Women's health is a neglected field in terms of the science though it is extremely profitable for Big Pharma. In other words, while it is underfunded scientifically, women's health is a big focus for Big Pharma because it's profitable to sell healthy "patients" drugs that will make them sick especially if those patients make up 50% of the population.Thoughts on Women's Reproductive Hormones...
It is remarkably difficult to find good reading material about reproductive hormones. Most of the material out there is extremely technical. Some of it is just plain false. But generally speaking, talk of reproductive hormones is chaotic and confusing. Below, we’re going to attempt to simplify and distill the topic of reproductive hormones based on our research.Technically, there is no such thing as “estrogen” or “testosterone”. This might surprise readers, but the truth is, estrogen is not one “thing” but rather, it is more like a “function” in the human body. Many things can perform estrogenic functions. In other words, some substances are estrogenic. These substances behave like estrogens. But there is not just one estrogen or even three estrogens that women should pay attention to in regard to their sexual health. There are, in fact, many substances that interact with the estrogen receptors in our bodies. We say that these substances are “estrogenic” because they behave in an estrogenic way.
The same is true for testosterone and progesterone. There are testosterogenic, or rather, androgenic substances and progesterogenic substances that interact with testosterone / androgen receptors or progesterone receptors in the body also. And like estrogenic substances, some of them are produced by the human body itself.
To complicate things further, reproductive hormones like testosterones / androgens, estrogens, and progesterones can be converted from one to the other and sometimes back again depending on the body’s needs at that particular moment. Androgens can be converted into estrogens, for example. So an androgen is not just an androgen. It can sometimes become an estrogen if the proper enzymes are present in the relevant tissues. There are a few exceptions to this rule about the conversion of one hormone into another, but we’ll go into the details later. For now, just note that a given hormone in a lab report can, in many cases, be transformed into another hormone within seconds after the lab report is taken.
Sunlight Exposure and Reproductive Hormone Balance
The Skin’s Response to Sunlight Exposure
L-tyrosine above is an amino acid that interacts with the sun to cause our skin to naturally become more tan. This is a good place to mention that sunlight causes the skin to produce substances that are relevant to our current discussion:- Fumaric acid – A substance that can be used to cure autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and more. Fumaric acid is produced in the skin when our skin is exposed to sunlight without sunscreen blocking the full-spectrum, healing sunlight. Fumaric acid is a substance that is necessary for the body to produce energy at the cellular level. In other words, a deficiency of fumaric acid due to lack of sunlight exposure can cause your body to become debilitated and susceptible to disease because cells don’t have enough energy to heal themselves.
- Vitamin D – A so-called vitamin that is actually a type of androgen / steroid. Because vitamin D can be produced by the human body naturally, it is not technically considered to be a vitamin. It behaves more like an androgen in the body than like a nutrient. So why does Big Pharma push vitamin D supplementation so much as a panacea for so many major diseases? The answer has to do with vitamin K2, a vitamin that was only discovered recently. Click here to read about why you should never supplement with vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 unless you are also taking vitamin K2.
Nonetheless, it’s important to note that vitamin D that is made in the skin and that it is absorbed from the intestines is in an inactive state. In order for it to become active it must go through two activation steps. The first activation step happens in the liver. The second activation step happens in the kidneys.
What’s noteworthy about this vitamin D pathway which starts in the skin or in the intestines and then proceeds to the liver and then on to the kidneys is the fact that all of these organs are the organs of detoxification. These are the main organs that are specifically responsible for removing toxins from the body. This raises red flags for me in regard to the fact that vitamin D is pushed so heavily as an essential nutrient by the media. First of all, vitamin D isn’t an essential nutrient. Our bodies produce it naturally when we’re exposed to sunlight (without sunscreen). And secondly, diseases like psoriasis (which manifests as a severe rash on the skin with arthritis, and gastrointestinal manifestations too), for example, as well as a number of other so-called autoimmune diseases, involve these detoxification organs specifically. And a fact that might surprise some readers is that many psoriasis patients are able to cure their psoriasis by exposing their bodies to a lot of sunlight for a few consecutive weeks.
Vitamin D supplementation, on the other hand, does little or nothing for psoriasis sufferers.
The Eye’s Response to Sunlight Exposure
Now that we’ve expanded a bit on the topic of vitamin D and now that we’ve given you some links to information about the dangers of supplementing with only vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 without also supplementing with vitamin K2, we should talk about the sunlight exposure in terms of the eyes and the pineal gland. Be sure to read here about why you should never supplement with vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 unless you are also taking vitamin K2. This information will transform your health and make it easier for you to understand what we’re going to talk about next.When sunlight hits the retina of the eye, information about the sunlight exposure travels to the circadian oscillator in the brain and then onward to the hypothalamus and then to the pineal gland.
