Second Puberty: Why Your Body’s Changing — Again — and What to Do About It

If your body suddenly feels unfamiliar — hello, breakouts, bloating and mood swings — you might be in the thick of second puberty. This unofficial but very real phase of hormonal shifts can hit in adulthood and leave you wondering what’s going on. Don’t panic, though. Here’s a breakdown of what second puberty is, why it happens and how to support your body through it.  What Is Second Puberty?  Let’s get one thing straight — second puberty isn’t an official medical diagnosis, but it is a very real experience. It’s a term used to describe the hormonal shifts that happen in adulthood. These changes often happen in your late 20s to 40s and can affect everything from your mood and skin to your metabolism and sex drive. Think of it as puberty’s older, wiser and slightly more chaotic sibling.  For women, second puberty can be linked to major hormonal milestones like perimenopause, pregnancy, postpartum recovery or aging. For men, testosterone levels start to dip gradually around age 30, bringing subtle but noticeable changes. For transgender individuals undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), second puberty is quite literal — your body is going through a full hormonal shift that can mimic the changes of adolescence.  Regardless of your gender, these shifts can be disorienting. Your body may feel different, your emotions may run high and what worked for you health-wise a few years ago might suddenly stop working. It’s frustrating, but it’s also totally normal. Second puberty is your body’s way of recalibrating. With the right tools, you can ride the wave instead of feeling like you’re drowning in it.  When Does Second Puberty Hit?  Second puberty doesn’t come with a calendar invite — it tends to sneak up on you. For many women, it starts in the late 20s to mid-30s and is often triggered by hormonal events like coming off birth control, pregnancy or the early stages of perimenopause — which can begin up to 10 years before menopause or in a woman’s early 40s and 50s. You may not even realize it’s hormonal at first, until you’re crying during toothpaste commercials and wondering why your jeans don’t fit the same.  For men, testosterone levels naturally begin to decline around 30, dropping a little each year. The result is slower metabolism, mood shifts and even changes in sex drive and muscle mass. It’s subtle, but real.  For trans people beginning HRT, second puberty is literal. Estrogen or testosterone can trigger everything from new body hair to emotional changes and fat redistribution, mimicking many classic puberty symptoms.  The Hormonal Shift: What Changes and Why  Second puberty is driven by fluctuating levels of key hormones — mainly estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. These aren’t just reproductive hormones. Instead, they regulate your sleep, metabolism, mood, skin health and even digestion. When they try sto hift, everything can feel off.  For women, estrogen and progesterone start to fluctuate in perimenopause, sometimes years before menopause officially begins. This can cause irregular periods, hot flashes, anxiety, brain fog and more. It’s not just “getting older,” it’s you’re body preparing for a whole new hormonal baseline.  Men, on the other hand, might experience a gradual testosterone decline — sometimes called andropause. It’s not as sudden or severe as menopause, but it can still lead to fatigue, decreased libido, trouble concentrating and even depression.  For transgender individuals, hormone therapy induces purposeful hormonal shifts. Taking testosterone or estrogen alters secondary sex characteristics and while empowering, it can also come with mood swings, acne, appetite changes and more as the body adjusts.  Across the board, stress, diet, poor sleep, and environmental toxins can throw hormones even further out of balance. So, if you’re feeling “off,” it’s not just in your head. Understanding that can help you respond with more compassion, strategy, and self-care.  Symptoms of Second Puberty  Second puberty symptoms can feel like deja vu — but with adult responsibilities and way less patience. You might not experience all of them, but here are the most common signs your hormones are shifting:  Skin changes: Acne, dryness, or increased sensitivity around the jawline or chin.  Weight fluctuations: Sudden weight gain or difficulty losing weight, particularly around the belly or hips.  Mood swings: Anxiety, irritability, low mood or feeling overwhelmed for no obvious reason.  Sleep issues: Trouble falling or staying asleep or waking up feeling unrefreshed.  Digestive changes: Bloating, constipation or food sensitivities that didn’t bother you before.  Hair shifts: Thinning hair on your head or unexpected hair growth elsewhere.  Libido changes: Either a major drop or a sudden spike in sex drive.  Irregular periods or new PMS symptoms: For women, this is often the first sign that something’s changing.  You might chalk it up to stress, aging or diet — but if multiple symptoms show up at once and don’t resolve, your hormones are likely involved and unlike your teen years, this time you have more tools to manage it.  Tips for Dealing with Second Puberty  Second puberty isn’t something you “fix.” Instead, it’s something you navigate. But you can absolutely support your body through it with some strategic changes, like:  Balance your blood sugar. Stable blood sugar helps regulate cortisol and insulin, which affect sex hormones. Eat protein, fiber and healthy fats at each meal.  Reduce endocrine disruptors. Ditch plastics, synthetic fragrances and harsh cleaning products. These chemicals mess with your hormones more than you think.  Get quality sleep. Your hormones reset while you sleep. Aim for seven to nine hours in a cool, dark room and keep a consistent bedtime.  Move your body. Gentle movement like walking, pilates or strength training supports hormone health without spiking cortisol.  Check your stress levels. Chronic stress hijacks your hormones and leads to you feeling worse. Try breathwork, journaling or meditation. Even ten minutes helps.  Support your liver. Drink plenty of water, eat leafy greens and consider milk thistle or dandelion tea.  Get lab work done. Knowledge is power. A full hormonal panel can help you and your provider make informed decisions.  This is less about perfection and more about tuning into your body and giving it what it needs during this transition.  Hormones, Hilarity and Hot Flashes Second puberty can feel like your body’s turning on you — but really, it’s turning a corner. These changes may be uncomfortable, but they’re also a sign that your body is shifting into a new phase, one that deserves care, curiosity and compassion. With the right support, you can come out of this feeling stronger, wiser and more in tune with yourself than ever.

