Today we're going to talk about estrogen deficiency.
This happens mostly in post-menopausal women, but it could happen in regular women, too.
I'm Dr. Carrie Lam and this is Dr. Michael Lam.
What is it usually look like when someone has estrogen deficiency?
Estrogen is a key female hormone that goes down during the menopausal area.
Estrogen is made in three places in the body.
Primarily in the ovarian system,
in the adrenal system as well as in the adipose tissue.
If you want to figure out whether the person has too much estrogen
or too little estrogen which is what our discussion is,
at this time you have to look at the person first of all and make that preliminary discussion.
For example, if a person is rather skinny,
a small frame, you know, that they can easily put their finger around their wrist,
that's how we decide whether you're small framed or not,
then you don't have overweight, especially women five feet two to five feet four,
you know, 100 pounds, 95 pounds, 120 pounds,
these people have more propensity
to be estrogen deficient because during menopause, the estrogen goes down.
On the other hand, you have people who are more...
...little more weight. For example, five foot four person that's 180 pounds,
then the adipose tissue makes more estrogen
so their probability of estrogen deficiency actually is relatively low.
So someone like me has more propensity to be more estrogen deficient
because I'm small framed and thinner versus someone who has a lot of adipose obesity
or mid-stomach fat tends to store a lot of estrogen and fat also makes the estrogen.
And this is not something that 100% can be determined by laboratory value.
You really have to look at the person because there are certain profiles that the body go through.
An estrogen deficient woman during menopause, which is the discussion here,
generally are small, skinny, but in addition to that, they can have vaginal dryness,
they have sagging breasts
and they tend to be systemically more sensitive for reasons we don't quite understand.
If you look back at the history, they may have a sensitivity to birth control.
They may have PCOS. They may have ovarian cysts
or breast cysts and they have a tendency to have food sensitivities,
they don't connect well with any hormone replacement.
Their body just seems to be a little bit more finicky so to say.
That is a general picture. You have to get that first
and then that is the key because if you don't have a good history
to figure out what is going on with the body's response through the 50 years,
then you can very easily jump to the wrong conclusions
because the symptoms of estrogen deficiency can sometimes
be the same as estrogen dominance.
Wow, so it kind of overlaps. It's hard to tell.
It can overlap and both can have hot flashes. Both can be irritable.
You know, you have to be very careful now.
A few decades ago when most women tend to be – or most of us, all of us,
tend to be more skinny, the propensity is to be more estrogen deficient
and that's why at that time,
you give estrogen replacement through hormones, most people feel better.
They feel better, yeah, with the estrogen.
But then they of course found out that you give too much hormones
in a body that's already hormonally burdened,
then you've basically pushed them over the limit and therefore they develop cancer.
For people with estrogen dominance, you don't want to give them more estrogen
even though sometimes they feel better.
That's a very tricky thing and everybody's different.
If you're struggling and you don't see what is really going on,
there's no good answer for you, you have to look outside the box
and look at there are many natural ways to try to support healthy hormone level in the body
and let the body do the work,
but generally speaking, the more skinny you are, the more thin you are,
the more you have to be careful.
What are some natural healthy ways that you said people can balance their hormones?
Well, if it estrogen deficiency type of a picture,
herbs such as black cohosh can be helpful,
even primrose oil does have estrogenic-type effect but they're not estrogens.
Of course if it's vaginal dryness, you can use some estroiol cream that your
doctor can prescribe and there are plant-based alternatives that can be used
but again, you have to kind of see the people who really knows what they're doing
and then take a more detailed history before you jump into more conclusions.
That's estrogen deficiency for you. We're here to help you on your health journey.