Welcome to the Egg Meets Sperm podcast, your go-to source for holistic fertility support! In this episode, Dr. Aumatma Simmons breaks down everything you need to know about estrogen dominance and its impact on your fertility journey. Are you experiencing mood swings, weight gain, fatigue, or fibroids? You might be dealing with estrogen dominance—but not in the way you think.

Dr Aumatma is;

• A licensed Naturopathic Doctor for 15 years, with additional board certification in Naturopathic Endocrinology
• Creator of The Restorative Fertility Method
• Host of Egg Meets Sperm Podcast, a Top 5% podcast
• 2x Best-selling author: Fertility Secrets and (in)Fertility: Struggles, Secrets, & Successes
• Awards: Best Naturopathic Medicine Doctor (2015, 2020) and Top Women in Medicine Doctor (2020, 2021), Berkeley Hall of Fame (2022)
• Interviewed on 100+ podcasts about fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum
• Featured as the Holistic Fertility Expert on ABC, FOX, CBS, KTLA, MindBodyGreen, The Bump 
• Has trained hundreds of practitioners around the world in holistic approaches to fertility, and has certified top doctors in the Fertile Foundations™ system 
• Founder of Madre Fertility, with a free Smart Fertility Analysis, to help you better understand blocks to fertility, and create a customized roadmap for the journey.
• Medical Advisor for Mira Fertility, Element, and Feminade - three awesome leaders in fertility & women’s health 

If you’re ready to understand your body better and take control of your fertility journey, this episode is a must-listen!

Listen now to discover:

• The truth about estrogen dominance and hormone imbalance
• Key lifestyle changes to support hormone health
• How toxins could be affecting your fertility without you knowing
• Different types of estrogen dominance
• How they can affect your hormone balance
• Why the right approach is crucial for maintaining a healthy cycle.

Join us for a deep dive into the world of hormones and fertility, and take the next step toward your dream of parenthood.

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Hey, it's Dr. Aumtama, host of Egg Meets Sperm. And this is the best podcast to get all of the vital information that you need to support your fertility journey holistically for you and your partner because fertility takes two.

periods, mood swings, weight gain, fatigue, even fibroids, then you need to listen to this episode today.(...) Let's get into it. Hi, I'm Dr. Omotma Simmons of the Agneets Firm podcast. And today we're talking about something called estrogen dominance, which I know for so many of

you have heard a lot about. And so many of you actually take estrogen removing or estrogen detoxifying herbs and supplements. But this is going to come with a warning. Not everyone actually has estrogen dominance, even if they have the symptoms.(...) So today we're breaking down all the things related to estrogen dominance. It's often a hormone imbalance more than it is a dominance of one hormone over the other.(...) So what exactly is estrogen dominance? It can present in one of two ways. One can be that you have high levels of estrogen all the time. So maybe your estrogen in the follicular phase is higher than it should be. Maybe it's higher than it should be in the luteal phase. That's one degree of estrogen dominance. But another degree of estrogen dominance where it's not actually high estrogen,(...) you may have completely normal levels of estrogen, but they're proportionally high to progesterone in the luteal phase. And those are relative estrogen dominance, which we wouldn't actually know without testing. So this is really important to know because I know that so many of you take supplements that are to detox estrogen. And although some of them can be helpful and even some may be helping your symptoms, but maybe making your fertility worse. So let's talk a little bit further about the relative estrogen dominance as well as the overt estrogen dominance and what it means, what causes it, and what we can do about it. So some of the factors that are leading to estrogen dominance, again, we're talking about both scenarios, can be things like poor liver health. And this is where estrogen detoxes, two of the estrogen detox pathways are in the liver. The first pathway is the CYP1A1. That is the first degree that is happening in phase one detoxification. And then you have COMT, which is dependent for phase two detoxification. And then phase three detox actually happens in the gut. So liver health as well as gut health is going to make a significant difference in your estrogen balance.

(...)

Again, we're thinking about this as balance. We want the right levels of estrogen at the right points in our cycle. You don't want high estrogen all the time. You don't want low estrogen all the time. So we're really going to try to make it so that you are balanced throughout your whole cycle and you can have fluctuating levels as you're supposed to. So liver health and gut health are going to be

really important. The aspect of gut health that's most important is our microbiome. There's a specific microbiome that helps to detox estrogen. And if you don't have that microbiome,(...) then you're not actually neutralizing that estrogen that needs to be detoxed out of the gut. And then it gets recirculated into the bloodstream. And hence the estrogens is never leaving the system.

(...)

