Kathy Morris
- Sep 28, 2020
- 5 min read

What is Estrogen Dominance?

For this week's blog, I'm bringing back this topic so you can elevate your knowledge in case estrogen is dominating you...

Estrogen dominance has been showing up a LOT lately in the consultation conversations, I've been having, and in my clients' test results.

It's a stealthy hormone imbalance that often goes overlooked in a typical blood test and can be related to issues such as weight gain, sleepless nights, sugar craving, low energy, depression, and insulin resistance all within both men and women, and irregular periods and intense PMS symptoms for just the ladies.

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Stubborn weight, acne, low libido, restless sleep, and struggling to build muscle are just some common characteristics when estrogen is dominating your body. Estrogen doesn't discriminate. It's just as much of an issue these days with both men and women.

For the majority of some people adult lives, they are able to manage their body weight with the simple calories in versus calories out equation. When the scales start to tip, you simply cut back on food intake and exercise more.

That is until estrogen takes control.

The older you become, the harder it becomes to manage your weight through diet and exercise, and one day it just stops working altogether. Not only you are unable to lose weight, but you may step on the scale and see that you actually gained weight despite your effects to work out harder and monitor your food intake. This can be a mind-boggling scenario.

As you can see there is obviously something more at play keeping you from managing your weight, so this is the time to run the right type of hormone test and to collect some clues.

Clue #1.

A possible genetic predisposition. If a close family member has been diagnosed with an estrogen-driven type of breast cancer called ER-2. About 80% of all breast cancers are "ER-positive", meaning the cancer cells grow in response to estrogen.

Clue #2.

A Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones (DUTCH) will help you reveal estrogen metabolites (estrone and estradiol) to see if they are high or out the functional range and testosterone is within range. These values cannot be seen on a blood test, so they may have been routinely missed in the past.

Clue #3.

Yeast and bacteria overgrowth such as Candida

This could prove that your underlying estrogen dominance is keeping you from losing weight.

What is estrogen dominance?

In men, it's usually determined when estrogen levels are relatively high in comparison to testosterone. Meaning testosterone levels could be normal or low, and estrogen is high relatively high to whatever that number is.

In general, when estrogen levels are relatively high to other hormones, it's not good.

Many women fell victim to estrogen dominance when they see their weight climb up 10 or 15 pounds, brake out with ance for the first time in their lives or have painful and heavy periods, having sleeping issues, or maybe even keeping your emotions in check, all because estrogen has taken over. Plus, it could tip the scales toward Hashimoto issues.

The good news is that estrogen dominance doesn't happen overnight. It's preventable and reversible in almost any case, by making sure estrogen doesn't dominate the field means tackling it form a couple of different angles:

#1: Sort out estrogen sources:

One of the biggest reasons why estrogen is on the rise is due to a classification of toxins known as Xenoestrogens. These toxins have the ability to mimic estrogen in the body or block hormone receptor sites resulting in elevated estrogen levels. Common sources of estrogen promoting toxins can be found in :

a. Plastic food, water, or other types of containers.

b. Lotions, shampoos, conditioners, deodorant, or other personal care products

c. Metal substances such as cadmium, lead, and mercury

Aim to swap out your plastic containers for glass or stainless steel and use the EWG's Skin Deep Database to find non-toxic personal care products.

Other estrogen elevating sources also include:

Non-organic foods containing pesticides or added hormones
Tap water (yes, even though it's deemed "safe") contaminated with pesticides/toxins
Intestinal parasites, bacteria, and yeast that elevate toxic enzymes and trap estrogen
Excess body fat that absorbs, stores, and synthesizes estrogen
Water damaged buildings with mold growth
Unrelenting mental or emotional stress

Some actions you can take to tackle these sources by eating organic, drinking, and cooking with only filtered water, properly addressing water leaks and mold, and taking time to meditate or de-stress daily.

To sort out the synthetic hormones and/or intestinal pathogens, seek a functional health practitioner (like myself) to assist you with proper and personalized strategies.

#2 - Love your Liver

The reality is, we can't control our exposure to estrogen driving toxins 100% of the time. But our liver does play a major role in getting rid of excess estrogen that might be circulating in the body, and that's something you can get behind. By supporting liver function, you can kill two birds with one stone: eliminate toxins you've been exposed to that might raise estrogen levels, and excrete existing excess estrogen.

To support your liver, you can:

Take a daily liver support supplement with nutrients such as milk thistle
Eat naturally detoxifying foods such as beets, grapefruits, lemons, and dandelion greens
Occasionally do castor oil packs, dry body brushing or and infrared sauna

Do all of the above and give more power to your liver!

#3 - Eat and drink anti-estrogenic

The great is, you can combat estrogen on a daily basis with little effort. Simply aim to eat anti-estrogenic foods, known as cruciferous vegetables, and drink clean, filtered water (from a glass or steel bottle of course!).

Some of the best estrogen regulating foods to consume include:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Kale
Brussel Sprouts
Arugula
Cabbage
Bok Choy
Radishes
Collard Greens

By taking action from all three of these angles, estrogen will be neutralized and will play nicely.

However, in some cases, if you're adamantly working on lower estrogen levels, there still might be something stopping you from getting where you want to be.

If you suspect estrogen might be dominating you, and you want to get your hands on the right lab tests and resources to get it under control, then schedule a complimentary call with me today!

Let me help you connect the dots to make your vitality better, whether it be the area of the hormone, thyroid, digestion, diet, exercise, autoimmune.

Schedule a call today, you will not regret feeling better in the future.

Consultation with Kathy - Root Cause Assessment.

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