ago I said okay, we all like you, all you listening. Yes, I'm pointing at you. You deserve more information about how your body works. You deserve to understand what your period is trying to tell you, what your vagina is trying to tell you just overall. Like, what am I supposed to take away from this PMS or irregular periods, whatever it is that applies to you? So that's where I'm coming from with this perspective on. Hey, you deserve more information. We should have been taught this earlier. But hey, all we can do right now is do what we can do and move forward. So I just wanted to share that with you and also invite you to send me a message If there's anything that you want to hear me talk about. You found this podcast because you have, you know, irregular cycles and you want to hear more about what you can do. You want to hear more about how you can prevent acne. Whatever it is that is for you. I would love to hear what's top of mind. You can always connect with me by checking out the show notes. There are links there to follow me on Instagram. You can DM me.

Speaker 1:

That being said, let's get into the content. For today I have the top five factors that I'm going to be walking through with you really quick. Let me get you oriented to all five of them and then we'll go through one by one. We're going to be talking about how your blood sugar specifically blood sugar spikes or elevated blood sugar could influence infection. We'll talk about your gut health and antibiotics. What factor that or those play antibiotics what factor that or those play? We're going to talk about how estrogen when low or when high, may put you at an increased chance of having an infection. Next or fourth, we'll talk about how your pH, how your vaginal pH, can change throughout your cycle or when you use different products and what influence that has. And then, last but not least, we're going to talk through immune function and stress how that can influence what's going on. So now that you've got the lay of the land, let's come back to the topic of blood sugar. If you've listened to the podcast before, you've surely heard me talk about blood sugar and really stable blood sugar levels really important for your hormonal health and your overall health.

Speaker 1:

When we are looking at the connection between high blood sugar, or blood sugar spikes, and yeast infections or other types of infections, this correlation, this connection happens because that glucose in your blood is actually like a food source for the yeast right? So, of course, yeast, like everything else, you know all these other microbes in your body they need food, they need some sort of energy source and so, yeah, glucose is that energy source for a wide variety of those bacteria or yeast or whatever it is. Now let me take a step back, because maybe you've heard this example before. Maybe you've seen that there is a candida diet. Candida is a type of yeast that is relatively common for overgrowth, and so I mentioned this because if you have heard of that, then you'll recall. Oh, okay, I need to have a low sugar, like low added sugar, avoiding alcohol, maybe even avoiding some higher sugar fruits, because, okay, that's going to be a source of food for the yeast and so that's going to help, you know, help it proliferate, help it survive in your system.

Speaker 1:

Now that we've covered that example, just coming back to okay, well, what does this mean? If I have more erratic or more up and down rollercoaster blood sugar levels, then that can be helping to support, helping to feed the yeast or whatever type of bacteria it might be in your my vaginal microbiome, and so naturally, that's going to lead to more irritation. So what can you do to prevent that? Of course, focus on incorporating vegetables, incorporating protein, incorporating apple cider vinegar. I have a handful of episodes that you'll want to go back and check out if you want to dig more into this, because there are so many things that you can do on the day-to-day for free to help support your blood sugar levels. Take a walk after you eat, save your dessert for dessert. I know that's just a super quick recap, but the overall takeaway here that I'll just reiterate one more time is that if you are somebody who has, you eat relatively a lot of added sugar, or maybe even not that much, but you notice, okay, my energy levels in the afternoon are dipping so low, or I have to have a snack, I'm hangry, I'm craving sugar. Those are some signs that your blood sugar is a little bit more erratic and you want to bring it back into a more stable pattern. So this could be something for you to do a little bit more investigating on blood sugar, blood sugar stabilization.

Speaker 1:

Let's move on to the second item in this list, which is looking at how your gut health and how antibiotics can influence infections. Now, what's going on in your gut microbiome is is enormously connected to what's going on in your vaginal microbiome. I know that, enormously connected. That's not the grammar that we're really going for here, but you feel me right. What's happening in your digestive system is going to mirror what's going on in your vaginal microbiome. So if you are somebody who has, if you have bloating, if you have constipation or diarrhea, if you have anything that they mention on, like Pepto-Bismol commercials, then that could be a sign there is something wonky. There might be a slight imbalance with what's going on in your gut microbiome, and then you could say, okay, well, maybe my vaginal microbiome is just mirroring that and what I need to do is address that imbalance. And as you support your gut microbiome, you will see changes in what's going on in your vaginal microbiome.

Speaker 1:

Now I mentioned antibiotics, because antibiotics can really skew what is going on in your gut microbiome. When you take antibiotics for an infection or to prevent an infection in some cases, then those antibiotics aren't really discriminating between what they are wiping out, they're just going for it. Helpful tool, but it can also be at the expense of some of these good microbes, this good bacteria, these good bugs that you have in your gut that help you to have a healthy digestion, normal digestion, have bowel movements daily, avoid bloating and in some cases, when those good bacteria are wiped out, that leaves room for overgrowth of these bad bacteria. And let me even take a step back to say that some bacteria are not inherently good or inherently bad, but are they in balance? It's always about what is the balance, what is the ratio of this bacteria to that bacteria? And, of course, this is not something that you will just intuitively know. There's no way to know that. You could get the quantifiable data on that if you do a gut panel. But coming back to what might you be familiar with, what might you notice If you have a lot of bloating, if you have a lot of stomach problems, if you're somebody like my digestion has just never been it and you've also noticed that you've had vaginal irritation or infections for a hot minute then it would be a great idea to investigate how you can support bringing that gut health back into balance.

