IVF, Pregnancy, Fertility, Baby Dreams…

With regards to infertility, estrogen levels play a really important role. There are scores of hormones that play a part in the correct operation of the reproductive system, and each one is essential to the whole system. Kind of like how testosterone is the hormone generally associated with guys, estrogen is the hormone chiefly connected with women If you have a shortageof estrogen you might experience hot flashes, vaginal dryness, night sweats and headaches. You might also battle to conceive for various reasons:

• If the ovum did manage to get fertilized it won’t have any place to implant if the estrogen doesn’t stimulate the uterus to produce the lining for the zygote.
• The sperm will find it difficult to get to the egg if estrogen doesn’t cause the cervical mucus to become thinner.
• If your estrogen concentrations are very depleted you could not ovulate (release eggs at all) – never mind having problems with implantation!

A few factors can result in low estrogen levels:

• Lack of Luteinizing Hormone (LH), which controls the manufacture of estrogen.
• If you are too skinny, or if you have an eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia) or if you exercise excessively then the pituitary gland doesn’t work properly and the messages that instruct the ovaries to manufacture estrogen get jumbled.
• A total lack of eggs will also give rise to in low estrogen levels.

Treatment options:

• Estrogen concentrations in the body can be increased through medication. Apparently, some foodstuffs, such as tofu, can assist as well.

You could also have difficulties if you have too much estrogen relative to progesterone in your system. You are at a risk for estrogen dominance if you are stressed, overweight, not eating properly or exposed to alternative sources of estrogen, either as a result of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) or by environmental sources. If you experience the following warning signs, you may have high levels of estrogen:

• Palpitations
• Weight gain
• Depression
• Irregular menstruation
• Swelling
• Headaches and migraines linked to your cycle
• Tension
• Problems with digestion

But these symptoms may also signify low estrogen levels, so it’s important to get yourself checked if you’re worried. If you suffer from PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) or endometriosis elevated levels of estrogen can make them worse. What’s more, it reduces your sex drive so you are less likely to want to have sex anyway.

Having the right estrogen concentrations is vital to your fertility. Too much or too little estrogen can cause difficulties. Abnormal quantities of estrogen could be helped with medication so it shouldn’t be a massive hurdle in your mission to have a baby.

Here is more information on What is Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.

Related posts:

1. Estrogen Infertility And How It Affects You
2. Infertility and Hormones
3. Understand Hormone Infertility
4. Testosterone Infertility
5. Smoking and infertility – are they linked?