What is Estrogen Dominance and What Causes It?
Ever felt like your hormones are running the show, leaving you feeling out of sync? If you've experienced discomfort such as bloating, mood swings, tender breasts, or stubborn weight gain, you might be grappling with the symptoms of estrogen dominance.
You may be familiar with the term estrogen dominance, but it’s likely that not everything you’ve heard about this hormone imbalance has been accurate. There’s quite a bit of confusion about what estrogen dominance is and how to navigate it, and that’s what we’re going to cover in this guide to estrogen dominance. We'll explore the intricacies of estrogen, clarify misconceptions, review the signs and symptoms, and unearth root causes.
What does estrogen do in the body?
Before we delve into estrogen dominance, it's important to clear something up: Estrogen isn’t the villain, nor should it be feared. This beautiful hormone is key to feeling your best, influencing everything from mood and motivation to libido and sleep quality. Where we run into problems is when estrogen becomes too high or too low.
The benefits of estrogen are as follows —
Promotes feelings of happiness and wellbeing by boosting serotonin
Helps regulate the response to stress
Increases insulin sensitivity and supports blood sugar balance
Assists in melatonin production, our sleep hormone
Thickens the uterine lining, preparing it for pregnancy
Stimulates fertile cervical mucus (egg white like discharge)
Improves memory and cognition
Supports bone and muscle health
Supports glowing skin and hair health
Helps control inflammation levels
Supports metabolism
Supports cardiovascular health
Positively influences cholesterol levels
Influences the female body shape
So it's clear: we definitely want estrogen in our lives but we need it in the right balance, otherwise we see opposite affects like slow metabolism, depression and anxiety.
Think of estrogen as the goldilocks hormone. You want neither too much nor too little.
The Types of Estrogen
Surprise! There’s actually three different types of estrogen, and each one takes center stage during different periods of our life.
Estrone (E1): This is the weakest form of estrogen and is produced primarily in fat tissue. After menopause, your body stops making estradiol and estriol, and only makes estrone.
Estradiol (E2): This is the most abundant and potent form of estrogen, and plays a pivotal role in the intricate dance of the menstrual cycle. E2 is primarily produced in the ovaries.
Estriol (E3): Estriol becomes the dominant form of estrogen during pregnancy and plays an important role in fetal growth and development while also priming the body for childbirth.
Throughout our lives, shifts in estrogen levels, particularly Estradiol (E2), play pivotal roles in our development. These fluctuations determine key milestones like puberty onset, fertility, and the smoothness of the menopausal transition.
While estrogen levels naturally vary throughout the menstrual cycle and across our lifespan, our modern environment and lifestyles can result in estrogen dominance. In this case, what should be a harmonious hormonal rhythm can devolve into a myriad of discomforts, ranging from mood swings, breast tenderness, and heavy menstrual bleeding to outright hormonal chaos and estrogen-related conditions.
Signs of Estrogen Dominance
Given the widespread presence of estrogen receptors throughout the body, from your reproductive tract and breasts to your liver and thyroid, symptoms of estrogen dominance can unfortunately manifest in many way and many areas —
Irregular or Heavy periods
Mood Swings
Anxiety / Depression
Hormonal Migraines and Headaches
Breast Tenderness
Weight Gain or Weight Loss Resistance
Slow Metabolism
Fatigue
Water Retention
Painful Periods
Short cycles (but can also be normal or long)
Uterine Fibroids
Fibrocystic Breasts
Insomnia / Sleep Troubles
But Is High Estrogen really the Cause of Your Symptoms?
You may have signs of estrogen dominance but that doesn’t necessarily mean estrogen is too high. In fact, you can have low estrogen and still have estrogen dominance. Confusing, right? It makes a lot more sense when we understand what estrogen dominance means, let’s take a look —
Estrogen and progesterone work in balance with each other, with progesterone keeping estrogen in check. When estrogen is too high relative to progesterone, you are estrogen dominant. The actual levels of estrogen however, can be high, normal or low, if progesterone is too low to counterbalance the estrogen.
Since estrogen dominance can arise from a variety of different imbalances, there isn’t a singular path that will work for everyone to resolve it. If you've attempted to create a healing plan on your own, you may have found that your symptoms persisted or worsened, leaving you frustrated and overwhelmed. This is because hormones are delicate and complex, and with numerous root causes, each individual's journey is unique. Collaborating with a practitioner specializing in women’s hormones helps uncover your specific imbalances, allowing for the crafting of a personalized plan tailored just for you. This personalized approach is the focus of my practice and how we accelerate your healing journey.
What Causes Estrogen Dominance?
There are four primary reasons that estrogen becomes dominant:
Poor clearing/metabolism of estrogen
An over production of estrogen
Low progesterone (remember it’s about balance!)
Hypersensitivity to estrogen
Because the body is so interconnected and our organs influence each other in complex ways, the causes of these are far and wide. However, here are the primary contributing factors:
Poor Liver Function
Once estrogen has done it’s job in the body, it needs to be eliminated through a process called estrogen metabolism. This begins in the liver, where estrogen is broken down and packaged up to be safely eliminated through the gut. The term for this is conjugation.
For the liver to do its job well, your body needs to be relatively free from toxins because if your liver has too much work to do (toxins to deal with), it can’t keep up with estrogen metabolism.
Additionally, the liver relies on a steady supply of essential nutrients to function properly. If you're not giving your body the nutrition it needs, your liver won’t have the fuel to do it’s magic.
