Estrogen dominance

What is estrogen dominance?

Estrogen dominance refers to a condition where a woman has excess estrogens circulating in her body, more than her body can properly metabolize and excrete. This leads to an imbalance with progesterone, which can cause various unpleasant symptoms.

Some key things to know about estrogen dominance:

• It's often caused by environmental exposures like xenoestrogens, poor diet, stress, or health conditions that disrupt hormonal balance.


• Symptoms may include PMS, irregular periods, fatigue, weight gain, foggy thinking, mood swings, and more.


• It has been linked to conditions like infertility, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and even cancer risk.


• Treatment focuses on rebalancing hormones through diet, supplements, reducing exposures, addressing underlying issues, etc.

If you're wondering if estrogen dominance could be causing symptoms for you, the team at Vital Hormones Clinic can help! We offer cutting-edge lab testing to get an objective measure of your hormone levels. Based on the results, our clinicians put together fully personalized treatment plans to get your hormones back in balance.

Some key facts about Vital Hormones Clinic:

• We use advanced medical tests like DUTCH hormone testing to get comprehensive sex hormone profiles. This is more detailed than standard tests.


• Our licensed naturopaths and integrative doctors have specialized training in complex hormonal conditions.


• We offer both conventional options like birth control as well as natural supplements, diet changes, detox plans, etc. to restore balance.


• Over 85% of our patients see significant improvement within 3-6 months!

Now back to more on understanding estrogen dominance...

What causes high estrogen?

There are a variety of root causes that can lead to excess estrogen production or impaired estrogen breakdown:

• Diet high in estrogen-disrupting foods like conventional meat/dairy


• Toxin exposures through food, air, water, plastics disrupting endocrine system


• Chronic stress elevating cortisol and throwing off hormonal balance


• Conditions like PCOS or thyroid disorder that impact hormones

Additionally, impaired liver function can make it harder to properly metabolize and excrete estrogen. Lifestyle factors like alcohol intake, medications, infections, or other issues may compromise liver function.

Signs and symptoms

Common signs and symptoms of estrogen dominance in women may include:

• Heavy, irregular, or painful periods


• PMS symptoms like bloating, headaches, anxiety, irritability


• Weight gain, particularly around the hips and thighs


• New fatigue, insomnia, trouble concentrating


• Increased PMS symptoms before menopause ("perimenopause")

However, symptoms can be wide-ranging since hormones affect many bodily processes. Severity can also depend on how significant the estrogen excess is.

Diagnosis and testing

Since symptoms are variable, testing hormone levels directly is the best way to confirm if estrogen dominance is present. However, standard medical tests like estradiol tests only show part of the picture.

More advanced testing like the DUTCH Complete Sex Hormone Test maps out levels of estrogens, progesterone, testosterone and their metabolites. This gives a full understanding of hormonal balance status, metabolic breakdown, and why imbalance exists. Vital Hormones Clinic specializes in this type of cutting-edge testing to uncover the root issues and personalized solutions.

Treatments and solutions

Once the underlying cause(s) of estrogen dominance are found through proper testing, treatments can focus on addressing those root issues directly and bringing the body back into balance.

For instance, if estrogen metabolism pathways are impaired, supplements and diet changes to enhance liver detoxification may be used. If chronic stress is elevating cortisol and throwing off balance, stress reduction techniques are employed.

Conventional medical options like birth control pills or estrogen blockers may also play a role in select cases. However, natural holistic protocols focused on uncovering and addressing the root causes have longer-lasting results without side effects. This is the approach taken by Vital Hormones Clinic' expert clinicians.

In summary, estrogen dominance is a condition where estrogen levels exceed the body's capacity to metabolize them properly. Causes are diverse, but cutting-edge testing and personalized protocols can uncover solutions. If you suspect you have hormone imbalance, contact the professionals at Vital Hormones Clinic today!