Synthetic Hormones & How They Affect The Body

Oestrogen dominance is far more than merely the excess of oestrogen in relation to progesterone, despite what Google and Wikipedia will tell you. It’s about recognising the role of ‘external’ synthetic oestrogens and the detrimental effect they are having on our bodies, men included, hence why one in every 1000 men are now developing breast cancer. Scary stuff considering they don’t produce very much oestrogen all on their own. So, where is all this oestrogen coming from? 

Xenoestrogens are man-made chemicals which mimic and disrupt our natural oestrogen (the stuff our body actually produces all on its own) and can show up in a variety of sources, the most common being hormone replacement therapy, contraceptive pills, rods, injections and implants. But you’ll also find them in commercially-raised non-organic meats, insecticide, pesticides, tap water, parabens from your shampoo, soaps, lotions, make-up and other personal care products, BPA (bisphenol-A), Phthalates from soft plastics, the highest source being found in foods wrapped in plastics then heated in the microwave which allows the chemicals to leach into the food you then ingest. But wait there’s still more, artificial flavourings such as MSG also have oestrogenic effects on the body, processed forms of soy like ‘fake meats’ and even your personal care products like tampons and sanitary pads have high amounts of dioxins which too have a disruptive effect on our hormones.  

These wayward xenoestrogens are aggressive, and they cause a whole heap of trouble in your body. They cruise around your body seeking out oestrogen receptors (think of receptors like little magnets which fit oestrogen like a lock and key, stimulating the oestrogenic effect on the body). Problem is, they stimulate a far more potent effect than what our naturally produced oestrogen would create, which is why you end up with symptoms such as bloating, breast tenderness, fibrocystic lumpy breasts, low sex drive, irregular menstrual periods, mood swings, irritability, headaches, anxiety, panic attacks, weight gain, hair loss, cold hands or feet, histamine sensitivities, fatigue and memory problems, to name a few. 

What’s worse, as these foreign fake oestrogens, hog all the receptor sites, there’s becomes no need for your body to produce natural oestrogen, which is why so many women have low oestrogen, no sex drive, premature ageing, hot flushes and are being falsely accused of starting menopause at such young ages.  

Also, do you want to know why you put on weight around your hips, breasts, thighs, butt, tummy and arms? It’s because this is where we store oestrogen. Only because you have way too much oestrogen of the foreign invader style, your amazing body does the only thing it can to protect you from the effects of having high amounts cursing around your body and so it stores the oestrogen away in fat tissue….hips, butts, things, breasts and tuckshop mama arms! And if your body can’t effectively metabolise and eliminate oestrogen from your body, because you have lazy bowels with diminished natural microflora, bad microflora or a sluggish liver, or maybe you’ve tested positive to an MTHFR gene mutation, well guess what, that oestrogen stays there forever until you do something about it. And you won’t be able to lose that excess weight until your body no longer requires those fat cells for storage of oestrogen.  

But I haven’t even gotten to the most devasting issue of the oestrogen dominance matter yet…the danger your GP or specialist is putting you in by band-aiding the issue with more synthetic hormones and claiming going on the ‘pill’ will balance your hormones. Newsflash, no it won’t! How can it, when you are simply flooding your body with more of the problem which caused the problem in the first place? The current medical form of treatment is to put you on the oral contraceptive pill or use a device known as the Mirena, which is aimed at increasing your progesterone levels to try and match the oestrogen. Notice I said match, not balance. There is nothing ‘balancing’ about using synthetic hormones to fix a hormonal imbalance. The only way you can EVER balance your hormones is to tackle the underlying issues in your body or environmental influences which have thrown your hormones out of balance in the first place. Remember, balance is your natural state and your body does a damn good job of maintaining it, when we help it out.  

Unfortunately, one of the major sources of xenoestrogen exposure that we haven’t talked about yet is your bloodline. Awareness around this topic really is only starting to gain traction in recent years, so there’s a fair chance ya mama didn’t get the memo way back yonder which means you probably inherited oestrogen dominance at the time of conception. If Mum had oestrogen dominance through the pregnancy, your DNA is most likely imprinted with this phenomena, but don’t worry you can change this, which I’ll explain later.   

Stepping back into the blame game for just a minute, back in the old days there certainly wasn’t much awareness on the importance of preconception care. Hell, there still isn’t much these days, with the painful reality that one in every four pregnancies result in miscarriage and for anyone who’s experienced the traumatic process of losing a baby, no matter how pregnant you were or weren’t, it’s still a devastating loss that can leave painful memories within the womb. But your GP will simply pat you on the back, tell you it’s common and send you on your way, claiming there’s nothing you can do about pregnancy loss it’s just bad luck. Bullshit. Miscarriage isn’t bad luck. It occurs because something has gone wrong in the development of your foetus, with the most common reasons being toxicity, hormone imbalances and nutritional deficiency, each which lead to genetic abnormalities and inability for the foetus to develop normally.  

Heavy metals and all these xenoestrogens have a lot to answer for when it comes to miscarriage and the only way to truly protect your child and ensure you have a happy, complication-free pregnancy is to prepare your body for pregnancy by doing a preconception cleanse program and ensuring you are nutritionally sound enough to be able to build a baby from scratch. I think we underestimate just how phenomenal building a human being from just two cells is. It kinda takes effort and if the building blocks aren’t sturdy because you’re nutritionally depleted and toxic then things don’t always turn out the best for bub.  

Please don’t cut corners when it comes to beginning your family. Too often I receive excited emails from people sharing their news and asking what they should now be taking to support the pregnancy, but unfortunately, they’ve missed the boat because the 3-4 months BEFORE conception has a far greater impact on the quality of the egg, and the sperm and genetic potential of that child is far more crucial than any supplement you can start taking once you fall pregnant. You know what they say, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Let’s not take human life for granted.  

Xenoestrogens have long-term consequences 

There’s another far greater crime that is made by the narrow-minded approach to ‘balancing’ your hormones with synthetic hormones and as much as I hate dropping the C bomb, it’s a sad and harsh reality we can’t ignore. Using the oral contraceptive pill or something alike to mask the signs your body is giving you to let you know it’s overloaded with xenoestrogens (painful periods, lumpy breasts, hormonal acne, mood swings, premenstrual headaches and everything else I listed above) is pretty much like dousing a fire with petrol. That slow-burning fire of xenoestrogens are slowly but surely creating a far bigger problem beneath the surface which isn’t so easily ignored when it finally emerges from the depths presenting as cancer, breast, ovarian or cervical cancer being the most common among women who have been affected by the synthetic hormones. Your body will work tirelessly to protect you, but if you don’t help it out and listen to its cries, and action steps to eliminate the causes of the hormonal imbalance and your exposure to these xenoestrogens, eventually something has gotta give. A tumour, be it a benign cyst or a cancerous lump, is always the result of the body desperately trying to encapsulate harmful toxins which, in conjunction with a suppressed immune system, due to tirelessly trying to contain an underlying resistant infection, systemic inflammation, sluggish lymphatics an overburdened liver and buried emotions we refuse to address.