Women come to me all the time suspecting hormones are playing a role in their symptoms, but stuck about how to confirm that and what to do about it.
Usually they’ve either been told by their doctor that nothing is wrong, or told the only answer is to take the birth control pills.
This is so invalidating for women with symptoms like PMS, menstrual headaches, bloating, or even PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder. PMDD is a more severe form of PMS, where one can experience severe irritability, depression, or anxiety in the week or two before the period starts.
Women naturally want to know what they can do to balance their hormones and feel better, not just mask the symptoms, and they want to be validated in what they are experiencing with tests that can show the imbalance.
I look at hormones in every single one of my patients, because they are so powerful and affect so many things.
One of the most common imbalances I find is estrogen dominance.
Have you ever heard of it?
Estrogen dominance is the term used to describe when estrogen levels are too high in comparison to progesterone levels. It can happen because of any of these reasons:
✅ Increased estrogen production
✅ Decreased progesterone production
✅ Slowed estrogen breakdown and removal
✅ Exposure to synthetic estrogens
Here are the most common signs of estrogen dominance:
🔹 Irregular periods
🔹 Heavy periods
🔹 Bloating
🔹 Breast tenderness
🔹 Fibrocystic breasts (breast tissue that feels lumpy or rope-like)
🔹 Low sex drive
🔹 Headaches
🔹 Mood swings
🔹 Anxiety
🔹 Irritability
In my upcoming posts, I’ll go into causes of estrogen dominance, and then more on what you can do about it.