Histamine Intolerance and its Effects on Hormones and Period Health
What if there’s more to your period symptoms than just hormonal ups and downs? Histamine intolerance might be the missing link. This often-overlooked condition impacts your hormones, particularly oestrogen, and can make period-related symptoms much worse.
In this post, we’ll break down how histamine is linked to your cycle, show you how to pinpoint whether it’s contributing to your symptoms and explore practical steps to find relief.
What is Histamine and What Does it do in the Body?
Histamine is a chemical compound that your body produces naturally. It serves several critical roles, including:
Immune Response: Helps the body fight allergens by dilating blood vessels to allow immune cells to respond to threats.
Digestion: Stimulates the release of stomach acid for digestion.
Neurotransmitter: Acts as a stimulating chemical in the brain, regulating alertness, but when overactive, it can cause anxiety and insomnia.
While histamine is essential for these functions, too much of it—or an inability to properly break it down—can lead to symptoms that affect your menstrual cycle and overall health.
How Histamine Impacts Oestrogen and Inflammation
Histamine and Oestrogen
Histamine and oestrogen have a close relationship. Oestrogen stimulates mast cells (a type of immune cell) to release more histamine. In turn, histamine increases oestrogen levels, creating a vicious cycle of heightened symptoms.
Histamine and Inflammation
Excess histamine also triggers inflammatory pathways, which can worsen symptoms like cramping, fluid retention and swelling, and general discomfort during your cycle.
Symptoms of Histamine Intolerance
Histamine intolerance can contribute to a variety of menstrual and general health symptoms, including:
Period Pain: Histamine-induced inflammation increases cramping and discomfort.
Heavy Periods: High histamine exacerbates oestrogen dominance, thickening the uterine lining and causing heavier bleeding.
Mood Symptoms: As a neurotransmitter, histamine can heighten anxiety, irritability, and brain fog.
Migraines: Histamine dilates blood vessels and increases sensitivity, making hormone-related migraines more likely.
Bloating: Histamine impacts gut health, causing bloating and digestive issues.
PMDD: Histamine intolerance is commonly linked to PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), as both are influenced by hormonal sensitivity and inflammatory responses.
General Symptoms: Hives, nasal congestion, hay fever, eczema, diarrhoea, irritability, headaches and brain fog.
How Histamine Symptoms Worsen During Ovulation and the Premenstrual Phase
Histamine-related symptoms often worsen during certain phases of the menstrual cycle due to hormonal changes.
Histamine spikes around ovulation as oestrogen levels rise. This can trigger migraines, anxiety, or bloating during the middle of your cycle.
When progesterone levels drop relative to oestrogen in the premenstrual phase, histamine release increases. Progesterone normally helps stabilise histamine levels, so its decline can lead to heightened symptoms.
If your symptoms typically worsen during ovulation and the premenstrual phase, it’s a good clue that histamine intolerance may be a contributing factor.
How to Test if Histamine is Contributing to Symptoms
One of the easiest ways to identify histamine intolerance is to try a low histamine diet for 2-4 weeks and observe any changes in symptoms.
One of the main ways a food contains or triggers the release of histamine is through the process of aging.
Foods to reduce or eliminate include wine, beer, fermented foods, bone broth, tomatoes, dairy, vinegar, leftovers, coffee, and chocolate (sorry!).
If you notice improvements, it’s likely that histamine is playing a role in your symptoms.
Treatment Options for Histamine Intolerance
Supplements to Support Histamine Regulation:
Quercetin: A natural antioxidant that stabilises mast cells and reduces histamine release.
Vitamin B6: Helps the body break down histamine and supports neurotransmitter balance.
SAMe: Promotes histamine clearance and helps regulate mood. SAMe is especially useful if there’s a strong genetic component to your histamine issues.
Stinging Nettle: Acts as a natural antihistamine and helps lower inflammation.
Low Histamine Diet:
If histamine is contributing to your symptoms, a low histamine diet can be a helpful starting point. The concept of the histamine bucket is key to understanding how histamine intolerance works. Think of your body as a bucket that fills up with histamine throughout the day from food, stress, and other sources. When it overwhelms your body’s ability to break down that level of histamine, the bucket overflows, and symptoms can occur. This is why there are some days when a food can be triggering, as the bucket is already full, and other days when the same food doesn’t cause any problems.
By reducing high-histamine foods, you can lower the amount going into the bucket, giving your body space to process histamine more effectively.
Focus on fresh, minimally processed foods and avoid high-histamine foods. After a few weeks, slowly introduce higher histamine foods one by one. Usually, you will have some tolerance to them, and you’ll figure out your worst triggers and how much you can have.
The Role of Gut Health in Histamine Intolerance
Gut health plays a significant role in managing histamine intolerance.
Histamine issues often start in the gut. An imbalanced gut microbiome can produce excess histamine or slow down the enzymes that break it down, leading to histamine intolerance symptoms. Conditions like SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) or intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut) can also increase histamine sensitivity by promoting inflammation.
Improving gut health can significantly reduce histamine levels. Strategies can include eating fiber-rich foods, addressing dysbiosis with targeted antimicrobials, prebiotics and probiotics, and reducing gut inflammation. Working with a healthcare practitioner to heal the gut can create long-term improvements in histamine regulation and overall health.
Conclusion
Histamine intolerance can make menstrual symptoms feel overwhelming, but understanding its connection to your hormones can be the missing piece in addressing the cause. Through a low histamine diet, supplements, or improving gut health, there are steps you can take to get on top of symptoms and feel better.
Want to dig deeper into what’s causing your symptoms? Download my free guide: Hormone Imbalances: Understanding and Interpreting Your Symptoms.
If you’d like personalised support to heal histamine intolerance, book a free discovery call to have a chat about how I can help.