This week Maria and Roisin discussed the beautiful hormone Estrogen and how important it is for your fertility.
This week Maria and Roisin discussed the beautiful hormone Estrogen and how important it is for your fertility.
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Maria Hi, I'm Maria.
Roisin , and I’m Roisin
Maria: In this week's show, we are touching on a topic close to both our hearts. And what's the cornerstone to all things fertility? We are diving into the topic of hormones.
Roisin: Yeah, it's a really big one, isn't it? And certainly the secret sauce when it comes to fertility and happiness in general.
Maria: Yeah, Roisin, you're absolutely right. It really is the secret sauce. They're massively important. They're chemical messengers in your body and they travel in your bloodstream and they all have different jobs to do. So everybody has hormones, everybody has the same hormones, the levels can vary. And if you imagine it's like you've got a boss in your company, the boss is your brain, boss can't do everything, boss likes to delegate up in their office. All the different hormones in your body have different jobs to do just to keep the company running. The company is your body. And hormones are so important that we are going to split them up into the key players when it comes to your fertility. So the key hormones that are absolutely crucial to your trying to conceive journey are FSH, which is follicle stimulating hormone, LH, which is luteinizing hormone, and they have a really lovely relationship that we'll get into. Then we have got the two biggies, we have oestrogen and we have progesterone. And in today's show, we are going to focus on oestrogen.
Roisin: Definitely my favourite hormone!
Maria: I love that you have a favourite hormone. Is there a particular reason Roisin that you are, you know, a particular fan of oestrogen?
Roisin:It may be because mine is slightly on the wane. I have been learning a lot about oestrogen over the last year and a half and I can assure you, you don't know what you have got until it is gone.
Maria: Oestrogen is absolutely crucial, so much so that like you have said, when it starts to dwindle, we really do notice. The role that oestrogen plays across a normal menstrual cycle is massively, massively important. For anyone lucky enough to actually have, you know, this textbook 28-day cycle, which from what I can tell is no one, but anyone that actually has, you know, a regular cycle, this is the normal pattern that your hormones would take across this cycle. You would have your period and then from there, once your period, you know, has run its course, at that point your body starts to increase the levels of FSH, Follic Stimulating Hormone, and also oestrogen.
And this is in a normal situation to prepare your body for ovulation. Textbooks say 14 days can vary massively. So oestrogen rises, follicle stimulating hormone rises, so you are producing lots of these lovely follicles. Around ovulation, the idea is your lead follicle, the one that has developed the most, will basically release its egg.
When the egg releases, this is when things start to switch around a bit and then we get into the second half of your cycle. And at this point, your oestrogen starts to drop, your progesterone starts to rise, and your luteinizing hormone fluctuates as well. But oestrogen rises and then it dips throughout your menstrual cycle. And this is massively, massively important for all things fertility.
And what I'm really interested in is, there are actually three different types of oestrogen, which I think is really cool. And what your body does is, it has, it's like a variation on a theme. It's like they're all string instruments, but they're slightly different. So we've got three different types of oestrogen. You've got E1, which is kind of more important if you like, throughout the menopause. You've got E2, this is your fertile year, so this is one we're talking about today. And you've got E3, and that's the one that's so important in pregnancy. And they all have slightly different names, but they're all variations of a theme.
So oestrogen, massively, massively important. Peaks in the days leading up to ovulation. And this is where we talk a bit about your cervical mucus. It's really important for giving you that lovely egg white cervical mucus, as we call it. And this is where you create this lovely environment for your sperm. You want sperm to meet egg. Sperm's quite picky. Sperm likes a particular environment, you know, they like a nice fancy hotel, they don't like your cheap motel, they like it to be not too acidic. They like a nice cervical mucus, a bit like egg white. Oestrogen is crucial for that. So your oestrogen levels have to be right, so the sperm is happy. Gotta keep that sperm happy. In he goes, swims up, hopefully, you know, finds an egg, egg likes the sperm, and boom. So in a normal situation, this is one of the reasons why oestrogen is just so massively important for all things fertility.
But for people that are ovulating, on a normal cycle, you can physically feel so much better around that time, can't you? You're optimistic, your skin's glowing, everything kind of feels in the right place. Certainly didn't know that oestrogen had anything to do with your cervical mucus. You know when your oestrogen is peaking because you just feel awesome. So these are the days where you go into work and you absolutely smash that meeting. It's the day where you've got a sales pitch that day and you always get it. You just feel awesome.
