What is estrogen dominance?
Estrogen dominance is a term coined by John Lee, M.D., in his first book on natural progesterone (What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause). The name refers to a prolonged state of estrogen excess (particularly in relation to progesterone) common to the waning of reproductive hormones with age, but exacerbated by exposure to the plethora of synthetic “xenohormones” such as synthetic HRT, pesticides and pollutants in our environment. Even a woman with low estrogen levels can have estrogen dominance symptoms if her body has exhausted it’s ability to produce progesterone naturally. According to Dr. Lee, many of the most common and unwanted symptoms of menopause and the years preceding it (peri-menopause) are causally connected to this condition.
About 10 – 15 years before menopause, women experience seemingly normal cycles, however ovulation has not actually occurred. Known as anovulatory cycles, without ovulation, the body does not produce progesterone. With increasingly more anovulatory cycles, progesterone levels continue to drop allowing estrogen levels to become “unopposed” or in excess.
Unfortunately, most women suffer from a syndrome known as ‘Estrogen Dominance.’ According to Dr. John Lee, who has pioneered research in this area, estrogen unopposed by progesterone results in a number of adverse effects. These include hypertension, salt and water retention, abnormal blood clotting, excessive body fat, hypothyroidism, painful breasts, fibrocystic breast disease, increased risk of endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterus) and breast cancer.
“Estrogen Dominance” is a term coined by Dr. John R. Lee the internationally recognized expert is the use of progesterone. The term describes the hormonal imbalance caused by too much estrogen and a deficiency of another hormone. In women, estrogen dominance is characterized by an excess of estrogen over progesterone. Clinical research indicates that as many as 50% of the women in North America are severely deficient in progesterone by their early thirties. By menopause, the level of estrogen drops by 40% to 60%, while progesterone is reduced to nearly zero. Dr. Lee has documented that it is this hormonal imbalance, estrogen dominance, that causes the symptomology with which most women are unhappily familiar throughout their menopausal and post-menopausal years. In men, Dr. Lee uses “Estrogen Dominance” to refer to the excess of estrogen over testosterone. Estrogen is vital to the male body, but too much estrogen coupled with a loss of testosterone has been linked to prostate problems
