What is estrogen dominance?
Estrogen dominance occurs when there is an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone levels in the body. This condition is quite common among women today due to various factors like diet, environment, stress, and lifestyle.
Some key signs and symptoms of estrogen dominance include:
- Irregular or heavy periods
- PMS symptoms like bloating, headaches, mood swings
- Weight gain especially around the hips and thighs
- Low libido
- Fibrocystic breasts
- Cold hands and feet
- Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Endometriosis
- Uterine fibroids
What causes estrogen dominance?
There are a few key causes:
- Diet high in foods that increase estrogen like soy, flax, alcohol
- Exposure to xenoestrogens and chemicals that act like estrogen
- Chronic stress leads to more estrogen and low progesterone
- Poor liver function makes it harder to break down estrogen
- Lack of exercise causes hormonal imbalance
- PCOS or thyroid issues
The hormonal imbalance leads to symptoms like weight gain, PMS, irregular cycles that significantly impact a woman's quality of life.
How to treat and fix estrogen dominance?
The good news is that estrogen dominance can be corrected with lifestyle changes and natural remedies:
- Maintain healthy diet: avoid soy, flax; eat fiber, greens
- Take supplements: DIM, Calcium d-glucarate
- Manage stress with yoga, meditation
- Exercise regularly
- Improve liver detoxification
- Consider bioidentical progesterone therapy
- Test hormones with saliva panels