Integrative Health Blog

Do You Suffer from Estrogen Dominance? Take the Questionnaire

Posted by on Mon, Feb 04, 2013

Estrogen Dominance and adrenal fatigue are very similar in their symptom presentation.
Symptoms may include:
                                       weight gain
                                       hot flashes
                                       poor sleep
                                       fatigue
                                       irritability

Most women who have one tend to have the other to some degree. Most estrogen dominance is due to insufficient progesterone and therefore there is low cortisol production.When the adrenals are stressed, the increased need for cortisol depletes the progesterone levels used in making cortisol. As more progesterone is shunted to make cortisol, less is available to balance the estrogen.
Another common reason for low progesterone levels is an anovulatory cycle, a menstrual cycle in which there is no ovulation. Without the ovulation there is no corpus luteum to make additional progesterone for the cycle. The lowered progesterone level leaves us with an excessive estrogenic effect due to deficiency of progesterone. In summary, fixing adrenal function and estrogen dominance go hand-in-hand and it is therefore important to test for both and treat accordingly.
Direct help to the adrenals indirectly helps improve the estrogen-progesterone balance by allowing more progesterone to be available to offset the estrogen. More progesterone has a calming effect and may help with sleep which further helps the adrenals.
Fixing estrogen dominance can be done with chaste tree, black cohosh or progesterone. The use of natural hormone therapy must be monitored by a physician to restore the hormonal balance.

Take Dr. Rind's
Estrogen Dominance Questionnnaire

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Tags: hormones, estrogen dominance, adrenal fatigue

Estrogen Dominance Doesn't Mean What You Think

Posted by on Mon, Mar 05, 2012

Many women have heard the term ‘estrogen dominance’ (ED) but are not sure of the meaning.

Estrogen Dominance is a term every woman should be familiar with. PMS, infertility, post menopausal symptoms, and breast cancer often relate to ED.  Estrogen Dominance doesn’t mean that a woman is high in estrogen. Rather, it means that the estrogenic effects are stronger than the (counterbalancing) progesterone hormone balancing effects. If we think of the analogy of the body as a car, the estrogen would be the accelerator (stimulant) and the progesterone  (calmer) would be the brakes. We could have too little ‘accelerator’ function and still be crashing into cars because our ‘brakes’ are even weaker.

DEFINITION: Estrogen and Progesterone work with each other either as opposites or as complementing hormones. Estrogen is a stimulant (anxiety, insomnia, cellular proliferation at breast, uterus etc) and Progesterone is a calmer (patience, sleep, inhibits cell division). They also complement each other (Estrogen decreases bone loss while Progesterone promotes bone growth) and  testing and balancing hormones is important as we age and hormone levels fluctuate.

What is Estrogen Dominance?

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Tags: hormones, estrogen dominance

Estrogen Dominance and PMS

Posted by on Tue, May 31, 2011

by Cathlene Scoblionko, NP

So, for some of us it might be the day before the period starts and for others the whole preceding week.  Most women know when their period is coming because things change; breasts get tender, the temperature outside fluctuates constantly, husbands become more annoying, our feet swell, thinking becomes cloudy but emotions are front and center.  These are but a few of the many PMS symptoms that can occur.  There are plenty of web sites that will offer to show you an extensive list of symptoms.  You can google “estrogen dominance symptoms” and get plenty of hits. 

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Tags: bioidentical hormone replacement therapy/BHRT, hormones, estrogen dominance

Additional Uses for Breast Thermography

Posted by on Wed, Apr 28, 2010

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Tags: cancer, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy/BHRT, estrogen dominance, thermography, breast health, breast thermography