Are you Estrogen Dominant?
Estrogen dominance is one of the biggest issues affecting women over 35.
What is Estrogen Dominance?
The conventional medical mindset is that peri-menopause or menopause is a time period in a women’s life when her ovaries start to produce less estrogen. And, often your Doctor will recommend hormone replacement or anti-depressants for the uncomfortable symptoms that might come with this phase.
But here’s the thing.
While estrogen levels will decrease during menopause, the truth is, declining progesterone is the real issue for most women and it’s ratio to estrogen. Estrogen levels do not fall significantly until after a woman’s last period but for years estrogen goes up and down from month to month.
More women suffer from “estrogen dominance” and the related symptoms during the transition years (35-60)…meaning they have too much estrogen relative to progesterone.
This is something we need to talk about!
Because if our first course of action is to prescribe HRT or anti-depressants - are we fixing the problem or covering it up and potentially making it worse?
If you are actually estrogen dominant and you ADD more hormones to your system, does that make sense?
Exactly.
But first…what does estrogen dominance look like?
Estrogen Dominance Symptoms
The symptoms listed below, as well as many others, often arise when estrogen overstimulates both the brain and body. All of these symptoms are exacerbated by stress of all kinds. um…covid stress anyone?
Decreased sex drive
Irregular or otherwise abnormal menstrual periods
Bloating (water retention) and Breast swelling and tenderness
Fibrocystic breasts
Headaches (especially premenstrually)
Mood swings (most often irritability and depression)
Weight and/or fat gain (particularly around the abdomen and hips) - and an overall sluggish metabolism
Thyroid dysfunction (Cold hands and feet and hair loss)
Foggy thinking, memory loss
Fatigue and trouble sleeping/insomnia - ugh!
PMS gets worse
Estrogen dominance has also been linked to allergies, autoimmune disorders, breast cancer, uterine cancer, infertility, ovarian cysts, and increased blood clotting, and is also associated with acceleration of the aging process. Basically…you’ll want to get proactive.
And Conventional Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) puts you at a much higher risk of developing hormone-based cancers and conditions because they aren’t treating the root cause.
Now, the reason you become estrogen dominant in the first place is that your body (specifically your liver) becomes inefficient at cycling out excess estrogens from your bloodstream, leaving them to recirculate back into the body. And your gut needs to help with this process. And if your progesterone isn’t doing it’s job in balancing out estrogen, this adds to the imbalance.
If you believe you might be estrogen dominant, you are not destined to feel ‘off balance’ forever. Taking some time to understand what’s really going on by reading this entire blog. Then, deciding that you are worth it.
You deserve to feel your best so that you can share your strengths with the world and feel great doing so.
You just need a plan.
I work with women using natural supplements , diet tweaks and lifestyle choices to support the body’s ability to heal.
Is this sounding like you? Check out my. hormone quiz to see.
Understanding the role of the liver, gut and progesterone
LIVER Health.
There are three different ways your liver breaks down extra estrogen:
The first, 2-OH pathway, is the safest, least cancerous pathway. This is the one we want to encourage (I’ll share how below).
Next, 4-OH pathway is the most dangerous pathway. Estrogens that follow this path increase your risk of cancers.
Finally, 16-OH pathway is the one that causes things to proliferate or grow. The estrogen remains in your body, leading to estrogen dominance. It also causes things like heavy or fibrous breasts during PMS and heavy periods, clots, and uterine fibroids.
This is why I LOVE the Dutch Test. (one image pictured below) It provides this info!
THIS is why I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to support your liver. It plays a big role when it comes to safe estrogen metabolism. The condition of your liver determines which pathway the estrogen follows in your body.
Let’s focus on what you CAN DO to support your liver and its ability to detoxify estrogens.
LIVER DETOX PHASE 1 FOR CLEARING EXCESS HORMONES
This is where the liver converts estrogen to different metabolites.
Cruciferous vegetables: One of the best ways to encourage the 2-OH pathway is to eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, broccoli sprouts, and Brussels sprouts. If you’re looking for an easier way to get the benefits of these vegetables, sulforaphane and DIM are powerful supplements that pack in the benefits of pounds and pounds of these vegetables into convenient pills to help your liver metabolize estrogen.
