Estrogen is a hormone present in both the male and female anatomy. While estrogen is primarily considered a female sex hormone (as it works with progesterone to promote fertility), males also produce small amounts of estrogen in their reproductive systems (1).
Estrogen and progesterone levels are needed in balance as they both perform specific, complementary functions. This means that even if you don’t have too much estrogen in your system, you can still have symptoms of excess estrogen if your progesterone levels are low (2).
Having high levels of estrogen in comparison to progesterone is a condition known as estrogen dominance. From a biological standpoint, the significance of estrogen in the human body cannot be understated. Not only is estrogen required for pregnancy, it is also a hormone that promotes growth and development. Without estrogen, infants wouldn’t be able to develop into children or adults. Estrogen is also the hormone responsible for allowing females to have their unique characteristics, such as a menstrual cycle or breasts.
But despite the crucial role estrogen plays in the body, having higher than optimal levels of estrogen in your body can be dangerous to your health. When left untreated, estrogen dominance can promote stubborn symptoms that are hard to get rid of, and even lead to serious health complications such as infertility or reproductive cancers (3).
What Causes Estrogen Dominance?
If you’re wondering why estrogen dominance occurs in the first place, the answer is, we’re constantly exposed to estrogen in our environments. Many cases of estrogen dominance occur from our food supply and the environmental toxins we’re exposed to each day. Just as humans produce estrogen, specific foods also naturally contain estrogen (or phytoestrogens, which are weak estrogens). When we regularly consume estrogenic foods, our estrogen levels rise, which can then lead to hormone imbalances and estrogen dominance (4).
But estrogenic foods aren’t the only substances that can contribute to estrogen dominance. Estrogen is also found in birth control pills, cosmetics, body care products, household cleaners, pesticides, environmental toxins and chemicals such as bisphenol A (also known as BPA), which are found in plastics. The estrogens found in chemicals are called xenoestrogens, which mimic estrogen. How many of these products do you come in contact with each day?
Since the human body is intelligent, it knows that too much of a good thing is never a good thing. So when your estrogen levels start to get too high, your liver will work hard to get rid of the extra to maintain healthy estrogen levels. However, your liver also performs hundreds of other functions. This means it may not be able to efficiently filter out all estrogen adequately, and may allow estrogen or phytoestrogens to be reabsorbed into your bloodstream, rather than safely eliminated from your body.
Since low progesterone levels also contribute to estrogen dominance, it’s important to know what causes low progesterone to help reduce estrogen dominance. Aside from high estrogen exposure, chronic stress and a diet lacking nutrients are said to be the primary causes of low progesterone.
Needless to say, we’re constantly being exposed to estrogen. And as you can see, even if you’re doing your very best to avoid estrogenic foods or substances, no one is exempt from estrogen if they’re living here on planet earth.
Resources:
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC179885/
(2) http://info.nihadc.com/integrative-health-blog/bid/53256/Estrogen-Dominance-Doesn-t-Mean-What-You-Think
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21152357
(4) http://drsaulmarcus.com/thyroid/15hypothyroidismbalance.html
