What is estrogen?

In our body, there are chemical messengers called hormones. Hormones affect many different organ systems and come from different glands in the body. They are messengers to help the body keep balance and homeostasis. There are hormones for the thyroid, hormones for our sex organs that tell us to ovulate or lactate, hormones that regulate water and temperature, just to name a few. The hormones that have an impact on estrogen dominance are sex hormones, mainly estrogen and progesterone. There are other sex hormones such as testosterone, DHEA, follicle stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone which play a role in the menstrual cycle.

Estrogen dominance explained.

Estrogen dominance is where there is an imbalance of estrogen to progesterone.

Your body functions based when the ratio of the two is balanced. In what way is the ratio off? You can have:

too much estrogen in comparison to progesterone
too little progesterone in comparison to estrogen

There are so many factors that can contribute to this imbalance. One common misconception is that women in menopause don’t suffer from estrogen dominance because their estrogen and progesterone levels are so low. That’s simply not true. It’s important to remember that balance between the two hormones, estrogen and progesterone, is just as important as the level of each one individually.

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

Some of the most common symptoms:

PMS
cramping
migraines
irritability
heavy bleeding/pain during periods
food cravings
fatigue
depression
breast tenderness
endometriosis
fibroids

Who does it affect?

It seems that most of the female population has some type of issue stemming from a hormonal imbalance. Some examples are premenstrual syndrome, PMDD, PCOS, breast cancer, uterine cancer, infertility, endometriosis, and the list goes on! Anyone can suffer from estrogen dominance, but it especially affects women. Women of all ages. Women in:

Premenopause - anytime before menopause
Perimenopause - anytime AROUND menopause
Postmenopause - anytime after menopause

So, that means a woman in nearly any part of her life.

So where is the excess estrogen coming from anyway?

There is a laundry list, but here are some common culprits.

Your body is not producing enough progesterone. This tends to start happening 5+ years prior to menopause which is completely normal. If the ovaries are not producing progesterone, the adrenal glands must make up for it. This can only happen when the adrenal glands are functioning properly. If someone is stressed and making more cortisol, the adrenal glands cannot push out the progesterone needed. Just because this happens frequently doesn’t mean there aren’t things that you can do to help rebalance your body.
Excess weight. Fat cells make more estrogen, especially during menopause! The more weight you are carrying in fat cells, the more estrogen your body is going to be exposed to because your body is making more of it. Also, fat cells (i.e. adipose tissue) will increase inflammation throughout the body. Maintaining an average weight is important for hormonal balance.
Factory farming. Use of hormones and other chemicals and drugs to accelerate weight gain and profitability is common practice in our food manufacturing industry here in the United States. Try to pick hormone free, organic, or grass-fed meat. Cows are given hormones to continue lactating so when you drink dairy you are frequently drinking extra hormones.
Estrogen mimickers. We are exposed to toxins from our environment regularly and our bodies absorb those toxins to an extent. These molecules act like hormones in our body. BPA is a prime example which is found in some plastic wraps, plastic containers, cups, and most lined cans labeled with a “7” in a triangle.
- TIP: Try to choose glass or stainless steel for drinking & microwaving.
Triclosan. This ingredient is in many soaps, lotions, and toothpaste. It is a hormone disruptor meaning it throws off your hormone levels, causes an imbalance, and can lead to health issues! Don’t put anything on your skin you would not eat.

What should I do if I think I have estrogen dominance?

Reconsider using birth control. Most estrogen dominance is treated in conventional medicine by using oral contraceptive pills. That can make the problem much worse because birth control pills are made of synthetic hormones. What’s the problem with that? It’s not replacing your body with the hormones it needs, contributing to vital nutrients that your body needs to function, and introducing even more chemicals that your body has to figure out how to metabolize. Shew! That’s exhausting for the body. So, what should you do?

Get your hormones measured via a comprehensive urine panel. Hormone levels can be checked in the blood, but it is hard to get an accurate picture depending on the time of the month and the day/time the labs were drawn. Hormones can be checked in the urine for more accurate results. A comprehensive hormone panel done with urine as the sample shows the level of each hormone (i.e. estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and cortisol), how your body is metabolizing those hormones, and a few other key markers to see how your body is functioning at a very cellular level. It’s a misconception to think that the level of each hormone is the only thing that is important because all of these other pieces impact symptoms and overall health.

Find a functional medicine practitioner who is well-versed in hormone balance. You have options. Whether you are interested in a natural approach consisting of lifestyle modifications and supplement support or you’re interested in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, you can take control of your body and gain balance again.

Here at Shore Integrative Health, we see hormone problems day in and day out. We don’t have to do specific testing to help you, but the more data we have, the more direct treatment we can apply. We have access to comprehensive functional hormone testing that can allow use to see what is really going on in your body. Even without testing, we can get to the root of the issue with a thorough history and putting the whole picture together.

How Do you Know If You Have Estrogen Dominance?