Tag: estrogen

Oestrogen is a group of hormones that controls your menstrual cycle and supports your fertility, bones, heart, skin, mood and vaginal health. The main type before menopause is oestradiol. Your oestrogen levels rise and fall across your cycle and gradually fall with age, and levels that are too high or too low can cause symptoms. You might have come across oestrogen because your periods have changed, you’re trying to conceive, or you’ve noticed symptoms that could be hormonal. This guide explains what oestrogen does, how it changes through your cycle and life, the signs of high and low oestrogen, and how to get your levels tested. Quick facts: Not sure whether your oestrogen is behind your symptoms? Hertility’s Advanced Hormone and Fertility Test checks your oestradiol alongside other key hormones from home, timed to your cycle. You’ll get a doctor-written report explaining what your results mean for you. What is oestrogen? Oestrogen is a reproductive hormone that everyone makes, whatever their sex. Levels are much higher in women. It’s often called the “female” sex hormone because it drives the development of the female reproductive system and controls the menstrual cycle. Before menopause, most oestrogen is made in your ovaries by follicles, the small sacs that contain your developing eggs. Its production depends on other hormones: Smaller amounts of oestrogen are also made in fat tissue. What are the different types of oestrogen? Your body naturally makes three main types of oestrogen, plus a fourth specialised type found during pregnancy: Weak forms of oestrogens can attach to oestrogen receptors, but their effect on the body is less compared to more active oestrogens.  What does oestrogen do? Oestrogen wears many hats, it helps to regulate our menstrual cycles, triggers the development of secondary sex characteristics like breasts and pubic hair and helps to maintain things like our skin’s moisture, our mood and even our bone and heart health. Let’s take a look at these in more detail: How does oestrogen change during your menstrual cycle? Like all of our menstrual cycle hormones, our oestrogen levels during the menstrual cycle fluctuate.  1. At the start of your period, oestrogen is low. 2. In the first half of your cycle (the follicular phase), eggs mature inside follicles in your ovaries. As the follicles grow, they release more oestrogen, so levels rise steadily. 3. Just before ovulation, oestrogen peaks. This triggers a surge of LH, which causes a follicle to release a mature egg.  During this phase of your cycle i.e. from the start of your period to ovulation, oestrogen levels are high. You may notice your skin is feeling clearer and you have increasing energy levels and improved mood. Your cervical fluid also changes throughout the follicular phase, during the early to mid follicular it is dry or sticky, around the mid to late follicular phase it can become thicker, sticky or creamy and as you move towards ovulation, it becomes wet and slippery, like egg white. Additionally, some people notice an increase in their libido around ovulation. 4. In the second half of your cycle (the luteal phase). After the egg is released, the follicle’s walls form a new structure called the corpus luteum. The main function of the corpus luteum is to produce high levels of progesterone and some oestrogen. Progesterone rises to prepare your womb lining for a possible pregnancy. 5. If the egg isn’t fertilised, oestrogen and progesterone fall back to baseline, and this triggers your period. When oestrogen levels are lower before your period, you may start noticing Premenstrual symptoms (PMS). Why this matters for getting pregnant. Oestrogen helps trigger ovulation, so low or disrupted oestrogen can affect whether you ovulate. If you don’t ovulate, you can’t get pregnant. That’s why checking your hormones is useful if you’re trying to conceive. Read more about ovulation. What affects oestrogen levels? As well as fluctuating naturally month to month, lots of other lifestyle, genetic and medical conditions can affect our oestrogen levels, including: How does oestrogen affect your fertility? Oestrogen is involved in almost every step of getting pregnant. It triggers ovulation. As follicles grow in the first half of your cycle, they release more and more oestrogen. When levels peak, they trigger the surge of LH that releases an egg. It helps sperm reach the egg. Rising oestrogen changes your cervical mucus, making it clear, slippery and stretchy around ovulation. This type of mucus helps sperm swim through your cervix towards the egg. It prepares your womb. Oestrogen thickens your womb lining so that a fertilised egg has somewhere to implant. Progesterone then takes over after ovulation to keep the lining ready. If your oestrogen is low, you may not ovulate regularly, and your womb lining may stay thin. If your oestrogen is high compared with progesterone, it’s often a sign that you’re not ovulating every cycle. Either way, it can make it harder to conceive. That’s why oestradiol is one of the hormones usually checked when you’re trying to get pregnant. It’s also closely monitored during IVF and egg freezing, to track how your follicles are growing. If you’re trying to conceive and your cycles are irregular, Hertility’s Advanced Hormone and Fertility Test can help you understand what’s going on. Does oestrogen decline with age? Yes. As you get older, your ovaries contain fewer eggs and follicles, so they gradually make less oestradiol. During perimenopause, the years leading up to menopause, oestrogen doesn’t fall steadily. It goes up and down unpredictably, which can cause irregular periods, hot flushes and mood changes. Read our guide to what perimenopause is. After menopause, once you’ve gone 12 months without a period, oestradiol falls to low levels and oestrone becomes the main type. Lower oestrogen causes many common menopause symptoms, such as hot flushes, vaginal dryness, dry skin and mood changes. It also raises your long-term risk of osteoporosis and heart disease. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can relieve symptoms of low oestrogen for many people during perimenopause and after menopause. Find out more about […]