If you contrast that to the other end of your cycle, you don't want to be doing a sales pitch. I really believe in this. With my psychology head on, it will be an evolutionary thing. You look good, you feel good, you're about to ovulate. Happy days.
Oh, and also there's some interesting research on this. Women who are closer to ovulation, when they are dancing in more of the exotic type of way than perhaps your classic tap dancing, shall we say, they get more tips. So there's a lot of research now. You smell good, you look good, you're going to ovulate. And again, I was talking to a man the other day and we were talking about fertility and he was saying he can tell when his wife is ovulating because he was nearly embarrassed when he told me, but not really. He can smell it.
Roisin: It's evolutionary. There's absolutely no doubt about that.
Maria: For any of you thinking, all right, okay, tell me more. How do I know if my oestrogen is where it should be? The good news is that there are ways to look at this and there are things you can measure. So like we've just been saying, cervical mucus is a massive one. Across the normal cycle, you know, you should get to this point around day 14 or whenever you ovulate where you have this lovely egg white cervical mucus. Ideal concentration for the sperm. Sperm's happy, it goes and does its thing. What can happen though, and this is obviously where the fertility issues might come in, is that you can have levels of oestrogen that are too high, so you're oestrogen dominant and you can have levels of oestrogen that are too low.
Like three bears porridge, we want it to be just right, but if it isn't, there are signs that you can look out for.
With low oestrogen, one of the key things is vaginal dryness. But one of the ways you might realise is sex just becomes more painful. There's just not enough lubrication. That can be a sign of low oestrogen. You might get an increase in UTIs, so in urinary tract, infections, you might get, and this is obviously the biggie that we're looking for, irregular or absent periods, because you might not actually be ovulating when you're supposed to be. So therefore, you don't go through that lovely cycle that you're supposed to go through, and then this leads to a whole pile of problems. Mood issues, hot flashes, you might have sore breasts, headaches, migraines might get worse. Again, mood, you might just end up feeling a lot more depressed. Depression and oestrogen, massive, okay, massive link between the two. Your concentration might go and you might feel fatigued. If your oestrogen is low, there are some quite serious side effects here, just for you in general, but also if you are trying to conceive.
It's just really important that you check in, try your best to track these across your cycle if you have a cycle. But this is where the cycle tracking is just so important for so many things. But if you can, try and track how you feel across a cycle. Are there any signs that you might have low oestrogen?
Roisin: And some of those are very difficult to necessarily identify. The quiet ones, like, you know, you feel quite hot, then, you know, it's winter and everyone's got the heat on, everyone's got layers on, for example, or the headaches is hanging around for that little bit longer, or you just look really tired, like I'm not getting enough sleep over the course of a month. And then if you compare it month on month, that's really when you start to really get that data in. This is really important.
Maria: And it ties in with this idea that I'm really working on, especially for my clients at the minute, which is being mindful. Because like you've just said, fatigue, I'm tired, I had a day at work, you know, okay, but did you actually have a busy day at work? And have you now been fatigued for the last five days, because that's not the same thing. Or I'm having trouble concentrating. But again, if you've having trouble concentrating for these five days, for the last three months, that's not the same thing. So it's just about being much more present, and just really focusing on yourself and perhaps your journal, perhaps you log, track it to your cycle, it doesn't have to take ages, it doesn't have to be cumbersome, but it could just be this massive insight to a whole load of things that are going on in your endocrine system, that you're just not really aware of. If you then, for whatever reason decide to go to the doctor, you've got some data. If you are in that wait period, that give it six months, give it a year, where they're just checking your progress, really nothing else is happening.
Roisin: These are pretty difficult symptoms to live with. And I wouldn't like the idea of anyone living with these symptoms. It takes a toll emotionally, it takes a toll on your relationships. Is there anything a client can do naturally to try and relieve some of these symptoms?
Maria: Massively valid point there, there will be a lot of people who are frustrated because they know they need to ride out that six months to a year before anything's going to happen. The good news is you can feel like you are taking some control, which is a massive thing for a lot of people on the fertility journey. So one of the amazing things you can do if you want to manage your oestrogen levels naturally is look at the food you're eating because you are what you eat.
