Believe it or not, we aren’t supposed to have painful periods, heavy bleeding, horrendous PMS, tender breasts, or horrible perimenopausal symptoms. ALL of these symptoms are a sign of a deeper hormonal imbalance and left untreated, can often lead to bigger issues later down the road.
These symptoms all point to one common root cause: Estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance/excess is not necessarily about how much estrogen you have as a standalone hormone; it is about how much estrogen you have in relation to progesterone. We need both of these hormones and they need to be balanced.
Your menstrual cycle is divided into 2 phases:
The follicular phase – estrogen rises to build your endometrial lining in preparation for pregnancy
The luteal phase – after ovulation, estrogen should start going down and progesterone should rise
In estrogen dominance, there is an imbalance in these two hormones and progesterone is too low in relation to estrogen. That’s important to know because progesterone helps to keep estrogen under control.
It’s also important to know that contrary to popular belief, menopausal women can and often suffer from estrogen dominance too. Between the ages of 35 and 50, a woman’s production of estrogen goes down by 35% BUT progesterone decreases by 75%!!! Women in this age range are especially vulnerable to estrogen dominance because they continue to make estrogen (yes ladies we make estrogen for another 20+ years following menopause) but they no longer ovulate and ovulation is the primary driver of rising progesterone. Make sense?
Most women are estrogen dominant for a number of reasons and this estrogen dominance not only produces annoying symptoms, but it can contribute to estrogen-mediated cancers too (things like breast cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, etc).
The most common factors contributing to estrogen dominance are:
Excess estrogen – from things like hormones in food, estrogen-mimicking chemicals, birth control pills, body fat (yes, your body fat actually makes estrogen), and a highly refined carb/sugar diet.
Inability to detoxify and excrete estrogen – our liver has to detoxify estrogen and if we don’t have the proper nutrients on board we won’t detoxify estrogen effectively. In addition, fatty liver, constipation and caffeine intake can impair this process as well.
Insufficient progesterone – either because we are not ovulating (ovulation causes progesterone to rise) or due to ongoing stress, perimenopause/ menopause, and toxic exposure.
The good news is that estrogen dominance can be remedied and here are some action steps that you can take to reduce excess estrogen:
1. Remove dairy foods and conventionally raised meats
Yep, these babies are loaded with hormones from a lactating animal ( or injected with hormones in the case of conventionally farmed meat). If you’ve got too much estrogen, then removing these foods can make a BIG impact.
2. Eat a low glycemic, nutrient dense diet
A higher glycemic diet promotes higher levels of blood sugar, which promotes higher conversions of sugar to fat. Fat makes estrogen, and we want less of it.
3. Reduce or eliminate caffeine
I hate to say it, but caffeine upregulates estrogen receptors, meaning ~ caffeine makes estrogen receptors more sensitive to estrogen. IThis doesn’t mean that you have to eliminate caffeine entirely, but most research shows that the tipping point for women is between one and two cups of coffee (not giant mugs….just regular cups).
4. Clean up your personal care/household products
These products contain estrogen-mimicking chemicals, which means they look a lot like the estrogen in your body and they fit into the estrogen receptors in your body too. So, chemicals like triclosan or oxybenzone (both popular ingredients in personal care products) can essentially plug into estrogen receptors on your breasts or uterus, negatively influencing the behavior of those cells. It’s best to avoid these products completely.
5. Reduce stress
When the body is stressed it produces cortisol. Cortisol and progesterone are both made from the same raw material ~??pregnenolone. The body will always prioritize which hormone to make based on what’s happening at that particular point in time and if the body is stressed, it will choose to make cortisol, which means that it won’t make enough progesterone to balance out estrogen. (You may have to read that one a couple of times). Bottom line: You need to reduce your stress hormones if you want balanced sex hormones.
6. Support liver detoxification
Your liver is your body’s primary detoxification organ. It detoxifies every toxin that enters your body AND it detoxifies all of the hormones that your body makes, including estrogen. If your liver doesn’t detoxify well, you are going to have an excess of estrogen circulating around your body. So, supporting your liver is key in getting rid of excess estrogen.
Eating cruciferous veggies and taking key supplements can really help! My go-to supplements are Metagenics EstroFactors and EcoNugenics Breast Defend. Both contain blends of key vitamins and nutrients needed to support your liver.??
7. Poop
Once your liver does all of the hard work of detoxifying estrogen, estrogen is carried out of your body via poop. If you are not pooping every day, your colon will reabsorb whatever resides there, and yep, estrogen gets reabsorbed into your body. You need to be pooping EVERY SINGLE DAY if you want balanced hormones.
Cheers to your health, one tiny edit at a time!
