When I asked the Divas in my community who have endometriosis, one of the top frustrations of having endo (next to the pain and fertility struggles) is the bloating, sometimes called the “endo belly”.

No one likes to be bloated and asked if they’re pregnant because of their belly sticking out. I don’t have endo and even I’ve had that experience- embarrassing and not at all fun.

It can be especially difficult to deal with if you don’t understand why it’s happening, and if your doctors have zero solutions for you (beyond more birth control or surgeries).

“Endo belly” and digestive issues with endo are so common, one study showed that 96% of women with endo (vs 64% without) experienced high levels of bloating and gut-related symptoms.

To add insult to injury, more research has shown that women receiving hormonal treatment (like the birth control pill) had higher bloating severity ratings and discomfort scores than women with endo who didn’t use hormonal treatments. WOW.

Why Do I Get a Bloated “Endo Belly”?

There’s a number of reasons why women experience “endo belly” and I’ll outline the top 3 I see all the time.

High Estrogen

Endometriosis is a condition that includes estrogen dominance. Simply put, this is having too much estrogen in relation to progesterone. This happens in women with endo for many reasons, including the fact they endo creates more hormonally active tissue in the body.

Additionally, constipation or other gut problems coupled with endo mean that estrogen isn’t being excreted from the body as it should, potentially building up and creating more issues.

High levels of estrogen contribute to “endo belly” because it causes water retention.

Inflammation

At its core, endometriosis is a disease of inflammation. The mechanisms of which I will have to dedicate an entire blog post to at some point soon! Inflammation is often throughout the whole body, with the majority taking up residence in the pelvis- right where the unwanted endo tissue is.

Besides the fact that this inflammation can cause changes in bowel and digestive health (more on that below) the inflammation of the endo tissue itself can contribute to bloating.

Poor Gut Health

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, extremely high numbers of women with endometriosis experience symptoms of poor gut health, including:

• Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
• Alternating constipation and diarrhea
• Rectal bleeding
• Stomach cramping
• Frequent and/or painful urination
• Bloating (obv.)
• Gas and burping

Much of this is because of inflammation in the gut, allowing potentially harmful particles and pathogens through the lining of the gut into the bloodstream where they create immune overreaction, inflammation and hormonal imbalances. Sometimes this is known as “leaky gut”.

Additionally, the adhesion of endo tissue to digestive organs (small intestine, large intestine and bladder) can create issues. As the tissues evolves, grows and moves around, instantaneous gut symptoms can arise. I’m sure you know what I mean if you’ve ever been feeling good and then all of a sudden that “endo belly” pops up for seemingly no reason at all!

There’s also bacteria at work here. We have more individual bacteria in and on our bodies than we do human cells. Think about that for a second- read it again and really take in the significance. More than human cells.

In women with endometriosis, there’s often an extreme imbalance between “good” bacteria (aka probiotics) and “bad” bacteria. We all have both, and that’s totally normal- but we need to have more good than bad to stay healthy. More bad bacteria = more bloating, gas, and pain.

For example, in one study of 50 women with endometriosis, a full 40 of them tested positive for SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) upon a breath test.

Now to the good news! There are foods you can use to help prevent “endo belly” and reduce it once it’s already shown up. Obviously, being a holistic practitioner, I recommend doing everything you can to prevent the “endo belly”, but maybe you’re reading this now because you’re super bloated, in which case- the foods I’m suggesting will help as well.
 

5 Foods to Help Reduce “Endo Belly” & Endometriosis Pain

#1: Sauerkraut

One of my absolute favourite “superfoods” for any hormonal condition is sauerkraut. And I don’t mean the crappy stuff sitting in a jar on the shelf of your grocery store- no. I mean, the live, fermented, find-it-in-the-fridge-section, no vinegar or sugar kind of sauerkraut.

In case you’re not familiar, sauerkraut is basically fermented cabbage. If you buy it fresh, from the fridge, you’re getting loads of enzymes and live probiotics to feed your gut. The yucky stuff on the dry shelf in the store is NOT what you want. Ingredients should be cabbage, salt, maybe some bacterial starter and other flavours (IE ginger, caraway seed). No vinegar or sugar should be included for a truly fermented sauerkraut.

Okay, PSA over.

