Why This Female Hormone Is Killing Male Sexuality (and How To Fix It)
Estrogen can make or break your muscle and overall physique. If you want to maximize your muscle growth and achieve the body of your dreams, you must make sure that your testosterone levels are balanced.
Estrogen: The Good and the Bad
Estrogen is a hormone that has many positive effects in the body. It helps increase bone formation levels of good cholesterol HDL.
However, excess estrogen can have bad effects in the body, too. It increases the stress hormone in the body called cortisol. The increase in cortisol levels can lead to blood sugar imbalances and diabetes. Contributing to obesity and weight gain as it promotes fat storage. It also increases the cravings for high calorie foods and can lead to various problems such as infertility, cardiovascular disease, and gastrointestinal problems.
This hormone can even increase the growth of breast cancer in women and, to top it all, unbalanced estrogen levels can hamper the libido of both men and women. Extremely high levels of estrogen can decrease the sex drive and could negatively affect your sex life and your relationship with your partner. Estrogen up = erections down, it is that simple.
High levels of estrogen can also cause bloating, mood swings, memory problems, weight gain, hair loss, headaches, and chronic fatigue – all of these symptoms can affect sexual confidence and can also affect your sex life in one way or another.
However, low estrogen level can also causes libido problems, and at its worst lead to headaches, joint pain, drier skin, and depression. Low estrogen level in women is often caused by menopause. Low estrogen level in men is often caused by radiation, low body fat, and genetic diseases. In the end, it is all about balance!
So, as you can see both low and high levels of estrogen can negatively affect the body. This is the reason why the body needs another hormone called progesterone. Progesterone is a hormone that help balance estrogen levels in the body, making sure that it’s not too high or too low.
The Dangers of Estrogen Dominance
Estrogen dominance happens when a person does not have enough progesterone to balance the effects of estrogen in the body. As you grow older, your body fat increases and your testosterone levels start to drop. This is often the result from excess estrogen production and an decrease in progesterone.
Estrogen and progesterone are both powerful sex hormones. So, estrogen dominance can heavily affect your sex life. It can decrease your interest in sex and erections hard to maintain.
The following are the most common effects of estrogen dominance:
- Mood swings
- Bloating and water retention
- Memory loss
- Insomnia
- Hair loss
- Weight gain
- Sluggish metabolism
- Adrenal fatigue
- Blot clots
- Cramping
- Thyroid imbalances
- Dry eyes
- Infertility
- Accelerated aging
- Depression
- Prostate problems
It can affect your work performance, relationships, and it most definitely would affect your ability to perform your day to day tasks.
Causes of Estrogen Dominance
For years, the causes of estrogen dominance were unclear. However, today we now know that any of the following can cause estrogen dominance:
1. Excess body fat
Estrogen dominance can cause excess body fat storage. But the thing is that excess body fat is also actually one of the most common causes of estrogen dominance. Fat cells can store large amount of aromatase – a hormone that creates a potent type of estrogen called estradiol. In other words, having excess body fat can increase your estrogen levels and more estrogen will also bring on more body fat, going full circle.
2.Excessive consumption of alcohol
Excess consumption of alcoholic drinks is often associated with hormonal cancers and estrogen dominance. Your liver is responsible for eliminating toxins in your body like alcohol and excess estrogens. When you drink alcoholic drinks, your liver will be busy clearing the alcohol from your system. This reduces its capacity to remove the excess estrogen from your body.
3. Caffeine consumption
Caffeine promotes the production of stress hormones in the body. This can exhaust your adrenal glands, which could reduce their ability to make the pancreas produce essential hormones such as insulin. Impaired insulin can lead to chronic inflammation, which can also decrease the level of testosterone and progesterone levels in your body.
4. Birth control (women)
Birth control pills fill one’s body with synthetic estrogen that’s foreign to your body. This could suppress the production of natural progesterone and lead to estrogen dominance.
5. Stress
Progesterone also serves as the precursor to the stress hormone cortisol in the body. When stress levels runs high, most of your progesterone will be used for producing cortisol, leaving little left for estrogen control, resulting in excess estrogen production.
Many less common factors can also cause estrogen dominance, such as TRT, hormonal imbalances, sedentary lifestyles, impaired immune function, and glandular dysfunction.
