The Little Known Issue Almost All Menstrual Problems Have In Common

Have you ever wondered about the cause of all your hormonal problems? Every thought about the origin of the miserable symptoms affecting your weight, skin, fertility, health, and happiness? What if I told you that no matter what kind of hormonal dysfunction you’re dealing with — be it endometriosis, PCOS, PMS, or something else —you’re almost certainly struggling with one single cause? And that all it takes to overcome your issues once and for all is to understand how to outsmart the problem?It’s true: The most typical root cause of hormonal dysfunction is a poorly understood (overwhelmingly common) condition called estrogen dominance. Everything from an inadequate intake of micronutrients to an abundance of stress to uncontrollable environmental toxins can throw your hormonal balance off. And when that delicate system is disrupted, estrogen often dominates, causing just about every hormonal problem you can think of. I see it all the time: Women of all ages, histories, and “official” diagnoses complaining of the exact same symptoms. Whether they’re dealing with ovarian cysts, fibroids, or conditions like PCOS or endometriosis (or they don’t know what they’re dealing with), they’re battling the same hormonal issues every day — from PMS and hormonal acne to crazy periods and weight gain, and more. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you’re unfortunately in good company and you’re dealing with an unbelievably common, root cause of hormonal dysfunction called estrogen dominance.

What Is Estrogen Dominance?

You probably know that estrogen is the female sex hormone and it’s mainly produced in the ovaries thanks to your fat cells and the adrenal gland. It’s a super important chemical messenger that — when in balance — helps regulate your period. It also plays a big role in pregnancy, bone formation, blood clotting, and more.So yes, estrogen is a beautiful thing when it’s in balance with your other hormones. But when too much of it builds up in the body or there’s too much in relation to progesterone, it results in a condition called estrogen dominance. There are lots of reasons your levels of estrogen can be tipped in this way, including stress, poor sleep, the use of synthetic estrogens like the birth control pill, pesticides in your food, and chemicals in your environment. And even if you do your best to ensure absolutely stellar self-care, you may still be exposing yourself to all sorts of excess estrogens because we’re all constantly surrounded by endocrine disruptors – in everything from our furniture to our nail polish. Scary, right?

Why Is Too Much Estrogen Bad For You?

Again, hormones are all about balance. When your levels are thrown off in any direction, it inevitably initiates a dangerous chain reaction that can have devastating effects on your health and happiness. In the case of estrogen dominance, the imbalance can cause all kinds of unpleasant symptoms like irritability and fatigue, but it’s also been linked to major, permanent problems like infertility and even cancer. if you have estrogen dominance, there are long-term health effects for those struggling with this hormonal imbalance. Over the years and decades, a persistent estrogen overload increases the risk of many diseases and health issues including:

• Female cancers, particularly breast cancer
• Hypertension
• Diabetes

Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance

Once you discover the symptoms of estrogen dominance it’s hard not to see the signs all around you – in your own cycle experience and the difficult, uncomfortable PMS and period symptoms of your friends. That’s because many, many women are experiencing estrogen dominance, because their bodies are not equipped to cope with the incoming estrogen overload. Here are some of the signs of estrogen dominance:

• PMS – premenstrual symptoms from moodiness to bloating
• Fibroids
• Ovarian cysts
• PCOS
• Endometriosis
• Weight gain
• Infertility
• Heavy periods
• Irregular periods
• Early onset puberty (before 12 years of age) in yourself and/or your daughter(s)

How Estrogen Dominance Happens and Why It’s Happening to You

Women simply aren’t taught to properly care for their delicate hormonal ecosystem. As a result of inadequate micronutrient intake, a disrupted microbiome, and an inability to deal with unnatural levels of toxins, many women are operating with a subpar elimination system that simply can’t process and eliminate excess estrogen efficiently. A body nourished with nutrient-dense and hormonally-supportive foods has a better chance of coping with and managing the synthetic estrogens we’re surrounded by, but many of us are not eating in a way that supports and bolsters our elimination system. This leads to a toxic build up and hormonal soup swimming around your body – throwing your delicate hormonal balance out of whack and triggering symptoms.The other side of this coin here is progesterone deficiency – if you have too much estrogen in your bloodstream, your progesterone levels will be low in comparison.

What Your Doctor Can Do To Treat Estrogen Dominance

There’s a reason your doctor hasn’t told you about estrogen dominance and why this may be the first time you’ve ever heard about it: The condition really only has one medically-approved “treatment” and that’s birth control. When you visit an OB/GYN, they don’t often tell you exactly why you’re experiencing these symptoms — and when it comes to how to deal with these symptoms, their answer will always be birth control.Of course, the path to you getting better begins with understanding why this is happening in your body. Even if you now know (or you’ve long known) that you have estrogen dominance, the most helpful part of naming the problem is knowing that you now need to take immediate action to address the root causes. Addressing the root causes is the key to moving past symptoms and feeling better. And birth control does not address the root causes. It is only a Band-Aid for those symptoms — it may help to stop some symptoms or manage them some of the time, but when you eventually come off it will leave you even more sensitive to excess estrogen, setting you up to experience the same problems and potentially at worsened levels. Still not convinced? There are a slew of other reasons you should quit the pill ASAP and—if you’re a longtime user—watch this to learn how to deal with something called Synthetic Birth Control Syndrome.

