The Causey Effect

5 signs cortisol is dominating your life. Slide through and check off how many sound familiar.

Most of the clients I work with have been living with these symptoms for so long, they’ve accepted them as normal:

1. The 3pm energy crash and urge for instant sugar.
2. The poor sleep that doesn’t help you feel rested.
3. The weight around the middle that won’t lessen (and sometimes keeps growing) no matter what you do.
4. The tense mood that feels like you’re one small thing away from completely snapping.

These are not normal or just the cost of being busy. They are signs that your stress response is stuck in overdrive and everything downstream is paying for it.

Cortisol dysregulation doesn’t just drain your energy. It disrupts your blood sugar, depletes your progesterone, drives abdominal fat storage, and throws your sleep cycle completely off.

One problem with a very long list of consequences.

The solution is actually pretty eas, but it does require actually looking at your cortisol curve, understanding what’s driving it, and addressing it in the right order.

If you checked 3 or more of thes boxes, your body has been trying to tell you something.

Comment HORMONES and I’ll send you some resources to start. Or just come find me in my DMs. I actually read them. 🤍

The 4 hormone patterns I see in almost every woman I work with. Slide through and see how many sound like you.

Most women I work with have been dealing with these symptoms for years. They’ve been told their labs are normal, their thyroid is fine, their mood is just stress. They’ve tried the diets, adjusted their sleep, done everything ‘right’ and still feel off. I am usually a last resort.

Cortisol dominance is almost always the first domino. When your stress response gets stuck in the on position, everything downstream will be affected, including your thyroid, your s*x hormones, your blood sugar, and your sleep.

Estrogen and progesterone imbalance is the most commonly diagnosed as anxiety (annoying). Progesterone is the first hormone to fall under chronic stress. When it drops, your nervous system loses its primary calming signal. Worse, your labs can look completely normal while your body feels anything but.

Thyroid dysfunction that is hiding behind the other two. TSH staying normal while Free T3 is low is one of the most common patterns I see, and one of the most commonly missed. Standard panels don’t catch it.

Testosterone in women is finally getting some attention. Chronic stress, pregnancy, nursing, hormonal birth control all of it deplete it, resulting in flat moods, zero motivation, low libido, and difficulty building muscle.

These hormones don’t work in isolation; the patterns stack. They drive each other. Which is exactly why treating one thing at a time hasn’t worked.

Comment HORMONES and I’ll send you some resources to start with or we can just talk.

My DMs are open and I actually read them. 🤍

↓ Save this. Send it to a friend who keeps being told she’s fine.

Save this before the algorithm buries it. 🔖

I’ve spent years now cleaning up the mess that wellness misinformation leaves behind, and these seven patterns keep showing up in my practice on repeat.

❌ Cutting all carbs to “balance hormones”. NO, your thyroid needs glucose to make active T3. Cut too low, and T3 drops up to 34%. That’s not balance, that’s suppression.

❌ Trusting a normal CBC or TSH-only panel as a hormone workup. A CBC counts blood cells. TSH is one point on a three-hormone chain. Neither is a hormone panel.

❌ Starting a peptide or GLP-1 without baseline labs. These work inside your existing hormonal systems. If your thyroid or insulin picture is off, you need to know BEFORE you start.

❌ Taking lab advice from influencer with no credentials (and even some with). The 2025 ACOG study confirmed the most-shared hormone content was the least accurate. Always ask for the source. I share mine!

❌ Using OTC hormone boosting supplements without testing. Absorption is inconsistent, blood levels are unpredictable, most do nothing, some are harmful. Guessing is guessing, even if it’s over the counter.

❌ Calling your fatigue “just being a mom”. Nearly 40% of women are misdiagnosed during perimenopause. Hormone-related fatigue has measurable, treatable causes. Sleep advice doesn’t fix a thyroid disorder or tanking hormones.

❌ Relying on castor oil packs to fix your hormones. I love a good natural remedy, and I love castor oil for many things, but there is no established pathway by which castor oil acts on your endocrine system. The stillness, warmth, and nervous system rest? That part is real. The oil is getting unearned credit.

If any of these sound familiar, send it to a friend who needs to hear it yesterday.
Comment LABs and I’ll send you the actual labs and protocols I recommend instead.