We Need to Talk About Estrogen…
Estrogen can get a lot of hate. When you heard the word estrogen, maybe you think of PMS or breast cancer. But is estrogen really the bad guy?🤔 The short answer is no, but it’s a bit more complicated than that…
Usually when we’re talking about estrogen, we’re talking about ✨estradiol✨, the main estrogen hormone for women of reproductive age. But there’s also estriol (estrogen made during pregnancy) and estrone (a weaker type of estrogen dominant during menopause).
Estrogen is made primarily by our ovaries (but the adrenal glands and fat cells also secrete a bit of estrogen). Our bodies make it for a really good reason.
👉Health benefits of estrogen include:
protects your heart and blood vessels🫀
improves muscle mass and bone density💪
boosts mood and libido🥰
firms the skin😊
benefits the urinary tract system💧
promotes blood sugar stability📉
supports the nervous system and cognition🧠
benefits the gut microbiome🦠
But like any hormone, we want the right amount of it⚖️. Not too much, but not too little. Otherwise we can get some hormonal imbalance symptoms.
⬆️ Symptoms of high estrogen: heavy periods, painful periods, clotty periods, cyclical migraines, PMS symptoms like bloating, cramping, breast tenderness, and mood swings, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, polyps, fatigue, depression/anxiety.
How do we end up with high levels of estrogen? Pour gut health or liver detoxification, lots of toxins or xenoestrogens in our environment, hypothyroidism, peri-menoapuse, chronic stress, excessive alcohol intake, heavy metals.
⬇️ Symptoms of low estrogen: absent/irregular periods, lethargy, depression, low libido, vaginal dryness, painful sex, wrinkles, night sweats/hot flashes, insomnia, leaky or overactive bladder, bladder infections, joint pain, dry skin and eyes, depression, poor memory.
How do we end up with low levels of estrogen? Peri-menopause and menopause, a full hysterectomy, premature ovarian failure, breastfeeding, reduced blood flow to the ovaries, high stress, disordered eating/lack of nutrients/low cholesterol, being underweight, over-exercising, some medications, PCOS, thyroid problems.
Typically in my practice👩🏻⚕️, I see a lot of high estrogen, or estrogen dominance/excess📈. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your ovaries are making too much estrogen (this is hardly ever the cause unless you have an ovarian cyst), but really your body is having a hard time excreting the estrogen it no longer needs🗑️.
Because your body likes to USE and then LOSE estrogen. If our body is unable to properly metabolize, methylate, and then excrete the estrogen it no longer needs, it can build up in our system and cause a bunch of issues (like the symptoms above).
So how does your body get rid of the estrogen it no longer needs?
It has a lot to do with two things: your GUT and your LIVER.
1️⃣ The Liver. The first stage of estrogen detoxification happens in the liver. First, the liver takes the estrogen circulating through your blood stream and breaks it down into smaller units (2OH, 4OH, and 16OH). Some of these metabolites are safer and healthier than others.
✨2OH: the safest for, we want a LOT of her.
✨4OH: She’s a bit rowdy. CAN be okay if it goes down the right pathway, but otherwise it’s carcinogenic and associated with estrogen dominance symptoms.
✨16OH: She’s alright. We want some of this but not too much. It’s also linked to a lot of estrogen dominance symptoms.
If our liver isn’t doing an awesome job at detoxing because we have some crappy liver detoxing genes🧬, we don’t have enough nutrients it needs🥦, or it’s super busy trying to detox other things🍷 (think alcohol, medications, toxins, inflammation), then our body might push too much estrogen down the 4OH pathway.
Things that make this phase of detox work better: B vitamins (specifically b6 and folate), glutathione/NAC, other antioxidants (like resveratrol, vitamin e, or vitamin c), DIM, calcium d-glucarate, quercetin, iron.
THEN the liver does another round of methylating the estrogen a bit further to make them easier to excrete.
Things that make this phase of detox work better: Amino acids (protein!), sulphur rich foods (eggs, garlic, onions, leeks, mushrooms, cruciferous veggies), magnesium, b vitamins, choline, zinc, SAMe.
2️⃣ The Gut. THEN the liver sends these metabolized and methylated estrogen molecules to the gut to be excreted from the body through the bowels and urine. So both gut dysbiosis and leaky gut🦠 can negatively impact this phase. And that’s because if you have a poor gut microbiome, you might have elevated levels of beta-glucuronidase, which is an enzyme that de-conjugates, or unwraps🎁 the estrogen that your liver tried to pack up so nicely, and sends it back into the blood stream which will then cause a bunch of estrogen dominant symptoms.
AND if you aren’t pooping or peeing enough, you aren’t letting your body get rid of excess estrogen. So we NEED to make sure we are hydrated and have bowel movements every single day💩.
Things that make this phase of estrogen detox better: probiotics and prebiotics, fiber, avoiding antibiotics (when you can), not too much stress, keeping your blood sugar stable, and not too much alcohol, sugar or processed foods.
👉So now you can see why a LOT of different things go into making sure we have healthy levels of estrogen. It’s not just about popping a supplement to make all of your PMS or period problems go away. Balancing your estrogen levels take working with the ENTIRE body and lots of good diet and lifestyle habits✨.
Why I love hormone testing and the DUTCH test.
Sometimes it’s not super clear what’s going on with your estrogen levels and period problems. Do you have too much 4OH or 16OH? Because tackling those might mean different things. Is it the gut or the liver that’s the issue? If it’s the liver, which phase do we need to focus on? Do you actually have high circulating levels of estrogen or do we just need to metabolize it better?
Estrogen can be complicated, and that’s why I LOVE doing some testing so we can more effectively and efficiently create your therapeutic treatment plan so you can feel better faster. My favorite hormone test is the DUTCH test (dried urine test for comprehensive hormones). It involves using little strips of paper and dipping them in your urine (kind of like a pregnancy test) throughout the day. And it can give us SO much information about what your estrogen level is doing and how we can help it. I use it in my virtual coaching practice and in person practice all the time!
So I hope this helps you a little bit with getting started in understanding and supporting your estrogen levels! Of course if you would like some individualized support, that’s always available. Message or email me if you’d like to work one on one, download my Eating for Hormone Balance e-book for more info on how to eat to balance ALL of your hormones, or enrol in my course Period University™, where it teaches you EVERYTHING you need to know about fixing any of your period problems.
Peace & Periods,
Allison
Want to learn more about strategies you can use to support your menstrual cycle and fertility?
📘Access my FREE e-book: How to Start Balancing your Hormones: Fix Your Period Without Overwhelm.
📕 Learn about syncing your diet, lifestyle, exercise, and schedule to the hormonal fluctuations of each phase of your menstrual cycle in my Cycle Syncing e-book!
📗My Eating for Hormone Balance e-book breaks down everything you need to know about diet and your hormones. Learn about the basic macros, how to support gut health, what to do about inflammation, and more!
📞 Book a free 15 minute discovery call to see if we're a good fit to work together.
👩🏻💻 Book a 60 min initial consultation where we work 1:1 to dig deep into your health history to figure out the root causes of your period problems. From there I provide you with an individualized treatment plan and consistent support along the way.
🏫 Period University™ is the ultimate self-paced online course that teaches you EVERYTHING you need to know about your period and hormones.
