Symptoms of Low Estrogen

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Misty L. Trepke

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Symptoms of low estrogen

 

Low estrogen starves genitourinary tissues, leading to fragility,

dryness and reduced resistance to infection. This would show up as

painful or even bleeding with intercourse, excessive vaginal

tightness,failure of vaginal incisions to heal, vaginal or labial

itching and pain (especially upon washing with soaps), multiple

vaginal infections like yeast or repeated urinary tract infections,

sensations of urinary tract infection without bacterial growth, and

weakening of genitourinary tissues leading to incontinence

(involuntary leaking of urine, especially with " urge, " laughing or

sneezing) or prolapse ( " falling " ).

 

Low estrogen affects the skin all over the body. You may notice

extreme dryness and itching that is poorly relieved by moisturizers

and other cosmetic approaches. An especially odd effect, and one

that crosses over into neurological realms, is called " formication, "

described as feeling as though ants are crawling around under your

skin. This may not affect the entire body, but it is a troubling

feeling and difficult to relieve with anything other than the proper

level of estrogen. It is not an allergy, and may not be accompanied

by any sort of rash; antihistamines normally taken for an allergic

reaction are not usually effective in relieving it.

 

Dryness can also affect your eyes, leading to difficulty wearing

contacts or change in eyeball shape such that your glasses no longer

correct your vision adequately. Your nails may become brittle and so

can your hair. Hair loss may occur, including male pattern baldness.

 

Low estrogen has a wide range of effects due to its neurotransmitter

and brain receptor actions. You may feel listless, depressed,

isolated, indifferent, unenergetic, weak, unable to sleep, or

anxious. You may lose emotional stability and contentment, becoming

moody, hair-triggered, prone to fits of tears for little obvious

reason, irrational, impatient, lacking any self-esteem. You may have

trouble breathing or experience irregular heartbeats

( " palpitations " ).

 

Because estrogen is so important to brain function and memory, low

estrogen is often expressed as foggy thinking or forgetfulness. Nouns

are particular victims of this. You may know what you want to say,

but the specific word just isn't in your brain even though you know

it's one you know very well. You may forget or lose things, or you

may get lost yourself, unable to remember how to travel a route with

which you are familiar. This can be very scary, not to mention

interfering with your job, your ability to take care of your family,

your life. This does not necessarily mean that you are developing

Alzheimers, even though that long term picture seems also to be

linked to estrogen.

 

Aches and pains, especially in the joints, are easy to brush off as

the deterioration of aging. Because lowering levels of estradiol

raise the risk of gout (by decreasing the clearance of urates from

the blood), the appearance of this symptom should not be ignored.

Gout is treatable with medication, but needs to be distinguished by

specific testing from arthritis and hypothyroid. Raising estradiol

levels should also cause symptoms to remit by helping excrete the

excess uric acid (gout is the accumulation of uric acid crystals in

joint spaces). Unlike the typical picture of gout in men, gout in

postmenopausal (that is, those with low estradiol levels) women can

present with pains in the upper extremities as well as the lower.