5 Ways To Reduce Estrogen Dominance When You Have Thyroid Disease

Estrogen dominance can have a tremendous impacts when you have thyroid disease. One way we see Estrogen dominance affecting thyroid health is by blocking the conversion of T4 into T3 thyroid hormone which ultimately, leads to low T3 levels and low thyroid symptoms.

Estrogen dominance can also affect thyroid function by causing a block in the uptake of thyroid hormones. This also leads to symptoms of hypothyroidism.

Today, more than ever, woman are suffering with not only a condition called Estrogen dominance but an alarming number of woman are also being diagnosed with and suffering with unresolved Thyroid symptoms……  and the two of these (Estrogen dominance and thyroid disease) are connected in more ways than you can imagine.

If you Continue To Suffer with Unresolved Thyroid Symptoms- You May Be Missing The Estrogen Dominance Piece

You see, Estrogen Dominance has direct effects on your Thyroid levels and if you are like most of my patients you may have been put on thyroid medication only to feel worse or no change at all.

There are reasons for this and in today’s video, I will be discussing WHY this happens, HOW woman develop estrogen dominance, I’ll talk about the relationship between estrogen dominance and the thyroid gland, and if you stay with me all the way to the end of this video, I’m going to talk about some of the strategies on preventing and reversing estrogen dominance. Finally, I will spend some time discussing the best supplements for preventing and minimizing the effects of Estrogen Dominance.

What is Estrogen Dominance and How Do I Know If I Have it?

If you have never heard of Estrogen Dominance, estrogen dominance develops when woman have insufficient progesterone levels to counter the effects of estrogen. The consequences of estrogen dominance can be overwhelming for the woman with Thyroid disease.

Estrogen dominance shows up in a few different scenarios. Some woman can be estrogen dominant because their estrogen levels are just too high- maybe they are taking HRT or they are on the birth control pills- This is classic estrogen dominance- (your body is just being bombarded with levels that your body can’t use)

Estrogen Dominance During Menopause and Peri-menopause

But, another common scenario by which woman develop estrogen dominance occurs during peri menopause and menopause. During these times in a woman’s life, you may find yourself with either low or low normal levels of estrogen levels but even lower levels of progesterone-

So, in this scenario, while your estrogen levels may be normal or “low normal”, your progesterone levels are even LOWER and they can’t counter balance the levels of estrogen.

This still leaves you in a state of relative state of estrogen dominance.

Don’t Rely Only On Symptoms When It Comes to Estrogen Dominance- You Will Be Sorry

The symptoms of estrogen dominance and the symptoms of estrogen deficiency can sometimes look very similar. So, one thing I want to caution you about, is that you should Never let a doctor put you on estrogen replacement or Progesterone without testing you- Regardless of your age or symptoms!

You wouldn’t believe how many women I work with that are menopausal or perimenopausal and they have ALL the symptoms of estrogen deficiency, but they have become overloaded with estrogen simply because their doctor assumed their estrogen levels were low because of the woman age.

Not every woman needs estrogen in menopause and perimenopause and you should always work with doctor who is focused on looking at the Big picture.

Follow these Two Recommendations to Prevent Estrogen Dominance impact on Thyroid Function

So, my two recommendations here are #1 be sure to get properly tested and #2 if your doctor doesn’t recognize estrogen dominance- find another doctor who does.

Heres the great thing…… for woman who are estrogen dominant, correcting the estrogen dominance can sometimes have a profound impact on your thyroid gland.

This is great news for woman who might have been diagnosed with thyroid disease, went on thyroid hormone replacement and felt little to no improvement or felt worse with thyroid replacement. You see…

The more estrogen dominant you become, the more your thyroid shuts down, the more your thyroid shuts down the more estrogen dominant you become and so it becomes this vicious cycle of each hormone imbalance feeding off the other.

Estrogen by its very nature instructs cells to grow- it tells your uterine lining to grow, breast tissues to grow BUT it also instructs thyroid cells to grow.

