Excess Oestrogen and Low Progesterone: Signs, Testing and Causes

Think you might have a hormone imbalance? It’s likely to be an excess of oestrogen + low progesterone that is causing your symptoms.  

Excess oestrogen is often termed oestrogen dominance, however, this isn’t quite accurate. Oestrogen and progesterone should be in balance and either high levels of oestrogen or low levels of progesterone can cause issues. Most commonly it is a combination of both, however, there are situations of normal oestrogen and low progesterone that cause the same symptoms. 

Symptoms

Common signs of excess oestrogen include breast tenderness, heavy periods, fibroids and PMS symptoms such as moodiness and migraines.

Low progesterone often shows up as a short luteal phase and a short menstrual cycle, PMS, fertile mucus during the premenstrual phase instead of around the time of ovulation, spotting before your period and heavy or prolonged bleeding.

Testing

A blood test from your GP can test hormone levels. It’s best to test progesterone in the middle of the luteal phase, and therefore I recommend testing oestrogen then too so they can be tested together. The mid-luteal day is approximately day 21 for a 28-day cycle. To measure yours, it is approximately seven days after ovulation and seven days before your next expected period. Remember, day one is the first day of full bleeding (not spotting). If you’re on the pill there’s no point measuring progesterone as you have none.

Oestradiol, a type of oestrogen, should be below 1000 pmol/L.

Progesterone should be at least 9.5 nmol/L, anything below that means ovulation didn’t occur or the test wasn’t done at the right time. A good level is 30 nmol/L, but the higher the better. Progesterone does fluctuate throughout the day, so don’t worry if you’re on the low side, the test may have been taken during a dip.

Causes

Excess oestrogen can be caused by increased production in the ovaries and impaired detoxification, however, higher production usually only occurs during perimenopause. It’s also possible to be making normal amounts of a hormone, but the receptors are either highly sensitive or not sensitive enough to them. Hypersensitivity to oestrogen can be caused by chronic inflammation or iodine deficiency.

Oestrogen detoxification

This is a two step process, first in the liver and then in the gut.

There are a variety of nutrients required for liver detoxification of hormones, including B vitamins, protein, zinc, magnesium and selenium. It’s also important to reduce the load on the liver by reducing alcohol consumption and exposure to environmental toxins such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

A healthy gut microbiome is important for the elimination of hormones. Healthy bacteria help to remove oestrogens via the stool and unhealthy bacteria can reactivate oestrogen and cause it to be reabsorbed back into circulation.

For detailed information about this, check out my post A Complete Guide to Detoxing Excess Estrogen and Balancing Hormones 

Connection to Histamine

Another thing to consider is oestrogens connection to histamine. Excess histamine increases oestrogen and vice versa. If you suffer from hay fever, eczema, asthma, or symptoms such as headaches, low blood pressure, nasal congestion, skin irritation, hives, flushing, dizziness, fatigue or brain fog, this could be due to histamine and could also be playing a part in hormone imbalances. When this is the case we want to also work on reducing histamine release so that we’re addressing the root causes.

For more information about histamine read my post Histamine Intolerance and its Effects on Hormones and Period Health.

So, what can we do about addressing hormone imbalances? There are plenty of nutrition and lifestyle changes that can bring hormones into balance, I’d love to support you with a treatment plan that addresses your root causes. Please book a free discovery call to see how my Holistic Health Coaching Program can help.

Ready to decode your body’s messages and take your health into your own hands? Check out my free download Hormone Imbalances: Understanding and Interpreting Symptoms. 

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