The pineal gland plays a role in all of the following:
- Fertility / Infertility
- Menstrual cycle
- Ovulation
- Circadian rhythms
- Insomnia
- Melatonin release
- Fatigue / wakefulness
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Jet lag
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Migraine headaches
- Insulin resistance
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Cancer
- Osteoporosis
Unfortunately, a deficiency in vitamin K2 combined with overconsumption of vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 in supplement form can lead to calcification of the pineal gland which, in turn, can lead to health problems and reproductive hormone imbalances that cause menstrual problems, infertility, and sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Calcification of the pineal gland can cause serious menstrual problems as well as ovulation problems.
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Vitamin B12, cobalt, manganese, and copper can make or break one’s efforts at doing therapy with Lugol’s iodine as a cure for PCOS, endometriosis, blocked fallopian tubes, female sexual dysfunction, infertility, and mostly all of the sexual health problems that women experience in the modern world today. If our bodies were a kingdom of different ecosystems and regions, Lugol’s iodine would be the emperor of all. It isn’t really possible to be healthy if you are deficient in Iodine. And like vitamin B17, sources of molecular iodine and potassium iodide in the food supply have been systematically removed. Halogen elements like fluorine and bromine have been systematically put in place to hijack the human body. Most reproductive organ cancers are caused by Iodine Deficiency with Bromine Toxicity. Restoring the B-vitamins (including vitamin B17) to normal levels along with Lugol’s iodine and supporting nutrients like selenium and the trace minerals noted above often leads to high levels of success in curing many diseases and disorders including reproductive hormone imbalance, infertility and more.
RPI Amygdalin [D-Mandelonitrile-b-gentiobioside] [Laetrile], 5 Gram
Iodine Deficiency
One of my favorite ways to quickly exemplify how Lugol’s iodine deficiency disrupts reproductive hormone levels is to talk about asthma.Lydian was diagnosed with asthma when she was 12 years old. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the things I know now, but when I brought home the inhaler and the steroid medications, I knew I wasn’t going to give them to her. My intuition said that if I gave her these medicines that I might never be able to get her off of them. I didn’t feel good about giving my daughter steroids / androgens. And I didn’t feel like she had asthma. The problem wasn’t severe. She’d cough sometimes and clear her throat repetitively. I decided to watch her more closely and see what came to my mind rather than giving her these pharmaceuticals.
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I worked at a desk that was close to her bedroom and a part of my mind was constantly observing her to try to figure out this respiratory problem. Was it allergies? Did she have an infection? This was the model of medicine that I was working with at the time. It was very restrictive. But nonetheless, I started to notice that this problem of coughing and throat clearing would happen most often when she was either ovulating or when she had her period.
That was interesting to me. So I started looking for information about the relationship between asthma and reproductive hormone levels. Sure enough, the science was there to show that the main cause of asthma were reproductive hormones that were in a state of change. This was why pre-pubertal boys tended to be diagnosed most frequently with asthma until puberty. Then, girls were suddenly more likely to be diagnosed with asthma. Wow! That blew my mind. Lydian had just started having her periods. But I didn’t know at that time that Lugol’s iodine regulates reproductive hormone levels and that Lugol’s iodine cures asthma. I did not specifically know that I should search the scientific literature for Lugol’s iodine as a cure for asthma so I didn’t find that specific tidbit of information (because it is hidden). But I was still very lucky because I didn’t give Lydian those steroids.
It would take me 3 more years to discover Lugol’s iodine as a cure for asthma and most of the other serious health problems that afflict people living in the developed world.
Estrogen in Women
Women who have reproductive hormone imbalances rarely need hormone replacement therapy. Most of the time, these women are deficient in Lugol’s iodine and supportive nutrients like vitamin K2. We’ll talk more about this problem in greater depth later.Some estrogenic substances are healthy (e.g. human estrogens, phytoestrogens). Others are toxic (e.g. xenoestrogens). As a general rule, estrogenic substances that promote the health of receptors and balanced reproductive hormone levels overall are considered healthy. But estrogenic substances that kill estrogen receptors or that cause reproductive hormone imbalances overall are considered unhealthy. Some toxic estrogenic substances can interact with estrogen receptors in the body and refuse to let go, preventing healthy estrogens from having their intended effect on our body’s function. These toxic estrogenic substances can cause problems such as infertility, reproductive hormone imbalance, and health problems that are (as it seems) not even related to the reproductive system.
Estrogen is roughly equivalent, reproductive-hormone-wise, to femininity. The highest number of estrogen receptors in a human body, after all, are located in the vagina. But that being said, both men and women need estrogen in order to be healthy. Nonetheless, estrogen is the Iconic Female Hormone.