Living with diabetes means drastically changing your lifestyle. That’s quite a thought to consider, but one that thousands of Americans deal with every day. Whether you’re a type 1 diabetic — meaning your body doesn’t produce insulin — or a type 2 diabetic who may or may not use insulin but needs to control your diet, weight and lifestyle choices to maintain your glucose levels, exercising is a vital part of diabetic control.  Watch Your Diet When Exercising With Diabetes Adrenaline often raises your blood sugar, especially if you eat refined carbohydrates before or during a workout. As a person with diabetes, you must pay attention to the exercises you do — competitive sports, heavy lifting and sprints produce stress hormones like adrenaline, which get your liver and pancreas working to raise the glucose levels in your blood.  So, must I stop playing sports? No, you can continue achieving your sporting goals, but you’ve got to be more careful when doing so. For example, carbo-loading before an event is still possible, although you should cut back on your pizza, pasta, white bread and white rice intake in favor of vegetables, whole grain products and fruit. Leave out the refined carbohydrates and replace them with complex carbs that have high levels of nutrients and fiber. A single day of carbo-loading before a sports event of 90 minutes or more should be sufficient in order to maintain your glucose levels. If you’re working out, there’s no need to eat any carbs, bad fats or sugary products before or during your gym session. In fact, with diabetes, you should try and avoid these at any time.  The best dietary gauge you have is to pay attention to your diabetic symptoms in conjunction with your regular blood glucose checks over time — if you’re not urinating as often, feeling more awake and alive and your skin condition is improving, you’re likely on the right track with your exercise diet.  What Can I Do to Prepare for Exercising With Diabetes? By all means, if you’re aware of how some exercises raise your blood glucose, go ahead and do them, but maintain a good check on your sugar levels until you know how well those exercises are counteracting your rise in glucose. If you’re unhappy to risk a rise in glucose, consider the following for your workout: Circuit weight training with high repetitions using light weights. Eat yogurt, peanut butter or nuts before or during your workouts. Move your workout session to later in the day to counteract your body’s natural blood glucose rise in the mornings. Minimize the rise in your adrenaline by meditating, visualizing and pacing your breathing before and during your gym session. Ask your doctor to adjust your short-acting diabetic medication intake before your workout sessions. The Best Exercises for Diabetics Whatever exercise you do, you must become familiar with how your blood glucose reacts during and after the session. While adrenaline-raising exercises can increase your body’s sugar levels, the after-effect of physical activity can do the exact opposite for 24 hours or more, so check your glucose levels often when you start new exercise regimens. Your body can become more sensitive to insulin after exercise, so you want to avoid hypoglycemia — very low blood glucose — at all costs.  When you start exercising with diabetes, several exercise types can help you ease into a level of fitness that will allow for less extreme blood glucose and insulin adjustments and, ultimately, a more balanced body as your physical health improves. 1. Walking You can walk anywhere. You don’t have to be a gym member or buy costly equipment to do so — with a secure environment and a decent pair of shoes, you can begin walking today. Taking a brisk 30-minute walk every day, especially after meals, can healthily lower your insulin intolerance levels, blood pressure and body mass index. After walking daily for some time, you should find that maintaining your A1c test levels at 7% or below will be easier.  2. Cycling  Cycling is a low-impact form of exercise. While the link between diabetes and various forms of arthritis seems tenuous at face value, there is evidence that upward of 50% of people with diabetes could become afflicted with osteoarthritis, while those with rheumatoid arthritis run a higher risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes. Cycling’s low-impact exercise, when done regularly, is excellent for alleviating arthritic pain while also improving your body’s cardiovascular function. 3. Water Exercise Exercising in water, whether through swimming, aqua jogging or water aerobics, can improve your aerobic fitness, strength and vascular health while reducing your joint stress. According to a 2020 study, even three one-hour sessions of upright water-based exercise in the pool per week for eight weeks resulted in effective fitness improvements for subjects with type 2 diabetes. 4. Resistance Band Activities While heavy weight lifting effectively improves your strength levels, there remains a risk that you could cause a rise in your blood glucose levels. The risks remain with resistance band exercises, but the lower impact is more akin to high repetition using lighter weights — altogether not as adrenaline-charging heavy lifting activity. Using resistance bands works your muscles but also allows for closer management of your glucose levels. 