This thyroid cell growth, also helps to explain the correlation in woman who have developed thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer.

So, if you are watching this video and you have been diagnosed with thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer, I recommend that get your Estrogen levels checked in blood, saliva and urine and watch the videos, I have done on thyroid nodules.

Heres what Happens During Peri-menopause and Menopause to Your Estrogen and Progesterone Levels

Now I want to show you something…. Like I said earlier, when it comes to Estrogen dominance, woman of any age can suffer, but estrogen dominance is especially common in woman between the age of 35-50 and here is what I want you to see.

If you look illustration. What you notice is that between the ages of 35-50 woman can have as much as a  35% reduction in the production of estrogen by the ovaries.

Now that sounds like a lot but there is more to the story!…. at the same time, what you will notice is that there is a 75% reduction in progesterone.

This gap or imbalance that is created is what can cause many of the symptoms typical of an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone levels.

Typical Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

1. Hot flashes,
2. Brain Fog,
3. Depression,
4. Anxiety,
5. loss of sex drive,
6. vaginal dryness,
7. weight gain,
8. osteoporosis,
9. osteopenia

But the good news is that when you optimize and balance this out, by looking at the BIG picture, many of those symptoms easily improve.

If you are woman who is taking birth control pills, patches or HRT I would recommend that you watch a video I did titled “How The Pill is wrecking your Thyroid”.

There Is Another Hormone I Want You To Know About When It Comes To Estrogen Dominance

I want to introduce you to one other hormone that you may or may not be familiar with, it’s a hormone that is incredibly important for woman during menopause and peri-menopause, and it can be the gatekeeper in terms of how easy or difficult your transition from peri-menopause into menopause will be.

You see, when the ovaries begin to ramp down progesterone production, the body looks to its backup system, THE ADRENALS.

The hormone that we want to focus in on here is called Cortisol and this cortisol is made by the adrenal glands.

Now, let me show you why the adrenal glands are one of key players for both thyroid and adrenal function.

If you look at this illustration what you notice is that in midlife there is approximately a 50% contribution of steroid hormones from the adrenal glands and 50% contribution from the ovaries.

But, come to Perimenopause and Menopause, what you notice is that the ovaries only contribute 10% to the circulating hormone pool and the adrenals are now in high demand at 90%!.

 

This is why supporting your adrenals long before you get to menopause can go a long way in preventing so many of the problems woman experience in perimenopause and menopause.

So, if your adrenals are already overworked– (making too much adrenaline and cortisol) or are tired and run down, (making too little adrenaline and cortisol), you have no backup system for making progesterone.

Improve Thyroid Function by Implementing These Strategies To Reverse Estrogen Dominance

Now, I promised you in the beginning of this video that I would share with you some strategies on preventing and reversing Estrogen dominance, as well as some of the supplements that can help support healthy estrogen metabolism.

Correcting Estrogen dominance has to be a multi-pronged approach. Its not just about giving progesterone but addressing various aspects of the puzzle and personalizing the approach.

1. Lifestyle choices
2. Diet and Supplements
3. Minimizing Chemical exposure (Xenoestrogens)
4. Support Adrenals,
5. Supporting the Thyroid and Sex Hormones.

Foods That Can Help Minimize Estrogen Dominance Affects on Thyroid Disease

When it comes to diet most woman not eating foods that are nourishing to the liver. If you want to really start nourishing your liver and your Thyroid start eating Foods that are rich in compounds such as sulforaphanes and foods that are rich in indole-3- carbinole.  Eat more of these foods.

• Broccoli,
• Kale,
• Brussels sprouts,
• Bok choy
• Collard greens,
• Cauliflower,
• Cabbage
• Turnips,
• Wasabi

Have you been told Cruciferous vegetables cause Thyroid Problems? If So watch this video

Support Your Liver and Gut If You Have Estrogen Dominance

The next thing you can do to support your Hormones, involves lying on your liver and your gut.  The supplements that I have seen the greatest levels of success with woman who are estrogen dominant will include things like;

• Milk thistle
• Alpha lipoic acid
• Diindolylmethane (DIM)
• Passionflower
• Maca
• Calcium D-Glucarate

The other thing you want to do is make sure you are eating plenty of Foods high in omega-3 essential fatty acids– these are things like wild caught fatty fish, Flax seed, nuts and seeds.