Here’s why I LOVE sauerkraut for endometriosis:

1. It contains LIVE probiotics, which will help you get more “good” gut bugs into your body to push out the bad
2. Cabbage is part of the cruciferous vegetable family, and this family of vegetables has an affinity for detoxing excess estrogen through compounds like I3C and DIM.
3. It’s anti-inflammatory. ‘Nuff said.

Happy Hormones Tip: Include 2 tbsp to ¼ cup raw sauerkraut with one meal per day to enjoy the benefits.

#2: Water

Robyn- why would I want to drink MORE water when I’m already retaining so much?

Well, drinking water helps to flush the kidneys and reduce water retention and bloating. Drinking half your bodyweight in ounces of water daily is a good place to start. Yes, you’ll pee more. And, you won’t be so bloated, so it’s totally worth it IMO.

For example, a 140 pound woman needs approximately 70 ounces of water in a day (140lbs ➗ 2 = 70).

Obviously, clean, filtered water is best. Did you know that even tap water contains trace of hormones that women pee out when they use the birth control pill? The last thing women with endo need is more estrogen.

I have a water filter pitcher at home that I LOVE and removes SO MANY contaminants, even heavy metals (which can inflame the body and contribute to hormonal imbalances). This is the one I use (and this is the filter water bottle I use). Also- the water tastes like the most amazing, fresh and invigorating water you’ve ever had (besides taking it right from a spring). It’s 100% worth it.

Happy Hormones Tip: Get yourself a water filter, and pre-fill water bottles with filtered water each morning to the amount of H2O you need in a day. Simply drink through your pre-measured bottles to ensure you get enough!

#3: Sweet Potato

So inexpensive, yet a true “superfood”. One of my favourite starchy carbs for women in general, and a really great addition to an endometriosis diet, especially when there’s bloating and digestive troubles.

While women women may have issues digesting other starches and carbs (like grains- rice, quinoa, oats, barley, etc and potatoes) sweet potatoes are generally much easier to digest, and are extremely soothing to a troubled digestive tract.

Sweet potatoes contain a lot of beta-carotene, a potent antioxidant and precursor to vitamin A. In fact, just 1 cup of baked sweet potato contains approximately 1921mcg of beta-carotene, making it an excellent source.

Once converted into active vitamin A (aka retinol), beta-carotene is helpful in repairing the lining of the gut.

Sweet potatoes also contain fibre, and getting adequate fibre is key to excreting excess estrogen through the bowels so it doesn’t build up and contribute to endo issues.

Sweet potatoes are also quite high in B vitamins, and this vitamin family is needed for hormone production, energy, plus fat, carb and protein digestion. For example, sweet potatoes contain vitamin B6, which is known to help increase progesterone (therefore helping with estrogen dominance) and boosts mood.

P.S. The antioxidants and compounds in sweet potatoes make them extremely anti-inflammatory.

Happy Hormones Tip: Bake a bunch of sweet potatoes on the weekend to reheat and enjoy through the week. You can even put cooked sweet potato flesh in smoothies for an extra boost!

#4: Apple Cider Vinegar

Another gut and inflammation helper is apple cider vinegar. Like sauerkraut, you must source the right kind of apple cider vinegar.

It should be raw and unpasteurized, and the bottle should say “with the mother”. Basically that means some of the original bacteria used to create that vinegar is included in the bottle. That’s where the medicinal stuff is at. It’s still inexpensive, but might be a buck or two more than pasteurized apple cider vinegar.

Also like true sauerkraut, raw apple cider vinegar is a fermented food. That means it’s packed full of “good” bacteria or probiotics, essential for bringing balance back to a stressed out endo digestive system.

Raw apple cider vinegar also contains enzymes and acids to help digestion. Specifically, using raw apple cider vinegar helps to increase levels of stomach acid, or hydrochloric acid.

We desperately need adequate stomach acid to break down and absorb proteins and to kill “bad” bacteria and pathogens before they get deeper in the gut.

Happy Hormones Tip: Take 1 tsp – 1 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar in water upon waking to start enjoying some of its benefits.

#5: Bone Broth

Another inexpensive “superfood”, bone broth is a critical addition to the diet of women with endometriosis, in my opinion.

Bone broth contains many healing elements, including minerals like magnesium, silicon, sulphur and more. Bone broth also contains collagen, a protein essential for healthy hair, skin and nails. Collagen (and the minerals in bone broth) all work to heal and soothe gut lining.

