Mostly As: It sounds like your estrogen is right where it should be. Estrogen doesn’t tend to decline until menopause. Before that, most women have plenty of estrogen, some of us even have too much (which we’ll address in part two of this quiz).

Mostly Bs: You could benefit from having a little more estrogen in your life. If you smoke, here’s one more reason to quit. Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke can throw your estrogen balance out of whack.

Mostly Cs: Your estrogen is way too low. Read on for some tips on how to naturally increase your estrogen levels. You may also greatly benefit from bioidentical estrogen therapy.

Symptoms of low estrogen may include:

• Decreased sex drive
• Thin skin
• More wrinkles
• Decreased breast size
• Incontinence
• Hot flashes (more likely due to fluctuating estrogen levels)
• Vaginal dryness
• Decreased memory
• Osteoporosis

 
Estrogen and Your Body

Estrogen is essential for women. It controls 400 functions in our bodies: everything from our hearts to our brains and of course, our sexual function. Estrogens promote cell growth and cause women to have higher vocal pitch and softer skin compared to men. Although estrogens aren’t a direct driver of libido, lack of estrogen can cause vaginal dryness and atrophy, which can make sexual intercourse painful. When in the right balance, estrogens benefit bone health, mood, memory, sexual function, skin, and energy levels.

If your estrogen is low, here are a few suggestions:

Add organic edamame, tempeh and miso to your diet: Soy in moderation is a good way to help alleviate estrogen deficiency symptoms. Avoid overly processed soy and go for edamame or fermented soy products like tempeh and miso instead. Fermented foods have the added benefit of having probiotic qualities, which helps your body properly metabolize the phytoestrogens found in soy. Awesome!

Consider bioidentical hormone therapy: I know there’s been a lot of confusion out there about estrogen lately. Simply put, though, the balance of the evidence suggests that bioidentical estrogen replacement (with estradiol – one of the estrogens that occurs in our bodies naturally) decreases heart disease and doesn’t increase the risk of breast cancer, especially when given to women starting aged 50-59 years old. Estrogen should always be balanced by natural progesterone (not progestins) to give women the hormone balance that would be similar to what they had prior to menopause.

Supplement: DHEA is a hormone secreted primarily by the adrenal gland. It’s a precursor to other hormones and can potentially help with symptoms of menopause like low estrogen. You can also talk to your healthcare practitioner about taking herbs like black cohosh that can help alleviate symptoms of estrogen deficiency.

Click here to take Part Two of the Hormone Quiz