Natural Remedies That Can Help Treat Estrogen Dominance
As we have discussed, estrogen dominance can have a number of bad effects in your body and can wreak havoc on your sex life. So, if you want to rekindle the spark in your relationship, you can beat estrogen dominance by following these tips:
1. Eat foods that are rich in healthy fats
Eating foods that are high in healthy fatty acids can keep your hormones in check. So, to minimize the symptoms of estrogen dominance and increase your libido, it’s best to eat foods that are rich in healthy fats such as grass-fed butter, coconut oil, avocados, and wild-caught salmon. Low fat diets are the WORST for your hormones and especially for men, don’t belive the hype.
2. Add adaptogenic herbs to your diet
Adaptogens are herbs that can balance hormones. These herbs have strong medicinal properties and have been used to cure different types of diseases for centuries. These herbs include:
- Ginkgo biloba
- Goji
- Fenugreek
- Ashwaganda
- Holy basil
- Asian ginseng
- Rhodiola
- Cordycep mushrooms
- Tongkat Ali
Adaptogens can decrease stress and anxiety which could lead to increased sexual confidence, performance and libido. They can also improve your thyroid function and reduce the symptoms of depression, as well as stabilize your insulin and blood sugar levels.
3. Stay away from foods that are rich in Omega 6 fatty acids
Omega 6 fatty acids are generally good for your health. They can fight inflammation, reduce nerve pain, and help treat a wide variety of diseases such as ADHD, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer, eczema, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure. But, an unbalanced level of omega 6 fatty acids in your body could lead to inflammation and can worsen the symptoms of estrogen dominance. So, if you are already suffering from this condition, make sure to stay away from foods that are rich in omega 6 fatty acids such as sunflower seeds, corn, canola, peanuts, and soybeans). Load up on foods that are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids instead like grass fed beef, chia seeds, walnuts, and wild fish). Omega 3 fatty acids are also benefical for testosterone production.
4. Do interval training
High intensity interval training or HIIT can not only help you lose weight, it can also balance your hormones. It increases your metabolism along with production of testorerone and endorphins – two chemicals that are associated with higher libido.
5. Eat foods that are rich in indole 3-carbinol
This chemical is usually present in many curiferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. These foods help metabolize of estrogen into its less potent forms, boosting your testosterone levels. But, the effect of indole-3-carbinole is relativly mild so it’s best to pair them with estrogen blocking supplements if you have a real problem with estrogen dominance.
6. Eat foods or take supplements that contain DIM or Diindolylmethane
DIM is a metabolite of indole 3-carbinol. It is also present in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbages, brussel sprouts, and caulitflower.
7. Eat foods that are rich in zinc
This mineral is extremely useful in maintaining your sexual health. It also boosts immunity and it increases sperm production in mature men. According to a study, foods that are rich in zinc can reduce the aromatization of testosterone to estrogen by blocking the aromatase enzyme. This effectivly reduceses the production of estrogen.
8. Eat a lot of mushrooms
Mushrooms contain a chemical called chrysin. According to a study, chrysin can inhibit the aromatization of testosterone to estrogen in test tubes. However, there is currently no clear proof that the same effect can be produced in the human body. But, it’s worth a try.
9. Consume lots of grapeseed extract
Grapeseed extract contains a chemical called procyanidin that can increase nitric oxide levels in the body and block estrogenic side effects. This improves your blood flow and helps increase your libido, even when you struggle with excess estrogen. You can also try these techniques to naturally increase nitric oxide.
10. Make sure that you get a good dose of vitamin D and at least 7 hours of sleep every night (hormones are produced while you sleep)
It is also important to perform weekly resistance training as this will elicit an anabolic response in your body increasing testosterone production. Avoid simple sugars as well as they will hamper this response.
If you want to take it up a notch through physical activity, here are some other great techniques to boost your testosterone levels naturally.
Conclusion
Estrogen dominance can wreak havoc in your life, especially your sex life. Don’t let hormone imbalances control your life, do something about it – eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and use potent estrogen blockers that can help regulate your hormone levels back to how they shold be, preventing estrogen dominance and maximizing testosterone.