One of the things that you can start with is soybeans. And this is really cool because soybeans are products that you get from soybeans. So things like tofu and miso, they're a really great source of something called phytoestrogens. And what phytoestrogens do is they mimic your natural oestrogen in the body. So all that means is your body thinks, oh brilliant, I've got some oestrogen, I'll do what I need to do when I've got oestrogen. So this is a really cool thing. So it's like you are pretending that you have oestrogen and your body just carries on as though you do. So soybeans, soybean products are amazing.
Seeds are also really good. So flax seeds and sesame seeds are also really good at supporting oestrogen as well. You can also look at your vitamins. Vitamin D is great for many things. It's really good for fertility. Evening primrose oil is brilliant for mood. And red clover is the other one actually. Red clover has been found to be really good for supporting oestrogen levels as well.
Roisin: I remember reading years ago that Japanese women didn't suffer from hot flushes at the same level as women in the West. And I think that's when they started looking at sort of the dietary differences. We are what we eat. Straight into your wheelhouse, Maria, exercise.
Maria: Exercise is, you'll be shocked to hear me say this, but exercise is just good for you. Exercise does support your endocrine system. Endocrine is just a fancy word for hormones. Improve your feel good hormones, so your dopamine, your serotonin, and it will just help everything do what it's supposed to do. We already know that exercise is amazing for the physical and the mental health.
Roisin: Just say you're eating all the food, you're doing all the exercise and you still aren't feeling 100% and it is really time to go see the doctor specifically about being low on oestrogen. Any of your clients have come back to you with any treatments that they've received?
Maria: Okay, here we go. The three letters are H, R and T.
Roisin: Hormone replacement therapy to give that to women that are trying to conceive. This is the really cool thing. Obviously when we think of HRT, the first thing that most people think about is of course menopause. But actually HRT, so hormone replacement therapy, does literally mean replacing depleted hormones. So absolutely it might be when you come to menopause and low oestrogen. If your hormones are depleted for other reasons, you're not in menopause and you are trying to have a baby that is actually exactly what you need. You can definitely get more medical support if the natural things aren't working. So quite often it will be a combined approach of oestrogen and progesterone and we will be talking about progesterone on the next show. What's really interesting about this, it's also used when trying to support people going through IVF, but in particular with implantation. And this is really, really interesting and as I always do, I was doing a deep dive into the research for the show. And some really interesting research about the uterus has this kind of prime time that is ripe for implantation. They think it's to do with the levels of oestrogen. There's like a very small window where your levels of oestrogen have to be not too high and not too low, just right at just the right time so implantation can actually take place in your uterus. And obviously this is just really interesting, but it has massive implications for more natural conception, but also assisted conception because your oestrogen levels have to be just right, not just for the cervical mucus and not just so that the sperm is happy, but even when you've got the embryo, so even when the sperm and the egg have met each other and you know, they like each other enough, the actual next bit, the implantation bit, your oestrogen has to be just right for that as well. Pregnancy and becoming pregnant is just this most incredible thing because all these things have to line up for it to happen. It really is genuinely, it is just amazing.
Roisin: It is amazing. And it's a chemistry set, isn't it? And you're just trying to get all those little bits just right. I just want to say that there has been in the past a lot of bad press about HRT. It is an area that I had to look into quite a lot. I was dragged to look into it to really find out because I, like everyone else, thought, oh, well, HRT may lead to breast cancer. And the more I looked, the more I realised, ah, it's not necessarily true. Basically, the research that was done that had a correlation between breast cancer and HRT was done 20 years ago with a different form of oestrogen. Okay, so it was mares oestrogen as in, you know, a female horse. That's what they were deriving the oestrogen from. The cohort of women that they were testing on this HRT were, I think they were on average 63 years old. Early menopause can come in anytime around early 40s. And then the average for full-blown menopause is 51 and defined as one full calendar year without your period. The cohort was slightly off and the method was slightly off because the HRT that we tend to use now comes from yams, of all things. I did not know that actually. That's amazing. Women will have oestrogen in either a gel form that you put on the skin or there's also patches. And they just kind of get your levels right based on your mood and general comfort within your own body. Certainly, this is not our expertise on this show, but I would thoroughly recommend Dr. Louise Newsom. And she does a podcast and she also has an app called Balance. And Davina McCall and Menopause, her book is absolutely a godsend for anyone that is going through low oestrogen, low progesterone kind of symptoms because there's so much in there and it's so well researched. So if you've got any concerns whatsoever, obviously talk to your doctor as a very first place to go. But if you want to learn about all the various different and sometimes quite confusing symptoms of having low oestrogen, you'll find it in Louise Newsom's app or Davina McCall's book. Both really, really good and really reassuring.
