Adele Wimsett is a women’s health practitioner and feminist. She’s passionate about supporting ADHD women to understand how their hormones affect their traits. You can find her on instagram @harmoniseyou.
Exhausted? Anxious? Not sleeping? Difficult Periods? Overwhelmed?
I absolutely hear you!
This used to be me. And what I believed to be a “healthy” lifestyle at the time, was actually destroying my hormones.
I literally had no idea how screwed up my hormones were. I simply thought it was normal to have all of the above symptoms (and more!), including PMT. As if somehow it was just par for the course of being a modern woman. How wrong I was!
And, without me knowing it, I was also battling with undiagnosed ADHD.
My hormones were literally screaming at me to stop
I was in my early 30s and in a senior position in the public sector, where I was constantly in my ‘masculine energy’, basically focusing relentlessly on action and deliverables.
And as if I didn’t have enough on my already overflowing plate, I thought I might as well add motherhood into the mix. Well, why not?! I was a high achieving woman, so surely this would be a doddle. Pah!
Whilst trying to balance all of the spinning plates as a working mother AND be “healthy”, I noticed that the conventional advice was not working. In fact it was making me sick.
But why?
This really started to bug me. I thought I was doing all the right things to stay healthy. I tried the keto diet, then raw food, then veganism, intermittent fasting, fasted exercise – you name the hyped up food trend, I tried it! Little did I know the pressure this was putting on my body, until she spoke loudly to me.
My period vanished.
Women are not small men, why are we treated as if we are?!
The way I was living was not working for either my body, or my mind.
I took a leap of faith and spent several years researching what was going on. And wow did my findings activate my inner feminist!
I realised that so much of the health advice we are given (in both the medical and alternative health arenas) is based on research conducted on men. Even studies that use lab rats tend to be male! This huge bias in research had meant that (well-meaning) health practitioners were sharing advice that was actually harming my body.
Having always been a catalyst for change, I embarked on a journey of re-training in women’s health so that I could be a voice to help women understand what THEIR body needed and not treat them as small men.
I was fortunate enough to train with international leads in their fields – Nicole Jardim for Women’s Hormone Health, Miranda Gray for Menstrual Cycle Awareness and more recently with Francesca Lyon at FUTURE WOMAN+ on their programme for health practitioners.
I was determined to let women know that our menstrual health is a reflection of our overall health and that they too could be empowered with the many tools and techniques I use to harmonise their hormones.
Hormones and my ADHD - a potent combination!
At 41 (hello perimenopause!) I finally received my ADHD diagnosis.
ADHD is massively under diagnosed in women (again, lack of research!) so many women like me are only receiving a diagnosis now after years of struggle.
I could see that my hormones played a huge role in my experience of my ADHD traits – things like difficulty concentrating, anxiety, low mood which can occur around different times of the month or during big hormonal shifts like pregnancy or post partum, affected me differently because of my ADHD. Hormonal changes tend to amplify ADHD traits in women.
So in order to create an ADHD friendly lifestyle, balancing my hormones properly became a non-negotiable.
And WOW, this understanding has been invaluable for my all-round health & wellbeing!
Getting to grips with my hormones
Our hormones as women are pretty complicated!
So I needed to find a way to really understand my hormone picture in detail and go through it with someone who ‘got it’.
I discovered FUTURE WOMAN through a friend and was excited by their women-only mission. It felt like the perfect fit!
I tested with the Advanced Hormone Test (the middle one which looks at reproductive and stress hormones) and I was able to see EXACTLY what was happening to my hormones. Most excitingly, one of their expert nutritionists created a personalised supplement protocol for me, and showed me how to tailor my diet and lifestyle based on my results.
What I discovered through testing
By this stage I was 42, so I was keen to check in on my reproductive hormones and see where I was at with my perimenopause journey.
I was pleasantly surprised by my healthy oestrogen and progesterone results! And my oestrogen metabolism was looking good too. Yes!
My cortisol results were still a bit low (indicating long term stress) so I’m continuing to work on boosting that. I now have some supplements that support my adrenal glands and I’m being careful to balance my blood sugar with plenty of protein at each meal.
And finally, as expected given my ADHD, my dopamine was also low and needed some support.
I feel really clear now about what my specific priorities are and how to help my individual hormone picture. In fact, I was so impressed with the FUTURE WOMAN service that I now offer this to all women in my clinic!
Women have taken the “chuck it all at the wall and hope something sticks” approach for too long – I see so many women in my clinic who take supplements they’ve seen on social media or in a magazine. But it needs to be tailored to you!
By utilising FUTURE WOMAN’s testing and expert interpretation you get bespoke, tailored plans for your individual needs. It makes such a difference!
A snapshot of my test results from the Advanced Hormone Test
How I help women with ADHD to balance their hormones
Combining my knowledge and experience of ADHD with my clinical experience of women’s hormone health, I am now able to offer a niche service to ADHD women to understand how their hormones affect their traits.
Everything that I teach women is simple, although not always easy to do alone.
BUT, once you understand how to balance your hormones, EVERYTHING CHANGES – libido comes back, you sleep, you have energy, relationships and cognitive function improve, mood is balanced, you sleep, and you FEEL good!
I have a powerful vision of a world where women feel good and I believe this is totally possible.
The key to the secret lies in understanding our innate cyclical rhythms and a lifestyle that supports women’s physiology. Once you learn to unlock this and reclaim your inner super powers, you can stop striving and start thriving.
I wish I had known the impact my hormones had on my ADHD years ago as I am sure I would have been able to make much more supportive choices for my hormones and my neurodiversity, which would have made things much easier for me.
So here I am sharing my story with you, in the hope that it inspires you to change your own story!
