What Else Affects Our Estrogen Load? in Hormone Harmony

What Else Affects Our Estrogen Load? in Hormone Harmony

To reiterate, it’s not estrogen per se that is the problem for women. Estrogen has
played a vital role in reproduction and female well-being since the beginning of
humanity. But the amounts of estrogen that our bodies need to metabolize, as well as
the types of estrogen that proliferate in excess, have steadily expanded in the
chemically laden, hyper-estrogenic world of the twenty-first century.

As we discussed extensively in earlier chapters, animal estrogens from factoryfarmed
meat and dairy products, plus xenoestrogens from chemicals, plastics,
pesticides, and other contaminants, can wreak havoc with our balance of natural
estrogens. Estrogen also dances with other hormones, and the nature of the dance can
influence breast-cancer risk in an equally dramatic way.

ESTROGEN AND PROGESTERONE

Progesterone is a steroid hormone produced in the ovaries that is essential for
normal breast development during puberty, for regulating the menstrual cycle, for
maintaining a pregnancy, and for preparing for lactation and breastfeeding. While
estrogen is the hormone that stimulates cell growth, progesterone is the hormone that
inhibits growth, induces cell maturation, and initiates programmed cell death
(apoptosis).

In his first book on natural progesterone, the late Dr. John Lee (2001) explains
how “estrogen dominance” can affect women who have any amount of estrogen but
have little or no progesterone to balance the effects of estrogen in the body. Please note
that while synthetic progesterone (progestin), such as that used in the illustrious
Women’s Health Initiative study mentioned earlier, is considered to be carcinogenic,
natural progesterone is thought to be protective; in fact, many researchers agree that
healthy levels of progesterone in the body may actually help protect you against breast
cancer (Jerry 2007).

But as we grow closer to menopause, our progesterone levels begin to wane, a
decade or even more before estrogen wanes. Here is where the state of estrogen
dominance becomes apparent: our bodies make too little progesterone in relationship
to estrogen. Not surprisingly, this is when we become most susceptible to breast
cancer. Also not surprisingly, this is when many women begin talking to their doctors
about supplementing with natural progesterone.