Sometimes our body’s have a hard time balancing hormones. For women factors such as birth control, UTI’s, and stress can taper off the balance between estrogen and progesterone. In today’s article Dr. Bristow focuses on a condition called estrogen dominance which can present with symptoms such as: irregular periods, low sex drive, headaches and migraines, gallstones, and weight gain. Read more to learn about what estrogen dominance means for your body and your health, and what can be done to strike a new balance!
Estrogen dominance is not a new concept, but it is something that many women are unfamiliar with. This topic is so important because it impacts a lot of women. Dr. John Lee MD has been educating women and physicians worldwide on the topic since the 1990’s and his work has since become an essential component of functional and naturopathic medicine.
What is Estrogen Dominance?
If you quickly read a bit about it on the internet, you might make the assumption that estrogen dominance means that you have too much estrogen. While this can be true, it actually refers to an imbalanced ratio of estrogen to progesterone–two opposing hormones in women. Let me first describe the function of estrogen.
‘Estrogen’ is the typical term, but there are actually three hormones involved here: estradiol, estrone, and estriol. Estradiol is the most prevalent and key to the menstrual cycle, responsible for the thickness of the uterine lining. It also plays positive roles in:
- Libido
- Vaginal lubrication
- Preventing UTI’s and incontinence
- Bone health
- Balancing cholesterol and blood sugar
- Memory
- Sleep
- Glowing skin
The progesterone balance (or lack thereof…)
When progesterone doesn’t balance out these three ‘estrogen hormones’, problems tend to arise. Unopposed by progesterone, estrogen, a very growth-oriented hormone, can cause the following (over time):
- PMS
- Painful, irregular, and heavy periods
- Fibrocystic breasts, breast swelling and enlargement, breast cancer
- Cellulite
- Weight gain at hips and thighs
- Varicose and spider veins
- Bloating/water retention
- Headaches and migraines (commonly linked to women’s cycle)
- Depression and mood swings
- Hypothyroidism
- Low sex drive
- Uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, uterine cancer
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome, Endometriosis
- Increases risk of autoimmune diseases
- Gallstones
Those are the conditions associated with estrogen dominance. For more information on the physiological effects of estrogen vs. progesterone take a look at this list from Dr. Lee.
How do you become estrogen dominant?
Typically, there are four ways this can happen:
- Accumulating excess estrogen, produced by our own bodies.
- Accumulating excess estrogen, acquired from the environment: from our diet and hormonal contraceptives, or from hormone replacement therapy.
- Accumulating excess estrogen, both produced and acquired.
- Producing too little progesterone, usually due to high stress/high cortisol production.
Why is it important to treat estrogen dominance?
First, I cannot stress how important it is to balance your hormones, whether you’re in your twenties or your sixties, hormones significantly impact your health. It can be the difference between loosing that extra 20 lbs, getting your sex drive back all the way, all the way to things like avoiding infertility, surgery, or a hysterectomy.
A fair amount of the women I see are already struggling with ovarian cysts, PCOS, endometriosis, or fibroids. Unfortunately, the treatment for most of these women is hormonal contraceptives that work to ‘quiet down’ the symptoms of these conditions. What they actually do is further perpetuate the problem. Eventually, the hormones need to be stopped, be it for pregnancy, menopause, or due to long term usage risks. Meanwhile, the body has accumulated high amounts of synthetic estrogen, a much stronger estrogen then our natural form. Once you take the pills away, though, the same estrogen dominant condition is still there, only it’s now compounded from the excess synthetic intake over the years.
It is so common in my practice to find women who developed an ovarian cyst in their teens, a uterine fibroid in their 20’s, followed by endometriosis in their 30’s. Not good. Despite the surgeries, estrogen dominance returns, manifesting itself in a different form.
If you struggle with any of these conditions, or you wonder if your PMS, irregular, painful, or heavy cycles might be a sign of estrogen dominance, it’s probably a good idea to book a complementary 15 minute consultation and fill out my hormonal balance questionnaire to learn more and get a better idea of what’s going on with your body.