5. Calisthenics The art of calisthenics means using your own weight to boost your muscle strength. With calisthenics, there’s no need to pay for costly weights or resistance bands — you can do the exercises in the privacy of your own home and you get to work your entire body as you choose. From abdominal crunches to squats and pullups to situps, pushups and lunges, you can target every muscle group. Try to vary the exercises you do and take a day off between your strength sessions.  6. Mindfulness Techniques While the above exercises target your body’s health and fitness, you should always remember how your improved mental health can positively impact your diabetes. Exercises like yoga involve using physical postures, breathing regulation, and concentration to relax your body and mind. Qigong uses movement, meditation and breathing control as forms of stress relief, and mindfulness-based meditation techniques also relieve stress. All of these assist with improved sleep, weight control and lowering blood pressure — all essential in improving blood glucose levels. Exercising the Right Way With Diabetes Diabetes affects millions of people across the United States, and as a result, there are numerous experts with differing opinions on diabetic lifestyle changes, exercise and dietary requirements. The diabetic condition should not dictate to you — you should dictate its impact by making the best choices for your body by amending your lifestyle, diet and exercise routines in necessary ways to achieve the most positive results.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are no joke. If you have one and do nothing to treat it, it can lead to sepsis, where the condition goes to your kidneys and spreads around the body. But how will you know you have a UTI if you’ve never had one? Before you make an expensive trip to the doctor, knowing the signs of urinary tract infection can help you determine if further action is necessary. The likelihood of sepsis will only grow as you age, making learning the signs of urinary tract infection essential. Not only will they save you a lot of pain, but they might just save your life. 1. Discomfort While Peeing Perhaps the most significant indicator of a UTI is how you feel while urinating. As you likely know, urinating doesn’t have much of a sensation beyond relief, but UTIs are much different. “Discomfort” is a bit of a clinical term — a urinary tract infection is often painful, accompanied by a burning sensation. You also won’t feel like you’ve completely emptied your bladder and need to pee frequently while only passing a small amount of urine at a time. 2. A Change in Your Urine’s Look Another of the telling signs of urinary tract infection is the appearance of your urine. While it may be dark if you haven’t been drinking enough water, UTIs will give it a cloudy appearance. However, there could also be some blood in your pee, so take note if it looks brown, red or pink. Blood might also appear when you wipe. 3. A New, Strong Smell UTIs will also come with a powerful scent — it’s hard to describe, but you’ll notice it if you smell it. Urine typically doesn't have an odor, but a urinary tract infection can cause it to smell a bit like ammonia. If you suspect you have a UTI and notice a new, strong smell when you be, you’re likely correct. 4. Bodily Symptoms When you have an infection, it can affect the rest of your body. A UTI can lead to chills or shudders, nausea or vomiting if you leave them alone for long enough. These could be signs you’re going septic, along with increased pain, temperature changes, confusion or excessive exhaustion. Home Remedies for UTI Relief If you start noticing the signs of urinary tract infection, try a few home remedies to relieve your discomfort before visiting a doctor. Here are a few tips to try resolving a UTI. 1. Cranberries Most people you know have likely touted cranberry juice as a cure-all for urinary tract infections. However, the beverage doesn’t really have the amount of proanthocyanidin necessary to eliminate the bacteria. Instead, try pure, unsweetened cranberry juice — despite how tart it is — or cranberry supplements. 2. Water One thing you should absolutely drink with a UTI is water — and a lot of it, even if you’re not thirsty. Urinary tract infections will cause you to feel like you have to pee a lot, so the more water you drink, the more opportunities you have to flush out the bacteria. Additionally, you can bathe in hot water or use a warm water bottle to ease any pain. 3. Probiotics Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria your body uses to keep itself healthy. While studies have discovered different findings on if they can effectively prevent UTIs, they seem to help lower the chances of recurring infections. You can either take probiotics daily or buy the ones designed specifically for urinary health. Learn the Signs of Urinary Tract Infection Knowing how to identify a UTI is as crucial as knowing how to treat it. Be wary of relying on home remedies exclusively, as the risk of leaving an infection untreated can be deadly. If your urinary tract infection starts to cause worse symptoms, visit a doctor to receive antibiotics.