What is estrogen dominance?
Estrogen dominance is a condition where a woman has too much estrogen relative to progesterone. This hormonal imbalance can cause various symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, irregular periods, breast tenderness, mood swings, and more.
Some key things to know about estrogen dominance:
- It's often caused by exposure to xenoestrogens - estrogen-mimicking compounds found in plastics, cosmetics, pesticides, etc. The body mistakes these for estrogen and gets overloaded.
- A poor diet high in refined carbs and low in fiber can contribute. These foods increase inflammation and disrupt gut bacteria that metabolize hormones.
- Chronic stress forces the body to churn out excess cortisol, which impairs liver function. Since the liver breaks down estrogen for excretion, high cortisol causes a buildup of estrogen.
- Anovulatory cycles - where you don't ovulate - lead to unopposed estrogen. When you ovulate, progesterone balances out estrogen. But without ovulation, estrogen dominates.
- Perimenopause and menopause cause fluctuating estrogen levels that can become dominant relative to progesterone.
- Environmental toxins like BPA from plastics and pesticides contain estrogen-like compounds that add to your total estrogen burden.
How do you know if you have estrogen dominance? Some key signs are:
- Irregular, heavy, or painful periods
- PMS symptoms like breast tenderness, bloating, mood swings
- Difficulty losing weight and increased fat storage, especially around the hips and thighs
- Fibrocystic breasts
- Headaches or migraines
- Moodiness, irritability, anxiety, depression
- Low libido
- Fatigue, insomnia, poor sleep quality
- Acne, hair loss
- Cold hands and feet
If several of these symptoms sound familiar, you may want to get tested for estrogen dominance. The best test is a urine or saliva hormone panel measuring your levels of estrogen metabolites like estradiol, estrone and estriol versus progesterone.
What can you do about estrogen dominance?
The key is to reduce exposure to excess estrogens while also promoting healthy estrogen metabolism and elimination. Strategies include:
- Avoid xenoestrogens in plastics, parabens in beauty products, soy foods, conventional meats. Eat organic as much as possible.
- Support liver detoxification with supplements like milk thistle, NAC, and cruciferous veggies like broccoli and kale.
- Increase fiber intake to support healthy gut flora. Take a probiotic supplement too.
- Manage stress with yoga, meditation, calming herbs like ashwagandha.
- If needed, try a bioidentical progesterone cream from days 14-28 of your cycle to oppose estrogen.
- Consider reducing sugar and refined carbs, increasing healthy fats like avocado and olive oil.
- Exercise regularly to improve estrogen metabolism.
- Avoid alcohol, which impairs estrogen excretion by the liver.
At Rejuvenate Health Center, we specialize in customized natural hormone balancing programs for estrogen dominance. We offer cutting-edge lab testing, virtual consultations, personalized supplement and diet plans, bioidentical hormone creams, and lifestyle coaching. Our goal is to get to the root cause and help you find hormonal harmony from within.