Speaker 1:

I'll talk about estrogen next, and before I talk about the specifics of estrogen, I want to remind you that whatever is going on in your gut, that is going to be really influential on your overall hormone balance, and especially when we're talking about estrogen. Why is that? That's because your estrogen is excreted through your digestive system, at least in part, right. Some of it can be eliminated from your body through your sweat, some through urine, but also some of those estrogen metabolites are being eliminated through your stool. So if you're not having regular bowel movements because there is something going on in your gut by regular I mean daily. We should all be pooping daily. If you're not pooping daily, then there could be some recirculation of the estrogen metabolites back into your system, because they just get like scooped back up. Well, I don't know, was that a gross example? But they get scooped back up, redistributed into your system instead of being eliminated into the system. So gut health closely intertwined with your hormone health, especially when we are looking at estrogen levels.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about high estrogen. So if you're somebody who is not having daily bowel movements, perhaps your estrogen is a little bit high. Can't say for sure, right, but that could be a piece of the picture for you. And if that's the case, know that when estrogen levels are higher, that will also correlate with higher levels of glycogen. Now, glycogen is a hormone that is similar to glucose. It's like it breaks down into glucose, essentially. So this comes back to our first point of if there's more glucose in your system, there's more food available for that yeast. So, taking a step back and looking at that again, if estrogen levels are high, that can be providing or putting more yeast food into circulation.

Speaker 1:

Now, really quick, how might you know if your estrogen levels are high? Common patterns when it comes to high estrogen could be PMS, breast tenderness, if you're getting migraines, especially when your period starts, there's this drop. Also, if you are having did I just say, breast tenderness, but anyway, these symptoms of PMS, everything that falls into that bucket, as well as heavy bleeding, that can be a big sign too. Right, because estrogen is a building hormone that will help to build up your endometrial lining. So if that resonates with you, if you say, huh, I have those, I see those patterns and I also have this irritation. I see those patterns and I also have this irritation. Okay, let's dig into that.

Speaker 1:

Now, on the other side of this coin, for some folks, low estrogen can also make you more prone to infection, and that is why we're always coming back to balance, balance, balance, because you don't want too high of anything, you don't want too low of anything. We need to figure out what's the happy median. Low estrogen is common when we get later in life, going into menopause, or when you are in menopause. Also, if you have another hormonal picture where estrogen levels are low maybe because you are undernourishing your body, just as one example, maybe because you are undernourishing your body, just as one example then that can make you more prone to infection. So if that's you and you're really going to want to focus on, okay. Well, what is keeping my estrogen levels down? How can I nourish my body to give it the resources it needs to create a normal amount of estrogen? And approach it from that angle. So high estrogen not the dream. Low estrogen not the dream. Both are going to have potentially similar impacts on your vaginal microbiome.

Speaker 1:

Let's move on to number four here. This is one that all of us can be cognizant of, because we're talking about what disrupts your vaginal pH, so your pH. If we think back to you know, when did I learn that? Sixth grade maybe, ph being how acidic or how basic is the environment? So if you're somebody who maybe you're listening, because you've had a bunch of yeast infections before and you've even gotten those like rolls of paper that you can use to test your vaginal pH, you'll be really familiar with what I'm talking about. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just know that most likely at the drugstore near you, you can get a roll of this. Well, roll sounds even dramatic. You can get like a small bit let's just say that of this paper that when you kind of put it in contact with your, like with your vulva, right, and it gets some of the moisture on it, it will change a certain color. They'll give you a color code spectrum to understand what it's trying to tell you and that will indicate to you.

Speaker 1:

Okay, is your vaginal pH within the normal range? Is it higher, lower or otherwise? Because if it's not within the normal range, then you may be more likely to have a yeast infection. So this is because if your vaginal microbiome is not appropriately acidic right, because the acid is helping to keep certain bacteria, certain yeast, certain microbes from proliferating well, if it's not appropriately acidic, then one could expect that there might be an overgrowth of some of those opportunistic microbes.

Speaker 1:

So pH is important. What impacts your vaginal pH? I've got three things top of mind. We're going to talk about menstrual blood. We'll talk about menstrual products and soaps or other perfumed things that you may be using. So, yes, your blood does not have the same pH as your vaginal microbiome. Some people may be more sensitive to this than others but naturally, when you are menstruating, that blood traveling through your vaginal canals, you know, around your vulva that could be influencing the pH and that's why some people think okay, well, I have an infection after my period every month, so this must be a hormonal thing, and so I say that to say it could be a pH thing. It may not be that your estrogen is particularly high or particularly low, it could just be from that menstrual blood leaving your body.

