What is Estrogen Dominance?

Where the term ‘Estrogen Dominance’ came from …

Estrogen dominance is a term coined by the late Dr. John Lee in his first book on natural progesterone. It describes a condition where a woman can have deficient, normal, or excessive estrogen but has little or no progesterone to balance its effects in the body.

Even low estrogen levels can result in estrogen dominance if a woman’s body fails to produce progesterone month to month.

During menopause, when a woman’s hormone levels drop as a natural protective mechanism, estrogen dominance might yet be a concern.

Estrogen dominance occurs mostly in industrialized countries and commonly occurs in the following situations:

• When women are on estrogen replacement therapy.
• Premenopause when early follicle depletion results in the lack of ovulation and thus a lack of progesterone well before the onset of menopause.
• Exposure to xenoestrogens which is the cause of early follicle depletion.
• Xenoestrogens are foreign substances found outside the body in the air and food that have an estrogen effect on the body.
• Birth control pills with an excessive estrogen component.
• Women who have had a hysterectomy (or tubal ligation) leading to dysfunction of the ovaries.
• Post menopause, especially in women who are overweight or suffering insulin resistence.

Unopposed estrogen in our bodies results in all sorts of hormone-related health problems such as PMS, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, infertility, weight gain, increased blood clotting, thyroid dysfunction, even cancer, in both men and women.

As men age, estrogen gradually rises while saliva levels of progesteorne and testosterone gradually fall. Thus, with aging, estrogen dominance occurs. A clear sign of estrogen dominance in aging men is their tendency to develop breasts. This indicates these men are low in progesterone and testosterone.

Researchers are on the brink of discovering that almost all the important human cancers that we get in Western civilisation are the result of excess estrogen in our body, or estrogen dominance (see our article, “Estrogen Dominance Linked to Cancer”).

Therefore, in cases of hormone dependent cancers, it is critically important to maintain optimal levels of natural progesterone and avoid the factors that would promote too much estradiol.

And the easiest and safest way to bring our progesterone to estradiol levels back within a ratio of 200~300:1, thereby protecting us against this potentially life-threatening state of hormone imbalance, is by using a premium quality controlled natural progesterone cream in conjunction with regular salivary hormone profiles.