Maria: I think reassurance is actually really important here. You know, whatever angle you're coming at this from, partly you just want to know, can I control this and can I fix it? Any reassurance, listening to other women, knowing that you're not alone is massively, massively important here. It just gives you that little bit of hope.
Maria: Sorry to interrupt, but I know that you want a baby in 2023. So I'm excited to tell you all about my new training plans. Many of you are fed up with trying to lower your BMI alone. You feel confused and overwhelmed with the information around fitness for fertility. And really, you just want a baby. My training plans are designed to support you at whatever stage of your journey that you're at. Whether you need to lose 12 pounds or more to reach your target BMI, whether you need accountability support, and whether or not you need meal plans to support your healthy eating and BMI. Head over to fitnessfertility.com forward slash training for fertility to find out more or book in for a free consultation at fitnessfertility.com forward slash free consultation to discuss your own personal fertility needs. And now back to the show.
Maria: The other joy that can happen when it comes to estrogen is estrogen dominance. And as you might guess, this is where your estrogen levels are too high. This is a massive one for fertility. If you were trying to symptom spot signs of high estrogen, you might experience some of the following. So PCOS is a big one, polycystic ovarian syndrome, bloating, you know, more than just the normal, again, swelling, tenderness in your breasts. Again, you might have a decreased sex drive, you might have the irregular periods, you might have increased PMS, particularly bad, particularly troublesome PMS, which goes with the mood swings, again, the headaches, anxieties are really interesting on and cause anxiety and PCOS quite often go hand in hand. Weight gain, you know, when you shouldn't be gaining weight, you know, when you're eating well, you're exercising well and the weight still piling on. You might experience hair loss, cold hands or cold feet, trouble sleeping, fatigue, you might even experience memory problems. You know, these are all really potentially quite serious things.
And again, what I would say is, well, A, be mindful, how are you actually feeling? Check in with yourself. Is there something just not quite right? And do try and track it. If you do have a cycle, do try and track it because again, it is something you can control. You can get some data. And then when your six months is up, when your year's up, go to the doctor and you can say, look, here's the data. This is what I've got. And forewarned is forearmed.
Roisin: Maria, because you had PCOS, that was your barrier to fertility for many years. You must have experienced what it was like to live with high estrogen levels. How did you manage it?
Maria: This is the really interesting thing. I'm looking at this list and I'm kind of going, had that, had that. Oh yeah. Had that. Oh yeah. Had that. And to be quite honest, I think I just didn't realize because I just didn't know as much as I know now. To be honest, I don't really know anything at the time until I started looking into it. But I had a regular menstrual period. I've talked before about higher and they've had one a year and it was always when I was on holiday, you know, and someone like Sarajevo and really bad headaches, really bad anxiety. Weight gain is a big problem. I ran a lot. The running for me really helped with my energy levels. It really helped with things like anxiety. I can get quite bad anxiety if I don't do exercise. The exercise would help stabilize my mood because again, when you do exercise, you know, you get this lovely boost of all the really good hormones that we like. Like I said before, the dopamine and serotonin. Bloating, depending on the cause of the bloating, but trying to eat foods that were better for my gut.
We've talked about gut health before. Much more awareness around gut friendly foods. There are lots of things that you can do to support high levels of oestrogen as well. And again, nutrition and working out in the right way are our key to this. You know, other than getting chemicals involved, nutrition and working out are key to helping you manage oestrogen dominance.
