Have you ever watched TV commercials or read women’s magazines that portray the menopausal woman as suffering from serious hormone imbalances, especially depletion of oestrogen levels? Or perhaps your doctor has had conversation about this 
with you? The message that comes across is that the perimenopausal and menopausal years are a time when hormone production is a taking a dive, and women begin to descend into a rapid decline of accelerated ageing. Not a pretty picture!
But these ads and reports are offering women a lifeline to stop their hormone decline. Just take a simple hormone concoction like Hormone Replacement Therapy or some other latest pharmaceutical drug and the fountain of youth will magically appear to you!
But what if this is just another one of those hormone myths? What if women have been hoodwinked once again into believing that their bodies betray them? Has Nature abandoned them to a downhill slide of health and vitality from perimenopause and menopause onwards?
As Dr Sherrill Sellman has mentioned in my previous articles, it is a well-known fact that women are medicalised and pathologised for profit. Their natural cycles are portrayed more as cruel diseases rather than a time of ongoing health and empowerment. Women’s hormone imbalances have become a lucrative market for the pharmaceutical industry.
The Oestrogen Dominance Syndrome
Although it has been an accepted belief that menopause is a time for declining oestrogen levels, the facts reveal that many women actually have an excess of oestrogen. The truth is that it’s not an oestrogen deficiency which is behind most of women’s hormonal symptoms and issues. According to Dr, John Lee,
“Oestrogen Dominance Syndrome†is a term that describes a condition of an imbalance between oestrogen and the other key hormone, called progesterone. The delicate balance between these two hormones is skewed in oestrogen’s favour. Stress, nutritional deficiencies, toxic foods, impaired detoxification pathways, environmental oestrogen mimics, also known as endocrine disruptors from pesticides, herbicides, plastics, are the likely factors that are contributing to an excess of oestrogen in our bodies.
Progesterone is a critically important hormone for optimal hormonal health.
Oestrogen dominance describes a condition when a woman can have either a deficient, hormonal, or excessive oestrogen production, but at the same time is very deficient in progesterone levels. The balance is skewed in favour of too much oestrogen in relationship to progesterone.
Progesterone is a critically important hormone for optimal hormonal health. It is made each month when an egg is released during ovulation.
Perimenopause is a time when ovulations become irregular. When menopause occurs (which technically is twelve months without a menstrual cycle), ovulation ceases so no progesterone is produced.
Menopausal women are not left high and dry when they no longer have ovulations. The intelligence of the body has endowed women to continue to have oestrogen produced by other organs such as fat cells and the adrenals.
In fact, an overweight woman can make more oestrogen than a lean premenopausal woman. Also, your gut microbiome is intimately involved with oestrogen production. It is also important to understand that oestrogen dominance syndrome can occur during a woman’s menstruating years. If the menstrual cycle is irregular or absent, if a woman is on the Pill, if there is exposure to oestrogen mimicking chemicals, or if the organs of detoxification are compromised, then the symptoms of oestrogen dominance such as PMS, ovarian cysts, or fibroids and even infertility may appear.
Some Symptoms of Oestrogen Dominance
The following symptoms have been identified as cause by oestrogen dominance. They include but are not limited to;
|
|
To feel one’s best at any age, you must keep the proper hormonal balance. Without truthful information and knowledge about the profound inner workings of your hormonal nature, it follows that there will be an incorrect understanding of what is occurring which leads to an incorrect diagnosis which then results in an inappropriate treatment or unnecessary procedures.
It is sad to say, but few medical doctors have been taught this profound hormone wisdom. Somewhere along the way, the knowledge has been lost about the true story of women’s hormones.
The medical approach relies on manipulating women’s hormones based on flawed testing (blood tests are flawed, saliva or urine testing is much more accurate). This medical approach relies on prescribing medications such as hormone replacement therapy or anti-depressants in the misguided belief that they will solve the problem. In truth, this paradigm will usually make the problem worse in the long run.
The journey to regaining hormonal balance begins with dispelling the myths and finding truths. It is time that women regain a firm foundation of what is really happening with their hormones. It is also vitally important to understand how Nature endowed us with the ability to regain hormonal balance through all stages of our lives, safely and naturally. Dr Sherrill Sellman’s book, Hormone Heresy: What Women MUST Know About Their Hormones, is recommended reading if you are ready to truly reclaim your feminine power and regain the knowledge of your hormonal wisdom.
Click here to read
Revealing Myths and Truths Part 1
Revealing Myths and Truths Part 2
Dr. Sherrill Sellman, N.D. is a Naturopathic Doctor, educator, women’s natural health expert, psychotherapist and journalist in the field of holistic health. She is a passionate advocate for regaining hormonal health naturally. To read more go to www.drsherrillsellman.com