As such, a woman who feels that she needs a boost of estrogen or progesterone can seek out a boost from phytoestrogens, or healthy plant-based estrogens that work with human estrogen receptors in the human body to create balance. Though doctors promote the use of bioidentical hormone injections to control hormone levels, it has been our experience that clients who receive bioidentical hormone injections suffer from adverse effects over the course of time. But if you’ve received bioidentical hormone injections and you’re looking for an alternative to bioidentical hormones, Trifolium pratense (Red Clover) and Pueraria mirifica are good herbal choices. Our goal is to empower our readers to take care of their own health using natural and/or non-toxic medicinal treatments that can easily be administered at home.
The human body produces three substances that are estrogenic, and each is different from the others. These three human “estrogens” include:
- Estrone (E1)
- Estradiol (E2)
- Estriol (E3)
Estrone
Of the three types of estrogen that the human body manufactures, estrone is considered to be the safest. Estrone is the primary estrogen found in post-menopausal women. In women who are no longer menstruating, estrone is the dominant estrogen with estradiol and estriol existing in proportionally smaller amounts. In child-bearing women estrone makes up about 5-10% of the human estrogens floating around in the body. Estrone is produced in the liver, in fat cells, and in the skin. As such, women who have a bit of fat on their bones (not too much, but not too little) will fare better after menopause than women who are extremely thin and lacking in excess fat stores.Women who have had a hysterectomy may have low levels of estrone too. A bit of fat can also help these women manufacture natural estrogen to maintain sexual health. These women can benefit from taking the herb Pueraria mirifica, as well, a plant that contains high quantities of miroestrol, a phytoestrogen (a plant-based estrogenic substance) that powerfully mimics the action of estrone in the human body. The miroestrol in Pueraria mirifica also benefits post-menopausal women who would like to lessen hot flashes and improve libido after their menstrual career ends.
However, not all post-menopausal women are deficient in estrone and estrogens in general. Some women have relatively balanced hormone levels following menopause. Determining whether or not a given woman needs to supplement with an estrogenic herb depends on symptoms of estrogen dominance or a lack of sufficient estrogen in the body.
Estradiol
Estradiol makes up about 5-10% of the total estrogens produced by a woman’s body. It is the most powerful of the human estrogens. Textbooks on reproductive hormones tend to state matter-of-factly that the ovaries produce estradiol, but the truth is that many tissues in the body (including the ovaries) produce estrogens from androgens. These tissues may produce and secrete estrogen that then interacts with receptors in the near vicinity of their release (which is known as a paracrine effect). Or a cell may produce estrogens that cause estrogenic effects from within the cell without ever even leaving the cell (which is known as an intracrine effect).Though estradiol is produced in the ovaries when a woman is still fertile and having periods, and though this type of estrogen lowers to a nearly non-existent level in post-menopausal women, it can still be produced by fat cells in significant quantities. Indeed, in post-menopausal women who are obese, the circulating levels of estradiol can be quite high via a conversion of androstenedione (a type of androgen) to estrone and then to estradiol via the aromatase enzyme.
Both estrone and estradiol can, at times, become elevated. Both of these estrogens can also get too low or deficient in a woman’s body. Both estrone and estradiol levels can be treated using the same methods.
Estriol
Estriol is the weakest of the estrogens in the body, which also makes it the safest and most beneficial. Estriol makes up the biggest proportion of estrogen at 85-90%. This form of estrogen is highest during pregnancy. It protects the body from breast cancer and it tends to exert a regulating effect on the amount of estrone and estradiol in the body.Estriol is a human estrogen that can’t convert into other types of human estrogens such as estrone or estradiol.
Estrogen Dominance: What You Need to Know
Estrogen dominance is a reproductive hormone imbalance that happens when one of the estrogen hormones is out of balance with the other reproductive hormones that are produced in the human body. But just because you have estrogen dominance symptoms does not necessarily mean that you have too much estrogen. That’s why the terminology for this reproductive hormone imbalance is specifically estrogen DOMINANCE as opposed to something like “estrogen overdose” or “estrogen toxicity” or something like that. Estrogen DOMINANCE involves a dominance of estrogen or a type of estrogen relative to progesterone and the androgens / testosterone.In other words, there are several reproductive hormone configurations that can happen that cause estrogen dominance. If you are estrogen dominant, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your estrogen levels are too high. It can mean, however, that they are too high relative to the other hormones like progesterone or testosterone. The hormone configurations that cause estrogen dominance include the following:
- Estrogen levels that are too high relative to testosterone and progesterone.
- This configuration can occur if a woman is exposed to xenoestrogens (toxic, synthetic estrogens that are in everything from canned food and birth control pills to environmental waste).
- Synthetic hormone treatment can cause estrogen levels that are too high.
- Bioidentical hormone treatment can cause estrogen levels that are too high.
- Progesterone levels that are too low relative to estrogen levels.