Speaker 1:

It's also worth doing an inventory of what menstrual products am I using. Am I using tampons? That could be more or less irritating? Am I using a certain pad? Try out something new. Try out. I mean I would personally huge fan of the Nixit menstrual disc. I've got a discount code in the show notes here for you. Huge fan because it's not inserting something that is going to really be influential change your vaginal pH. A bunch like some tampons or pads could.

Speaker 1:

Now, not necessarily to the fault of pads by any means, but when you have that pad or that panty liner up close to your skin so much, that can just further increase the moisture, maybe even increase the temperature a little bit, but also could cause micro tears on your vulva, which then in and of themselves could lead to bacterial or other microbe growth in those micro tears. So I went on a little tangent off of just pH there, but it's worth thinking about. Okay, am I wearing yoga pants all the time? Am I wearing underwear that is used with a synthetic material? Because if that's the case, then it's totally worth trying to switch it up and see if there is a cotton panty or another more natural fiber that would be a bit more breathable. And then, similarly, maybe if you have a really long period, or relatively long period, if you're wearing panty liners for seven days, right, that could be really influential on, or I should say that could be, allowing, this time frame where your yeast, or whatever it is, is overgrowing.

Speaker 1:

The last thing I want to mention here would be soaps. Right, a lot of us I mean, we've all seen the commercials for the soaps made just for your feminine pH, just for your feminine pH, just for your feminine balance. If that is something that works for you and that's what you would like to use, go for it. My personal opinion is that, or what works for me, I should say, is that I think my vagina does a great job of keeping itself clean, keeping itself in a normal pH. I do think that for most people or for you, know, I should say, maybe a typical vaginal microbiome just using water or a mild, unscented soap could really do the trick. But yes, are you using a certain soap that is irritating you. Are you using some other, I don't know kind of lotion? Or maybe, if you're using some sort of lube, that's also well, not soap. But you see where I'm going with this, just thinking, okay, what am I putting on my skin here that could be changing the pH.

Speaker 1:

Final honorable mention here would be that if you are having sex with a partner and there is semen that is interacting with your vaginal microbiome, then that also has a different pH from your vaginal microbiome and can then be influencing what is able to grow or overgrow. So a couple of notes there In recap. We're just thinking of the fact that, okay, my vaginal microbiome needs to maintain this level of acidity and what can impact that level of acidity? That could be menstrual blood, soap, tampons, pads, semen and more. So starting to note whether this is a note in your phone, in your app where you track your cycle, where you track your cycle details and symptoms, putting, okay, what did I use on these days and how can I correlate that with any irritation that I'm experiencing? All right, gang, we are almost done here. Let's wrap it up with number five of this list.

Speaker 1:

I mentioned earlier that a compromised immune function could be leading to some overgrowth. Now, what causes compromised immune function? The main thing that comes to mind for me while there are many things, but the main thing that comes to mind to me is stress. Right, when you're really stressed, your immune system is going to compensate for that. But also, if you have something going on with your digestive system, I mean, most of your immune system is housed in your digestive system, right, because your digestive system is designed to burn off any pathogens that come in through your stomach acid, for example. Right, that's step one. So if your digestive system, if your immune system, isn't up to snuff, then that can just lead to overgrowth and that can be causing an infection itself. So I will leave it on just that short note there.

Speaker 1:

Because stress you guys don't need me to over explain stress to you, although actually, let me say blood sugar really impacts what's going on with your stress levels. Cortisol is your stress hormone. Everything in our body is connected. If you didn't get that now, then you will know that by listening to this podcast. Nothing in our bodies really happens in a silo, right? What goes on with your blood sugar impacts your estrogen. What goes on with your blood sugar impacts your stress, your cortisol levels, and cortisol also impacts estrogen and, as you just learned today, all of these things impact the potential for overgrowth of some type of bacteria, impact the potential for overgrowth of some type of bacteria. So I hope that this was insightful for you. I hope that you learned something.

Speaker 1:

If you are somebody who has been stuck in this cycle, like I was, for most of my 20s, trying to understand why do I have all of this irritation? How do I balance my hormones better to avoid this? I hope that just understanding. Okay, maybe it's not just my hormones. There are these other things that influence my microbiome and this, maybe, is where I need to do some more investigating. Well, I hope this gave you some good food for thought. As always, if you want some guidance, if you want somebody to walk along this journey with you as you get your gut microbiome back into great shape, as you get your vaginal microbiome back into great shape, then I would love to hear what your goals are, what you're up against, and you can connect with me by going to the link in the show notes and setting up your free strategy.

Speaker 1:

Call All right, gang. That is it for today. I'm Bridget Walton, thank you again for listening. I'll see you on Thursday, where I'm going to be talking through a couple of quick tips for you, especially if you're a gal who travels, and how you can avoid infections when you're on the go. If you loved today's episode and got something good out of it, make sure you subscribe so that these episodes show up automatically in your feed, no work needed on your side. Let's put it on autopilot. As always, I need to give you my reminder that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, and it should not be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. Now, if you are, on the other hand, in the market for some one-on-one support, then I would love for you to take me up on my offer for a free strategy call. You can find these links and more in the show notes.