Men Deal With Estrogen Dominance Too

These days we also see a lot of men dealing with the symptoms of estrogen dominance. They’re exposed to the same environmental factors as us and their bodies are often no better equipped to deal with the excess estrogen and eliminate it efficiently. For men, this brings about low testosterone levels (instead of low progesterone levels). You may have seen ads on TV for “Low-T” treatments for men. Men dealing with high estrogen and low testosterone will also gain weight, experience moodiness and irritability, get bloated…all of those issues we usually associated as only “female” in nature! Men also need to nourish their bodies so that their elimination system works at an optimum level and to increase their testosterone levels (especially as they age).

3 Natural Ways To Overcome Estrogen Dominance

The natural treatment for estrogen dominance is also the most effective and the longest lasting. This is because it gets down to the root cause, changes your hormonal ecosystem, and supports your elimination pathways. Following the Flo Living protocol sets your body up to combat all that incoming estrogen and helps it to deal with some of the unavoidable sources that inevitably come your way.

1. Eat more fiber. There are three foods that contain a good amount of fiber as well as the other vital vitamins and minerals – such as glutathione, B vitamins, and C vitamins – that you need to help your liver process the excess estrogen so that it can be transported to the large intestine and then eliminated quickly: Broccoli, flax seeds and pears.
2. Support your microbiome. A set of good gut bacteria and certain bacterial genes, called the estrobolome, produce an essential enzyme that helps metabolize estrogen. Your microbiome is part of the elimination system that is vital in ushering hormones out of the body. Eat fermented foods daily like kimchi and sauerkraut and take a probiotic. And be sure to add a trusted probiotic to your daily regimen, like the one found in the FLO Living Balance Supplement Kit.
3. Love your liver. Eggs, glutathione-heavy vegetables like carrots, spinach and asparagus, plus cilantro are all great liver detoxifiers and boost the whole elimination system’s function. Try my special cilantro-based juice once a week. The Detox formula in the Balance Supplement Kit also provides liver support for overall detox function and supports a healthy, natural detox of excess estrogen.

Cycle Syncing™ Is the Ultimate Key To Overcoming Estrogen Dominance

In addition to nourishing your body with all the necessary nutrients, you need to establish a cyclical lifestyle that supports your endocrine balance. The foolproof way to do this: cycle syncing. By not only eating in a way that encourages optimal hormonal production and elimination at each phase of your menstrual cycle, but also tailoring everything from your workouts to your work activities to perfectly complement and enhance the assets of each phase of your cycle, you ensure you’re doing everything to keep elevated estrogen in check.  It’s a must-do holistic approach to completely overcoming estrogen dominance, and it works. One major consequence of estrogen dominance that so many women struggle with is weight gain. Many of my clients at FLO Living come to me with this issue – and these are women who see themselves as healthy living, conscientious about eating right, and who exercise regularly. But there’s a piece missing to their method. They are not tackling the estrogen dominance head on and it’s stalling their weight loss efforts (and sometimes even exacerbating the issue). Cycle syncing is the way to beat the root cause of unwanted weight gain and here’s why:

• Your body demands different kinds of workouts at different times of the month. Rather than doing hardcore cardio all month long, change how you work out to match what your hormones are doing. This means choosing different kinds of exercise depending on if you’re in your follicular, ovulatory, luteal or menstrual phase. High intensity workouts during your luteal and menstrual phases can lead to estrogen dominance, because of the stress put on your adrenals.
• Your nutrient needs change from phase to phase. Counting calories doesn’t help a woman who’s is gaining weight because of estrogen dominance. Fasting, cutting calories, and dieting as deprivation will actually worsen estrogen dominance and cause you to put on more pounds. You need to feed your body the micronutrients it needs to process the excess estrogen and manage the xenoestrogens that contribute to the overload. You need to support and bolster your liver and microbiome, these are your friends in combating the toxic soup of estrogen dominance. The best way to do this, long-term, is to cycle sync your diet.
• Your self-care routine shouldn’t be static. Unless you’re engaging in self-care that takes your cycle into account, you won’t get all the benefits you’re looking for, and in some cases, you may even be making your estrogen dominance worse. That’s because while certain times of the month call for smoothies and super intense workouts, these same activities at other times of the month could mess with your blood sugar, jack up your cortisol, make a mess of your hormones, and subsequently, result in too much estrogen. That means the very things you think you’re doing to feel your best could be impeding your success.

If you’re ready to overcome estrogen dominance once and for all and put your period condition into remission naturally, stop spot-treating the symptoms and start healing the root cause of your issue. Sign up for Monthly FLO to get an easy, accessible plan for cycle syncing your diet, download the MyFLO period tracking and cycle syncing app,  and order your Balance Supplement Kit to ensure you’re supporting your brilliant body from top to bottom all month long.Love and ovaries,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you

First, what is the consistency of your period like?Second, is your period problematic – how so?Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good ovary karma and share this article on social ?Need more Hormone Help?If you’re needing some health upgrading, it’s time you started you looking into what’s going on with your hormones.

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Clear out estrogen and support your liver with a spring cleanse and Balance by FLO supplements. They’re 5 formulations working together to help your body have healthy hormone balance.

•    B vitamins give you more energy and adrenal and cortisol support
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•    Omega 3’s offer healthy, mood-boosting support
•    Vitamin A + C and other antioxidants detox you from excess estrogen

I’ve designed a 4-day hormone detox and evaluation to help you understand exactly what’s out of whack and how you can start getting back to balance so that your hormones no longer have to suffer. The 4 Day Hormone Detox includes recipes, a shopping list, menu plan, and complete instructions for feeling better in just 4 days! Get your free gift with purchase here!