- Progesterone balances the effects of estrogen. If your estrogen levels are normal, but your progesterone levels are too low, you may develop symptoms of estrogen dominance.
- Testosterone levels that are too low relative to estrogen levels.
Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance
- Cravings for sugary foods / sweets
- Depression
- Moodiness
- Irritability
- Breast tenderness
- Fatigue
- Fluid retention
- Headaches
- Low libido
- Weight gain
- Heavy menstruation
- Irregular menstruation
- Poor sleep
- Panic attacks
What are xenoestrogens?
Xenoestrogens are toxic, synthetic estrogenic substances that have a negative impact on women’s and men’s health. Xenoestrogens are estrogenic. They behave like other estrogenic substances except that they confer none of the beneficial effects of estrogen to the body. And they also can accumulate in the tissues over time.The first xenoestrogens were produced about 70 years ago. Their effects on human health have only been studied scientifically since 1991.
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Estrogen: Effects on the Body
Estrogenic substances do not work only on reproductive organs. The reproductive hormones, like estrogen and estrogenic substances, impact the entire body in various ways. Many people today believe that bioidentical hormone therapy will primarily just affect their libido or other issues related to their sex life, but reproductive hormones impact every tissue in the body. The reproductive organs, after all, are located at the root chakra, the energy center that deals with putting down roots, feeling safe in the world, and our basic needs being met in the worldly sense of things. And reproductive hormone levels inform and relate to every organ in the body – estrogens and the other reproductive organs holistically impact our entire physiology.Below are some of the physiological actions of estrogen in the body:
- Estrogens relieve the symptoms of menopause.
- Estrogens lower blood pressure. Estrogen does this by decreasing the amount of calcium ions inside the cells lining the blood vessels.
- Estrogens prevent osteoporosis and promote bone density and strength (also via its action on calcium ions).
- Estrogens increase dopamine levels.
- Estrogens increase serotonin levels.
- Estrogens increase norepinephrine levels.
- Estrogens facilitate the brain’s use of glucose / sugars to enhance cognition.
- Estrogens regulate the amount of fluid in tissues. This is important in terms of libido in that proper levels of estrogen can promote thicker vaginal tissues for greater sexual pleasure and vaginal better lubrication.
- Estrogens increase the number of blood vessels in the vagina. Increasing blood flow to vaginal tissues also increases vaginal lubrication and sexual pleasure in women.
- Estrogens decrease abnormal vaginal discharge.
- Estrogens increase vaginal tissue elasticity.
- Estrogens increase natural vaginal lubrication.
How to Raise Estrogen Levels Naturally in Women
To raise estrogen levels naturally using herbs, a woman can take Pueraria mirifica and other medicines. Read more about Pueraria mirifica as a treatment for low estrogen levels at this link.How to Lower Estrogen Levels Naturally in Women
To lower estrogen levels and combat estrogen dominance, women can take diindolylmethane (otherwise known as DIM), a substance that exists naturally in broccoli, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables.Estradiol is naturally converted to estrone, if necessary, in the body.
Progesterone
Progesterone is the hormone that promotes gestation. It is literally pro-gestation, thus the name “progesterone”. This is the hormone that increases substantially when a woman becomes pregnant, and that must remain at higher levels for the duration of the pregnancy in order for the fetus to be carried to term. A woman’s progesterone levels reach their peak shortly after ovulation in preparation for a possible pregnancy; if pregnancy doesn’t occur, the woman’s progesterone levels will fall again until the next month. This is the hormone that is suppressed when a woman takes birth control medication.Androgens and Testosterone in Women
In women, androgens are primarily produced in the ovaries and in the adrenal glands. But the production of androgens by tissues in the body outside of the glands is vital for both men and women. An enzyme known as aromatase is found in a variety of tissues and cells including in the tissues of the ovaries, the placenta syncytiotrophoblast, fat cells, skin cells, bone tissues, and in the brain. This enzyme catalyzes the conversion of certain androgens into estrogens.The presence of the aromatase enzyme in fat cells and possibly also in the skin cells accounts for the production of estrogen from androgens by tissues other than the ovaries. The amount of aromatase enzyme in both men and women increases as the number of fat cells in the body increase. And the aromatase enzyme is also present in greater quantities with advancing age.
Resources:
• Wikipedia (2022). Androgen. Retrieved October 8, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen
• Kley, H. K. et al. (1980). Enhanced conversion of androstenedione to estrogens in obese males. Retrieved October 8, 2022 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7419688/
• Longcope, C. et al. (1978) Aromatization of androgens by muscle and adipose tissue in vivo. Retrieved October 8, 2022 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/752017/
• Nelson, L. R. and Bulun, S. E. (2001). Estrogen production and action. Retrieved October 9, 2022 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11511861/
