Women in their mid-30’s and early 40’s, commonly suffer from hormonal imbalance caused by an excess of oestrogen and deficiency of progesterone, as their usual and regular monthly ovulation becomes more irregular. This is known as pre-menopause.

When women ovulate, they produce large quantities of progesterone, the balancing hormone, necessary to neutralise the growth stimulus effects of oestrogen on the womb lining, breasts and fat cells; and the irritant effects of oestrogen on moods, anxiety and PMS.

By 40, anovulation( the lack of ovulation), becomes more prevalent as women’s ovaries start to undergo the changes that will eventually progress to menopause.
During anovulation, progesterone levels fall precipitously, oestrogen levels remain normal or slightly elevated, and monthly periods can persist for years.

This is not menopause, derived from the Greek words men (month) and pausis
(cessation), but a transition called pre-menopause.

The classic, fluctuating symptoms of pre-menopause, caused by a relative excess of oestrogen and fluctuating but lower levels of neutralising progesterone, include:-

• irregular menstrual cycle length
• more often heavier in nature
• increased breast tenderness
• irritability, anxiety and moodswings
• water retention
• weight gain
• an increased inability to cope
• poor concentration
• sleep deprivation, and
• reduced sex drive

Traditionally, and rather shortsightedly, women suffering from such premenstrual symptoms have been commenced on the contraceptive pill, ‘to regulate their periods’, or worse still, antidepressants, ‘to settle them down’.

“How could this be?” I hear you ask.

How could women be given more oestrogen, at a time when they have all the symptoms of excess oestrogen!

Sadly, most clinical research these days is ‘funded’ by drug companies, ever keen to adopt convenient findings that will ensure maximum corporate profits.

Drug companies have no place in medical education.

In 1976, Sherman et al, J Clin Endocrinol Metab 42:629, reported upon an analysis of oestrogen and progesterone concentrations during the menstrual cycles of older women. Unfortunately, the data was from a small cross-sectional study of only eight women, in just one monthly cycle!
Similar ‘research’ has resulted in women being prescribed ever increasing doses of oestrogen for supposedly low oestrogen states over the last 30 years, when in fact, the opposite is true.
Although refuted nine years ago by Santoro et al, J Clin Endocrinol Metab 81:1495; (1996), and repeated in the current leading Clinical Gynaecologic Endocrinology and Infertility text by Speroff, most well-meaning GP’s are unaware that women experiencing pre- and perimenopause symptoms, actually have higher oestrogen levels, and therefore will not benefit from further estrogen dominance.

Fortunately, these days, waning progesterone levels can be restored using the exact molecule that the human receptors naturally respond to – bio-identical progesterone. There is no need to pursue the use of high dose foreign molecules with massive unnatural affinities, such as HRT or the pill. Similarly, soy, diosgenin, genestein, yam cream or phytoestrogens will not neutralise the growth effects of oestrogen.

Research now confirms that progesterone deficiency or relative oestrogen excess occurs in:-

• Young women who do not ovulate, including those on the pill,
• Perimenopausal women, say 35 years plus, who are approaching,
• the cessation of periods and have started progressive anovulation,
• and women who have reached menopause.

This is further compounded by the daily stressors associated with balancing the demands of family, occupations, personal aspirations, deadlines, bank accounts and inner feelings, not to mention the onslaught of chronic exposure to even more oestrogen found in HRT, the pill, pesticides, heated plastics, hormone enhanced chicken, and some cosmetics.

In view of rising infertility, increasing breast cancer, rocketing prostate cancer, endometriosis, obesity, premature puberty and progressively younger premenopause, it is time to question the widespread use of xenoestrogens in our food and environment.

Strive to maintain normal hormone ratios; eat clean, nutritious food; drink pure water; exercise; and think about protecting our natural world and the inheritance of generations to come.