Estrogen Dominance Symptoms and Solutions

Estrogen Dominance Symptoms and Solutions, Preview Clip with Dr. Mariza Snyder
And so what are some symptoms people might be able to look out for if they're experiencing estrogen dominance?

Preview Clip with Dr. Mariza Snyder

And so what are some symptoms people might be able to look out for if they’re experiencing estrogen dominance?

Dr. Mariza (00:11):

Absolutely. So, one of the biggest ones, if you’re still cycling, is going to be heavy periods, fiber cystic breasts, or tender breasts, especially close to your menstrual cycle in the luteal phase. Brain fog is going to be one. The other thing is going to be migraines and headaches. That’s a big one as well. Constipation could be another one as well. Mood swings, high levels of anxiety, severe PMS symptoms. So you just feel bloated, you feel uncomfortable. Low back pain can be one as well. But I would say the heavy bleeding, the migraines are the big ones, the fiber cystic breasts, and just that discomfort when you’re dealing with PMS symptoms in your period.

Joe (00:59):

Excellent. I imagine that resonated with a lot of the people watching. Are there other things that could cause the same symptoms?

Dr. Mariza (01:09):

Yes, anything that’s messing with the liver.

Joe (01:11):

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Dr. Mariza (01:12):

Yeah. Whether you’ve got too many xenoestrogens, estrogen mimickers that are inside of the body, or you’ve got a liver bombarded with whether you have a couple extra glasses of wine at night, or you’re dealing with too many toxins, you’re dealing with medications, a burdened liver, which I think the majority of us have after the age of 30, can absolutely drive estrogen dominance as well. And so if you compound those things, you’re using the sunscreens, you’re using the conditioners, the lotions, all those things. And you got those two glasses of wine at night and you’re taking ibuprofen every other day because you’ve got migraines. That overburdening is going to cause basically an inability for the liver to move through phase one and phase two liver detoxification.

Dr. Mariza (02:07):

And then if you’ve got a gut issue, where the estrobolome is being compromised in the small intestine and the large intestine as well, then you’ve got a backup of your digestive system, can’t package up that estrogen, send it out the door. And now you’ve got a re-circulation of estrogen as well, which ever more compromises the liver. And so, yeah, added xenoestrogens, add some lotion and conditioner and deodorant to the mix and you definitely have a compounding amount of those symptoms that I mentioned.

Joe (02:41):

Amazing. Like a perfect horrible storm.

Dr. Mariza (02:43):

Yeah. And so, yeah, I’ve had estrogen dominance multiple times and it’s those tall… You always know those telltale signs. Like for me, it’s always migraines. I get a migraine, I’m like, hmm, what’s going on? My boobs start to hurt. I’m like, okay. They’re hurt right now because I’m breastfeeding. Even when I’m not doing that. And then all of a sudden I’d get these really bad PMS like symptoms. I’m getting more bloated or I’m noticing my periods are getting heavier. I get really snippy, snappy at everybody. I watched people how they respond to me and then I know I should be looking at my liver. I should be looking at my gut. I know that we’ve removed all those things from the house so it’s usually not the toxins, but the first step, I always tell people when they’re dealing with estrogen dominance or they’re noticing those types of symptoms, it’s time to look at the liver and the gut.

Joe (03:35):

Excellent. You answered my next question, which is what’s the first step. And honesty, with hormones, I would imagine working with a practitioner is probably pretty important because it’s… I don’t know, is it a simple fix or is it complicated or it really depends on the patient?

Dr. Mariza (03:50):

I think it really depends on the patient. I do believe in personalized medicine. Everyone is, each and every one of us individuals. Again, we come from we’re based on those experiences, we’re based on those decisions that we made in the past as well. So I think all of those things play into it. But I do think there’s a lot of things that we can do at home. I recognize not everyone can just hire a functional practitioner. Everyone can just pay for an extensive amount of testing, Dutch testing, a full spectrum of metabolic testing, heavy metals and toxin testing, gut testing. We look at all that. It can get a little crazy. But no, there are absolutely some things that we can do that move the needle almost instantaneously, I think within a matter of weeks that we can do at home.

Joe (04:41):

Yeah. That’s super important. I want to give people that sense of hope and understanding that those little steps that we can do at home go can go a long way.

