Last month, we covered progesterone and how its peaks and troughs affect a woman’s cycle – as well as the importance of progesterone in pregnancy. Continuing with that theme, we are going to cover the other major female hormone: Estrogen.
Estrogen is a sex hormone that is critical for maintaining your sexual and reproductive health. Estrogen plays an important role in the development of secondary sexual characteristics (e.g., changes often seen in puberty), menstruation, pregnancy and menopause.
In fact, Estrogen can be classified into three types depending on the phase of life your body is going through:
E1 is produced after menopause
E2 is the most potent form, being the primary type present from onset of menstruation to menopause
E3 is a special type during pregnancy
As we have discussed, progesterone peaks during the second half of a woman’s cycle after ovulation (the luteal phase). In contrast, estrogen peaks in the first half of a woman’s cycle just after her period (the follicular phase). Specifically, estrogen plays a role in ovulation and assists in thickening the uterine lining in order to prepare for pregnancy. Estrogen helps facilitate your “fertile window” by thinning the cervical mucus so that sperm have an easier time navigating to egg for implantation. During pregnancy, estrogen is produced by the placenta to help maintain a healthy pregnancy.
As the female body ages, estrogen levels begin to drop during perimenopause. Menopause begins when you have not had a period for 12 consecutive months (some doc’s say 6 mo but its debatable). Your estrogen levels may drop further as your body prepares to no longer ovulate. This is when E2 estrogen is converted to E1.
Although we tend to associate estrogen with being a chemical messenger for all things sexual and reproductive, it also plays an important role in other areas of the body.
Estrogen plays an important role in protecting your heart and keeping cardiac tissues healthy. Estrogen also helps maintain proper blood flow to your brain, which in turn can directly affect processes like fine motor skills and memory. In fact, people with low estrogen levels may complain of brain fog. Estrogen also plays a vital role in maintaining lean muscle mass and bone density, protecting against osteoporosis. This may be why women have difficulty putting on lean mass and becoming more susceptible to osteoporosis after menopause. Estrogen can also affect mood and the mood swings some people get throughout their cycle may be associated with the changing levels in estrogen.
Although low estrogen is a natural part of the aging process, that does not make it easy. Other people may also experience estrogen deficiency, even if they are not going through perimenopause or menopause.This may happen to people who had ovaries damaged or removed as part of a treatment, like surgical removal due to cancer. It can also occur from certain conditions like eating disorders (that deprive your body of essential nutrients) and autoimmune diseases.
Symptoms of low estrogen include:
Dry skin
Breast tenderness
Loss of bone density (as noted above)
Difficulty with concentration or brain fog
Vaginal dryness or atrophy
Mood swings and irritability
Hot flashes or heat intolerance
Ammenorhea
Weight gain
Decreased libido and/or painful intercourse (dyspareunia)
Persistent fatigue and insomnia
Overall, estrogen is an important hormone that affects a woman throughout her life- from beginning to the end! Having low estrogen can affect multiple body systems, including your nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and cardiac system.
Having an imbalance of estrogen is not normal and may need to be addressed with your healthcare provider in order to help get you to feeling better. No matter the stage of life you are in, you deserve to be happy, healthy and whole.
<3 The Recharged Performance Therapy Team
(321) 80-1630
www.RechargedPerformanceTherapy.com
References
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22353-estrogen
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-does-estrogen-do
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538260/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22354-low-estrogen