WHAT IS ESTROGEN DOMINANCE?
Estrogen Dominance is a word that we have used all through this website, you may be hearing about it more yourself and are wondering what on earth it all means?
Estrogen is the hormone that makes you female, creating the breast and hips, menstural periods and high pitched voice.
Estrogen dominance does not mean your body is making to much estrogen but that the lack of progesterone is making it the dominant hormone and without its important partner it can play havoc on the way we think and feel.
Estrogen dominance is far more common now than it used to be, hence we are seeing a rise in pre menstrual tension, (PMT) lack of libido, post natal anxiety/depression, severe pre and menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis, fibroids, mood swings, heavy periods, weight gain/bloating migraines, miscarriages, infertility and sleep disturbances to name a few.
This has been linked to the environment we now live in and increased stress in our life.
Exposure to daily life such as pollution, plastics, pesticides, chemicals, some foods we eat and the hormone pill can produce what we call xenoestrogens.
This means we carry an unnatural burden of foreign estrogens, progesterone may help us reduce the effects of this.
We can’t go through life wrapped in a bubble or wearing masks everywhere we go, we have to still enjoy ourselves and not be overtly worried that everything we eat /drink or breathe in is going to make us sick, but we can take some steps to reduce the effects by making some simple lifestyle changes.
We now know from research and case studies that progesterone can shield us from the ghastly side effects of too much estrogen by balancing each other out, it not only reduces the unwanted symptoms but can act as a prevention towards an array of common illnesses as a woman ages and progesterone declines.
HOW DO I CHECK MY PROGESTERONE LEVELS?
There has been a debate amongst the medical circles in how to accurately measure progesterone levels.
A blood test does not provide an accurate picture of available hormones, as most of the hormones in your body are unusable-tightly bound to proteins in the bloodstream.
Only 1 to 2 per cent escape the bindings and are free bioavailable to enter tissues throughout the body.
Conventional blood tests measure only the total level of hormones in the blood stream.
One of the tissues that bioavailable hormones enter is the saliva gland, which passes freely into the saliva.
During your pre menopausal phase your hormones will be in a constantly changing, they could read very low one day, then very high the next.
My advice to woman on the cream and who do the saliva testing is to gauge for themselves how they are feeling by keeping a daily diary, or simly monitoring your symtoms.
If for example saliva levels are reading consistanly high and your symtoms seem to have reduced or gone away then stopping the cream for a few months and re checking your saliva tests may be an option.
Saliva testing is easy, no pricking involved.
We have a ready supply of saliva test kits with instructions, we simply post you the tests, you send it to the lab in a courier bag for $28.12, your results will be send to me.
My role as a Registered Nurse is to then go over the results and do a comprehensive assessment and work out what will work for you as an individual.
It is not just about whacking on the cream, we go through a full one hours assessment with a questionare and look at any underlying issues such as diet, exercise, minerals. vitamins, stress , previous medical history.
In some cases you may not even need the progesterone cream and there may be a need for further tests carried out on your other hormones such as estrogens or testosterone, DHEA or you simply require some life style changes/counselling or looking into any other underlying medical conditions.
Maintaining hormonal harmony will occur over the rest of your life and our relationship with you will be ongoing.
Maintain your own diary on what your symptoms are and monitor how they improve, based on the initial questionnaire.
