Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and over 200,000 women–1 in 8– in the U.S. are diagnosed every year. We’re seeing girls reaching puberty as early as age 8. Ask any woman, and she’s bound to say she’s experienced PMS, and maybe even endometriosis, fibroids, or ovarian cysts. The common thread in these conditions? Too much estrogen.

Estrogen is one of a woman’s two main sex hormones; the other is progesterone. Estrogen peaks in the first half of a woman’s menstrual cycle to trigger ovulation, then progesterone peaks in the second half of the cycle and continues to rise if there is a pregnancy, or falls to trigger menstruation.
(side note: Men have estrogen too. Too much estrogen in men contributes to gynecomastia (AKA man boobs).

In healthy women, progesterone/estrogen (estradiol) ratio should be between 100 and 500. If it’s higher than that, it may indicate progesterone dominance, and if it’s lower, then estrogen dominance is more likely.  You can find a calculator online like this one to calculate your ratio from your labwork.

Over 50 percent of women over 35 are estrogen dominant, and I see it so frequently in my practice. Typically, these women will have low progesterone, so even if their estrogen is in a normal range on lab work, that’s still estrogen dominant due to the low progesterone. Or, they may have high estrogen levels in addition to normal or low progesterone.

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

• painful periods, heavy bleeding or clotting
• sore, tender breasts
• swollen fingers and feet
• irregular periods
• PMS
• ovarian cysts
• fibroids
• breast cancer
• endometriosis
• fat gain
• hair loss
• PCOS
• dry skin & eyes
• early menarchy
• low thyroid function (hypothyroid)

What Causes Estrogen Dominance?

• xenoestrogens: chemicals in cosmetics, personal care products, pesticides, plastics, pollution, and our environment that are shaped like our body’s own estrogens and plug up estrogen receptors, contributing to our estrogen load
• CAFO (conventionally raised) beef and meats fed antibiotics and growth hormone
• consuming too much processed soy (isolates)
• conventional dairy, which contains hormones and is naturally androgenic (promotes growth)
• HRT & birth control pills: the average low dose pill has 20 TIMES  a woman’s natural estrogen levels!
• being overweight or obese: excess body fat can store circulating estrogens and actually synthesize estrogens.
• an unhealthy estrobolome, a biome in your gut that regulates estrogen levels
• stress
• processed foods
• excess alcohol
• ovarian cysts or tumors that can produce excess estrogens
• liver congestion: your liver detoxes excess estrogens, and if congested, it can’t perform this function optimally
• Digestive issues which inhibit the estrogen detoxification process in the liver, especially constipation, which causes estrogen bound up in the stool for excretion to be reabsorbed as it sits too long in the colon
• B vitamin deficiencies
• Genetic variants

Here is a classic pattern I see in my practice: busy career woman and/or mom hustling in her job and raising her family, eating too many processed or refined foods; drinking a lot of coffee as a pick-me-up; too much sugar to beat the energy lulls; grabbing fast food or take-out too frequently. She doesn’t have time to plan meals or cook and often picks up take-out pizza for the family on the way home. She drinks wine every night to unwind and help her sleep, but she ends up tossing and turning and wakes up feeling unrested. Eventually, this pattern causes weight gain, and she may notice a worsening in PMS, and her periods get heavier and more painful. Her breasts are very tender the week before her period. She may notice infertility issues, fatigue, and irritability. What’s going on?

In a word, stress. This woman is burning the candle at both ends, eating poor quality food, not getting quality sleep, not exercising, and drinking too much caffeine and alcohol. These are all stressors for the body, which contributes to increased cortisol, your main stress hormone. Your body churns out cortisol in response to stress, whether it be too much sugar or too much work or too little sleep, and it will begin to borrow reserves it would normally use to make your other hormones, like progesterone, to feed the excess cortisol.

Eventually, progesterone levels drop, but estrogen continues to rise due to chemical exposure from poor food and weight gain. Excess fat can convert to estrogen. This woman is now estrogen dominant and probably not feeling great. Add to this the cosmetics she’s applying to her skin, the alcohol that’s congesting her liver, which is in charge of detoxing excess estrogens (if it can’t perform that duty, the estrogens back in into the system and aren’t excreted), the environmental pollutants and pesticides she’s in contact with, and the lack of sleep (which raises cortisol), and we’ve got a hormone imbalance.

This cycle is exacerbated when a woman takes hormonal birth control pills, which artificially elevate estrogen levels and suppress progesterone to prevent pregnancy. Many women taking HRT that isn’t properly monitored may also experience estrogen dominance post-menopause.

How to Rebalance Your Hormones and Prevent Estrogen Dominance

I recommend hormone testing to check your levels so you know exactly what you’re dealing with. I use the DUTCH hormone test which you can order here, and EverlyWell offers a nice woman’s hormone panel. Order via this link for a discount.

