Welcome to How Humans Heal! I’m Dr. Doni Wilson and in this episode, I’m going to talk about menstrual-related hormones, like estrogen and progesterone, and what they have to do with your risk with high-risk HPV – Human Papilloma Virus.

I’m also going to talk about synthetic hormones, such as in birth control pills, and how they are associated with risk of high-risk HPV. 

If you’ve been dealing with high-risk HPV or abnormal Pap and wondering if your hormones or birth control, have anything to do with it, the answer is yes, quite possibly they do. I want you to have all the information so you can think it through for yourself and decide whether you need to look into this connection more for yourself. 

Why Your Hormones Matter with HPV

Your doctor likely never mentioned this. Your ovaries, your ovarian hormones, and your menstrual cycle may be playing a role in whether you test positive for HPV and whether you develop abnormal cells. 

It’s not just about exposure to the virus; it’s about the environment in your body that could be making you susceptible to HPV. Your hormone levels and how well your body metabolizes hormones influences whether your body clears HPV to negative, and whether abnormal cells develop.

Common Menstrual Symptoms

It’s very common for women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and even 50s to experience PMS, bloating, fatigue, breast tenderness, irritability, migraines, cramps, pelvic pain, heavy bleeding, spotting, or cycles that come too early, too late, or irregularly. 

You don’t have to just accept these symptoms. And taking a birth control pill is not the only option. 

There’s a lot we can do, and by solving the menstrual symptoms and hormone imbalance, we can also decrease your risk of HPV. We can solve two things at once.

Birth Control and Synthetic Hormones

Many women with menstrual-related symptoms are prescribed a birth control pill, a hormonal IUD, or another implanted device. 

They contain synthetic hormones, made in a lab, and essentially turn off your ovaries and take over. Synthetic hormones don’t look exactly like what our ovaries make, and those slight differences can affect how you feel and can cause side effects. 

The pill may make sense for a period of time to get out of pain or prevent heavy bleeding. But research shows that synthetic hormones, including from a hormonal IUD, can cause nutrient deficiencies and increase your risk of testing positive for high-risk HPV and developing abnormal cells or even cervical cancer. 

So at some point, you’ll likely want to come off the pill, especially if you’ve done everything else and HPV isn’t going away. When ready to come off the pill, I like to help your body get healthier first, so your ovaries are prepared to come back online in better balance.

Hormone Balance is The Goal

Once off the pill, it’s all about supporting hormone balance because HPV risk is also associated with estrogen levels that are too high and too low.

This applies to women who’ve had a partial hysterectomy and still have their ovaries, if their estrogen and progesterone are imbalanced. It also applies to perimenopausal women who are more likely to have imbalanced hormone levels. 

Many women who reach out to me are in their 40s and early 50s, and that’s when HPV started testing positive for them. I also hear from women in their 50s and 60s whose hormones have dropped after menopause, which also increases susceptibility to HPV.

Whether synthetic or natural, if your hormones are out of balance, you can be more at risk. As a naturopathic doctor, I can help you balance your estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, and testosterone by addressing the same underlying causes that help clear HPV.

Test, Instead of Guess, Your Hormone Levels

Blood tests for estrogen and progesterone often come back within the normal range, but normal doesn’t mean optimal. 

In my practice and online program, I find that a urine hormone panel, for example the DUTCH panel from Precision Analytical, can provide much better information. We can measure the three main forms of estrogen, E1, E2, and E3, plus the estrogen metabolites to assess liver detoxification. 

Estrogen must be processed by your liver through phase 1 and 2 detoxification pathways. How well your liver is detoxifying estrogen is determined by several factors. The test can help us to identify whether there is an issue to address, which we can do with a natural approach.

Instead of guessing about your hormones based on symptoms, we can see what’s happening. Then we can use diet, herbs, nutrients, and peptides to help your ovaries ovulate, make healthy hormones, and help your liver metabolize estrogen. 

The urine hormone panel is a specialty test that costs a few hundred dollars, and you can collect the sample at home. My office offers this panel and helps guide you through it.

