How Women of Today Suffer the Consequences of Environmental Estrogens

Today's society is unwittingly being bombarded with hormones. Estrogens like compounds are found in plastic, and foods. These compounds have been given the title of 'environmental hormones'. The environmental hormones that mimic estrogen are referred to as estrogen mimics, ecoestrogens or xenoestrogens.

We all wonder why our mothers didn't warn us of the symptoms that come with perimenopause. Quite possibly - they didn't know. They did not suffer the severe perimenopause symptoms that the women today are going through. Over the past 40 years things have changed tremendously in our world. We have turned into a throw away society and now we are paying the consequences.

The women entering into perimenopause today are chartering unknown territory, no other generation before has been exposed to such a high level of environmental estrogens. The results are showing themselves with women complaining of severe perimenopause signs and symptoms. The underlying reason is estrogen dominance exacerbated by the prevailing estrogen mimics in our surroundings.

Man made hormones have invaded our space, they are in the plastics we eat and drink out of. They are in the meat, milk and vegetables we consume. They are in the makeup and lotions that many women use daily. Over 60 substances have been identified as environmental estrogens. These include DDT, dioxin and PCB. Environmental estrogen simulates natural estrogen and attaches itself to the cell receptors in the body.

Today one in every eight women will get breast cancer, fifty years ago the statistics were one in twenty. A study done in Rhode Island found Xenoestrogens to be the cause for breast cancer incident increase. It is a known fact that any source excess estrogen can cause tumors, most breast cancer cell types have estrogen receptors that environmental estrogens readily attach too.

Girls are reaching puberty at younger ages these days. Some girls are showing signs of puberty as young as 7 years old. Most all girls will show signs of puberty by 10 years of age. Many of the studies done show that early puberty is due to exposure of environmental estrogen in plastics and environmental estrogens that are present in meat and milk of cattle and fowl that had been treated with steroid hormones to increase growth or milk production.

This is a modern problem in a modern world. Our mothers were not raised drinking out of plastic glasses and bottles. Grocery items were packaged in paper, glass or tin, and brought home in a cardboard box or paper sack. Vegetables and grains were not sprayed with as many deadly pesticides. The answer to more meat and milk was to grow more animals not beef up the ones they had with steroid hormones.

There is no way that we, as individuals, alone, can totally eliminate the environmental estrogens in our lives. We can become more conscious of our choices. Choose the glass-drinking cup over the plastic when possible; consume milk and meat that is labeled hormone free. These are not answers to the problem, only a way to cut back on the exposure.