Glutathione: This is a powerful antioxidant to support your liver’s ability to detox safely and effectively.
Resveratrol: This is a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant that can help you support your liver’s health. Studies also show that it can prevent breast cancer by limiting how estrogen interacts with your DNA.
LIVER DETOX PHASE 2 FOR HORMONE SUPPORT
This is where the liver neutralizes the metabolites and prepares them to be expelled from your body. Also called methylation, Phase 2 detoxification makes the metabolites water-soluble so you can get rid of them safely through your digestion. IF YOU DON’T METHYLATE your estrogens, they will re-enter your bloodstream and cause estrogen dominance.
Supporting Phase 2 with supplements focuses on cutting inflammation and pushing your body to neutralize the estrogen metabolites effectively.
All the supplements from Phase 1 are also helpful here, plus:
Choline: This is an essential nutrient that your liver relies on for the methylation process. Research shows that choline supplements protect your liver and keep it functioning at its best.
Methylated B Vitamins: These are a must. Your body NEEDS B vitamins to kickstart the methylation process. But if your B vitamin supplement isn’t methylated or activated, your body will have to go through another process to get it ready to use (and many of us struggle with that activation step). What does that mean? You can be taking B vitamin supplements, but you won’t get to experience their effects because your body gets hung up on the activation step.
Gut Health.
Once your liver has done its duty, it’s up to your gut to get it out before it can recirculate in your body, but there are a few things to consider here that can make your estrogen dominance worse:
Gut inflammation: If your gut is inflamed, it’s likely that some of these particles could be re-entering your bloodstream thanks to leaky gut (or gut dysbiosis). Removing inflammatory foods (like sugar, grains, and dairy) and taking digestive enzymes can help heal your gut and keep the waste where it belongs.
Slow elimination: That’s right, if you don’t poop every day, the waste has a higher chance of re-entering your body. One of the best ways to support regular pooping is Magnesium. Work with your healthcare provider to find the right form of magnesium for you!
Imbalanced bacteria: Your microbiome is essential for keeping things moving in your gut. Quality probiotics and fermented foods can help support your intestinal bacteria to make sure the estrogen gets OUT.
If you’re ready to fight back against estrogen dominance, this is where you start! By supporting your liver and gut, you can give your body what it needs to break down and remove excess estrogen from your body so you can get yourself back.
But please stay with me for this final but very important step.
Stress and Adrenal Health.
Progesterone is a calming hormone. It calms your brain and stimulates GABA receptors which are neurotransmitters that promote rest, relaxation and sleep.
But when we have perceived stress, 2 stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) are released. And progesterone and these 2 stress hormones share the same building blocks. So when stressed chronically, your body will make more cortisol and adrenaline to deal with the ‘crisis’ instead of making progesterone. (often referred to as the Progesterone steal)
Now remember that we talked about the ratio of estrogen to progesterone being important here!
Re-balancing Progesterone:
Never under-estimate the power of progesterone. This hormones is your super power. When low, it can lead to insomnia, anxiety and even panic attacks. Be sure to test…don’t guess!
How to rebalance it:
Master your sleep - trust that your body needs restorative sleep to build hormones and detox well.
Take Methylated B Complex: (esp B6) which helps produce stress hormones. When you are stressed, you burn through your vitamin B.
Consider zinc - stimulated FSH is required and zinc is building block to many hormones
Decrease outside estrogen exposure: Avoid drinking from plastic bottles, clean up beauty products or anything you put on your skin, eat hormone free meat and dairy. Getting a DoTerra account will help with this one!
Address gut issues - see above
Consider supplementing with Magnesium - this is a calming mineral and most in NA are deficient. Needed to produce sex hormones
Consider L Arginine or chasteberry or using a Clary Calm Roller (contains vitex and clary sage) - can increase progesterone levels.
Work on vagus nerve health or try acupuncture - key to re-programming the way your body handles stress.
In Summary:
First, complete the quiz to see if your hormones are out of balance.
Second, considering getting support! As you can see, it takes a little bit of strategy to figure things out but at the very least, start supporting your gut health now!
Want to try on your own first?
A great place to start is to get some health promoting essential oils into your daily routine. Here is a package I curated for women wanting to get started on their hormone balancing journey.
