Estrogen Dominance and Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is a condition where your thyroid gland stops producing enough thyroid hormones. This has been observed that Hypothyroidism affects women 7 times more than men because of the presence of estrogen which is a female hormone. In a female’s body Estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism is correlated. How? This is what we are going to answer in this article.

What is Hypothyroidism?

The thyroid hormones control how our body uses energy for every body functions. So, this affects almost every organs of our body such as, the way our heart beats or the way our brain functions. Deficiency in this hormone in our body can put an adverse effect on various body functions or this may slow down the body’s functions. When the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone for our body functions then we call it Hypothyroidism. This is the reason why this condition is also called underactive thyroid. The NIH says, about 5 out of 100 people aging 12 years and above are suffering from Hypothyroidism in America.

There are not many noticeable symptoms at the early stage of hypothyroidism however, if this is kept untreated then this may result in various health problems such as slow metabolism, heart problems, high cholesterol level, and fatigue.

Symptoms of Hypothyroidism

The symptoms of Hypothyroidism can vary person to person. However there are some common symptoms which you can notice when you have Hypothyroidism.

• Cold intolerance or sensitivity to the cold
• Tired
• Frequent weight gain and difficulty in losing weight
• Depression and brain fog
• Dry hair with hair loss and dry skin
• Muscle and bone joint pain with soreness throughout your body
• Increased blood cholesterol level
• Experiencing frequent menstrual periods
• Change in voice and becomes hoarser
• May experience Infertility
• Increased size of the thyroid glands

What is Estrogen?

Estrogen is a hormone that plays a key role in sexual and reproductive development in a woman. This sexual hormone is produced among cisgender women, transgender men and non-binary people with vaginas. Though, this hormone is produced mostly by AFAB people but all genders produce this hormone. Most of the Estrogen hormones are produced by women’s ovaries however, adrenal glands and fat cells have small contributions as well in production of these hormones.

The hormone has many functions in a woman’s body. This regulates menstruation, menopause and pregnancy in women. This also affects reproductive and urinary tract, heart and brain health, bone, skin, hair and pelvic muscles. This affects pubic and armpit hair which start growing with the rise of this hormone level.

There are 3 major types of Estrogen Hormones. These are:

• Estrone (E1) – Body makes this primary form of this hormone after menopause.
• Estradiol (E2) – One of the most potent form of estrogens that body makes during reproductive years.
• Estriol (E3) – This type of estrogen hormone is produced by the body during pregnancy.

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

As the name suggests estrogen dominance is when there is an increased level of estrogen present in your body. However, this does not always happen because of high levels of estrogen hormone production in your body but this may happen due to low progesterone levels in your body. Sometimes, the progesterone level decreases which makes the estrogen to dominate. Progesterone and estrogen are two significant hormones that regulate one another. During the perimenopause when progesterone level becomes low, this creates an imbalance in hormonal level and then this is called estrogen dominance.

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

Symptoms may vary depending upon sex assigned at birth. Here are some symptoms of excessive estrogen in the bodies of females and males.

Symptoms in female:

• Headaches
• Hair loss
• Bloating
• Increased PMS
• Weight gain in hips, tummy and thigh areas
• Irregular period and excessive mood swing
• Fibroids in the uterus
• Breast tenderness
• Fatigue
• Inhibited sexual desire
• Depression and anxiety
• Insomnia or disrupted sleep

Symptoms in male:

• Infertility – Because of the high level of estrogen in male’s body the sperm levels may fall which causes infertility.
• Erectile Dysfunction (ED) – Erectile dysfunction happens when the erection does not happen easily or a male may face difficulty in getting or maintaining an erection. This happens due to high levels of estrogen hormone present in male’s body.
• Gynecomastia – This is a condition where a male may have larger breasts. This happens due to estrogen dominance in the body that stimulates breast tissue growth in male’s body.

Causes of Estrogen Dominance

Here are some common causes that are responsible for estrogen dominance in your body. This includes dietary, lifestyle, and environmental factors. These factors can be controlled to balance the hormonal levels.

Poor Diet

One of the main causes behind the stimulation of estrogen in our body. The animal products which we consume are mostly injected with hormones and full of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. On the other hand, packaged processed foods are full of artificial ingredients and chemicals. All of these causes hormonal imbalance in our body.

Gut Health

Beta-glucuronidase which is an enzyme present in our healthy gut, regulates and circulates estrogen in our body. The bad gut health causes this enzyme to inappropriate metabolization of estrogen in the body which increases the risk of estrogen dominance.

Plastic Usage

We are using plastic nearly in/for everything. From water bottles to food storage containers, everything is made up of plastic which may contain BPA. These plastic products contain xenoestrogens which are estrogen mimicking compounds. When this goes into our body while consuming food or drink from plastic containers, this starts disrupting our hormonal balance and may cause estrogen dominance.

Heavy Metals

Municipal tap water, old paint residue, aluminum pots and pans, conventional cosmetics and dental amalgam fillings made of mercury, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals that contain estrogen-mimicking compounds. All of these can cause hormonal imbalance and estrogen dominance.

