How can I tell if my stress hormones are out of balance?

On Ep. 196, Nikkiey explains the daily curve. Cortisol is supposed to be higher in the morning and dip before bed. Many women in the WarriorBabe community test with that curve flipped: low in the morning, which can show up as brain fog, low mood, low sex drive and waking sluggish, then high at night, which can cost you deep sleep and slow your results. Passing on what a doctor told their community, she adds that high cortisol can also start to affect your thyroid. Dr. Brighten notes that what people call low cortisol is often the result of high cortisol over a long period.

Candace Tranter, on Ep. 224, frames it through the nervous system. Anxiety, rising blood pressure, not sleeping and not eating are all ways your body tells you something is off.

These signs are clues, not a diagnosis. Dr. Brighten says testing can include salivary or urinary cortisol. She likes the DUTCH test because it shows the cortisol-to-cortisone ratio and how cortisol moves through the day. In blood work, she orders an ACTH and an 8 a.m. cortisol. If any of this sounds familiar, take your symptoms to your doctor and ask what testing makes sense for you. Feeling this way does not mean you're failing. It means your body is asking for a different plan.