What Are the Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance?

Plus seven Holistic Means to Decrease Estrogen Authorization

past Christiane Northrup, M.D.

The conventional medical mindset is that menopause is an estrogen deficiency illness resulting from ovarian failure. Women accept been led to believe that at the slightest symptoms, they should run out and become estrogen replacement. While estrogen levels will decrease during menopause, the truth is, estrogen levels do non fall appreciably until after a woman'due south last period. In fact, far more than women suffer from the effects of "estrogen dominance" during the transition — that is, they accept as well much estrogen relative to progesterone. And some women can endure from the symptoms of estrogen dominance for x to 15 years, first as early as historic period 35.

Estrogen Authorization Symptoms

The symptoms listed below, as well every bit many others, often arise when estrogen overstimulates both the brain and body. All of these symptoms are exacerbated past stress of all kinds. Many women in their thirties and early forties find that they experience moderate to severe symptoms of estrogen dominance as they approach perimenopause.

  • Decreased sex bulldoze
  • Irregular or otherwise aberrant menstrual periods
  • Bloating (water retention)
  • Breast swelling and tenderness
  • Fibrocystic breasts
  • Headaches (especially premenstrually)
  • Mood swings (about often irritability and depression)
  • Weight and/or fat proceeds (particularly around the abdomen and hips)
  • Cold hands and feet (a symptom of thyroid dysfunction)
  • Pilus loss
  • Thyroid dysfunction
  • Sluggish metabolism
  • Foggy thinking, memory loss
  • Fatigue
  • Trouble sleeping/insomnia
  • PMS

Estrogen dominance has also been linked to allergies, autoimmune disorders, breast cancer, uterine cancer, infertility, ovarian cysts, and increased claret clotting, and is likewise associated with dispatch of the aging process.

What Causes Estrogen Say-so

When a woman's menstrual cycle is normal, estrogen is the dominant hormone for the first ii weeks leading up to ovulation. Estrogen is balanced by progesterone during the final two weeks.

As a woman enters perimenopause and begins to feel anovulatory cycles (that is, cycles where no ovulation occurs), estrogen can often become unopposed, causing symptoms. Skipping ovulation is, however, just i potential factor in estrogen authority. In industrialized countries such as the Us, in that location can be many other causes, including:

  • Excess body fat (greater than 28%)
  • Besides much stress, resulting in excess amounts of cortisol, insulin, and norepinephrine, which can lead to adrenal exhaustion and can also adversely affect overall hormonal balance
  • A low-fiber nutrition with excess refined carbohydrates and scarce in nutrients and high quality fats
  • Impaired immune function
  • Ecology agents

7 Ways to Subtract Estrogen Authorisation

Here's what yous can do to decrease estrogen dominance:

  1. Increment nutrients in the nutrition: Take a high potency multivitamin/mineral combination.
  2. Follow a hormone-balancing diet:
    • Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables
    • acceptable protein
    • and moderate amounts of good for you fat.
  3. Remember to go enough cobweb. Estrogen is excreted by the bowel; if stool remains in the bowel, estrogen is reabsorbed.
  4. Use transdermal 2% bioidentical progesterone foam: Many of the symptoms of estrogen say-so can exist relieved with natural, bioidentical progesterone, available over the counter in a 2% foam (one-quarter teaspoon contains ~20 mg progesterone). Use one-quarter to ane-half teaspoon ii% progesterone foam on skin (eastward.grand., face, breasts, abdomen, easily) daily for ii to three weeks prior to onset of period. If periods are irregular, employ ii% progesterone daily, or from the full moon to the night of the moon. (That way you'll be teaming upwards with the cycle of the Globe itself — the same cycle that governs the tides and the flow of fluids on the planet.)
  5. Lose excess body fatty and get regular exercise — particularly forcefulness training.
  6. Detoxify your liver: Traditional Chinese Medicine explains that menopausal symptoms are caused by blocked liver and kidney chi. This makes sense. The liver acts as a filter, helping us screen out the harmful effects of toxins from our environment and the products we put in our bodies. When the liver has to work hard to eliminate toxins such every bit booze, drugs, caffeine, or environmental agents, the liver's chapters to cleanse the claret of estrogen is compromised.
  7. Decrease stress: Larn how to say no to excessive demands on your time. Remember, perimenopause is a time to reinvent yourself. This means investing time and energy in yourself, non everyone else.

Acquire More — Additional Resources

  • The Wisdom of Menopause, by Christiane Northrup, Chiliad.D., Chapter 4, "This Can't Exist Menopause, Can Information technology? The Physical Foundation of the Change"
  • The Wisdom of Menopause, past Christiane Northrup, M.D., Chapter 7, "The Menopausal Food Plan: A Program to Balance Your Hormones and Prevent Heart-Age Spread"
  • Women's Bodies, Women'south Wisdom, by Christiane Northrup, 1000.D., Chapter 14, "Menopause"
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, by Christiane Northrup, M.D., Chapter 17, "Nourishing Ourselves with Food"

Terminal Updated: February 6, 2007

Christiane Northrup, G.D., is a visionary pioneer and a leading authority in the field of women's health and wellness. Recognizing the unity of body, mind, and spirit, she empowers women to trust their inner wisdom, their connection with Source, and their ability to truly flourish.