Is it Hormones or is it something else?
- Chloe Thomas
- Jun 24
- 4 min read
One of the most common things I hear from women is:
“I think I have oestrogen dominance.”
And honestly, I can see why.
Instagram is full of conversations about hormones right now.
Every other reel seems to be talking about cortisol, progesterone, oestrogen dominance or perimenopause.
But after years of working with women in clinic, I’ve noticed something.
Many women become completely focused on the hormones themselves and never stop to ask:
Why are the hormones out of balance in the first place?
Because hormones are rarely the whole story.
They’re often the messenger.
And if we only focus on the messenger, we can miss the reason the message is being sent.
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Your Symptoms Are Not The Enemy
I know this might sound strange.
But I actually want you to be grateful for your symptoms.
Not because they’re enjoyable.
Not because they’re convenient.
But because they’re trying to tell you something.
Imagine you’re driving your car and suddenly a warning light appears on the dashboard.
You wouldn’t pull over and rip the bulb out.
You’d open the bonnet and ask:
“Why has that warning light come on?”
The light isn’t the problem.
The light is alerting you to the problem.
Your body works in exactly the same way.
Migraines.
PMS.
Anxiety.
Heavy periods.
Hot flushes.
Thrush.
BV.
Fatigue.
Brain fog.
They’re all messages.
The body is whispering:
“Something is out of balance.”
The earlier we listen, the easier it often is to restore that balance.
You don’t always have to wait until the body starts screaming.
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The Oestrogen Dominance Conversation Nobody Is Having
Let’s talk about oestrogen dominance for a moment.
Because this is where I think a lot of women are being misled.
Many people assume that if they have oestrogen dominance, they must have too much oestrogen.
But that’s not always what’s happening.
Very often, oestrogen stays relatively stable while progesterone drops.
The scales become unbalanced.
Not because oestrogen has dramatically increased.
But because progesterone has fallen away.
And one of the biggest reasons progesterone drops?
Stress.
Chronic stress.
Nervous system dysregulation.
Years of carrying emotional burdens.
Living in survival mode.
Your body is incredibly intelligent.
When it perceives stress, it prioritises survival.
And reproductive hormones can end up taking a back seat.
This is why I spend so much time asking women about their lives, not just their blood tests.
Because sometimes the answer isn’t found in another supplement.
Sometimes it’s found in understanding what the body has been carrying.
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Why Does Everything Flare Around Ovulation Or Your Period?
This is something I teach my patients all the time.
If you get recurring symptoms every single month, especially around ovulation or before your period, I immediately become curious.
Migraines.
Thrush.
Bacterial vaginosis.
Skin flares.
Mood changes.
Histamine reactions.
Why?
Because your hormones are shifting.
And those shifts often reveal underlying imbalances.
One area I pay particular attention to is the liver.
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The Council Bin Collection Analogy
Imagine your local council stops collecting the bins.
For a few days everything looks fine.
Then the rubbish starts building up.
More rubbish arrives.
But none of the old rubbish is leaving.
Eventually the whole system becomes overwhelmed.
Your liver works in a very similar way.
One of its many jobs is helping to process and clear hormones.
If that clearance process becomes sluggish, congestion starts to build.
Then every month, when hormones naturally rise and fall, symptoms can begin to reappear.
The body isn’t broken.
It’s struggling to keep up with the workload.
This is why so many women notice recurring symptoms that seem to follow their cycle like clockwork.
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What About Gut Health?
The gut is another piece of the puzzle that doesn’t get enough attention.
Think of your gut like a fishing net.
A healthy net catches what it’s supposed to catch.
A damaged net lets things slip straight through.
One of the jobs of the gut is helping escort waste products and hormones out of the body.
When the microbiome becomes imbalanced, hormones that should have left can end up recirculating.
Again, we don’t just ask:
“What hormone is out of balance?”
We ask:
“Why is the body struggling to eliminate it?”
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The Bucket Theory
I use this analogy every day in clinic.
Imagine your body has a bucket.
Into that bucket goes:
Stress.
Poor sleep.
Histamine.
Inflammation.
Hormonal fluctuations.
Mould exposure.
Chemicals.
Trauma.
Life’s everyday demands.
For years your body may cope beautifully.
Then one day the bucket overflows.
And suddenly you’re dealing with symptoms.
The symptom isn’t necessarily the cause.
It’s often the overflow.
This is why two women with the same diagnosis can have completely different root causes.
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This Is Where Homeopathy Is Different
Homeopathy asks a question that I think modern healthcare often forgets.
Why?
Why this symptom?
Why now?
Why this woman?
Why this pattern?
Why does it return every month?
Why did it begin after that stressful period of life?
Why did it start after that illness?
Why did it start after that bereavement?
Why did it begin after mould exposure?
We’re always looking for the story underneath the symptom.
Because that’s where lasting change tends to happen.
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My Free Hormonal Health & Detox Toolkit
If you’ve enjoyed this article, I’ve put together a practical guide for how to open your own detox pathways at home.
Inside you’ll find a cheat sheet for:
✓ The remedies to make your own liver detox combination
✓ Remedies to support detoxing your gut (and why you might need to)
✓ How to get your lymathic system working at an optimal level
✓ How to find out which one of your detox pathways needs support
Download the free toolkit here:
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Ready To Look Beyond The Hormones?
If you’re struggling with recurring hormonal symptoms and you’re tired of chasing the same problem month after month, perhaps it’s time to ask a different question.
Not:
“What’s wrong with my hormones?”
But:
“What are my hormones trying to tell me?”
If you’d like help exploring your own unique picture, I’d love to speak with you.
Warmly,
Chloe Thomas RSHom
Founder of Soul Balm Homeopathy
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