90: Dr. Carrie Jones: Hormone Issues, Low Libido, Fatigue? Start Here
Hormone Issues, Low Libido, Fatigue? Here's Where to Actually Start
Hormone expert Dr. Carrie Jones reveals why your "normal" labs don't mean you feel normal, how stress and overtraining wreck your hormones, and what to actually do about perimenopause symptoms, fatigue, and low libido.
Ever been told your symptoms are "just stress" or "totally normal" while your body feels anything but normal? You're exhausted, anxious, inflamed, and completely out of sync, but your bloodwork comes back "fine" and your doctor sends you on your way.
Here's the truth: you're not imagining it. And you deserve real answers, not dismissive platitudes.
In this episode, Tara sits down with Dr. Carrie Jones, a board-certified functional medicine doctor and hormone health expert with over 20 years of experience. This conversation digs into why so many women, especially in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, feel terrible despite "normal" labs, what's really happening during perimenopause, and why some of your "healthy" habits might actually be making things worse.
Why "Normal" Labs Don't Mean You Feel Normal
Let's start with the most frustrating experience in women's health: going to your doctor because you feel awful, getting bloodwork done, and being told everything is "normal."
But here's the problem with that: lab ranges for what's considered "normal" are incredibly broad. They're based on population averages, not on what's optimal for you as an individual. So you can be at the very bottom of the "normal" range, barely scraping by, and your doctor will tell you there's nothing wrong.
Dr. Jones explains that standard labs also often miss key markers that would give you a more complete picture of your hormonal health. For example, most doctors only test TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and maybe T4, but they don't look at T3 (the active thyroid hormone) or reverse T3 (which can indicate your body is stressed). They might check estrogen and progesterone but not test them at the right time in your cycle, making the results essentially meaningless.
What "normal" labs miss:
The relationship between your hormones (not just individual levels)
Optimal ranges versus just "within normal limits"
How your symptoms correlate with your numbers
Nutrient deficiencies that affect hormone production
Inflammation and immune system dysfunction
Cortisol patterns throughout the day
The conversation emphasizes that you know your body better than anyone. If you don't feel normal, you're not normal, regardless of what your labs say. Finding a practitioner who actually listens to your symptoms and does comprehensive testing is crucial.
The Hormone Lies Women Are Still Being Told
Despite decades of medical advancements, women are still being fed some serious BS when it comes to their hormonal health.
Lie #1: "These symptoms are just part of being a woman." No. Debilitating periods, crippling PMS, crushing fatigue, zero libido, these are not things you just have to accept. They're signs that something is off and deserves investigation.
Lie #2: "Birth control will fix your hormone problems." Birth control masks symptoms by suppressing your natural hormone production. It doesn't fix the underlying issue, it just covers it up. And when you eventually come off it, the problems are often still there (or worse).
Lie #3: "You're too young for perimenopause." Perimenopause can start in your mid-30s to early 40s. If you're having symptoms like irregular cycles, mood swings, sleep issues, or changes in body composition, don't let anyone tell you you're "too young" to be experiencing hormonal changes.
Lie #4: "It's all in your head." When doctors can't find an obvious explanation in basic labs, they often default to suggesting your symptoms are psychological. This is gaslighting, plain and simple. Your symptoms are real, and they deserve to be taken seriously.
Dr. Jones is passionate about empowering women to advocate for themselves in medical settings. If your doctor isn't taking your symptoms seriously, find a new doctor. Your health is too important to settle for dismissive care.
How to Actually Know If Your Hormones Are Off
So if standard labs often miss the mark, how do you actually figure out if your hormones are the problem?
Start with symptoms. Your body is constantly giving you feedback about what's happening internally. Pay attention to patterns like:
Energy levels throughout the day (crashing in the afternoon is a cortisol red flag)
Sleep quality (waking up at 2-3 AM is often blood sugar or cortisol related)
Mood swings, anxiety, or depression (especially if tied to your cycle)
Changes in libido or sexual function
Weight gain or difficulty losing fat despite doing "everything right"
Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
Skin issues, hair loss, or changes in body composition
Track your cycle. If you're still menstruating, tracking your cycle gives you invaluable information. Note when symptoms worsen or improve relative to your period. This can help identify whether you have issues with estrogen dominance, progesterone deficiency, or other hormonal imbalances.
Get comprehensive testing. When you do get labs, make sure they're actually comprehensive. Dr. Jones recommends looking at:
Full thyroid panel (TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3, thyroid antibodies)
Sex hormones tested at the right time in your cycle
Cortisol (ideally a four-point salivary cortisol test to see patterns throughout the day)
DHEA
Vitamin D, iron/ferritin, B12
Fasting insulin and glucose (to assess metabolic health)
The goal isn't to become obsessed with testing, it's to get objective data that validates what you're experiencing and helps guide treatment.
Are Your "Healthy" Habits Secretly Stressing Your Body?
Here's where things get uncomfortable for a lot of women in the fitness world: some of the things you're doing in the name of health might actually be creating stress that's wrecking your hormones.
Overtraining without adequate recovery. You're hitting the gym six days a week, doing intense workouts, and barely taking rest days because rest feels like weakness. But chronic high-intensity exercise without recovery is a massive stressor. It elevates cortisol, disrupts sleep, tanks your sex hormones, and makes it harder to build muscle or lose fat.
