Oestrogen Dominance And Thyroid

[Violet]

Hey guys :)

I have Oestrogen Dominance and one of the effects is that it down regulates the thyroid. Does anyone know how high Oestrogen causes this to happen? My T3 is in the lower 20% but it's my T4 that's below the acceptable range.

 

[Violet]

Found an article by Peat and it says that "Estrogen inhibits the secretion of hormone by the thyroid gland itself, probably by inhibiting the proteolytic enzyme which dissolves the colloid." Wow. I'm text book Estrogen Dominance! Sounds weird, but it's such a relief to that all these pieces fit together.

Progesterone promotes the release of the hormones from the gland, so if your oestrogen is high, and prog is low, you won't produce T4. At the same time, the thyroid is essential for producing progesterone, and thyroid function also stimulates the liver to inactivate oestrogen's, so oestrogen dominance causes a viscous cycle of low prog and high oestrogen.

Now here's the interesting part:

"Progesterone (even one dose, in some cases) can break the cycle. However, if the gland is very big, the person can experience a few months of hyperthyroidism, as the gland returns to normal. It is better to allow the enlarged gland to shrink more slowly by using a thyroid supplement....

If the problem is that the ratio of estrogen to progesterone is too high, though progesterone might itself be at a reasonable level, thyroid becomes crucial, to bring the estrogen level down to normal."

So according to Peat, there are advantages to treating Ost dom with thyroid medication instead of progesterone, even though this is not how it's normally treated. I imagine it would be T4 that should be supplements, not cytomel?

 

[Jenn]

T4 requires conversion in the liver, T3 does not...so it depends on your liver.