The Hormone Estrogen And Why Do You Need It Balanced

Highlights

Estrogen is health-supportive, meaning that it supports energy, sleep, libido, mood, skin, metabolism, and more when it’s in optimal amounts throughout our cycle, or when we are menopausal.

Estrogen Dominance can also happen if we’re exposed to too many estrogen-like chemicals in our environment like plastics, household cleaning and beauty products.

With recent fad diets, eliminating entire food groups and prioritizing weight loss over nutrient content could cause suboptimal levels of these important nutrients. This can also lead to estrogen dominance symptoms

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Have you been feeling a little off lately and not being able to understand why?

While it could be due to many things going wrong in your life, ever wondered if hormones was one of them?

Here are a few questions and if you check most answers then I have news for you.

· Your energy level has hit a sudden low

· You are having a tough time remembering things as your brain is foggy most of the time.

· You can’t keep off sugary and carb rich food and find yourself reaching for it more than usual.

· You’ve slept well all night but still wake up tired.

· Your stress and anxiety have gone up

· You can spot sudden changes in your skin, hair and body.

· You seem to break down into tears at anything slightly emotional.

· You can’t seem to control your moods and find yourself lashing out at people around you more than often.

Well, if you got most of the above going for you, then it might be your hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers running the show, day in, day out. They control everything. We’re all hormonal. Hormones are ongoing, at every age and phase of life across all genders and ages, even kids. Being hormonal, means being alive. It is only when the balance is disrupted and they go out of control that it starts causing havoc.

So if the body is regulated by so many hormones, which hormone exactly could be causing this upheaval in your life?

The answer is Estrogen. Estrogen is ONE of our sex hormones. While all sexes have estrogen, people with ovaries have more. Estrogen plays an important role in nearly 400 functions in the body. Especially for those who menstruate, it fluctuates with our cycle. During the follicular & ovulatory phases it rises and is the highest before ovulation. In the second half of the cycle, it drops & progesterone is boosted (when we ovulate, that is).

If estrogen remains dominant during the second half of the cycle that’s called being estrogen dominant, which can sometimes happen. Estrogen dominance can happen during perimenopause when there’s a shift in ovulation. And during menopause when estrogen and progesterone are out of balance.

What causes Estrogen Dominance?

Estrogen is health-supportive, meaning that it supports energy, sleep, libido, mood, skin, metabolism, & more when it’s in optimal amounts throughout our cycle, or when we are menopausal. It is mainly eliminated via bile & poop. But when this is not being excreted properly from the body, it gets recirculated adding estrogen dominance.

Estrogen Dominance can also happen if we’re exposed to too many estrogen-like chemicals in our environment like plastics, household cleaning and beauty products. These are called xenoestrogens or even endocrine disruptors. Alcohol can raise estrogen too. Estrogen is broken down & packaged up in the liver & gut so healthy liver & gut functions are important.⠀

Important factors that affect estrogen production

· There are three main types of estrogen produced in the body: estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), & estriol (E3).

· Estrone is produced by our fat cells. The more we have, the more estrone we produce. Estrone can convert to estradiol.

· Estrone & estradiol influence our body shape (estradiol = pear, estrone = apple).

Estrogen production is facilitated by these nutrients: zinc, magnesium, boron, B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin E. But it begins to decline in our 30s or 40s, depending on the women. Many lifestyle factors can affect when this happens, and our experience. During menopause natural estrogen is at its lowest.

Heavy training, exercises, stress, head trauma, birth control, hysterectomies, or other factors can suppress our natural health-supportive estrogen. When this isn’t flowing optimally before menopause, it can result in no periods which can in turn stop progesterone production too.⠀

Make sure you get these nutrients from foods which is one reason why good balanced nutrition for women is so important. ⠀

– B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12⠀

– Vitamin C⠀

– Choline⠀

– Amino acids (from protein)⠀

– Phospholipids (from fats)⠀

– magnesium⠀

– glutathione (comprised of amino acids)⠀

Knowing your hormones can help you work with them and regulate them to keep them in balance and control making sure that you enjoy good health.

Also Read Have You Heard Of Seed Cycling For PCOD?

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A popular name in the television industry, Sriti Jha has wooed her audiences with her endearing performances in blockbuster shows like Dil Se Di Dua, Saubhagyavati Bhava and Kumkum Bhagya for many years.

Sriti Jha is yet again winning hearts and this time the reason is more personal. An old video of Sriti reciting her poem ‘Confessions of a Romantic Asexual’ has gone viral. The video is from Spoken Fest held in Mumbai in January 2020. It has Sriti Jha candidly and confidently sharing her experiences about being an asexual.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJ9EZqRhoIl/?utm_source=ig_embed

Most of us have little knowledge about asexuality. It is what the ‘A’ stands for in LGBTQIA. The poem touches upon most of the curious questions and misconceptions we have about asexuality.

What is Asexuality?

Asexuality is a sexual orientation, just like homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality. It describes a lack of sexual attraction. Asexual people may experience romantic attraction, but they do not feel the urge to act on these feelings sexually. They have the same emotional needs as everyone else, but no sexual yearning.

“You can feel all the butterflies,
And your heart skip a beat for someone,
And yet not want to do “it”.
Does that make your love any less?
Does that make you incomplete? “
–Excerpt from ‘Confessions of a Romantic Asexual’

Abstinence, Celibacy, Asexuality – it is not the same

Abstinence is about deciding not to have sex. This is usually temporary. For example, many people decide to abstain from having sex before marriage.

Celibacy is a voluntary vow of sexual abstinence. In some cases, it can also be a promise to remain unmarried. In most cases this is usually for religious reasons and is often a lifelong commitment.

Abstinence and celibacy are choices. Being asexual is not a choice, it is who you are and that is what makes it completely different from abstinence and celibacy.

This is not to prove me greater.
I do not celebrate celibacy,
I am not a sex hater”
–Excerpt from ‘Confessions of a Romantic Asexual’

Not a medical condition or any hidden “cause”

One tends to find reasons for every feeling that does not conform to the “normal”. Feeling sexually attracted to someone might seem natural to the majority of the people. Lack of this sexual attraction is often labelled as a medical condition or perceived as an outcome of past trauma or fear.

There may be various reasons of low sexual attraction in certain people, but what asexual people feel is not a medical condition. It is not genetic. It is not due to trauma. It is not due to stress. It is normal. And there is nothing to be fixed.

“When I said “no” I meant “no,”
They said you’ve got to try a little more,”
–Excerpt from ‘Confessions of a Romantic Asexual’

Love? Relationship? – Is it possible when you an Asexual?

Love, sex, relationship are words we use so frequently with each other, that it is difficult for us to imagine removing one (that is, sex) completely from the equation. An asexual person might not experience sexual attraction, but they might still experience romantic attraction. Relationship with an asexual person is likely to involve love, closeness, fun, trust, humour and excitement just like sexual relationships. Asexual people are perfectly capable of intimacy and love, just not in sexual ways.

“I had felt wow in hugs and kisses.
I had felt wow every time fingers had run through my tresses.
But beyond a point, when it went, I was left alone.
So I learned to lie in words in moans.”
–Excerpt from ‘Confessions of a Romantic Asexual’

The poem strikes the right chords, so much so that we tend to forget momentarily how taboo this topic is. The poem gives us an understanding of what an asexual person goes through. Most of all, it does not leave us feeling sorry for the poet. It leaves us admiring the courage that Sriti Jha showed in opening up to the world and asking for acceptance and nothing else – for her and for others like her. As she defiantly ends her poem –

“I am asexual,

I’m not the only one

I am everything I need to

Better recognize me now.”