In your early 40s, estrogen can start to wildly fluctuate, then markedly decline in your late 40s to early 50s and then become basically non-existent in menopause.
Some of the more well known signs indicating your estrogen is LOW are things like, night sweats, hot flashes, poor memory, sleep disruptions, incontinence, weight gain (especially around the middle), mood swings, vaginal dryness, low sex drive. There’s more but this is a good start and I think many women can identify with these.
Now, here are the 8 signs of low estrogen your doctor will most likely ignore and you will too.
- Pain-joint, hip, spinal
- A1C increase
- Feeling Flat/Depressed
- Severe Brain fog
- Increased ADD
- High Cholesterol
- Ligament tears
- Loss of cartilage (think knees)
Any of these sound familiar? If so, your estrogen is probably low but these signs are NOT usually associated with low estrogen and that’s unfortunate.
The increased pain and loss of cartilage and ligament tears stop women from moving which starts a whole cascade of things, a ripple effect that tanks her health.
Feeling flat/depressed, experiencing severe brain fog interferes with enjoying life, holding down a job and just navigating life.
Doctors, in their effort to help their patients with their moods, will prescribe an antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication which often doesn’t work well because that’s not the problem. For the pain they’ll prescribe pain meds, steroids and sometimes recommend surgery. For elevated cholesterol, there’s always the infamous statin.
Sometimes there’s relief but it’s often temporary and unless the estrogen loss is replaced, it can be an uphill battle to maintain quality of life as a woman gets older.
So let’s take this a little further. All of the above symptoms are things we can see and feel, but when estrogen is low, your risk of all chronic diseases also increases. Diseases we don’t feel until an event happens like a heart attack or stroke or a broken bone or hip.
Heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the US. with osteoporosis following very close behind.
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is responsible for more deaths in postmenopausal women than ALL types of cancer combined, including breast, ovarian, uterine and lung cancer.
That may surprise many of you because no one’s really talking about it! We’re usually focused on cancer.
And what’s a bit maddening is that most doctors are not up-to-date on research and are using the old (incredibly faulty) study from WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) instilling fear in women about estrogen therapy, when the truth is, estrogen protects against heart disease and osteoporosis and improves quality of life. There are even studies that point to estrogen HRT being cancer preventative.
It’s quite amazing that with all of these benefits, only 5% of postmenopausal women are on some type of HRT which, in my opinion, is a tragedy.
Women are not being informed and not being offered HRT by their doctors as an option to improve and maintain their health.
If you’d like to be more informed and better know your options when it comes to feeling absolutely vibrant during perimenopause and menopause, click on the button below to watch my YouTube video on hormone replacement therapy. It covers a ton, including why there’s so much conflicting information, the types and kinds of HRT, the pros and cons, when to start and more. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get up-to-date information on perimenopause, menopause, HRT, how to be your own advocate.
To learn more about how estrogen affects every tissue and organ in your body, I highly recommend the book, Menopause-50 Things You Need To Know by Dr. Felice Gersh
And of course, if you’d like to work with me and receive personalized help in getting your life back or keeping it good, reach out to me through this link.
Please remember that anything written here is for informational purposes only. Nothing here is to replace the care or recommendations by your health care provider.