What is estrogen dominance?
Estrogen dominance can occur when estrogen levels are being produced in excess or if progesterone is too low which makes the estrogen relatively high, making it dominant.
Estrogen is produced mostly in the ovary in females but it is also produced in the stress gland called the adrenals. All of the sex hormones are also STRESS hormones so whatever affects your stress will affect your sex hormones. The understanding of this is essential for balance. Just replacing one hormone sometimes can even put you at greater risk for disease or cancer. This is what the studies including the Women's Health Initiative showed and why it was stopped.
Your body should utilize your hormones including estrogen and then break them down and detoxify you by elimination through the liver. The problem is when it gets recirculated either by the liver not being efficient or your bowel is not moving- i.e. constipation. This can create the estrogen to become dominant and cause many symptoms.
Estrogen dominance occurs in most women in the peri-menopausal era but can occur at any age. In pubertal females it occurs because the ovaries are not mature enough to produce enough progesterone to balance the production of estrogen. In the peri-menopausal female it occurs because the ovary is starting to decrease production due to age. It can also be caused by undue stress because progesterone is a pivotal hormone in your STRESS response and will choose to keep you from drowning before it helps balance estrogen.
If estrogen becomes dominant it can create irritability, agitation, intolerance, sleeplessness, memory and focus issues, decreased libido, anxiety, swelling, weight gain, headaches, decreased sex drive, ovarian cysts, fibrocystic and tender breasts, extremely heavy cycles, severe mood swings, etc.
Untamed estrogen creates proliferation of blood vessels in the uterus thus causing abnormal bleeding that is excessive. Progesterone is there to tame it and thus prevent the excessive proliferation.
Progesterone calms, helps you sleep, increases memory and focus, sheaths every nerve, coats the brain thus balances all of the affects of the estrogen dominance. So if progesterone is being siphoned off to help save you, it is not able to help balance estrogen.
So, the answer to hormone balance is the balancing all of the hormones that control the cycle and your stress response.
Stress caused by unknown causes include food intolerances, vitamin deficiencies, parasite or pathogen infections in the gut, hormone imbalances, etc. If these are not addressed as the underlying cause of the STRESS then true healing cannot occur.
Conditions we find more often in women with estrogen dominance:
Endometriosis, Uterine fibroids, Hypothyroidism (estrogen is antagonistic to thyroid hormone), Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Cervical Cancer
This is not something to ignore or just shrug off!
It is the imbalance of the these hormones that creates the problems and symptoms. So, what can we do to prevent estrogen dominance?
Delineate the hidden stressors and do the best you can to avoid them. Even for the obvious stressors, try to manage your response better and DE-STRESS by what makes you happy-listening to music, a hot bath, walking, yoga, prayer, etc.
Also take control of your health by making better choices about what you put in your body.
Stop the low-fat dieting and calorie counting. Just eat more "real food". Our bodies are miraculous machines and will respond to the fuel you give it by eating high quality and nutritious choices.
And always eat a protein, carbohydrate, and fat along with non-starchy vegetable together... NEVER EAT ALONE!