An unbalanced diet can also contribute to estrogen dominance.(...) And the last one, which I think most of you are aware, but it's playing a really significant role is environmental toxins. And environmental toxins, of course, we have the estrogen mimicking compounds like BPA and BPS. Those are significant. But we've also seen a resurgence of things like glyphosate and atrazine, which are contributing to your body holding on to more estrogen than it should.(...) I believe that part of that is because of the impact on the liver. And the other part is that those compounds are actually depleting our healthy gut microbiome. And if our microbiome is depleted, again, you're not going to be able to bind and neutralize that estrogen and get it out of the body.

Okay, so what is happening throughout our cycle? It's really in the beginning of the cycle, this is your menstrual phase. This is where all of the hormones are at their baseline. They're the lowest possible. Estrogen is gonna start rising around cycle day 10 and by cycle day 14.

And this is of course gonna vary from person to person, but usually estrogen is gonna rise a few days before ovulation. So that estrogen is gonna surge and that is actually what stimulates the LH to surge, which then produces the progesterone that you're gonna have in your luteal phase.(...) If that progesterone is lower,(...) let's say it's a flat line here, then that progesterone being low is actually what is making this estrogen feel like

it's high.

(...)

So what we don't want is our progesterone to be down here.(...) That would be very bad. We actually want this progesterone to be much higher than the estrogen and to be a sustained nice curve.(...) What often happens is if we don't have good egg quality, we're not gonna have this high level of progesterone or that level of progesterone doesn't sustain. So maybe it does something like this where it peaks for a few days and then drops off and for a few days, the estrogen is high. And this is often going to be creating the symptoms that so many women have of feeling like they have premenstrual syndrome.

(...)

moody, they're crying a lot. Maybe they're just not as balanced. They feel like they're getting headaches. They're getting

essentially all of the symptoms of PMS or very severe PMDD can be related to this drop off of progesterone too early. And hence kicking in that estrogen dominance just for a few days before your cycle. So if you're often getting these symptoms just for a few days before your cycle, then possibly you have a relatively high estrogen compared to the progesterone for those few days. If those symptoms last for you for the entire luteal phase after ovulation,

(...)

then maybe you're just not producing progesterone very highly.(...) And that's often an indicator of poor egg quality. It can also be an indicator that ovulation didn't actually happen, even though it should have.

(...)

Now, if you're getting symptoms in the first part of your cycle where you shouldn't maybe necessarily have symptoms, but you're feeling like, oh, I am having really heavy periods, painful periods,

(...)

mood swings in the early part of my cycle. Again, that could be estrogen high when it's not supposed to be high. So that's something to watch out for. And then if you have symptoms all throughout your cycle and you can't make sense of them, then often those symptoms are related to high progesterone throughout your cycle.

(...)

So what are the things that we can do to support healthy balance of estrogen?

(...)

I would start with supporting the liver. So foods that support detoxification in the liver are going to support healthy balance of estrogen naturally in your body without supplements.(...) I'm not a fan of supplements without testing. So you will never hear me say go out and buy this supplement, because I truly believe that without a proper analysis and proper testing, we may not know enough to give you the right supplement.

remember, even the estrogen is detoxed out of so many different pathways in the liver,

alone is enough to be an indicator of

do you have a phase one issue? Do you have a phase two issue? Do you have a phase three issue? And you're going to get different supplements for each phase. If you upregulate the wrong phase, then you're leading to potentially doing more harm than good because you have the wrong supplement in there.

(...)

So something as simple as adding green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables like spinach, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, those are all really easy foods to integrate and they're going to help support your liver.(...) And the side bonus is that most of them are really high in folate

the more observable form of folate is so that

need to supplement folic acid less and folic acid and

are really amazing for fertility. So

win-win there.(...)

The other thing you can do is start your day with a glass of lemon water. This stimulates the liver enzymes and digestive enzymes in the morning. So you're supporting a healthy liver and a healthy gut throughout the day.

last but not least, and certainly do this with(...) caution

because even though this is not a supplement, it is herbal.

And the herbal is milk thistle or dandelion root tea, or sometimes they make liver blends. So I know that one of my favorite herb companies for tea is called traditional medicinal and they do, I do believe they have a liver detox formula. So it has a blend of milk thistle and dandelion. And a bunch of other things.

So having a cup of tea at night

be really helpful in supporting liver health.

The second thing we can do is supporting healthy fat and fiber levels.(...) So healthy fats are going to help regulate hormone levels.(...) Fat, essential fatty acids are the building blocks of your hormones. And ideally,(...) if this is this would be the case, if you had potentially a low progesterone to estrogen ratio, then healthy fats can potentially be helpful because they're going to be building blocks and hopefully your body will make more progesterone on its own.

