Estrogen levels also skyrocket in the first trimester: A woman produces more estrogen during one pregnancy than throughout the entire rest of her life. This may be the reason women report feeling drowsy and taking more naps in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
You may feel sad, anxious, or frustrated. Shifting hormone levels and night sweats may disrupt your sleep. This can cause fatigue, which may make mood swings worse. Thinning tissues may cause discomfort.
Cortisol is often called the “stress hormone” because it is responsible for modulating the body's stress response, both long term and on a daily basis. When the body is not functioning as it should, cortisol can spike at the wrong time, causing sleep difficulty which leads to fatigue.
Fatigue and Sleep Issues
Estrogen is intimately linked to serotonin, and serotonin makes melatonin. Melatonin is the primary sleep hormone. This means, if you've been sleeping less and feeling fatigued, you could have low estrogen.
Signs & Symptoms of Low Estrogen
Weight gain. Thinning hair. Dry skin/lips. Vaginal dryness (which may make sexual intercourse painful)
Estrogen is responsible for an increase in cortisol and testosterone levels, which naturally increase energy levels.
Some women find that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) helps with their fatigue. HRT is an effective way of managing menopause symptoms and can improve the overall quality of your life, energy levels and sleep.
In very real ways, using HRT to address symptoms of hormonal change can help you feel younger. It can give you more energy, elevate mood, and increase sex drive. It can make sex more comfortable and improve sleep in both men and women.
Having too much oestrogen can lead to a small increase in your risk of some serious conditions such as blood clots, stroke and gallbladder inflammation. Having too little oestrogen can cause problems such as osteoporosis and symptoms of menopause. Speak to your doctor if you are concerned about any of these conditions.
The hormone estrogen is responsible for making skin look younger due to the hyaluronic acid it produces. Estrogen not only affects your skin but also your muscle mass, metabolism, and energy levels.
Too little estrogen can lead to a low sex drive. Too much of it can cause infertility and erectile dysfunction. Excessive estrogen can cause gynecomastia, or enlarged breasts.
Estrogen-induced sleep improvement was associated with alleviation of vasomotor symptoms (r range 0.27 to 0.55), alleviation of somatic symptoms (palpitations and muscular pain, r range 0.26 to 0.36), and alleviation of mood symptoms (r range 0.28 to 0.37) on estrogen replacement therapy.
You may be too exhausted even to manage your daily affairs. In most cases, there's a reason for the fatigue. It might be allergic rhinitis, anemia, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease (COPD), a bacterial or viral infection, or some other health condition.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can affect weight loss in women. In addition to having less abdominal fat, the same study found that women undergoing HRT were almost one whole point lower on the body mass index (BMI) scale, and they had nearly 3 pounds less of fat mass.
By restoring youthful hormone levels, HRT can help to improve your appearance and make you look and feel younger. In addition, therapy can also help reduce the risk of age-related diseases such as osteoporosis and heart disease. As a result, it can provide a wide range of benefits for older adults.
Estrogen can ease vaginal symptoms of menopause, such as dryness, itching, burning and discomfort with intercourse. Need to prevent bone loss or fractures. Systemic estrogen helps protect against the bone-thinning disease called osteoporosis.
Boosts your mood
Those mood swings you get right before your menstrual cycle might be caused by the shifting levels of estrogen. The hormone is known to help keep serotonin levels regular (those “feel-good hormones”) and help the effectiveness of endorphins.
In new draft guidelines, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends against the use of combined estrogen and progestin for the primary prevention of chronic conditions in post-menopausal persons, including those who have had a hysterectomy.
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study involving postmenopausal, overweight, and obese women who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a year found that those whose vitamin D blood levels increased the most had the greatest reductions in blood estrogens, which are a known risk factor for breast cancer.
It depends on your situation. Not all women need, want or are candidates for estrogen therapy. Estrogen can reduce menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness. If you have a uterus, you'll likely need to take progesterone along with the estrogen.