> Health and Disease > Women's Health Issues > menopause

On my journey through the uncharted seas of perimenopause I encountered some rather rough sailing. My days were filled with the swells and troughs of depression, tears, mood swings, irrational angry outbursts, lethargy and fatigue. My nights found me in turmoil with gripping anxiety and panic attacks along with soaking night sweats. Add to this, the unexplained weight gain and low libido and I knew something was seriously awry. My moods and my body seemed totally out of control. What was happening to me?

The emotional roller-coaster that accompanies premenstrual syndrome, perimenopause and menopause is most profoundly connected to the flow of two powerful hormones, estrogen and progesterone. Nature has designed estrogen and progesterone to be partners in a delicate balancing act. When that balance teeters in either one direction or another, a whole host of health problems ensues. When estrogen is out of balance with progesterone a condition called "estrogen dominance" occurs. The imbalance that results causes depression, mood swings, anxiety, irritability, anger, insomnia, fatigue, weight gain, bloating, mental fogginess, low libido and sore breasts,

Estrogen excess plays a huge role in creating PMS symptoms. Progesterone is the dominant hormone during the two weeks before menstruation. It’s produced in amounts 200 times greater than estrogen at that time. However, due to the many stresses, nutritional deficiencies and eating indiscretions, estrogen levels can far exceed progesterone levels. The woes of PMS (including the wild emotional ride) are the result of this topsy-turvy hormone production.

Hormonal Imbalance

Far from deficiency in estrogen, the modern menopausal woman is also more likely to experience high levels of estrogen and low levels of progesterone–creating that all-too-familiar estrogen dominant profile. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that an overweight postmenopausal woman has more estrogen circulating through her body than a skinny premenopausal woman. Through the use of saliva testing, the most valid way to test hormone levels according to the WHO, the prevalence of estrogen dominance has been confirmed. Instead of estrogen deficiency, modern women are really suffering from a progesterone deficiency.

Even perimenopause, a five- to ten-year journey of hormonal adjustments preceding menopause, is now recognized as a time when the body is making really high levels of estrogen along with low progesterone output due to irregular ovulations. According to studies conducted by Dr Jerilynn Prior, researcher and professor of endocrinology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the various symptoms of perimenopause are due to an excess of estrogen not a deficiency. Dr Prior’s research has also discovered that more than 25 per cent of young women in their 20s are not ovulating every month, although they continue to menstruate, leading to a month-long estrogen dominant condition which worsens PMS mood swings and other symptoms.

Avoid Steroids

Sherrill Sellma is the author of Hormone Heresy: What Women Must Know About Their Hormones. She lives in Tulsa, OK.

Source: alive #220, February 2001

Special Advertising Feature