Bone broth is incredibly easy to digest, making it wonderful for those who get bloating and other symptoms easily with almost any food- especially during an endo flare up.

Ideally, bone broth can be consumed a few times per week to enjoy the benefits. There are even bone broth powders out there not to make it even easier.

Happy Hormones Tip: Every time you make meat with bones (like a whole chicken) save the bones. Toss them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. Once you have a bag full of bones, make bone broth. Freeze the broth and you always have some on hand. A slow cooker makes easy work of this.

An easy way to get all these amazing foods? Make a soup out of sweet potato, water and bone broth, before you eat it enjoy a small cup of warm water with apple cider vinegar, and have some sauerkraut on the side. Done!
 
 

 
Guest Post by Melissa Turner.
 

When I first began my journey with having endometriosis, I really trusted in my surgeon and my Gynaecologist. I believed that he was a specialist in this field and that he knew endometriosis better than I could ever truly understand it – besides, I could barely pronounce endometriosis at the time … nevermind trying to figure out how to treat it!

I then proceeded to follow the advice of the best doctors, Gynaecologists and surgeons I could and listened to all their well-meaning advice. Over the next 15 years, I would go through a series of treatments, particularly hormone treatments. The aim was to stop the endometriosis growths and dull my hormones. Unfortunately, with every attempt, I simply experienced more side-effects. I gained weight, I felt moody a lot and developed a strange eye pain which no-one could ever treat – one doctor described it as having glass shards in my eye!

It was a tough time and I see many women put themselves through these treatments in a hope that they will alleviate their symptoms with endometriosis.

The truth was, they did alleviate some of my symptoms … some of the time…. but they never truly resolved my endometriosis. Each year, I would return to the operating table and have to have more surgery to remove the lesions that had grown within that time.

The sad reality was, I was also still experiencing pain and it was particularly bad when I had sex – a really hard thing to deal with when you are in your 20’s and “just want to have fun”.

All that I managed to achieve in that entire time was a slight reduction in symptoms but inevitably my life still consisted of going from surgery to surgery and pain-killers to pain-killers. I was on a wonderful merry-go-round of simply dealing with symptoms but at no point were we actually looking at endometriosis – straight up and asking it what and how to treat it properly?

So, after the last operation I would ever have (the seventh one), I couldn’t bear it anymore. My body was tired and I just didn’t think I could go through yet another one of those operations and also struggled with the huge financial burden it had on me.

Something had to change and it all began when I woke up after that last surgery, crying in tears because I just couldn’t believe that this was all there was….

I eventually crawled out of that hole and that dark place of feeling stuck and believing that I had little option. I went on a mission to figure out endo and figure out my body and what I could do – on my own – to treat it fully. I wasn’t going to rely on doctors or surgeons to give me advice… after all, a surgeon will surely tell me is to have more surgery!

My mission was to find a way to live pain & symptom-free of my stage 4 endometriosis and it took me 7 years to finally achieve it. I won’t say the road was easy but I am now in a place where endo doesn’t feature in my body. I can honestly say that I am empowered about my health and what I can personally do to manage endometriosis. It did take going back to college and studying Naturopathy but ultimately I figured it out!

Some key things I would like to share with women who have endometriosis is to know that there is hope and a way to move forward.

Here are some actionables, you can try to help you along your endo journey:

• Avoid Dioxin exposure. Dioxin is typically found in pesticides and fungicides in products such as Roundup. Dioxin has been directly linked to causing endometriosis in monkeys, so it makes sense that we should definitely avoid this one! (Here is the research paper for you)
• Move beyond dietary and lifestyle shifts. I personally noticed a huge correlation with my emotional healing and the importance of detailed cleansing of the body to truly shift the endometriosis imbalance within my own body. Find tools that allow you to release emotional trauma and stress from your body without the confrontational aspect of that. I prefer methods like EFT and TRE.
• Address endometriosis on deeper layers than simply hormone imbalances. Many doctors and naturopaths simply focus on the hormonal side of endometriosis. Endometriosis is also now recognized as an auto-immune condition, so it is important to address this within your approach or to find someone who understands how to address endometriosis on this level.

Endometriosis is a complex condition but it is completely manageable using natural methods. After 7 years of research and having overcome Stage 4 endometriosis, I want you to know that it is possible for you too.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or insights on my website at www.endoempowered.com.

