What is Oestrogen Dominance?
Oestrogen dominance is often referred to in Endometriosis and I do believe that it is the main factor behind the expression of Endometriosis and other growths such as fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, skin tags, and certain cancers.
But what does oestrogen dominance mean?
There are 2 main factors that put someone in a state of oestrogen dominance and those are:
There is too much oestrogen circulating in the body because a) the body is not metabolising (getting rid of) oestrogen efficiently and b) the body is producing too much oestrogen.
Circulating oestrogen is not protected, or managed, by thyroid hormones and progesterone due to the body's inability to make or use these hormones.
Let’s start by discussing the too much oestrogen side of this first.
You need adequate thyroid function, optimal liver function, and a healthy digestive function to metabolise oestrogen. If these 3 body functions are not working as they should, your body will struggle to safely break down and remove oestrogen.
If you are constipated you will reabsorb oestrogen from your bowels back into your blood stream, along with other toxic waste, which increases circulating oestrogen levels and puts further strain on your liver. Basically, the longer your stool hangs around in your colon, the more your bacteria break down the contents and reabsorb it all into your bloodstream - increasing your toxic load.
Your body can also produce too much oestrogen which is usually driven by environmental oestrogens known as xenoestrogens, excess body fat, and chronic stress.
Xenoestrogens bind to oestrogen receptors, but they are a weaker oestrogen. This weak oestrogen connection sends a signal back to the brain to say “we need moe oestrogen” which encourages the ovaries to produce higher amounts of our therapeutic oestrogen .. which unfortunately can’t bind to the receptors because of the xenoestrogens that are attached. This increases the circulating levels of oestrogen in our blood stream putting us in an oestrogen dominant state.
Unfortunately the world is polluted by xenoestrogens from your take away coffee cup and your plastic water bottle to pesticides, air pollution, candles, perfume, and cleaning sprays.
Then we have aromatisation of oestrogen which is when androgenic hormones such as testosterone is converted into oestrogen thanks to the aromatase enzyme being upregulated. And what upregulates aromatase enzyme? Stress and excess fat cells.
Okay, now lets discuss the role of thyroid and progesterone in oestrogen dominance.
Thyroid hormone is responsible for taking oestrogen from inside the cells where it is being used (after binding to the receptor) to the liver so it can be broken down and packaged up nicely before being delivered to the digestive system.
If you're struggling to make, convert or use thyroid hormones then you’re not going to be getting rid of oestrogen efficiently. This often shows in the pre-ovulation and ovulation phase, when oestrogen levels rise towards ovulation with a big surge as ovulation happens - if thyroid hormone is not there to deal with this, symptoms such as anxiety, nausea, brain fog, water retention, insomnia, and more can present.
Then we have the post ovulation phase known as luteal, or progestational. This phase relies on your natural progesterone production (from your corpus luteum) to protect your body against the second rise of oestrogen which happens midway through your luteal phase.
Remember, oestrogen is the hormone of growth and proliferation. It builds our breast tissue, our uterine tissue, and our curves. When it is not protected by thyroid and progesterone, it causes proliferative effects resulting in uncontrolled growths. This is why those of us with Endometriosis often suffer from adenomyosis, PCOS, fibroids, polyps, cystic breasts, clotty periods, and more.
In order to actually make progesterone you need thyroid hormone - are you starting to understand the importance of this tiny butterfly shaped gland that lives in your throat?
If recent bloods state your thyroid is fine yet you suffer with constipation, dry hair and skin, brittle nails, feeling cold, low moods, low libido, irregular and painful periods, brain fog, anxiety (the list goes on), then it is likely your thyroid is struggling regardless of what your blood tests say.
So, what can you do?
Firstly, clean up your environment.
Get rid of all the home cleaning products, laundry detergent, candles, and air fresheners and instead make your own cleaning spray or opt for a more ‘natural’ product such as Purdy & Fig which is a one product for all cleaning purposes. Use essential oil diffusers instead of candles and air fresheners, and try a more eco friendly laundry detergent like ecover or miniml. There’s a whole lesson in this inside the BYE modules.
At the same time optimise progesterone production and support your oestrogen metabolism pathways. Everything you need to know about this is covered throughout step 8 and 9 in the BYE modules.
I appreciate this may seem overwhelming, so start with what is in your control. The workbooks in steps 8 and 9 are designed to help you break this down so it becomes more manageable, and this is something that you will be working on for the next several months. You can’t change everything overnight!