Hormonal imbalance and its causes in young females

Abstract

Hormones play a vital role in the health of human females and hormonal imbalance can cause several pathological conditions. Improper diet, stressful or depressed lifestyles and use of drugs can cause hormonal imbalance. This study aimed to find out the causes of hormonal imbalance in females aged between 15-40 years. A cross-sectional and random sampling method was used to collect data from young females of this age group in Karachi, Pakistan. A specially designed questionnaire was used for data collection and a total of 127 females participated in the study. 55% of the females had irregular periods, 39% had excessive hair growth on the face or body, and 6% had both conditions. 11% of the female took junk foods, 6.2% were vegetarians, 14.96% took spicy food, 60.62 % took all the three types of food. 36% took both vegetable and junk foods, and 4.72% took both junk and spicy foods. In addition, 59% of the females took no treatment, 26% took antibiotics, 10.25% were on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and 4.75% took both antibiotics and HRT.   21.26% had depression, 24.41% had work load, 1.6% had both depression and workload while 52.73% had no specific cause for their hormonal imbalance.