Melissa has become one of the leading experts on endometriosis and how to manage it naturally. This experience came out of her own journey with struggling for over 15 years with stage 4 endometriosis and finally living a normal, pain & symptom free life. Her mission is to empower more women to manage endometriosis naturally so they can stop suffering and start living!

I’m no stranger to struggles with weight loss. I first started dieting and exercising to change my weight when I was 16 years old, although if I had my way I likely would’ve started earlier- even though I was a slim girl, I never saw myself that way. Just because I was one or two pant sizes bigger than the other girls in my class, I thought I was huge. 

I also didn’t have good role models growing up- the women in my family were constantly hating on their bodies and always dieting. I thought that if I didn’t have a flat tummy, toned arms and a “thigh gap”, I was unworthy of being called “beautiful”.

Throughout the next several years, I dieted on an off basically all the time, usually by restricting my fat intake, lowering my calories and doing loads of cardio and attending bootcamp exercises classes at the local rec centre. 

It always worked temporarily, until I was in my early 20s and was diagnosed with PCOS. Calorie counting didn’t work, and when I went back to the treadmill, I gained even MORE weight. I couldn’t understand what the fuck was going on, and I felt like a failure. 

Although doctors and various “experts” over the last several decades have heavily promoted long cardio sessions and hardcore bootcamp classes as being the best for weight loss, this is a total MYTH, and a myth I’m super excited to BUST for you today. 

The Bad Science

First of all, let’s talk science. 

The thought process behind using cardio for weight loss centres around calorie expenditure. For instance, 1 pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week, you need to burn an extra 500 calories per day according to this theory. 

Doctors and others may suggest that doing an hour on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike daily with some calorie restriction on your food will get you there. But what happens at the end of the week when you’ve burned all these calories and the scale still doesn’t budge?

Part of this has to do with heart rate. When you do cardio, it’s at a steady pace for the entire time. Generally, this is inefficient at burning fat, as variations in heart rate (like in High-Intensity Interval Training) become more effective partly by “keeping your body guessing” and putting yourself into that fat burning zone. 

Also, doing long, drawn out cardio often leaves us tired and hungry. So we eat more. Or, if we have the willpower to stick with the 1,200 calories a day we’ve chosen for our weight loss diet, we aren’t giving our bodies the proper fuel to recover from this exercise, which creates a mess in your body. We’ll talk about this more in the next section. 

Your Body On Cardio and Bootcamps

To help you understand WHY these forms of exercise are inefficient for weight loss, you must understand HOW your body reacts when you participate in these activities. 

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use jogging as an example. 

You go out for a run, hoping to shed those pounds. You slowly work your way up to longer and longer distances. 

As you are running, a stress reaction starts in your body. Cortisol, your main stress hormone, is released. While this is a good thing if you’re literally running for your life, chronically high levels of cortisol (i.e.: from long distance running), tells your body to make and release more sugar into the blood so your body can make more energy. 

Higher levels of blood sugar is one of the simplest ways your body packs on the pounds. Plus, this leaves you feeling ravenous. The sugar and carb cravings will be yelling at you and guess what- you’ll likely eat and average of 100 more calories after you’re done than you burned off during the exercise!

Additionally, doing this type of exercise (or other cardio and bootcamps), causes your body to burn muscle instead of fat. Less lean muscle mass slows your metabolism, and it becomes even harder to burn those calories to get the weight off. Plus, you’ll become weaker, more tired and more irritable. And your hormones will start screaming at you. 

High levels of cortisol and imbalanced blood sugar mean hormonal hell. Your body steals building blocks (like pregnenolone and progesterone) to make more cortisol, leaving you deficient in progesterone. Low progesterone isn’t able to keep estrogen in check, so estrogen dominance can result. 

Estrogen dominance then starts a STORM in your body of weight gain- especially in the hips, thighs, belly and back- and moodiness, anxiety, depression and of course- bad periods. 

Many women with hormonal imbalances with estrogen dominance at the root (like PCOS, Endometriosis, PMS, and heavy, painful or irregular periods) feel the worst when they do cardio and bootcamps because it increases their symptoms- even if during the exercise they feel fabulous. 

You can read more about Estrogen Dominance to see if this hormonal imbalance is part of your inability to lose weight and improve your emotional state by clicking here. 

