Estrogen dominance occurs when there is either too great an influence of estrogen, too little influence of progesterone, or both. There are many ways to prevent estrogen dominance including avoiding xenoestrogens (estrogen-like compounds) in your environment, managing stress, monitoring your weight and supporting your endocrine system. Often this involves supplementation of bioidentical progesterone however, proper evaluation of your hormone levels should always precede any supplementation program.

Testing your hormones is the best way to identify any hormone imbalance.  There are many symptom pictures that may look similar; therefore knowing what your hormone levels are will enable your practitioner to determine the correct treatment for you.

PCOS is a syndrome that includes many systems and manifests with multiple symptoms. Women with PCOS typically have an increased resistance to insulin that stimulates their bodies to produce excess amounts of testosterone and DHEA. Elevated testosterone may result in symptoms such as increased acne or facial / body hair. Additionally, the elevated testosterone levels often cause a suppression of ovulation, which manifests as irregular or absent menstrual cycles.

Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths in the uterine wall and their growth is stimulated by estrogen. Estrogen is a proliferative hormone that causes tissue to grow. Progesterone helps that tissue develop and mature properly. There are many situations that result in an increased influence of the estrogens relative to progesterone. This situation is often referred to as estrogen dominance and can manifest as uterine fibroids.

Just as estrogen causes growth of breast tissue during puberty and thickening of the endometrial lining during the first half of the menstrual cycle, it can cause growth of breast tissue that, when uncontrolled, can lead to breast cancer. Hormonal imbalances such as estrogen dominance, where there is a greater influence of estrogen than progesterone, can propagate this growth. Since progesterone levels decline earlier and in greater quantity than estrogen levels as women approach menopause, the peri-menopausal and post-menopausal population is at particular risk for breast cancer.

The Labrix Comprehensive Plus Panel will provide important information such as the ratio of progesterone to estradiol. Furthermore, it will be important to measure your estrogen quotient. Both of these ratios provide an important risk assessment for breast cancer. Knowing how your body metabolizes estrogens by measuring the estriol level as well as the degree of estrogen dominance can provide important information to guide an individualized treatment plan.

Because the endocrine system is all interconnected, a thorough evaluation of thyroid function should also include measuring cortisol levels and sex hormones in saliva. Estrogen dominance leads to increased thyroid binding globulin (a carrier protein for thyroid hormone) and therefore less bio-available thyroid hormone. Additionally, cortisol is a necessary hormone for proper thyroid function however, when cortisol levels are too high it can lead to thyroid dysfunction. For these reasons, measuring diurnal cortisol levels as well as estradiol and progesterone are important for a complete thyroid evaluation.

Insulin resistance is a condition that occurs when the insulin receptor becomes resistant to its hormone insulin. In order for hormones to work properly, there must first be an adequate amount of the hormone and then, the receptor must also function properly. A good analogy for this is a key and a lock. In order to get into your house, you must have a key, but the lock must also be functioning. When insulin receptors are flooded with insulin as a result of a high sugar diet the receptors will begin to resist the hormone, like the lock changing. Insulin resistance is a pre-diabetic condition and a general laboratory workup should include a fasting glucose, fasting insulin and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Additional testing may include a glucose and/or insulin tolerance test. These are all done in serum and can be ordered by your physician using standard laboratories. An early salivary indicator is when women have elevated testosterone or DHEA.

Adrenal dysfunction is a condition where the adrenal glands lose their ability to respond to stress and is usually caused by an accumulation of chronic stress over time. Adrenal dysfunction is not a black and white issue of whether or not your adrenal glands produce any cortisol at all, but a function of whether they are producing enough and if they are functioning on a daily rhythm the way they should be. Cortisol should be highest first thing in the morning, approximately 30 minutes after waking, and should slowly decline throughout the day. The best way to assess adrenal function and evaluate adrenal fatigue is to look at cortisol levels at multiple times throughout the day. Not only does saliva's ease of collection facilitate this, but the cortisol levels present in saliva are only the bioavailable fraction of the hormone. These two factors make salivary cortisol the gold standard for assessing adrenal function and diagnosing adrenal dysfunction.