Estrogen dominance is a major hormonal problem for women and is now being identified as a hormonal problem for men as well. Most people have excess levels of estrogen that are created by various metabolic processes. These harmful estrogens accelerate the aging process; worsen prostate disorders, hair loss and sexual dysfunction.
The best approach to combat this problem is to improve your diet and use supplements to lower estrogen production. As you lose pounds of fat, your estrogen conversion will be reduced and symptoms of male menopause and female disorders associated with estrogen dominance will vanish!
Fatty tissues composed of adipose cells loaded with aromatase enzymes that convert testosterone to estrogen and excess estrogen in the blood can cause a major imbalance of estrogens as compared to testosterone for many men and women. Excessive levels of unmetabolized estrogen (Estradiol, Estrone and 16 alpha hydroxyestrone –16OHE can be measured by a simple urine test) in your blood and tissues cause you to gain fat, lose muscle, and can also affect sexual performance and/or enjoyment.
Fat cells store large quantities of aromatase, an enzyme that creates estrogen. The higher your percentage of body fat, the more estrogen you may produce, causing you to create more fat cells, which in turn creates more estrogen, and so on. In addition, this potent form of estrogen signals the pituitary gland and the male testes to secrete less luteinizing hormone (LH), significantly slowing testosterone production.
Worse yet, the presence of high levels of estrogen increases the production of a protein called "sex hormone binding globulin" or SHBG, which competes with testosterone at the actual receptor sites, rendering testosterone literally impotent. Estrogen causes the liver to produce more of the carrier proteins that bind up testosterone so that there is less free, unbound testosterone. Free testosterone is the only active form of testosterone because it can easily cross into the brain, muscles, sex organs, and fat cells.
Free testosterone makes up only 2% of the total testosterone in men and less in women. Low levels of free testosterone in men increases body fat, reduces sex drive, worsens depression, and can cause erectile dysfunction. This becomes a vicious cycle because depressed men have poor self-esteem, become stressed, eat more, gain more weight and decrease their initiation of sex with their partner.
Premature aging in men is called Andropause associated with depressed male hormones. Excessive levels of estrogen is the main culprit in Andropause and is the body’s main signal to increase the production of binding proteins (SHBG), causing a further deficit of free testosterone.
Excessive levels of estrogen in men occurs under the following circumstances: obesity, excessive alcohol use, smoking, and exposure to xeno-estrogens (pesticides in the environment). Pesticides are most concentrated in meats and dairy products that are loaded with chemicals that mimic estrogens.
All of these factors that worsen the ratio of testosterone allowing estrogen to dominate can accelerate premature aging and health decline which could include: hair loss. Some studies suggest that even hair loss and baldness may be associated with high-fat diets that stimulate the overproduction of testosterone, which is converted to bad estrogen. DHT often sited as the bad guy in hair loss is only part of the picture. In fact, testosterone actually can assist or enhance hair growth on top of the head provided the estrogen levels are management. In the ideal situation, Testosterone is in the highest concentration, followed by DHT, which might make up close to ¼ to 1/3 the total androgen load, and estrogen will make up the lowest portion of concentration. However, when estrogen increases too high, the testosterone receptors are blocked by the estrogen, and testosterone will be crowded out. This leaves the door open for DHT to take the dominate position. An androgen must be present for a man to be a man. In this case you don’t want it to be DHT, it must be testosterone, with estrogen brought back down to safe levels.
Other problems that develop associated with estrogen dominance in men include depression, catabolic muscle decline, loss of sex drive or performance, breast and uterine cancer in women, and prostate enlargement and prostate cancer in men.