Dr. Mariza (04:51):

I think the trifecta, especially when it comes to hormones and just really inflammation in the body, it’s going to be the liver, the gut and the stress. I think if we can tackle those three things, then we can get a handle on a lot of this. If those things you find yourself not clearing, like you’re still having some major symptoms then I think the next step is to really go deeper. Start to look at the hormone system, start to look at what’s going on in the gut. Are we dealing with something like CBO or are we dealing with major gut inflammation due to candida, whatever that may be that we need to look at. But that first step is really one creating some self-care, kind of recognizing and becoming more self-aware of what could be driving those stressors.

Dr. Mariza (05:35):

Who’s driving those stressors, is it work? Is it people? Is it the day-to-day that’s going on in your house? How can you create a little bit of ease and grace in your life? And there’s a lot of ways that we can do that. Goodness knows I learned the hard way because I thought self care was 100% selfish and I never had time for that. So I know that place. And then the next thing is looking at what we’re eating, what we’re putting into our bodies every single day and just being really mindful. And it’s more so adding in some of those good things, making sure that we’re doing… Eating a lot of grains, making sure that we’re focusing a lot on the fiber, the fats and the clean proteins and removing the excess sugar, the excess processed foods, maybe the excess alcohol, definitely the excess alcohol, the excess caffeine, the excess grains, the excess gluten and the excess dairy.

Dr. Mariza (06:24):

I know it doesn’t sound fun, but if we can just put those things aside for a hot minute, even a couple of weeks, three weeks, two weeks, we will start to see a massive shift in the way that we feel. We give our liver and we give our gut the opportunity to kind of reset, to take a moment, to take a breather and we can see some major shifts there. So I think it’s reducing that inflammation through what we eat. Clearly we can add a couple supplements, couple easy supplements to help that liver function better. Things like magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, Coleen, B vitamins. These aren’t crazy supplementation. These are critical supplementation that our bodies need to function. And then just bring in the self care, whether it’s a five minute meditation from an app that you use, it’s a walk outside in nature, it’s breathing in an essential oil. It’s having a moment to yourself before you walk in the door. I think all of these things combined, which aren’t major shifts, these are very small shifts that can, that can open big wide doors when it comes to our health and wellness. We could start to feel so much better.

Joe (07:33):

Awesome. Let’s do something that is going to give some people something really tangible. Got their Windex in their hand, they’re throwing it away, they’re done with their Windex. What do they replace that with? What’s like your go-to-

Dr. Mariza (07:47):

Water and vinegar.

Joe (07:49):

Water?

Dr. Mariza (07:50):

Yeah. Water and vinegar. Honestly that’s it. Some baking soda, you know what I’m saying? You literally can make over your entire cleaning cabinet with the ingredients that you have in your kitchen. Water, some kosher salt, you need to really do some deep cleaning. Baking soda, white vinegar, and some essential… I think essential oils are great for this as well. They smell good. They’ve got antimicrobial properties and they make for great cleaning products. But yeah, that’s it. That’s our all purpose spray is just white vinegar, water and some essential oil, some lemon and some lavender and call it a day.

Joe (08:31):

We do like two thirds water, one third vinegar?

Dr. Mariza (08:33):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Joe (08:34):

Cool. Awesome. I want to talk more about essential oils, too. I want to make sure we talk about your summit you have coming up, the perimenopause menopause relief summit. Why do you think that it was important for you to create the summit right now?

Dr. Mariza (08:50):

I think it’s important to create this summit right now because I think right now women are really feeling it. I think it’s at this moment, I thought we already had a lot of plates. We found more plates and I don’t think we found them. I think they were put in our hands. And so I think right now, more than ever, women are experiencing an unprecedented amount of stress and especially during this time where our hormones are shifting and fluctuating, and we’re not being given a lot of viable solutions for what is going on. We’re not even told what is going on. There’s so many myths, pervasive myths around perimenopause and menopause. A lot of women don’t even know that there is a state of perimenopause that their body goes through before they get to menopause.

Dr. Mariza (09:32):

There’s a lot of misinformation. Most doctors will tell you they can’t speak to either of them, because it’s not very clear and they don’t really understand what’s going on with the woman’s body. And I think that has a lot to do with just the way that we feel about women in the healthcare system, over the many, many, many generations. And so I was where I really, really found this to be… Where this really came to be is I was on my book tour for my essential oils hormone solution book back in 2019. And I did a 15 city book tour, and it was incredible. I got to meet all these amazing women, but the question that came up over and over and over again is, as they have that book in their hand, they’re like, is there anything for me in this book?

