Our hormones play a massive role in making us who we are - our emotions, our desires, how we interact with our world on a day-to-day basis.
They bring a lot of good, but when out of balance, they can promote the onset of several issues. When it comes to estrogen being out of balance, these issues can range from a mood disturbance to PMS and even to the formation of cancer. As we learn more and more about different reproductive conditions, the role of these hormones becomes even more apparent. Endometriosis, a condition that plagues an estimated 1 in 10 women, is one that researchers and medical professionals have struggled to understand the origins of fully. Overall, they have accepted that it is estrogen-dominant in nature.
Endometriosis commonly presents with symptoms of severe pain, frequently associated with one's period (dysmenorrhea). Other women will experience pain with sex, pain with bowel movements, or in many cases, more generalized, chronic pelvic or abdominal pain making it sometimes hard to diagnose, leading to delays in treatment. The trouble with delayed treatment is that scar tissue can begin to form, making endometriosis one of the leading causes of infertility or subfertility.
So, how do hormones relate to endometriosis?
First, the disease is most prevalent in women of reproductive age, where hormones are constantly cycling. No cases have been reported before puberty, and women with endometriosis entering menopause tend to see a gradual remission of symptoms.
Secondly, some women notice the severity of their symptoms correlates with their cycle. The two female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, regulate the growth and shrinkage of endometrial tissue inside and outside the uterus (as seen in endometriosis).
All of this considered, let's dive a bit deeper into the role estrogen plays explicitly in endometriosis.
We Support our healthcare practitioners by offering the highest-quality, accurate and meaningful test results.
Learn more about becoming a Provider for Free, or learn more about our state-of-the-art tests.
The growth of endometrial tissue is estrogen-dependent, meaning it wouldn't happen without it.
However, the problem with endometriosis is that the abnormal tissue isn't just influenced by ovarian estradiol as it would be when confined to the uterus. The endometrial tissue associated with endometriosis surprisingly can synthesize its own estradiol. It does this via two enzymes - one being the well-known aromatase enzyme that converts androgens (ie. testosterone) into estrogens, the other being the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR).
StAR initiates estrogen formation in cells by allowing cholesterol into the mitochondria, which ultimately is the precursor to all sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, etc.).
With this knowledge, it quickly becomes evident that estrogen, though the main player, isn't the only potential contributing factor to total estrogenic load. Circulating estrogen levels, testosterone, and cholesterol can play a role in the estrogenic burden, ultimately affecting the onset, severity, and progression of endometriosis.
So what can one do?
Because testing the actual endometrial tissue at this point is not an option, testing circulating hormones with a full hormone panel is the best way to provide insight. However, focusing on a functional-minded treatment would depend on where the imbalance lies.
Let's start with general circulating estrogen, which includes estradiol (ovarian estrogen) and estrone (peripheral estrogen, made by fat cells).
Various internal and external influences can affect our circulating estrogen level. Without considering the role of medication, one potential focus is supporting the body with estrogen elimination.
Estrogen goes through phase 1 and phase 2 detox in the liver before ultimately being eliminated through the GI tract. Supporting these pathways via things like DIM, B vitamins, magnesium, bioflavonoids, a high fiber diet, and functional foods are all options; however, what is best for you should be a decision made with your physician.
In addition, it is well established that our environment is riddled with xenoestrogens that can influence our body similarly to our own estrogen. These xenoestrogens can come from our food, our self-care products, and other things such as food packaging. Switching to organic food options, researching what products are safe from hormone disruptors, and reducing plastics can all be additional ways to reduce the estrogenic burden on our bodies.
The process is slow and dose-dependent, making teasing out what’s causing what - much more difficult.
An elimination-style diet with the monitored reintroduction of common foods or lab testing is usually recommended to ease this process.
So, why care about food sensitivities in yourself or your patients?
Vague symptoms can be tricky, especially when they don’t fit into a known syndrome. More and more patients present to their medical providers with no diagnosable condition but still feel extremely unwell. Or, they are presenting with a known chronic condition where the standard treatment just isn’t getting things completely back to normal.
Testing or doing an elimination-style diet under the guidance of a medical professional to determine food sensitivities is an effective, simple, and safe place to start.
Reducing the inflammatory burden on the body reduces disease risk and improves quality of life, which is what we all strive for!
That being said, it is extremely important to understand one essential difference between food sensitivity and food allergy, especially when moving forward with food experimentation. Food allergies can be serious and life-threatening. Once the allergy is established, one should not reintroduce it back into their diet unless steps have been taken with an allergy specialist to desensitize the body to the trigger. Food sensitivities, on the other hand, can be reintroduced back into the diet in small amounts; accidental ingestion is not life-threatening, just may result in some unpleasant symptoms.
AYUMETRIX offers food sensitivity testing, with the largest panel covering 208 common foods. For more information, visit www.ayumetrix.com or email info@ayumetrix.com.