(...)

And,

reducing inflammation, which is really helpful in the case of women that have painful menstrual cycles.

the fats that are really helpful to include are going to be the omega 3 fatty acids. They come from fatty fish or supplementation, or

you're plant based, then flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds,

and the oils of all of those are good, healthy fats to incorporate. Things like avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds are also really helpful sources for omega 3 fatty acids.

And then last but not least,

chain triglycerides, such as those found in coconut oil, are really good sources for omega 3 fatty acids. So that was the first part. And then remember, I said also supporting fiber. And fiber is actually really great for detoxification. It's a great way to generally detox because it's a really good source of metabolism,(...) of supporting energy levels, as well as just overall lowering inflammation.

(...)

So

was the first part. And then remember, I said also supporting fiber.

(...)

Generally detox because most of us do not get enough fiber.

(...)

The daily recommended is 50 grams of fiber per day. Most of us are getting somewhere between 10 and 15 grams. So we're almost always depleted.(...) And remember that I said that estrogen specifically needs fiber to be bound in the gut to be excreted out of the system. So if you're not getting enough fiber, that's going to be

a detriment.

like to group the fats and fibers together because things like plant-based

acids, sources such as flax seeds or chia seeds are also going to be good sources of fiber, as well as omega 3 fatty acids.

a really easy way. If you do eat ground flax seeds, make sure that they're ground, not whole.

Whole flax seeds are extremely hard to digest and they don't actually support your hormones. They just make more inflammation in your gut. So you want those flax seeds ground,

but adding a tablespoon of flax to your smoothies or plant-based yogurt or oatmeal in the morning can be all great ways to get a little bit additional fiber into your diet, as well as good healthy fats.(...) You can potentially add an avocado on top of your food or a tablespoon of coconut oil, hemp seed oil, flax seed oil on top of food is a really great way to add some healthy fats into your diet without having to make major changes.

My third tip for you in helping to balance estrogen in the body is to get rid of the toxins. And this one, I know most of you are like, "Oh, not the toxins again." But these toxins are having a very detrimental effect on our hormonal system.

(...)

And it's so important. It's so important to be aware of where they're coming in and how we can reduce our exposure.

(...)

It's better to reduce exposure than to have to detox.(...) So let's get into it. The first thing that I would do is switch out my water bottle. Please do not use plastic water bottles. We don't need to anymore. There are lots of options. You can get a clean water bottle. There are lots of options. You can get a glass bottle. You can get a stainless steel bottle. You do not want aluminum. You want to make sure that your bottle is stainless steel or glass.

This is a really simple way to reduce our exposure to especially BPA.(...) But even

that say BPA-free that still feel like plastic,

(...)

which are even more toxic to our hormonal system. So do not use those BPA-free products. Really make sure that you're going for something that just doesn't have any resonance with plastic. That's the simplest way that I can put it. Similarly, you can switch out your

containers for food.

Switch it to glass if you eat out a lot and

takeout home.

and see if the restaurant can put your food into your own containers instead of putting the hot food into plastic containers, which is the absolute worst for releasing all of those

bisphenol compounds or BPA, BPS, BPA, BPS into your food. Even the

cups that you get for Starbucks, for example,

they're going to be coated with a plastic lining. That's what makes these paper cups not disintegrate when they're exposed to hot coffee.(...) They're coated with the plastic lining. So limiting your use of those, bringing your own mug to Starbucks, that's an easy way to reduce your exposure and not have an impact on your hormones through these toxins.

(...)

Another thing certainly that you could be doing is checking your personal care products and makeup, for example, that almost always have lots of

toxins.

(...)

An average woman

out of her house or nowadays gets on Zoom with 127 toxins being applied to her skin. And as you can tell, I'm a fan of makeup. I like makeup. I like to look good.

But all of my makeup products are natural. And I will not put toxins on my skin. I actually had a recent experience of using some new product that I had gotten. Didn't realize that it had some toxin in it and my skin was breaking out.

(...)

So my skin luckily has a reaction built in, which is really helpful. But if you don't, even if you don't get a reaction, it doesn't mean that your product is clean. You just need to be aware of what is in these products and that so many of them are endocrine disruptors. My favorite to look for, and it's

easy to look for, is to go around your house and look for things that say fragrance on the label. Almost every fragrance is a phthalate and phthalates are endocrine disruptors or disrupt the hormonal systems in our body.

rid of the things that have fragrance and you will probably address a majority of things that have toxins in it.

(...)

it for my hormone balancing talk today.

I hope that you found this useful. And if you did, please give us a thumbs up or

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