What is Estrogen Dominance?

Estrogen dominance is the state of the body when the normal ratio or balance of estrogen to progesterone is changed either by excess estrogen or inadequate progesterone.

Estrogen is a potent and potentially dangerous hormone when not balanced by adequate progesterone. So, if your progesterone is low compared to your estrogen load, you are ESTROGEN DOMINANT.

Symptoms are: swollen breasts, Fibrocystic breasts, weight gain around the middle and hips, loss of libido, depression, bloating, hair loss, acceleration of aging, foggy thinking, headaches, osteoporosis, PMS, hypothyroid, uterine fibroids, gallbladder disease, heavy bleeding, irregular cycles, endometriosis and ovarian cysts.

When a woman fails to ovulate, which happens more and more to women in perimenopause and even younger women, progesterone is not produced. This allows estrogen to go unopposed the entire month and upsets the normal progesterone/estrogen balance.

Estrogen dominance can start early on in a woman’s menstrual cycle. Many young women who suffer from this enter menarche with tremendously difficult periods, and doctors sometimes give these teenage girls (as well as women suffering from fibroid tumors, endometriosis, etc.) more estrogen by prescribing birth control pills to “help” regulate the frequency and severity of their menstrual periods.

Many women will develop estrogen dominance much later in life, not only because they do not ovulate, but due to a stressed liver. The liver is responsible for detoxifying our body including excess estrogens. When estrogen is not broken down adequately, high levels of estrogen build up in both Women and Men. Other causes are toxins from the environment which act as estrogen in the body and a low fiber diet. Fiber is essential because Excess estrogen is excreted in the bowel. When stool remains in the bowel for a longer time, the estrogen is reabsorbed.

If you are menopausal or perimenopausal you might reason that since you have lower levels of estrogen, you will not be estrogen dominant. Remember…it is the RATIO of estrogen to progesterone we are discussing. If you have low estrogen and almost no progesterone, you will be estrogen dominant.

What can you do to reset the balance?

Progesterone crème to balance the estrogen.
Increase fiber intake.
Support the liver. The best herb for this is Milk Thistle.
Use phyto estrogens like Red Clover. They occupy receptor sites and act as a blocker to more powerful estrogens.
Avoid any meat or dairy that contains hormones. Also, cut back on meat. Animals not only are fed synthetic estrogens, but they eat grain and grasses the contain pesticides.
If you are constipated, Psyllium Husk is a great help.

A note about women who have had a hysterectomy. Doctors seem to reason that if a woman has had a complete hysterectomy and no longer has a uterus, she cannot get cancer of the uterus.Therefore, they continue to prescribe unopposed estrogen. At a 1976 meeting at the Mayo Clinic called the Consensus Meeting, doctors concluded that Estrogen should not be given without progesterone…yet this is exactly what doctors continue to do.

Stand up for yourself and ask for progesterone or just get some progesterone on your own. It is available over the counter!

Take a look at Better Health Naturally’s ProHELP.