Your progesterone levels are usually highest in week three of your cycle. This can make you feel more tired.
Thyroid. An overactive or underactive thyroid can often be the underlying cause of fatigue, particularly in women. This hormone controls your body's metabolic rate i.e. how food is converted to energy.
Fatigue
Unfortunately, estrogen dominance can cause fatigue. This symptom can occur whether or not you have insomnia. If you experience persistent tiredness or feel more drained of energy than usual, talk to your doctor about being tested for hormonal issues.
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.
Extreme fatigue in women can be caused by high sleep debt, being out of sync with your circadian rhythm, your menstrual cycle and period, pregnancy, menopause, hormonal contraceptives, poor diet, lack of exercise, stress and anxiety, medication side effects, and medical conditions like thyroid issues or anemia.
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. Estrogen without progesterone increases the risk of uterine cancer.
Symptoms of low estrogen can include: Hot flashes, flushes, and night sweats are the most common symptoms of low estrogen. At times, blood rushes to your skin's surface. This can give you a feeling of warmth (hot flash).
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of a hormone imbalance. Excess progesterone can make you sleepy. And if your thyroid -- the butterfly-shaped gland in your neck -- makes too little thyroid hormone, it can sap your energy. A simple blood test called a thyroid panel can tell you if your levels are too low.
As estrogen levels drastically change in perimenopause, high levels can cause bloating, breast tenderness, and heavy bleeding. Once these levels become more consistently low, that can cause hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, changes in fat distribution (new or growing “spare tire”), insomnia, and fatigue.
Mood swings: Estrogen dominance can cause a range of mood swings, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. Decreased sex drive: As the levels of estrogen hormone rises, one may notice a dip in their sexual drive. Severe headaches or migraines: Headaches during the menstrual cycles are normal and everyone experiences it.
Summary. High estrogen levels can cause symptoms such as irregular or heavy periods, weight gain, fatigue, and fibroids in females. In males, they can cause breast tissue growth, erectile dysfunction, and infertility.
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.
Adrenal hormones, predominantly cortisol has been found to have a direct relationship with fatigue. Studies show reduced function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis as well as hypocortisolism (reduced cortisol levels, seen via reduced salivary cortisol levels), in people suffering with fatigue.
Hormones are chemical messengers that move through the body and coordinate a range of complex processes. As they are involved in almost every function of the body, a hormone imbalance can make you feel bloated, tired, stressed and depressed.
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) Test
This TSH blood test measures thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which stimulates the thyroid to produce two additional hormones, T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triiodothyronine), both of which play a critical role in controlling the body's metabolism.
Estrogen helps protect the heart from disease, potentially by maintaining higher levels of good cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein (HDL), in your blood. Lower estrogen levels, especially during menopause, can increase your risk of developing heart disease.
Traditional natural hormone replacement therapies
phytoestrogens, which are dietary estrogens found in legumes, seeds, and whole grains. folate (vitamin B-9 or folic acid) St. John's wort.
Progesterone levels begin to rise after ovulation through the end of the menstrual cycle. Symptoms of high progesterone are similar to premenstrual syndrome and can include anxiety and agitation, bloating, breast swelling and tenderness, depression, fatigue, and weight gain.