What Can Be Done Instead

So that’s all great- but what can you actually do to effectively burn fat without losing muscle and creating hormonal imbalances?

First, correct your hormonal imbalances with food. 

You cannot out-exercise a bad diet ladies.

It’s just not possible. No matter how long you stay on that treadmill or how many bootcamp classes you attend, if you’re scarfing down a bagel for breakfast and eating take out for dinner every night, the scale is going to climb. 

Second, switch your exercise to the fat-burning kind. The de-stressor kind. Think High-Intensity Interval Training for 20-30 minutes max, and some yoga to balance it out.

There are so many different reasons our bodies may be suffering, trying to figure it all out can be dizzying. Hormone imbalance is really a hot topic these days in the wellness sphere, and for good reason. 

Millions of women everywhere are suffering needlessly with hormonal imbalances. Busy, stressful lives, widespread toxicity, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are contributing to these imbalances which seem to plague us. 

As you may be aware, I have hormonal imbalances myself. I have PCOS as well as an underactive thyroid gland. I deal with adrenal insufficiency as well. All of these issues seem to be connected, and the hormone estrogen is one of those connections. 

If you’re struggling with weight gain in the hips, thighs, belly and back, or are dealing with mood problems and bad periods, I urge you to read on. What you will discover may be the lightbulb moment you need to begin taking targeted and natural action to smooth your symptoms and allow you to LIVE again. 

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

First of all, let’s get this out of the way. Educating yourself about WHAT is going on in your body and WHY (this comes below) will give you the direction you need to keep going. 

Estrogen dominance is a term that’s become quite popular, but many don’t truly understand what it means. Often we think “dominance” must mean too much, but this is not the case.

Estrogen dominance is simply an imbalance in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone, in favour of estrogen. This could mean that:

(1) You have excessively high levels of estrogen

(2) You have normal estrogen and low progesterone

(3) You have low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

Therefore, it is possible for women of all ages (even through and beyond menopause) to be estrogen dominant. There are 3 main estrogens, (1) estradiol, (2) estriol and (3) estrone. For the purposes of this article, I’m talking about estradiol- the estrogen that is most important throughout our lifespan. On the flip side, estriol is highest in pregnancy, and estrone becomes the dominant estrogen post-menopause. 

What Are The Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance?

There are so many different symptoms or complaints of estrogen dominance, and I’ll outline them below based on the 3 possible variations of estrogen dominance we discussed above. 

(1) Excessively high levels of estrogen and low progesterone

• Sore, swollen and tender breasts
• Breast growth beyond puberty
• Swelling in the hands/fingers, legs and ankles
• Menstrual cramps
• Heavy menstrual flow
• Impatience 
• Being called “too bossy”

(2) Normal to high estrogen and low progesterone

• Absent periods
• Irregular periods
• Menstrual flow clotting
• Sore, tender breasts
• Water retention/swelling
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Fibroids
• Endometriosis 

(3) Low estrogen and extremely low progesterone

• Memory loss
• Depression 
• Hot flashes or night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Low libido
• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Sagging breasts
• Quick weight gain
• Bloating 
• Absent or irregular periods

Other, more general symptoms and signs of estrogen dominance include:

• Accelerated aging
• Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) – feeling “hangry” between meals
• Premenopausal bone loss
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Uterine cancer and fibroids
• Breast cancer
• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)
• Ovarian cysts
• Anovulation 
• Low progesterone and/or luteal phase defect
• Cervical dysplasia
• Hair loss
• infertility
• irritability
• Mood swings
• PMS or PMDD
• Sluggish metabolism
• Fat deposition in the hips, thighs, belly and back
• Gallbladder disease

How You Get Estrogen Dominance

So how did we get here? What happened in our lives that brought on estrogen dominance and all these bothersome symptoms?

Toxicity 

First and foremost, we must chat about toxicity. There are infinite sources of toxicity in our environment, and we cannot escape it. This sometimes makes us feel like giving up- because if we don’t have control, what’s the point? The truth is we do have control.

The main sources of toxicity we can’t control are:

• Air pollution
• Use of chemicals in clothing, furniture, cars, etc

Sources of toxicity we can control:

• Food and water
• Household cleaning products
• Indoor air environment
• Makeup
• Personal care products such as deodorant and shampoo

As you can see, a lot of the control is in our hands. This is really important, as toxins can disrupt proper estrogen and hormone metabolism (endocrine disruptors) contributing to any or all of the symptoms listed above. 