Intermittent fasting or chronic under-eating. Fasting can be a useful tool for some people in specific contexts, but for many women, especially those who are already stressed, under-slept, or over-training, it's adding insult to injury. When you consistently under-eat, your body interprets that as a threat. Cortisol goes up, thyroid function goes down, and your reproductive hormones take a hit.
Constantly pushing for weight loss. Being in a caloric deficit for months or years on end is incredibly stressful for your body. Yes, you might need to lose some fat for health reasons. But chronic dieting, especially aggressive dieting, dysregulates your hormones, slows your metabolism, and can lead to loss of menstruation (hypothalamic amenorrhea).
Not managing life stress. You can eat perfectly and train optimally, but if you're chronically stressed from work, relationships, finances, or just the general chaos of life, your hormones will suffer. Your body doesn't differentiate between "good stress" (like exercise) and "bad stress" (like a toxic job). It all triggers the same physiological response.
Dr. Jones emphasizes that this doesn't mean you should stop exercising or never diet. It means being honest about whether your current approach is serving you or harming you, and being willing to adjust when your body is screaming for rest.
The Real Impact of Stress and Overtraining on Hormones
Let's dig deeper into the stress piece, because this is where a lot of active women get stuck without realizing it.
When you're chronically stressed, from any source, your body prioritizes survival over everything else. This means:
Cortisol production gets priority. Your adrenal glands make both cortisol (stress hormone) and sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When stress is chronic, your body preferentially makes cortisol at the expense of your sex hormones. This is called "pregnenolone steal," and it's why stressed women often have low libido, irregular periods, and difficulty building muscle.
Your thyroid downregulates. In response to chronic stress, your body slows down thyroid function to conserve energy. This leads to fatigue, weight gain, cold intolerance, and a sluggish metabolism, even if your TSH looks "normal."
Inflammation goes up. Chronic stress increases inflammatory markers throughout your body. This contributes to joint pain, skin issues, gut problems, and makes it harder to recover from training.
Your nervous system gets stuck. When you're constantly in sympathetic (fight or flight) mode and never shift into parasympathetic (rest and digest), your body can't heal, repair, or maintain hormonal balance.
The conversation circles back to a crucial point: if you're training intensely, not sleeping enough, under-eating, and dealing with life stress, your body is in constant survival mode. And in survival mode, it's not interested in building muscle, burning fat, or maintaining a healthy sex drive. It's just trying to keep you alive.
What Your Bloodwork Isn't Telling You
Standard bloodwork gives you a snapshot of what's in your blood at that specific moment. But it doesn't tell you the whole story.
Timing matters. Hormones fluctuate throughout the day and throughout your menstrual cycle. Testing estrogen and progesterone on day 3 of your cycle tells you something completely different than testing on day 21. If your doctor isn't timing your labs correctly, the results are essentially meaningless.
Blood tests miss tissue-level issues. Just because something is in your bloodstream doesn't mean it's getting into your cells where it needs to work. You can have "normal" thyroid hormones in your blood but still have hypothyroid symptoms if the hormones aren't getting into your tissues.
Standard panels are limited. Most doctors only run the bare minimum, basic thyroid, maybe a CBC (complete blood count), and metabolic panel. They're not looking at inflammation markers, nutrient levels, insulin sensitivity, or sex hormones unless you specifically ask.
Dr. Jones advocates for functional medicine testing when appropriate, things like DUTCH hormone testing (dried urine test for comprehensive hormones), salivary cortisol testing, and comprehensive thyroid panels. These give a much more complete picture of what's actually happening in your body.
The Problem with Getting Hormone Advice from Social Media
Here's a reality check: social media is full of hormone health advice, and a lot of it is either oversimplified, sensationalized, or just plain wrong.
You'll see influencers claiming that seed oils are destroying your hormones, that you need to detox your liver to fix your period, or that taking a specific supplement stack will cure all your hormonal issues. And while there might be kernels of truth in some of this, individual bodies are complex. What works for one person might be useless or even harmful for another.
Dr. Jones emphasizes the importance of working with qualified practitioners who can actually assess your individual situation rather than following one-size-fits-all advice from the internet. Yes, learn from reputable sources online. But don't self-diagnose and self-treat based on Instagram infographics.
Red flags in hormone health advice:
Promises of quick fixes or miracle cures
Extremely restrictive protocols that eliminate entire food groups
Heavy supplement protocols without proper testing
Fear-mongering about specific foods or ingredients
One-size-fits-all approaches
If you're dealing with genuine hormone issues, you need individualized assessment and treatment, not a generic protocol from someone who doesn't know your history or your labs.
The Bottom Line
If you're exhausted, anxious, dealing with low libido, or just feeling "off" despite doing all the "right" things, your hormones might be the missing piece. And the first step isn't more restriction or pushing harder, it's actually stepping back, managing stress, sleeping more, eating enough, and finding a practitioner who takes your symptoms seriously.
Your body isn't broken. It's trying to communicate with you. Are you listening?
What symptoms have you been told are "normal" that don't feel normal to you? Share your experience with us on Instagram @broads.podcast, you deserve answers, not dismissal.