If there’s any barriers to liver function, then estrogen can’t be cleared from the body efficiently, resulting in estrogen dominance and it’s related symptoms.
Impaired Digestion and Gut Microbiome
Step two of estrogen metabolism is the removal of conjugated estrogen through the digestive tract. Simply put, the liver sends the safely packaged estrogen down to your digestive tract to be expelled from the body through bowel movements.
This can go wrong in two primary ways:
When there is unhealthy gut bacteria, the estrogen that the liver safely packaged up gets unpackaged (deconjugated), and then can be resorbed back into the body, resulting in elevated estrogen.
If you aren’t having a daily bowel movement, then estrogen can be reabsorbed into the body, leading to higher estrogen levels.
What does this all mean? Having a healthy gut microbiome and daily bowel movements are essential to healthy estrogen levels.
Low Progesterone
As I mentioned earlier, your symptoms of estrogen dominance can be caused by low progesterone. What causes low progesterone?
Anovulatory cycles. Ovulation is the only way you make progesterone so if you have a cycle where you don’t ovulate, then no progesterone is made.
A short luteal phase. This results in a cycle where you make progesterone, but not enough.
The top two contributors to anovulatory cycles and short luteal phases is poor diet and elevated stress.
The most tell tale signs of low progesterone is PMS and short cycles (every 21-24 days) or no period at all. If you experience any of these, read this guide on Natural Ways to Increase Progesterone.
A Sluggish Thyroid or Hypothyroidism
Your thyroid is the conductor of your metabolism, setting the pace for all the processes happening inside your body. When metabolism slows down, it's like hitting the slow-motion button on everything, including your liver and digestion, which affects how your body handles estrogen. And guess what? A sluggish thyroid can also interfere with ovulation, resulting in low progesterone levels.
Sadly, many women today find themselves facing thyroid troubles, thanks to our fast-paced lifestyles and dietary habits. Picture the woman who's constantly on the go, multiple responsibilities, experimenting with different diets, battling stress, sacrificing sleep, and all the while, not getting the nourishment and rest her body truly needs. In order to reserve energy and resources, the thyroid slows down, but with that comes a whole host of unwanted symptoms.
If you struggle with fatigue, weight loss resistance, brittle hair, and feeling cold all the time, your thyroid might be running on low. You can read more about hypothyroidism here.
Hypersensitivity to Estrogen
Hormonal balance is not just about how much estrogen you have but how sensitive your cells are to estrogen. This makes testing even more tricky because you can have perfect estrogen and progesterone levels, but have all the symptoms of hormone imbalances if your cells aren’t responding to these hormones the way they should.
Here are three ways that your cells can become hyper sensitive to estrogen:
Elevated inflammation
High histamine levels
Low Iodine
Elevated inflammation is one of the most common causes of hypersensitivity to estrogen since there is so much in our modern world that causes it.
Hormonal Birth Control
Birth control disrupts our natural hormone balance. Estrogen-containing contraceptives provide the body with a surplus of estrogen daily, contributing to estrogen dominance. While contraceptives that prevent ovulation halt the production of progesterone, leading to estrogen dominance. It's essential to note that while progesterone keeps estrogen levels in check, it’s only the body's natural progesterone that has the ability to do this, not the synthetic progesterone present in birth control.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hormone replacement therapy used for perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms is another cause of high estrogen. This occurs when the dosing isn’t done appropriately.
Obesity
We produce a form of estrogen called estrone from adipose tissue, which is just a fancy term for body fat. When there's a lot of extra weight, it can lead to higher levels of estrogen.
If this resonates with you, I encourage you to seek guidance from a trusted practitioner to navigate this journey safely. In my practice, I focus on supporting metabolic function and energy storage, steering away from restrictive diets or daily high-intensity workouts. The traditional belief that weight loss is solely about calories in versus calories out is fundamentally flawed and actually exacerbates metabolic issues. This is why many woman that are overweight actually eat very little, and why it’s so common for women to gain the weight back (and then some) after dieting.
The Woman at Risk for Estrogen Dominance
Estrogen dominance can easily sneak up on us in our modern, fast-paced world. We have the demands of work, constant pursuit of success, pressure to meet unrealistic beauty standards, and a plethora of misinformation about nutrition that ultimately leave woman undernourished and overworked. This way of living is the perfect setting for hormone imbalances to arise.
The woman at risk for estrogen dominance may even share a lifestyle similar to yours —
Drinking coffee before breakfast
Intermittent fasting or skipping meals
Running on stress hormones
Eating too little calories
Eating an imbalance of macro and micronutrients
Over exercising or doing lots of cardio
Boss babe, hustle mentality
Not enough time for self care
Using toxic beauty and household products
Getting too little sleep and rest
If you’re nodding along, your hormone healing journey likely requires more than just nutritional support—it needs a holistic approach that addresses lifestyle factors too. That's where the health coaching aspect of my practice comes in! It compliments the nutrition side to offer you a well-rounded solution. If you're longing for this comprehensive support, let’s chat about how I can support you. Get in touch HERE.
What to do next?
The journey of balancing hormones can be daunting and overwhelming, but it's important to remember that you don’t have to navigate it alone. By teaming up with a knowledgeable practitioner, you can gain invaluable insights into your unique hormone imbalances, identify the root causes of your symptoms, and work towards achieving a natural balance. As a holistic nutritionist specializing in hormone health, I'm here to provide personalized support and guide you every step of the way. If this resonates with you, let’s connect and chat about how working together can support you.