Strategies To Reduce Estrogen Dominance Affects on Thyroid Disease

#1-Exercise– this is so important- by shedding those extra pounds you will reduce estrogen load. Estrogen is stored in the fat tissues and the more fat you store the more estrogen dominant you can become.

Fat cells in the breast tissue and belly, can actually convert androgens into estrogen. This is called aromatization and it is a very common reason for estrogen dominance in woman during menopause.

So, losing some weight will help get rid of the storage space for estrogens and prevent aromatization of testosterone into estrogen.

The best kind of exercise for this is high intensity interval training. This can be scaled up or down for anyone- no matter what the age- what one person finds intense may not be intense for someone else- So don’t be intimidated by the title.

#2 Change the kind of beauty products you are using. Most of your personal care products can be major culprits for chemicals that mimic estrogen in your body. These are called xenoestrogens or endocrine disruptors.

So the goal here is to minimize your environmental and chemical exposure to these chemicals that mimic estrogen.

Choose natural kind of makeups, soaps, deodorants, lipsticks, etc also stop using plastic to store your leftover foods- it’s easy to switch to glass and whatever you do, (if you still use a microwave), don’t ever reheat leftovers in plastic. Plastic will affect the immune system.

Eliminating these endocrine disruptors will go a long way when it comes to healing your thyroid gland as well as reversing estrogen dominance.

#3 Avoid any and all forms of birth control pills, patches or HRT. These hormones wreak havoc on woman’s hormones because a woman body was never designed to be exposed to the synthetic/unnatural and high levels of hormones that you see in HRT, birth control and patches.

Birth control pills deplete vital nutrients your thyroid requires and can interfere with thyroid hormone on multiple levels. For example, selenium and zinc are needed to produce thyroid hormone and to convert it to its active form, T3. … Interferes with conversion from T4 (inactive) to T3 (active)

#4  Get your stress levels under control. Stress hormones like cortisol which I just talked about have a profound impact on Thyroid function, and sex hormones. Supporting your adrenals glands can go along way here.

#5 Eat more Fiber. Aim for at least 25 grams per day by eating plenty of vegetables and fruits. Fiber will keep your bowels regular and help eliminate waste, including unnecessary estrogen.

#6 Fix Your gut- Once the liver metabolizes estrogen, it’s time to get rid of it. This is done through the livers production of bile and proper hepatic elimination pathways. Here we see the pill affecting Liver function again.

Most woman with estrogen dominance also tend to experience constipation. Now herein lies part of the problem.

If you are constipated chances are very high that your estrogen is going back into circulation. While Fiber will help with keeping things moving, there are other problems that can be causing constipation or toxins as well.

Many times, there could be problems like Leaky Gut, SIBO, Candida or gut dysbiosis as part of Big Picture.

Figuring out and treating the underlying cause of your digestive issues is crucial in creating optimal hormonal health.

As I wrap up todays video, I hope that you will implement some of the strategies I discussed today. If you are struggling with Thyroid disease, the things I have talked about today will not only help your Thyroid, but will also help reverse Estrogen dominance.

If you continue to struggle with Thyroid disease, or your thyroid won’t stabilize, I recommend that you get your hormones properly tested.

Sometimes, this means not only getting bloodwork but also getting your hormones tested through saliva as well as urine.

Keep in mind that when we talk about hormone imbalances, you are almost never imbalanced in only 1 hormone. Always consider thyroid and Adrenal as part of the Big Picture.

Too often patients and doctors jump right to hormonal replacement with estrogen, or with thyroid hormones when they really should take a step back and working on the underlying Root cause and Big Picture.

 

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