• First point of business: Clean up your diet. Eat organic meats, plenty of fiber-rich veggies, and good fats, which is what your body uses to make hormones. Avoid non-organic meats, dairy, refined sugar, inflammatory vegetable oils, alcohol, coffee, refined flours and carbs. Focus on the cruciferous veggies (kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, bok choy, and Brussels sprouts), especially broccoli, which contain indole-3 carbinole that helps estrogen detox.
• Detox twice yearly: A happy liver is crucial to hormone balance, because one of the liver’s main jobs is metabolizing hormones and detoxing excess hormones from the body. Click here for an easy liver detox (and see below for more detail).
• Tend to your gut bacteria and most importantly, your estrobolome.
• Normalize your weight. Not only does excess body fat produce estrogens, excess estrogens cue the body to make more fat cells. A vicious cycle.
• Poop well. After your liver detoxes and sends excess estrogens to be excreted via stool, they must then be excreted from the body. If you’re constipated, the stool is immobile, and estrogens and toxins can be reabsorbed through the gut and back into your system. You don’t want that! Daily pooping will facilitate detox. Add ground flax to a smoothie to help regularity and estrogen balance.
• Clean up your products: get rid of cosmetics with any ingredients you cannot pronounce, and stop putting chemical lotions on your skin. It’s all absorbed and filled with xenoestrogens. Here’s an example of my natural skin care routine, and I use chemical-free shampoo.
• Clean up your environment: use green cleaning products, or make your own. There are tons of DIY cleaning product recipes out there. Ditch the plastics!
• Drink clean, filtered drinking water.
• Address stress level by getting 8 hours or sleep, making time to prepare healthy meals (hello, crock pot), and exercise. Prioritize. Your health is worth it. Here are 10+ ways to build stress relief into your day.
• Exercise and yoga, stress relief

Supplemental Support

You can use this protocol when coming off hormonal birth control, and make sure to read this article. 

• Diindolylmethane (DIM) helps detox excess estrogen. Take 60-100 mg standardized extract 1-2x/daily
• This broccoli seed extract can help detox estrogen. Or you can eat broccoli sprouts to help.
• Chasteberry (vitex) is an herb that regulates progesterone
• Wild yam or bio-identical USP progesterone can be taken from days 14-28 of the cycle to normalize progesterone levels, which peak in the luteal phase, or second half of the cycle. I do not recommend progesterone creams, because they can be stored in fat tissue and build up to unhealthy levels.
• B vitamins help to regulate stress level and hormones
• Liver detox supplements and herbs such as milk thistle, glutathione, N-acetyl-cysteine, methionine. Take a liver support tincture, or I highly recommend these detox support packets.
• I like this FemGuard supplement that helps normalize estrogen and progesterone levels.
• Anti-inflammatory supplements such as fish oil and turmeric. I like this turmeric tea for detox.
• If you’re transitioning off hormonal birth control and would like a natural, hormone-free method of pregnancy prevention, read this book. Here is my post on how to stop taking birth control pills.

I recommend testing to measure stress hormones and estrogen and progesterone levels to see exactly what level of hormone imbalance exists. Then I design a personalized protocol using a combination of diet and supplements to help rebalance hormones. I also stress lifestyle habits like sleep, exercise, and addressing emotional well-being.

Want an easy program you can start right now to balance your hormones?

My book provides you with a 21-day simple, whole-foods based detox program to help you regain your health, lose weight (if that’s your goal), dump the junk from your diet, break sugar & carb cravings, gain energy, sleep better, get clear skin, and be the best version of yourself.

Is This You?

• PMS, menopausal symptoms, trouble with hormone balance?
• Overweight or having trouble losing those last 5, 10, 20 pounds?
• Fatigued, brain fog, 3pm energy crash?
• Can’t drag yourself out of bed, much less through the day?
• Bloated, gassy, heartburn, indigestion, constipation, been recently diagnosed with IBS or Crohn’s disease?
• Suffer with anxiety or depression?
• Acne or skin rashes?
• High cholesterol?
• Joint or muscle pain?
• Headaches or migraines?
• Insomnia?
• Inflammation
• Autoimmune disease?

This program was designed to help you feel better. Click here for all the details and to buy now.

What You’ll Get

• immediate access to the 3 Weeks to Vitality manual AND Bonus guide, over 100 pages of nutrition & wellness resources, recipes, tips and information
• easy to follow 21 day whole foods-based detox plan with directions and guidelines for each week
• complete list of foods to avoid and why
• plenty of info on what foods to include to enhance your experience
• shopping list & diet journal template
• meal plans
• recipes
• lifestyle tips and info on how to detox your environment for a healthy home
• how to transition off the detox and into a maintenance plan for life
• resources & products recommendations
• FAQ
• tons of nutrition education

Mary Vance, NC

Mary Vance is a Certified Nutrition Consultant and author specializing in digestive health. She combines a science-based approach with natural therapies to rebalance the body. In addition to her 1:1 coaching, she offers courses to help you heal your gut and improve your health. Mary lives in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe in Northern California. Read more about her coaching practice here and her background here.

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The Estrobolome: How Your Gut Influences Your Hormones