Estrogen Dominance In Men: How It Is Ruining Your Health And Virility, And What You Need To Do To Prevent It
Estrogen dominance is a hormonal disorder that occurs when estrogen levels are either too high, or when other hormones that are required to balance out estrogen become too low. It is often thought of as a female-only disorder, however men can suffer with it as well, and overexposure to estrogen-like compounds (xenoestrogens), have made estrogen dominance increasingly common among men and women of all ages. Estrogen dominance is rarely diagnosed, and failing to identify it can have a dramatic and damaging effect on all aspects of a person’s health.
Understanding Male Estrogen Dominance
Hormones need to be maintained in a delicate balance and the healthy range of estradiol, which is the chief female hormone that is most often measured to assess estrogen status, is between 15 pg/ml and 60 pg/ml. When estradiol climbs higher than that, or when testosterone levels fall too low to balance out the estrogen, estrogen dominance occurs. Due to modern-day lifestyle factors, it is not uncommon for men to have estradiol levels as high as 250 pg/ml, which to put into perspective, is a level that is equivalent to a woman’s peak estrogen levels during ovulation.
Estrogen Dominance Symptoms
Estrogen dominance can cause numerous mental and emotional symptoms, some of the most common of which include: mental fatigue, memory problems, an inability to concentrate, moodiness, irritability, depression, and emotional hypersensitivity. Estrogen dominance can also cause: insomnia, unrelenting physical fatigue, obesity, bloating, bone loss, back pain, headaches, and high cholesterol levels (which increases heart disease risk).
Estrogen Dominance and Your Sex Life
Estrogen dominance can negatively effect your sex life in numerous ways. It can cause a loss of libido, and an inability to get and/or maintain an erection. It can lower your sperm count, and lead to infertility. It can prevent you from reaching orgasm, and it can cause noticeable male breast enlargement (gynecomastia).
Estrogen Dominance and Prostate Health
There is a direct and proportionate connection between estradiol levels and prostate health — as estradiol levels climb, prostate size increases. High estradiol also causes an increase in fibrous tissues, and these two factors can make it hard to urinate. More worrisome however, is that estrogen dominance vastly increases the risk for prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Four Main Causes of Estrogen Dominance in Men
Xenoestrogens are most commonly blamed for estrogen dominance, but the following four contributors also need to be addressed in order to prevent and reverse this pervasive disorder
Cause #1: Diet
A diet that is high in animal products is arguably the leading cause of estrogen dominance in men. Animal products are naturally very high in estrogen, and this problem is confounded by the fact that factory farmed animals are injected with excess estrogens to make them grow larger. Non-organic produce and processed foods made from them, can also contribute to estrogen dominance because these foods are doused in herbicides and pesticides which mimic the effects of estrogen in the body.
Cause #2: Excess Body Weight
Excess body fat contributes to estrogen dominance in two ways. Firstly, fat tissues are rich in an enzyme that converts protein into testosterone, and testosterone into estradiol; so the more fat you have the higher your estradiol levels will be. Excess body weight also makes it virtually impossible to reverse estrogen dominance because estrogen is stored in fat cells. Because of this, the only way to truly reverse estrogen dominance if you are overweight, is to lose the excess fat cells.
Cause #3: Caffeine and Alcohol
Coffee, tea, energy drinks, Coca-Cola and other caffeinated products are major estrogen dominance triggers. In fact, just 2 cups of coffee a day can increase female hormone by a whopping 60. Alcohol is also problematic because plants used to produce alcoholic beverages contain estrogen-like compounds that act just like estrogen in the body. Studies show that even moderate alcohol intake is enough to produce measurable effects on estrogen in the body.[i]
Cause #4: Tight Underwear
When you wear tight underwear, there is no place for your genital organs, and it forces the testicles to be squeezed up against your body. This reduces the flow of blood to the testicles and causes them to overheat. These two factors lead to an increase in the production of estradiol and a decrease in the production of testosterone in the testicles.
[i] https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-3/220.pdf
