Is the “Cortisol Steal” Real? - how stress messes up your hormones

I’m going to blow your mind real quick.

Ready? Ok, here we go:

The number one cause of hormone imbalance is STRESS.

Not age, not genetics, not a bad roll of the dice. Stress - mental, emotional, and physical - can dramatically shift your hormone levels independent of all those other factors. And when I say “hormone levels,” I mean all of them. Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone are only the tip of the iceberg, though they are definitely at the mercy of stress and can create quite the mess if not balanced.

The term “Cortisol Steal” or “Pregnenolone Steal” tends to get used a lot in Functional Medicine as a way to describe this phenomenon - the connection between chronic stress and hormone imbalance. But it gets a bit of an eye-roll from most conventional medicine practitioners.

Let me explain the reason I find the term “Cortisol Steal” helpful, even though it’s not completely accurate.

First, you need to know that Cortisol is a hormone that’s secreted by the adrenal glands when the body is in a chronic-stress state. Cortisol is made from pregnenolone, like most of our steroid hormones. Estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone are also made from pregnenolone. They just follow different biochemical pathways to get there.

When your body is stressed, it prioritizes making cortisol over the other hormones because cortisol’s job is to help us survive. Remember, your brain treats all stress the same - like a threat. So it makes sense that progesterone would get bumped in favor of cortisol, because cortisol could save your life! If your progesterone dips, well, you might have some breakthrough bleeding or trouble sleeping, but you probably won’t die.

So, the concept of the “cortisol steal” comes from this shift in preference - the “stealing” of ingredients needed to make estrogen, testosterone, or progesterone in order to make more cortisol. Does estrogen get turned into cortisol? Nope. Does cortisol actually “steal” pregnenolone from the body’s tissues? Nope. The “steal” is actually an intentional shift, but it results in pretty much the same thing: more cortisol, less of the others.

Check out the figure below for a simplified visual of this process.

Tell me, can you see how stress is at the very root of hormone imbalance? And that treating hormone imbalance without addressing the cause of increased cortisol (stress) is irrational, at best?

But what do we do when we’re feeling the symptoms of hormone imbalance? We go straight at ‘em, usually with a pharmaceutical sledgehammer, side-stepping the whole stress conversation. And we typically do it with minimal information about our hormone levels.

My hope is that, with this information, you’ll make a different choice. That by understanding the concept of the “cortisol steal,” you’ll be able to address the root cause of hormone issues like PMS, irregular or heavy cycles, weight gain, insomnia, hormonal acne, migraines, cyclical anxiety or low moods, hot flashes, muscle loss, low libido...need I go on?

Looking for evidence-based, stress-optimization strategies to shift your hormones away from cortisol and back toward hormone balance? You'll find them in the Stress Smarter Mini-Workshop - click HERE to learn more. 

Desperate for help figuring out what the heck is up with your hormones? Shoot me an email at [email protected] - we’ll put our heads together to find a solution that fits your situation.