Causes of Hormone Imbalance

The hormonal health of any woman depends upon the delicate dance of progesterone and estrogen. Estrogen is meant to be the predominant hormone in the first half of the menstrual cycle and progesterone the predominant one in the second half. However, for most women in the industrialized world this is not the case.

There are many causes of hormone imbalance, but at the base of the problem is something called Estrogen Dominance - which means there is too much estrogen and not enough progesterone present in the body. There are many symptoms that result from having low progesterone levels.

What follows is a look at some of the common ways in which medicine and industry have tampered with the natural balance of our hormones. We as woman have used these products blindly at the cost of our hormonal balance, overall health and longevity. Some of these may be obvious to you, while some may come as a surprise. Either way the hormonal imbalances that result should not be taken lightly. They contribute to the rise in cancers, especially breast and ovarian cancers, heart disease, depression, pms and more.

The Pill was first introduced in the 1960’s as an effective method of birth control. It was touted as true sexual liberation for women. The first Pill was composed of mainly synthetic estrogen and proclaimed “safe” by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration.)

The research however, was badly flawed. The entire basis for the FDA’s consent was the result of clinical studies conducted on 132 Puerto Rican women who had taken the Pill for one year or longer. The fact that there were five women who died during the study without any investigation into their cause of their death was seemingly overlooked.

By the mid-1970s it became obvious that women on The Pill were dying from heart attacks and strokes at an alarming and much faster rate than those not on the Pill. A newer and supposedly “safer Pill” was then introduced with a lower dose of estrogen.

Progestins and progestogens are often confused with progesterone. However they are nowhere near the same! Progestins and progestogens are synthetic, man-made and have an altered chemical structure. They are commonly used in today’s contraceptive Pills. The one thing they do manage to do is to maintain the lining of the uterus thus making them effective contraceptives.

Let’s be clear – if you are currently on the Pill – you are effectively trial-ing a drug. Its safety and long term effects have not been conclusively established!

Women are only now discovering the price they have been paying for their sexual freedom. It is now over 35 years on since the introduction of the Pill and only now are the long term effects beginning to show. Progestins and progestogens are highly toxic to the body, resulting in some of these known side effects:

This is a common issue of confusion to most menopausal women.
To quote Leslie Kenton, author of Passage to Power,

"everybody who is anybody will tell you that menopause is an estrogen-deficiency disease and that you will need to take more estrogen as you approach mid-life. What may surprise you is this: not only is most of such commonly given advice on menopause wrong, a great deal of it can be positively dangerous."

In 1966 a certain Dr Robert Wilson wrote a book called Feminine Forever where he popularized the belief that menopause was an estrogen deficiency disease and he pioneered the use of unopposed estrogen.

By 1975 it became obvious that the use of unopposed estrogen therapy drastically shortened the lifespan of its users. Women who had used estrogen for seven years or longer were now 14 times more likely to develop cancer.
The pharmaceutical industry then introduced a new 'safe' hormone replacement therapy or HRT - a combination of synthetic progestins and progestogens and estrogen. Sounds a lot like the Pill story doesn’t it?

The New England Journal of Medicine in 1995, published a study which revealed the startling effects of HRT. The study involved 121,700 women. The women who used HRT for more than 5 years, to offset the symptoms of menopause also increased their chance of developing breast cancer by 30 – 40%. In women between the ages of 60 – 64 that statistic rose to 70%. The study also concluded that women using HRT were 45% more likely to die from breast cancer than those who did not make use of the drug or had used it for less than 5 years.

So much for the unopposed estrogen and synthetic progestins and progestogens theory!!!

Consider this: In many countries the water supply is recycled and mixed with fresh water. Since synthetic hormones are not filtered out of the water the levels of estrogens in our drinking water are rising all the time – every time a woman on the Pill or HRT goes to the toilet in fact!

These are some of the common ways that medicine has tampered with the natural balance of hormones, here are some the ways that industry has tampered with the same delicate hormonal balance.

Chemicals such as pesticides mimic the hormone estrogen. Fifty-one chemicals have now been identified as hormone disruptors. Approximately 2 billion tons of pesticides are used the annually the world over. In undeveloped countries the use of pesticides is still largely unchecked and … guess what – that is where we get a lot of our food supplies. It’s plain to see why this is wreaking havoc on our bodies. It is this fact that has led many people to switch to an organic diet.

Other chemicals that cause the same challenges are DDT, dioxin and PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyls.) Dioxin is the by-product of the manufacture of chemicals using chlorine and includes:

Commonly called petrochemicals, they contain high levels of xeno-estrogens. Xeno-estrogens basically means they mimic estrogen in your body. They fill up all the estrogen receptor sites in your body meaning that even the good estrogen can’t get through to perform its role properly. The result – HORMONE IMBALANCE! Again, this is why many people have moved over to household cleaning products that don’t contain these chemicals and are environment friendly.

Non-organic animals that are slaughtered for our food chain are fed estrogenic steroids to fatten them up. These estrogens go straight into our blood stream causing a further rise in estrogen levels. Another study linked the increase of our current disease rates to eating a diet high in the fat and meat from these estrogen-fed animals. Again, it is this fact that has led many people to switch to an organic diet.

This one may come as a surprise to you, but many cosmetics are made with petrochemicals. This means that you are putting the same thing on your skin as you would in your car – something that is petrol-based – not very appealing is it? It’s not surprising then to realize that these ‘moisturizers’ are actually drying out your skin - actually causing more wrinkles!
Even more importantly they are further putting your hormones out of balance.

Again, this is why many people have moved over to moisturizers that don’t contain these chemicals and are environment friendly.

As if all of the above where not enough, stress also plays a big part is reducing our levels of progesterone which results in … too much estrogen.

Here’s how: Progesterone is the “mother of all hormones.” It is the precursor and essential raw material out of which the body created ALL THE OTHER HORMONES. As the precursor to all the other hormones in the body, the adrenal glands and adrenal hormones are no exception. If you encounter a mildly stressful situation your body draws on its progesterone to produce the hormones (adrenal corticosteroids) to counteract it. These are the hormones that protect against stress. BUT, if your body is in a constant or permanent state of stress it can’t provide enough progesterone to be converted into anti-stress hormones and the result is adrenal exhaustion and no left over progesterone for other normal body functions.

I'm sure after reading through all this you'll realize why I say "Women the world over have been duped." Who would've thought that the Pill, HRT or the cosmetics, household cleaners or the food we eat are actually doing us and our families harm!?!

For more information about this topic please feel free to download and read my free ebook called "The Health Benefits of Natural Progesterone". Encourage your friends to do the same. The more we know about our bodies and in particular - our hormones, the more we can take back control of our lives and live them to the FULL!

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Kiss your PMS, Depression, Stress, Low sex drive and other symptoms of low progesterone GOODBYE...