Estrogen and Your Hormones

Let’s talk about why estrogen is not always the villain when it comes to our hormones.

 This is a hormone that normally gets a bad wrap because when it is out of balance it can cause many things in your body to go haywire. Things like breast tenderness, mood swings, anxiety, depression, vaginal dryness, PMS, weight gain in the mid section, bloating and disrupting another very important hormone, progesterone. When out of balance we normally hear the term, estrogen dominance. 

Now let’s talk about what it looks like when estrogen is in balance. Both men and women have estrogen, but women have more. Estrogen is the hormone that gives us so many of our womanly attributes. It is the hormone that gives us breasts, (hence when men have too much estrogen they can actually have larger breast tissue a term called gynecomastia). It makes our skin soft and supple. Having a balance of estrogen not only makes our skin supple but  gets everything nice and juicy in our vagina! It also stimulates the brain and plays a role in stimulating serotonin. Estrogen is very important for bone health and metabolism. As far as fertility goes, it stimulates the uterine lining to grow and helps with implantation. It even helps in releasing the dominant egg follicle! Without the proper amount of estrogen we would not have ovulation and therefore no pregnancy.

Estrogen is mainly produced by the ovaries, and later in life during menopause it is produced by the adrenal glands as well as the brain and fat tissues. Even men have a little bit of estrogen just as we women have a little bit of testosterone.

 There are two ways that estrogen dominance comes into play. One way is if you are producing too much estrogen. This can happen from exposure to exogenous products like plastics especially from plastic water bottles and plastic lined cans, conventional meats that have been fed antibiotics and growth hormones, non organic vegetables that were sprayed with chemicals and even the non filtered tap water we drink. An overabundance of estrogen can come from  soy based food especially soy milk, tofu and soy ingredients in processed food, chemicals around the house such as cleaning and beauty products can even alter hormones. 

The other way actually is if you are producing a normal amount of estrogen but too little progesterone, this is called relative estrogen dominance meaning estrogen output is fine but the problem is an insufficient progesterone amount. Therefore even though your estrogen levels are normal if you don’t have enough progesterone then estrogen will be dominant. There is a dance that hormones play throughout your cycle and we are always looking for balance.

Getting rid of that excess estrogen is crucial to keeping the other sex hormones in balance. Estrogen is tied to the health of your digestion, your other sex hormones and the health of your liver so if your gut and your liver are not functioning properly then there is no way for your estrogen to be properly excreted out of your body. 

Your gut health is so important for many reasons. This is where we  absorb nutrients. It is also where  good bacteria and bad bacteria live. The purpose is to help breakdown our food and absorb nutrients. If there is too much bad bacteria it can produce an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase that will actually reconjugate the estrogen, allowing it to be reabsorbed back into the body instead of excreted out. If your  digestion is impaired it can actually increase the risk of estrogen dominance.

 The health of your liver is also critical when it comes to getting rid of excess estrogen. If the liver is not functioning properly it will not be able to get rid of the excess estrogen. Some ways to help your liver would be to drink dandelion tea or milk thistle tea, use castor oil packs on the liver, make sure you are staying well hydrated with lemon water and a pinch of sea salt and always making sure you are having a proper bowel movement daily.  Constipation is a sign your gut and liver are not working properly. Getting the proper movement will help this along with a nutrient dense diet. 

When estrogen is properly balanced all of the other hormones will fall into place as well. Your skin will be glowing, your belly will be flat, your vagina will be well lubricated, your moods will be calm and happy and your periods will flow smoothly. 

So tell me, do you still think estrogen is the villain when properly balanced? 

How is your estrogen?