Dr. Mariza (10:20):

And these were women in their mid to late forties and their fifties. Because they were like, there’s nothing. There’s nothing for me. No one’s talking to me. No one’s addressing me. Please tell me that you see me and that there’s something in here for me. And there was, but it wasn’t specific enough. And I remember in the middle of that tour, I wrote up the proposal for this new book because I wanted women to see themselves in it. I wanted women to know that they were being spoken to, whether it was we’re talking about inflammation and root causes. If it was a kind of the bigger picture, I still wanted women to know that they were being seen, they were heard and that there were viable solutions specifically for them.

Dr. Mariza (11:09):

And that’s kind of where this book came to be. And that’s why the summit came to be as well. As I wanted to speak to other incredible doctors and experts like yourself and just speak into what was really going on and know that women could come to this and that it was for them specifically. I wanted to be able to bring these experts in and really paint the picture for what is really possible for women who are navigating so much and trying to figure out what’s going on with their health at the same time.

Joe (11:43):

First of all, I’d love your passion and your empathy and your compassion for this. It’s amazing. We need more people like you in this phase. For women watching and they’re wondering if they’ve even gone into perimenopause. I think you’re right. Not a lot of people talk about it. How does someone know that they’re actually going into perimenopause? It’s not like now it’s time. It’s not like that, is it?

Dr. Mariza (12:06):

No, not at all. And it can start a little bit earlier for women. We know that things start to shift as early as 35 years old, give or take. I don’t think any 35 year old wants to hear that they’re going into perimenopause. But that’s when our bodies begin to shift. We start to look at, basically perimenopause is that transition of where we are in full childbearing years, where our reproductive system, our ovaries, every single month, are cycling for the main event, ovulation, so that we can get pregnant. Our bodies can make a baby. And as we turn 35, 35 to 40, things began to shift. We start to see a decrease in progesterone levels because progesterone is the hormone, I feel like it’s the take taken for granted hormone.

Dr. Mariza (12:56):

She does so many things for us. And we just put her aside, the queen estrogen gets all the love. But progesterone is the hormone that maintains pregnancy and really sets us up for pregnancy as well. That’s the hormone that rises in our luteal phase. And it only happens, progesterone only happens when we ovulate. So we got that main event, that corpus luteum releases progesterone, and we’re off to the races and the body either we’re maintaining a pregnancy or we’re not pregnant. And so at around 35, 36, 37, we start to see a slight decline in progesterone levels. And this could be for a couple of different reasons. It could be from stress. It could be from inflammation, gut issues, but also just kind of the body, there’s a knowing that things are kind of slowing down.

Dr. Mariza (13:44):

Now what we’ll notice in that phase is we’ll start to notice maybe our periods are a little less… inconsistent. We’ll notice that maybe they’re a little bit shorter, but really PMS symptoms like mood swings and bloating. We’ll just notice some of those things. And maybe we’re feeling a little bit more tired. Maybe those burpees aren’t as easy as they used to be. I remember being 35 and those burpees not being as easy as they used to be. And just something, these subtle changes begin to happen. Then as we kind of navigate into our early 40s, we start to really kind of notice some things. Definitely our cycle is shorter. Definitely the PMS symptoms are a little bit more. We’re noticing a little bit more brain fog, and we’re just noticing a little less resilience in terms of our energy levels.

Dr. Mariza (14:27):

So I always say that there’s two different phases of peri-menopause, kind of our 30s, early 40s. And then as we ramp up closer to menopause, perimenopause begins to feel like menopause. The hot flashes, the severe heavy bleeding, the migraines will start to pop up, the severe anxiety, depression, bloating, the exhaustion, those types of things really become more prominent. And I think that really the journey to menopause is much harder on women than actually being in menopause. And so I think that where we’re really finding that women are struggling is those years leading into menopause where we’re in the cross hairs of it. We don’t know if we’re in one or the other. And really the only way we know we’re in menopause is we haven’t had a period for a full year. But we could have kind of ups and downs of having a period for a couple of months and then having no period for three or four months. And it can just look like that fo three, four or five years as we’re ramping up to menopause.

Joe (15:31):

Let me ask you this. For the three guys who are still maybe watching this at the end of this, what can men do to help support women through that time?

