What is Estrogen Dominance?

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I began researching how to care for my body through a functional health lens and as a result, I started learning about estrogen dominance. The knowledge I learned help me reverse painful periods and bring my body back into balance after dealing with many chronic symptoms after chemotherapy. It also helped me realize the connection between hormone imbalances and breast cancer.

In this article, I will share my findings with you!

To begin, what is Estrogen?

Estrogen is an umbrella term used to describe a steroid hormone involved in the female reproductive organs and is responsible for developing female sexual characteristics. A hormone is a molecule of communication in our body. Our hormones circulate internal to, in between cells, and then at a distance via the blood in the body. It is part of how our God designed body orchestrates and takes action in order to help us to try and thrive in the environment we live in.

There are many forms of estrogen such as: estrone, estradiol, and estriol.

“Estrogen dominance” is a phrase uses to describe a pattern of elevated estrogen and low progesterone symptoms. Though it is not often recognized, many women suffer from estrogen dominance today and helping the body come into balance can help reduce many chronic symptoms.

Common Signs of Estrogen Dominance:

• Heavy bleeding + PMS

• Estrogenic cancers

• PCOS

• Insulin resistance

• Weight gain + Obesity

• Hair loss

• Mood swings

• Hot flashes in menopause

Common Causes of Estrogen Dominance:

• Low progesterone

  • This often goes unrecognized because women are not taught that you can still have a period even though you did not ovulate in your follicular phase. This is known an anovulatory cycle. This is a problem because you need to ovulate in order to produce healthy levels of progesterone. You can learn more about the importance of ovulation here.

• Chronic stress, High Insulin, + Insulin Resistance

  • High levels of stress and high levels of stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline can raise blood sugar levels. This can lead to more insulin being made, and too much insulin can cause the ovaries to make more testosterone. This hormone imbalance can make it hard for women to ovulate properly during their menstrual years. This can lead to infertility, and because the ovaries need to ovulate to make progesterone, low progesterone can cause too much estrogen.

• Liver + Gut stress

  • Once our body uses up estrogen, it then has to be detoxed by the liver. So estrogen goes to your liver to be processed, broken down and then it travels to your intestines to be excreted from your body.

  • Our gut bacteria play a role also plays a role in our ability to excrete (or reabsorb) estrogens from our body.

  • You can learn more about how your liver works here.

  • Estrogen is cleared in the liver, when the liver is stressed congested, estrogen will be recycled in our body in it’s toxic form.

• Nutrient Depletion

  • In order to have optimal methylation + excrete of estrogen, our body is reliant on certain nutrients like bioavailable folate, and vitamin B12, and vitamin B6 (many women are deficient in these due to over using birth control, which leads to poor methylation and contributes to estrogen dominance).

  • You can check out my post on methylation to learn more here.

• High exposure to compounds that mimic estrogen in the body:

  • Glyphosate for example, is the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide - and it is more estrogenic than estradiol.

We can support our body and help it come back into balance by peeling back layers of compensations it has made over the years, leading to these imbalances in the first place!

To learn more about topics like this and be equipped to care for your hormones, join our Aligned + Renewed Wellness Collective where you can access our “Tuning into your menstrual cycle” workshop + receive helpful video teachings and protocols I have seen work for countless women (myself included).

This series covers:

• How hormone balance actually works.

• Why estrogen dominance happens and what to do about it.

• Why period pain happens + what to to do about it.

• Tangible ways to support a healthy balance of estrogen + progesterone.

• How chronic stress impacts your menstrual cycle + what to do about it.

• Nutrition + herbal support for an optimal menstrual cycle.

• Helpful testing you can request from your provider.

• How to optimize your detoxification pathways to support healthy hormone balance.

Sign up now here.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8395949/

https://drkathleenmahannah.com/blog/top-5-foods-for-hormone-balance

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10296738/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3428377/