Roisin: And is there any specific foods that you should rule in or rule out? There is research now that shows processed meats, red meats, other processed foods, they might actually just be linked to elevated oestrogen levels. So this is something that you would want to avoid anyway. You would want to limit your refined carbs. One of the other key things that you might want to look at is if you do have excess body fat, it is trying to lose that body fat. What the research has shown is that if you can lose some excess body fat, it's a really good way to lower that oestrogen. Basically less fat, in some ways less oestrogen. If you can take some of the fat out, it just lowers that overall oestrogen level. You do manage to lose a little bit of body fat, which I do really appreciate can be hard, especially with PCOS. That's just better for your health anyway. And it's important to research better for fertility and better for a healthier pregnancy as well.
Exercise has been shown to help reduce the body fat, but also just reduce oestrogen levels. It's really good for just promoting healthy oestrogen regulation. So just helping your body do what it's supposed to do. And I'm afraid alcohol. Not all our listeners drink and I know that, but if you are partial to a small alcoholic beverage of an evening, again, it is one that you should look at because there's so much research now about what alcohol does to your body. And I appreciate a nice glass of wine as much as anyone, but there are some quite serious ramifications of drinking alcohol, especially on a regular basis. So again, it's kind of sensible stuff, low processed food, eat a healthy diet, try to avoid the red meats, but do try and keep your body fat in check and lower that alcohol as well. And these things can make a real difference.
Roisin: You're suffering from the symptoms of having too much oestrogen or too little oestrogen. The result from both of them is you just want to sit down and eat all the cakes.
Maria: Just want to sit down. And that's it. And the best way of combating it is get up and move around. It may be the last thing on your mind. Try and build in those tiny habits. Like we were saying last week, it's the idea of sort of small nudges to get you to where you need to be. I know it sounds ridiculous, but kind of have reminders around your house. You know, there's often people that will swing a kettlebell while they're waiting for the kettle to boil or get your endorphins flowing before you have your first brew of the day. Because I'm laughing because I am the person with the kettlebell and I have it out on purpose and I can see it at all times because if I just swing that kettlebell 10 times, how you every little helps. There's little ways to fit this in. Little ways, little nudges. Consistency is key.
Roisin: Always. And obviously if none of these things are helping, go straight to your doctor and go in well researched and make sure that you leave with something, some action plan, because it's really tough to live with these symptoms. Maria has lived with too high oestrogen. I have lived with too low oestrogen and I can assure you, now the state is pleasant. It's so, so important that you make sure you track your cycle, try and get as much data together as possible and go in and say, I need to have this addressed. Even if you're in that time where they're asking you to just keep on trying, sometimes that's for six months or a year, you're absolutely in your right to go into the doctor during that period and say, love going pregnant is one thing, but how I feel today and have felt for the last number of days, number of weeks in a row, that has to be addressed.
Maria: Yeah, I actually think that's a really valid point because that six months or that year, you're always focused on the fertility, but actually if you've got really low mood, if you're bloating, if you've got headaches, if you've got migraines, they are legitimate symptoms in themselves and they're horrible symptoms that you can try and manage. For anyone that is thinking, do you know what, this is a lot of information, I'm quite overwhelmed right now. If you head over to my website, fitnessfertility.com and you just click on the free resources, I've got a self advocating guide and it's designed exactly for this. It gives you loads of information. You can download it, fill it in. It's a symptom checker and you can take that to your doctor and it will just help you to reflect on and then record any symptoms that you might be experiencing and then it's just that little bit of extra data that you can bring as well.
Roisin: So Maria, what will we be talking about next week? Next week we do of course have the double. So on Tuesday we have Fertility Focus where I'm talking you through reasons why you're not hitting your weight loss goals and these are reasons that you might not even be aware of. So tune in Tuesday for Fertility Focus and then on Friday we are coming back to hormones and we are talking about the monster that is progesterone. I love progesterone.
Massively important in fertility, hugely important in maintaining a healthy pregnancy.
So tune in to both Fertility Focus on Tuesday and the Fitness Fertility Podcast on Friday. Thank you so much for listening to this week's show. Remember to subscribe to get a shiny new episode each week and please rate and comment and really importantly share with your friends, especially our Trying To Conceive Sisters. You never know who's struggling and they may need that little bit of extra help.
Roisin: This may come as a surprise but we are not doctors. We strongly recommend that you consult your doctor before beginning any exercise or nutrition programme. Get everything checked out first. Your safety is our priority. This has been a Worth A Listen production.