Is plastic impacting your hormones? Test your hormones at-home with Eve Health kits

With the launch of our ‘WE-AR what we wear’ campaign for Fashion Revolution week, we were super interested to understand the effects that synthetic fabrics have on our health, and in particular our hormones and the link between what we wear and our period problems. So, we chatted to Eve Health, the new sister company of Bepure, to find out more. Eve is on a mission to educate and empower women around their hormones through an at-home hormone test that delivers you all the information that you need to know about what’s going on with your hormones.

Hormones are one of the most important keys to your health. 50% of the population has a period every month for most of their lives and yet it remains a mystery to most of us how and why this happens, and how our hormone balance is dictating so much of how we feel day to day.

Essentially, hormones impact our entire bodies. Hormone imbalances have been linked to:

• Skin issues e.g. acne, dryness and fine lines and wrinkles
  
  
• Mental health e.g. anxiety, depression, unstable moods and PMS
  
  
• Weight management e.g. inability to lose or gain weight, and explained weight gain
  
  
• Energy levels e.g. low energy or fatigue
  
  
• Gut health e.g. all health starts in your gut and any issues here could be contributing towards hormone unhappiness
  
  
• Period problems e.g. heavy or irregular periods, or a lack of periods (amenorrhea)
  
  
• Pre-menstrual issues e.g. pain or cramping, bloating or gas, sore breasts
  
  
• Fertility e.g. trouble getting or staying pregnant
  
  
• Headaches e.g. pre or post-period
  
  
• Challenges with exercise e.g. the inability to gain muscle mass...
  
  

...and this is not even a complete list! As we learn more and more about these powerful little chemicals, we discover new roles that they are playing in our bodies. Basically, as women, hormones are life. It’s time we taught ourselves about them to unlock greater freedom, health, and vitality in our lives.

As hormones drive so much in our lives, we must understand them, get to know them, and listen to their needs in order to love ourselves and live our best lives.

What does wearing activewear made out of plastic textiles do to our hormones?

In the process of stretching and flowing in your fave pair of plastic leggings, you might be leaching plastic chemicals into your bloodstream through the simple process of abrasion, each time we wear these textiles tiny plastic fibres are rubbed off and absorbed into the biggest organ in our bodies: our skin, which absorbs approximately 80% of whatever we put on it. When we exercise, our bodies regulate our temperature through sweating, which opens our pores up nice and wide, letting the fibres jump on in.

Plastic-based polyamide textiles that are made out of oil - all act as xenoestrogens in the body, which means that they mimic oestrogen when we absorb them. Eve’s scientists frequently observe high oestrogen levels in Eve test results. It’s thought that the abundance of plastic and toxins in our environments are leading to this outcome. Over long term exposure xenoestrogens have been linked to increased risk of hormonal issues such as:

• Oestrogen dominance symptoms such as heavy periods, weight gain around the hips and thighs and PMS (these are the most common hormonal side effects of plastic exposure, and Eve tests for this hormone imbalance)
  
  
• Increased risk of breast cancer
  
  
• Increased risk of ovarian cancer
  
  
• Fertility issues in men and women
  
  
• Impaired foetus development
  
  
• Libido and erectile issues in men
  
  
• Early onset puberty in young females (scarily, 9 years old is now considered a normal age for a girl to get her first period).
  
  

So your activewear and synthetic clothing may be contributing to your PMS! Want to find out if it is?

The Eve test measures 19 different hormonal markers, including those that are usually disrupted by toxins and plastics, to show you your unique hormone balance. The easy to understand report explains what your results mean and what all your hormones do, to empower you to develop a deeper relationship with your body.

They also give you a list of tips around how to naturally support your hormones with your diet, lifestyle, movement and nutritional products. *Hint* cutting out plastics is a massive part of what Eve preaches due to the hormonal hell this material has been linked to.

Here’s the good news tribe…

So, here’s some good news: there are some amazing conscious designers out there using natural fibres like organic cotton, bamboo, hemp and linen combined with minimal amounts of spandex to bring us the hugging, flattering yoga pants that we love without harming our oceans or our hormones.

Our leggings are 90% organic cotton with 10% elastane - (the minimum needed in a textile to yield two-way stretch, body-hugging functionality, and longevity). We want to make it easier for you to make more sustainable choices, so we’re offering $20 off an earth-loving pair of our leggings when you bring in your old plastic ones (we'll dispose of them safely) to our Ponsonby or Waiheke stores.

Find out more about Eve Health here.