Dr. Mariza (15:41):

Absolutely. I think the biggest question, the biggest thing for men to do is always ask the women in their lives what can I do to serve you right now? I know that you’re going through something, I know I don’t understand it 100%, but what can I do to support you right now? And just having a lot of grace. There are definitely times where it feels like my body is running the show, that I don’t have control over it. I think about myself in postpartum and there were moments where I was just crying for days on end because my hormones took a massive nose dive and there was kind of this major rollercoaster that was happening there. And so there are definitely going to be days where, because of the rollercoaster, where estrogen is literally the highest it’s ever been one day and then a week later, it’s the lowest it’s ever been that day.

Dr. Mariza (16:33):

And although we can reduce the amount of inflammation, we can do a lot of things to support our body through this, that roller coaster is happening whether we like it or not. That’s just the process of perimenopause and menopause. And so having grace, having empathy and asking what they can do to support. My husband is… Oh, there’s a dedication in this new book that says my husband knows hormones almost as well as I do because we live in this world. I talk about it all the time. This poor man is constantly inundated with hormone content and information, and he has so much grace for me. And he knows when my cycles come in just as much as I know when my cycles coming and there’s just a lot of support. And a lot of… That’s my favorite question, my husband asks me is what can I do for you right now? And that just feels so good to know that I’m fully supported in all areas of my life.

Joe (17:32):

Awesome. And for the three guys who are left watching this, good job. You’re my people. That’s awesome. And I know you’re going to go way deeper into this during your summit. You’ve got over 30 experts, I think, right?

Dr. Mariza (17:46):

Yeah. 37.

Joe (17:47):

37.

Dr. Mariza (17:48):

We cover it all. We get into the toxins, we get into the gut, we get into the brain fog, all of it. We get into insulin, metabolism. Every facet of what is happening in the women in this phase, we cover it. So women can absolutely choose that is what I need right now. And I know that they’re going to feel fully supported because as an interviewer, I’ve been there and I’ve watched my mom be there and I’ve helped so many women navigate. I know what that struggle is. And I know what I was wanting at the time. I always think about when I’m interviewing, what was a 30 year old chronic fatigued, hormonal, hot mess Marissa looking for? What was she desperate for when she was going through that? And no one had answers for her. What is it that she needed at the time? And that is oftentimes how I’m interviewing people from that place.

Joe (18:48):

Again, having that empathy for the viewer is so super important. And that’s how I know it’s going to be an amazing summit. And as the title alludes to, it’s about relief, it’s about hope, it’s about solutions. And I love that. And if people want to learn more about that, there’ll be a link or button right below this video where they can go sign up for that. Amazing. Let’s do a couple of rapid fire questions. Your favorite two or three essential oils for relieving stress?

Dr. Mariza (19:17):

Jasmine. Jasmine and bergamot. So Jasmine is the oil of love and just self-love and bergamot is the oil of self-acceptance. And both oils are great for reducing cortisol, serum cortisol levels when you breathe them in.

Joe (19:31):

Awesome. So you breathe them in. Is there a reason you would use them topically for stress or anxiety relief?

Dr. Mariza (19:39):

Yeah, sure. I wear Jasmine on my wrist all the time. One, it’s edible and delectable but you can smell it, every time you just smell it and with it, it immediately, especially if it’s the oil for you and not only does it have the chemical constituents, but also every time you just smell that floral scent, it creates a sense of ease in the brain. To me it’s… I know these are rapid fire. It’s a safety signal that sends to the brain that says everything’s okay.

Joe (20:11):

Okay. Awesome.

Dr. Mariza (20:11):

I love that. Because we send too many other signals to the brain.

Joe (20:15):

That’s for sure. And just make sure people are using it correctly, if you’re putting it on your skin, do you need a carrier oil or anything like that?

Dr. Mariza (20:21):

Yeah. So you always want to have a carrier oil with that. I love to have a pre-made roller, 10 mil roller, probably 10 drops of Jasmine or Bergamot. Bergamot is also photosensitive. It’s the most photosensitive, so it can burn. So I do not recommend Bergamot topically if you’re going outside, but diffusing it is phenomenal. So I think just diffusing is great, or I wear it on a little pendant or something like that.

Joe (20:45):

Love it. Thanks for joining Well Connected TV

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