What Is Estrogen Dominance? Signs & Natural Treatments

Weight Loss

While it’s not easy with hormonal imbalances, decreasing your body fat can significantly improve overall hormone levels and fix some of what causes imbalances to happen in the first place.

For instance, many features of PCOS can worsen estrogen dominance, such as anovulation and increased body weight — but losing 5-10% of your total body weight may reverse many of these symptoms.

To lose weight when you’re estrogen-dominant:

• Eat foods rich in nutrients (including fiber), low in sugar, and with as few ingredients as possible — the more whole foods, the better
• Practice moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, but don’t overdo it
• Cut your xenoestrogen exposure from BPA, other plastics, pesticides, and conventional beauty products
• Talk to your healthcare provider about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (bHRT), especially if you’re nearing or in menopause

Reduce Stress Levels

Easier said than done, yes. But decreasing your overall exposure to stressful situations can reduce cortisol production and, in turn, may help to balance estrogens. Acute stress is associated with an increase in estrogen levels. (17)

Meditation and mindfulness practices like spending time in nature and journaling can help. Take stock of your workload and personal relationships, and set up healthy boundaries where needed.

Cut Xenoestrogen Exposure

Whenever you can, eliminate xenoestrogens from your household. This might mean replacing the BPA plastics in your home, purchasing hormone-free meats, and even changing the pesticides you use for your lawn.

Try swapping conventional cleaners, perfumes, candles, air fresheners, and beauty products for essential oils and plant-based, non-toxic household cleaners and personal care products. The Environmental Working Group has a great list of non-toxic household products and personal care items.

Increase Your Physical Activity

Exercising more frequently can reduce the amount of estrogens circulating in your blood, and it’s not totally due to weight loss. (18) Be careful not to over-exercise, as too much at once (especially if you’re starting from a sedentary lifestyle) can also disrupt hormones.

Support Your Liver

If your liver isn’t breaking down estrogen well, the other efforts you make aren’t going to move the needle as much as you’d like. Here are a few ways to promote proper liver function and natural detoxification:

• Milk thistle is an herb that has been used for hundreds of years to help support optimal liver function. (19) It works to restore liver cells that have been damaged from increased toxin exposure. You can take milk thistle as a supplement or drink it as tea.
• Omega-3 fatty acids, often in the form of fish oil supplements, are fantastic for overall health and optimal liver function. (20) You can even skip the supplements altogether and get plenty of these healthy fats by eating wild-caught fish products and other omega-3-rich foods.
• Vitamin E supplementation can support a healthy liver.
• Zinc supplements are a safe, effective way to promote better liver function, especially if you’re zinc-deficient. (21)

Promote Optimal Methylation

Methylation is a biochemical process that happens more than 1 billion times a second in your body to keep you alive and healthy. It works alongside your liver, as one of its primary purposes is detoxification. Many people with immune problems have genetic methylation impairments, such as MTHFR gene mutations, which makes it difficult to detox on your own.

B vitamins act as fuel for methylation and help boost your body’s ability to detox and break down estrogen. (22) Dandelion tea, dark leafy greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are all packed with B vitamins.

Try Adaptogens

Adaptogens are a broad family of herbs and plant medicines that are generally safe for everyone, help your body handle stress, and support optimal hormone health. (23) This is because adaptogens have a balancing effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-endocrine (HPA) axis and positively interact with estrogen receptors.

This delicate dance between your brain and hormone system includes your brain-adrenal axis, brain-thyroid (HPT), and brain-gonadal axis (HPG). You need all these communication systems working in perfect harmony for a healthy mood, metabolism, energy, immune system, and sex drive.

Some of my favorite adaptogens for estrogen dominance include ashwagandha, licorice root, shilajit, and Schisandra.

Improve Your Sleep Habits

Ideally, everyone should be getting between 7-8 hours of sleep a night as recommended by the CDC. This is important for many reasons, but it’s especially important for your hormone health.

This is because your body uses this rest time to regulate hormones, including the stress hormone cortisol. In fact, studies have shown that a lack of sleep can lead to chronically elevated cortisol, which negatively impacts estrogen levels. (24)

I recommend cultivating a nighttime routine that fits your lifestyle, helps you wind down, and prepares your body for sleep. This can include shutting off electronics an hour or two before bed, a 15-minute mindfulness practice, or sleeping with a weighted blanket.

Other Treatments

If natural methods aren’t enough to address your estrogen dominance, there are some medical treatments you may need to discuss with your doctor, including:

• Medications: The most common pharmaceutical treatments for estrogen dominance are aromatase inhibitors (which prevent your fat cells from producing estrogen) and GnRH agonists (which prevent your ovaries from releasing estrogen).
• Surgery: Surgery is a last resort for patients with ovarian or breast cancer who have persistently high estrogen levels. In these cases, an oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) may be recommended to prevent excess estrogen production.

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