What Estrogen Does in Your 40s (and How Progesterone Can Help)

Estrogen rollercoaster of perimenopause

Night sweats, mood swings, and crazy heavy periods. Is this menopause already? And you’re only 42? No, menopause could still be a decade away. This is perimenopause or second puberty, which is up to twelve years before your final period.

Perimenopause is different from menopause (or post-menopause), which is the life phase that begins one year after your final period.

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Why I Prescribe Iodine for Breast Pain, Ovarian Cysts, and PMDD

iodine for women's health

Iodine can relieve breast pain, ovulation pain, premenstrual mood symptoms and help to prevent ovarian cysts. It works by promoting healthy estrogen metabolism, down-regulating estrogen receptors, and stabilizing estrogen-sensitive tissue in the breasts, uterus, ovaries, and brain.

Iodine’s anti-estrogen effect makes it one of the best treatments for estrogen excess or “estrogen dominance”— although I don’t use that term.

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How to Increase Estrogen

If you’re a woman of reproductive age, making sufficient estrogen is important for mood, bones, muscles, and metabolism.

Signs you’re making enough estrogen include the presence of cervical fluid and regular ovulation. 

Signs you’re not making enough estrogen include a lack of periods and vaginal dryness.

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How IBS and SIBO Can Affect Periods and Hormones

IBS, SIBO, and period problems.

Did you know that what’s happening in your gut can affect your periods and hormones?

In episode twelve of my podcast and Youtube video, I discuss small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and its role in IBS; how SIBO can drive or worsen endometriosis, insulin resistance, premenstrual mood symptoms, and the fibromyalgia of perimenopause; plus how to treat SIBO.

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