The Common Susceptibilities to Menstrual Issues and HPV

These root causes drive both menstrual symptoms and HPV:

• Stress: A difficult relationship, divorce, marriage, a new baby, or a loss influences signaling to your ovaries. Even COVID affects ovary function. The point isn’t avoiding stress; it’s recovering from it.
• Gut health: Leaky gut and food sensitivities create inflammation that can disrupt ovary function and risk of HPV.
• Microbiome imbalances: In the gut and vaginally, especially after antibiotics, antifungals, yeast, or BV, can affect your cycle and immune function.
• Nutrient deficiencies: Heavy bleeding causes iron deficiency, which causes more bleeding and HPV susceptibility. We need to check for low ferritin, not just anemia, and address it.
• Blood sugar imbalances: Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is a key example of how blood sugar impacts hormone levels. Blood sugar fluctuations are also associated with higher HPV risk.
• Toxin exposure: Toxins from air, water, and personal care products overwhelm your liver so it can’t detoxify estrogen well. Toxins also impact methylation and can increase risk with HPV. We offer a test for mold and other toxins.
• Methylation: How your body uses B vitamins is essential for metabolizing estrogen and making new healthy cells. It’s well established that B vitamins are important for preventing cervical dysplasia (abnormal cells on the cervix).

I guide women to address these eight common susceptibilities one-on-one and in my Say Goodbye to HPV® online, group program.

Successful Cases

Just today, three patients reported back to me about how they are seeing improvements in their menstrual symptoms based on my suggestions. 

One had severe PMS, cramping, heavy bleeding, and anemia; now those are gone, her iron improved, and she cleared HPV. 

The second had migraines every month and has now gone several months without a migraine. 

The third had irregular cycles, poor sleep, bloating, and weight gain; now her cycle came at exactly 28 days and she is able to live her life without worrying about feeling terrible.

I also heard from a woman I’ve been helping with high-risk HPV. She had severely abnormal cells during pregnancy. Now she has her healthy baby, negative abnormal cells, negative HPV, and she avoided a hysterectomy.

I help women in all different scenarios, including women who are menstruating, perimenopausal, postmenopausal, post-hysterectomy, coming off synthetic hormones, or wanting to get pregnant. 

After menopause, low vaginal estrogen makes vaginal cells and the cervix vulnerable to HPV. We were told to fear estrogen, but it was actually synthetic progestins that increased breast cancer risk. We can safely use gentle, natural estrogen (estriol) vaginally when testing shows it’s low in order to prevent infections, including HPV. 

Take Your Health Back

What I find is that HPV is often just one sign that your body is asking for attention — and going through the process of addressing HPV can help you heal from anxiety, depression, migraines, sleep issues, hormone imbalances, gut issues, autoimmunity, and more. That means this could be your opportunity to change the way you relate to your body and your health. 

Here’s what I want you to hold onto: every single one of the susceptibilities to HPV can be tested for, addressed, and resolved. You are not powerless in this situation — quite the opposite. By asking the right questions and doing the right tests, you can take real, meaningful control of your health and give your immune system exactly what it needs to protect you.

Please keep in mind that you are not likely to hear about this approach in a standard medical appointment. They are not trained in clinical nutrition, herbal medicines, or in which lab tests can provide the information we need to understand what is happening in your body and what is out of balance. 

That doesn’t mean your options are limited — it means you need an expert to help guide you. As a naturopathic doctor and midwife for over 26 years, I’ve helped patients from around the world clear HPV and go on to feel better than they had in years, because when we rebalance your whole system, everything improves — your energy, your sleep, your mood, and your resilience to HPV.

I offer one-on-one care, in-person or virtually, to help my patients get access to health panels that provide accurate and essential information to create an individualized protocol. That’s how I help you to identify and address the root causes of your health issues, so you can reverse abnormalities and maintain optimal levels going forward. 

If you’d like to learn more about how I can help with your case, you can set up a time to talk with my team here.

I also offer a group, online community for women working to clear high-risk HPV and recover from an abnormal pap smear result. In that program – called Say Goodbye to HPV® Program – I teach you which tests to have done and how to understand and address your results. 

If you’re dealing with HPV and want to prevent cervical cancer, I welcome you to join me over on Instagram @drdoniwilson and on my website at clearhpvnow.com. You can download my free HPV Recovery Guide and watch videos of women who’ve implemented my HPV Protocol and found freedom from high-risk HPV. 

If you’d like to get a better sense of my approach, I welcome you to join my next free How to Get Rid of HPV online workshop where I help you to create a plan to get HPV out of your life for good. 

Thank you so much for joining me for this video. I’d love to hear from you – please like, comment, share, and subscribe, if you haven’t already. I look forward to having you join me for the next episode of How Humans Heal.

I look forward to helping you. 

Dr. Doni

Disclaimer: This specific article and all other Content, Products, and Services of this Website are NOT intended as, and must not be understood or construed as, medical care or advice, naturopathic medical care or advice, the practice of medicine, or the practice of counseling care, nor can it be understood or construed as providing any form of medical diagnosis, treatment,  natural HPV cure, or prevention of any disease.