Estrogen Dominance: How To Address This Hormone Imbalance Naturally

Estrogen dominance is a remarkably frequent hormonal disorder. It is triggered when there is excessive estrogen in relation to progesterone. This can be due to excessive estrogen (referred to as "frank estrogen dominance") or low progesterone ("relative estrogen dominance").

Causes of Estrogen Dominance

There are many factors that contribute to estrogen dominance, such as the following:

• Environmental toxins (xenoestrogens)
• Birth Control Pill
• Extra body fat (adipose tissue is the main location for estrogen conversion)
• The stress (autonomic nervous system dysfunction causes hormone imbalances)
• Insufficient performance of liver (responsible for metabolizing estrogens in excess)
• Insufficient function of the gallbladder (bile from the gallbladder that is essential to excrete estrogen)
• Gut health is not optimal (your digestive tract is the one responsible for flushing estrogen-related metabolites from your stool)
• Insufficient elimination function (especially kidneys, livers, colon, lymph)
• Progesterone levels are low (often due to the anovulation)

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

If you are familiar with hormonal acne, you'll realize how estrogen dominance can be the most common cause of acne. However, it can trigger other symptoms in addition, such as the following:

• Gain in weight or having difficulty keeping your weight off, mainly in the thighs and hips
• Heavy, painful periods
• You feel puffy or bloated.
• The mood swings, irritability, or PMS
• Breast tenderness, breast fibrocystic breasts
• Endometriosis, Uterine fibroids, or the adenomyosis

The cause of the issue and the treatment of estrogen dominance can differ. But, let's look at some of the key actions to restore hormonal balance when confronted with excessive estrogen!

A Natural Approach to Estrogen Dominance

1.) Beware of xenoestrogens.

The Xenoestrogens, synthetic estrogens, are harmful found in the environment, which interfere with your hormone balance and can cause the symptoms associated with estrogen-dominant disorders.

Where can these harmful xenoestrogens located? In the majority of places!

• Plastics
• Preservatives for food (i.e., BHA)
• Artificial food dyes
• Traditional meat and dairy products
• Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides (found in all conventional foods)
• Cleaning products for conventional use, such as laundry products, air fresheners
• Personal care and skincare products that are conventional, products such as cosmetics, shampoo, deodorant, body wash, polishes, lotions, etc.)
• Tap water that is not filtered
• Birth Control Pills

2.) Poop daily

The excess estrogen gets excreted through your stool. If you're constipated or not eliminating on a regular basis, the excess estrogen will be absorbed into the intestines and is then released back into circulation. It is important to ensure that you poop regularly (at minimum once a day) to maintain a healthy estrogen balance!

Tips to make sure you get pooped every day:

• Consume fibrous fruits and vegetables and seeds and nuts
• Keep hydrated. Dehydration can dry out your stool which can cause constipation.
• Consume warm, lemon-flavored water early in the morning on an empty stomach to encourage a bowel movement

3.) Consume foods that boost estrogen metabolism

Certain foods assist your body in efficiently detoxifying and eliminating estrogen through the liver and gut.

4.) Increase your progesterone levels

Because estrogen dominance could be caused by low levels of progesterone, it's crucial to make sure that you're having regular ovulations and that the production of progesterone isn't affected by any means. 

The most important advice to support progesterone? Take care of stress! The constant stress can trigger the release of some hormones (like cortisol) and causes blood sugar imbalance and inflammation, which may cause imbalances in progesterone and estrogen.

5.) Use plants to help support your gallbladder and liver health

Plant medicine is an effective way to help maintain your hormone balance and ease hormone-dependent states.

When estrogen is dominating, it is a must to concentrate on ensuring the overall health and well-being of your gallbladder and liver in order for estrogen to be eliminated and metabolized more effectively.