Specifically, it’s important to watch out for xenoestrogens, man-made estrogens found in many places, including:

• Commercially-raised meat and dairy products like chicken, beef, pork, and all dairy
• Non-organic foods with high levels of insecticides and pesticides
• Tap water
• Shampoos, lotions, soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, deodorants, etc
• Soft plastics (BPA is a popular xenoestrogen here)
• Artificial food additives, including artificial sweeteners and MSG
• Non-organic soy and soy derivatives like soy protein isolate
• Dryer sheets
• Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Disposable menstrual products like tampons and sanitary pads

The problem with these xenoestrogens is that they mimic the function of our natural estrogen, but in a much stronger or more powerful way. Beyond giving our bodies too much estrogen, they will also disrupt that delicate estrogen-progesterone ratio, the definition of estrogen dominance. 

Poor Diet

Diet is one of those areas where we do have control, and ignoring this is detrimental to our health. As you can see from the above list, five of the ten sources of xenoestrogens mentioned are food-based. 

This makes logical sense then that dietary xenoestrogens are contributing to estrogen dominance. You can also see that these foods aren’t healthy choices either, so eliminating them from your diet is the easiest way to ditch 50% of the xenoestrogens you come into contact with. 

Beyond dietary xenoestrogens, other dietary problems can contribute. For example, if you eat a diet high in refined carbs (think bagels, bread, muffins, noodles, donuts, crackers, etc), your blood sugar and insulin balance will be upset. 

When this happens, insulin messes with your ovaries, changing up estrogen and progesterone balance. Additionally, insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalance create more opportunity for your body to store extra fat and to be anxious, depressed, irritable or down right moody. 

Birth Control and Hormone Replacement Therapy

Medications are another branch of toxicity worth it’s own section. Many women today are on some form of hormones birth control, like the pill, shot, IUD or patch. Other peri- and post-menopausal women are given synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT). 

All of these drugs push high amounts of synthetic estrogen into your body. Because the lab-made estrogen doesn’t look or at the exact way our natural estrogen does, it often binds to receptors first and has the same powerful and harmful action as other xenoestrogens. When women using hormonal birth control pee, the hormones are left in the water system, ending up in tap water. Local filtration systems just aren’t enough to remove the hormones from the water. 

The good news is that there are many non-drug ways to have contraception, or hormone support, depending on your needs. For example, the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) can be used to prevent pregnancy or enhance fertility, depending on your goals. 

Estrogen Dominance and Weight Gain

So what’s the connection between having estrogen dominance and weight gain? It’s pretty simple. 

Estrogen is partly responsible for keeping our metabolisms in good shape. It also helps to maintain fat loss in proper levels. Having too much can slow metabolism, as can having too little. So, you’re more apt to gain weight, especially in the hips, thighs and back, as well as the belly. You might notice you started out as a pear shape, and have gained weight and now have an apple shape, with much of your weight in the belly area as time goes on. 

Beyond this, estrogen dominance negatively interferes with thyroid hormone. The thyroid is the main controller of our metabolism, and of estrogen dominance is slowing our thyroid, our metabolism will slow and we will gain weight. 

Many women with estrogen dominance also have some level of thyroid dysfunction. 

Estrogen Dominance and Mood Problems

Beyond weight gain, mood disturbances are a big light bulb that estrogen dominance may be contributing to your issues. 

When estrogen is in balance, we feel sexy, strong, confident and ready to take on the world. We are uplifted and pleasant to be around. 

When estrogen dominates over progesterone, this can lead to anxiety (progesterone is a calming hormones) and depression, which may be seen even with low estrogen levels. 

Additionally, excess estrogen may have you feeling super irritable, or people may begin calling you bossy because of the way you act. 

These things don’t have to be cause for using anti-depressants, but rather are a signal to bring estrogen and progesterone into balance naturally to restore your moods. 

Estrogen Dominance and Painful, Heavy and Irregular Periods

Another big sign of estrogen dominance is period issues. Specifically, heavy, painful and/or irregular periods.

Having too much estrogen in relation to progesterone can stall or halt ovulation altogether. No ovulation = no period. 

Excessive estrogen also builds up the lining of the uterus more than normal, and often results in heavy periods accompanied by clotting. Pain and menstrual cramping may also be severe with estrogen dominance.