Excessive Fat in Body

Our fat tissues store estrogen in its bloodstream, hence excessive fat in the body may cause estrogen dominance. Also estrogen can be synthesized from other hormones by fat tissues which also causes estrogen dominance.

Personal Care Products

Some personal care products such as cosmetics and perfumes contain xenoestrogens in the form of parabens, phthalates, and benzophenones. As I informed you earlier xenoestrogens is an estrogen mimicking compound and this causes estrogen dominance in the body.

Stress

When you are in stress your body soon starts making cortisol which is a stress hormone. This helps us to cope with stress but this also causes progesterone levels to drop. With the drop of progesterone lever the estrogen level increases and causes estrogen dominance.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Birth Control

Medicine for HRT and birth control contain some amount of synthetic estrogen which increases the estrogen level in our body and causes hormonal imbalance.

Estrogen Dominance and Hypothyroidism

The above mentioned factors are responsible behind estrogen dominance however, these factors can also lead you to a condition called Hypothyroidism by creating estrogen dominance in your body.

Hypothyroidism and estrogen dominance are the two important elements of our endocrine system. Why am I saying this? This is because estrogen has a big impact on thyroid hormone level. The estrogen dominance stops the T4 hormone from converting into T3 hormone which causes low T3 levels in our body. This means you may experience symptoms of hypothyroidism, in-spite of there being no direct issue with the thyroid gland. On the other hand, the excessive estrogen hormone in the body can cause hypothyroidism as this can block the uptake of thyroid hormones.

There are more which we can talk about on estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism. Let’s understand how this estrogen dominance causes hypothyroidism? Estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism are interconnected. With the excessive amount of estrogen hormone in our body this starts producing thyroid binding globulin (TBG) which decreases the thyroid hormone level in our body by binding the thyroid hormone.

Instead of estrogen dominance, a woman can have adequate amounts of thyroid hormone, but when the hormone gets gobbled up by TBG this results in Hypothyroidism symptoms. These symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, low libido, low mood, hair loss, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles and constipation. These symptoms can be the same for estrogen dominance hypothyroidism and low thyroid level in the body.

The symptoms of estrogen dominance mostly can be experienced during the pregnancy period. Because during this period the progesterone levels in women’s bodies decrease but the estrogen levels stay constant which creates the estrogen dominance in women’s bodies.

Treatments:

Women experiencing estrogen dominance along with hypothyroidism symptoms should immediately contact the doctor. There are many treatments such as hormonal injections, therapy and medicines to bring back the hormonal balance.

Estrogen Replacement Therapy

Estrogen replacement therapy can be helpful for women with estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism symptoms. The topical estrogen therapy helps balancing the hormone level with-out affecting the TBG levels. By doing that the therapy also helps to control the symptoms of menopause.

Friendly Progesterone

When there is an imbalance between estrogen and thyroid hormone, the friendly progesterone therapy decreases the TBG and as a result of which activities of thyroid hormones get increased. Research shows that progesterone therapy increases the thyroid hormone level and reduces the symptoms of hypothyroidism. This also works as anti-inflammatory, improves mood and reduces anxiety, supports fertility and weight loss, maintains bone health and blood pressure.

Home Remedies

Eat Anti-Inflammatory and Thyroid-Friendly Foods

Eliminate foods that contain estrogen such as conventional meat, dairy and non-organic food. Avoid eating junk foods, refined foods such as refined sugar and oil, artificial and canned items, highly processed foods etc. Eat more greens and vegetables, herbs and fruits to add anti-inflammatory properties into your body. Organic meat and vegetables, wild-caught fish, low-sugar fruit, olive oil, coconut oil help to support thyroid hormones in our body.

Move Your Body

Sitting in the same place or less movement of your body may cause hormonal imbalance sometimes. Moving your body helps you to reduce stress, improve detoxification which in turn help to support hormonal health. Walking, stretching, dancing or doing exercise for 15-20 minutes regularly help to improve hormonal health.

Add Thyroid-Supporting Nutrients

Adding the thyroid supporting nutrients to your diet helps you to boost thyroid hormone release and doesn’t let estrogen to dominate thyroid hormone. Due to this you may reduce the symptoms of hypothyroidism. These nutrients are Selenium, Iodine, Cod Liver Oil and Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Curcumin and Resveratrol, Iron, Zinc.

Hypothyroidism is a chronic condition, this happens when the thyroid gland strops or doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormones for our body functions. This thyroid disease often stays undetected and it has been assumed that around 12 % of the U.S. population will experience hypothyroidism in their lives and 60% of the U.S. population still don’t know that they have this disease. You can do routine checkups for this but to control this you must know its route cause. Estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism are highly correlated. The article illustrates this factor so that you can control the estrogen dominance through which you can decrease the excess estrogen levels and balance the hormone levels. Progesterone, which is a thyroid hormone, increasing its level in our body is also an effective way to control estrogen dominance and support thyroid hormone health.

It is always better to identify the hypothyroidism symptoms at its early stage and for this you must consult with a physician who possesses well versed knowledge on the endocrine system.

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