• Low Estrogen Symptoms|
• Gut & Stress|
• Diet|
• Stress Management|
• Vitamins for Estrogen?|
• Herbs & Supplements|

Women can experience frustrating symptoms as estrogen levels naturally decline during the perimenopausal phase of life. You might be struggling with hot flashes, mood swings, and brain fog and want to increase estrogen levels naturally with vitamins. 

In this article, I’ll share how vitamins factor into the estrogen equation and how to increase estrogen levels with diet, lifestyle, and supplements. Using these natural methods to increase estrogen levels can help improve sleep, reduce hot flashes, boost mood, and help you feel like yourself again.

Symptoms of Low Estrogen Levels

Estrogen is a vital hormone that helps women conceive [1] and maintain a healthy uterine lining, strong bones, and balanced cholesterol levels [1, 2, 3, 4].

When women hit the perimenopause phase of life, the ovaries produce less estrogen which can lead to symptoms like [3, 5]:

• Hot flashes
• Vaginal dryness
• Vaginal itching
• Incontinence
• Painful intercourse
• Mood swings
• Weight gain
• Brain fog

A natural decline in estrogen levels is to be expected as you near menopause. But that doesn’t mean you have to just deal with the symptoms of low estrogen—many natural strategies can help mitigate hormone imbalance symptoms.

In the clinic, we tend to start with improving gut health—it’s one of the most important things a woman can do to increase and balance estrogen levels.

How Gut Health and Stress Impact Estrogen Levels

Estrogen deficiency (or estrogen dominance) symptoms aren’t just a concern for women in the menopausal transition.

Women of all ages can experience unwanted symptoms when their normal estrogen levels are out of balance with other hormones, particularly progesterone but also testosterone [6, 7]. 

The most common causes of low estrogen and hormonal imbalance symptoms may be poor gut health and unmanaged stress. 

Gut Health and Hormones

A gut microbiome that’s out of balance is called gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis alters the activity of an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase that creates active forms of estrogen. This leads to estrogen deficiency or excess [8].

Additionally, gut bacteria quality may impact female hormone health [8, 9, 10]. And some signs of hormonal imbalance, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and painful periods, are associated with gut dysbiosis and leaky gut [11, 12, 13, 14].

Stress and Hormones

Constant stress can derail sex hormone levels. When your body is routinely in “fight or flight” mode, it may use the raw materials needed to make sex hormones (like estrogen and progesterone) to make stress hormones (like cortisol) instead [3, 15, 16, 17].

This is true whether the stress is from external factors, like a job or relationship, or internal stressors, like frequent blood sugar fluctuations, gut infections, or inflammation.

In the clinic, we tackle both gut health and stress with diet first—it’s a powerful way to improve the gut environment, reduce internal stress, and improve well-being. 

How to Increase Estrogen Levels with Diet

A balanced diet nourishes the gut and supports a healthy gut microbiome—ingredients needed for hormone balance. 

The four main principles of a gut-healthy diet are:

• Eating to control inflammation
• Removing food allergens and intolerances 
• Eating to control blood sugar
• Personalizing carbohydrates and prebiotics

There are many dietary patterns to choose from—in the clinic, the Paleo diet works particularly well for many of our clients. But, a Mediterranean-type diet is another great option, especially for those new to making dietary changes.

Since your body needs fat to produce hormones (including estrogen), the dietary pattern should contain adequate amounts of healthy fatty acids [2, 15].

Consider incorporating at least one of these healthy fats into each meal:

• Olives and olive oil
• Avocados and avocado oil
• Grass-fed butter
• Coconut oil
• Nuts and seeds
• Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, tuna, mackerel)

In addition to a whole-foods dietary pattern and healthy fat intake, adding prunes (dried plums) may help offset the impact that low estrogen levels can have on postmenopausal women.

Five to six prunes a day reduced low estrogen-related bone loss, according to one trial [18].

Probiotics for Gut Health

Dietary changes help to create the foundation your body needs for a healthy gut. Probiotics, through their many benefits, can help strengthen that foundation. 

Probiotics are not a panacea for low estrogen and hormone imbalance symptoms. And taking probiotics won’t directly boost estrogen production.

What probiotics can do is help improve gut microbiome balance, reduce an overzealous immune system, and reduce inflammation—this puts the gut in a better place to support healthy hormonal balance overall [19, 20, 21].   

Our clinic has been using probiotic triple therapy for a long time, and our clients tend to do very well with this approach. 

Probiotic triple therapy simply means we use a combination of all three categories of probiotics:

• Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium blends
• Saccharomyces boulardii
• Soil-based

Through working with clients and my own personal experience, I learned that taking all of these pills every day was quite daunting. 

To make probiotic triple therapy a breeze, I created Triple Therapy Probiotic Powder Sticks. One stick takes the place of the pills, making this very effective therapy much more convenient and doable. 

How to Increase Estrogen with Stress Relief

Following a gut-friendly dietary pattern and taking probiotics can have a tremendous impact on the symptoms of low estrogen and estrogen imbalance. But diet and probiotics alone may not be enough for some women, especially if they’re stressed out.

Before turning to vitamins to increase estrogen levels, it’s a good idea to consider incorporating a daily stress management technique. In the clinic, we find targeting root causes like stress makes vitamin supplements less important.

For women with low or imbalanced estrogen levels, improving sleep is a powerful way to reduce stress and feel better [22].

If obvious sleep hygiene measures like taking a relaxing bath and having fixed sleep and wake times aren’t helpful, acupuncture is another therapy to consider. Research suggests acupuncture can tackle sleep, stress, and hormonal issues:

• Acupuncture leads to better sleep and higher estradiol levels in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women [23]
• Standard acupuncture effectively improves low estrogen levels and menopausal symptoms [24]

Outside of improving sleep, other helpful methods for targeting stress include:

• Healthy amounts of exercise 
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Time in nature
• Cognitive behavioral therapy 

Vitamins to Increase Estrogen Levels: Do They Work? 

No, supplementing with specific vitamins (and minerals) won’t directly raise estrogen levels. 

That’s not to say vitamins and minerals aren’t important though—they support healthy hormone balance by:

• Providing the raw materials the body needs to make hormones
• Activating the steps for hormone production 

In addition to supporting hormone balance, vitamins and minerals may also ease symptoms associated with low estrogen. 

For example, the right nutrients can prevent bone loss, support joint and gut health, and improve mood—all concerns for women during menopause.

Consuming a nutrient-dense diet, and supplementing as needed, may help manage the symptoms of low or imbalanced estrogen levels.

Here’s a table detailing important vitamins and minerals for estrogen balance along with their dietary sources:

Getting healthy amounts of vitamins and minerals is important for overall health but probably won’t move the needle much on estrogen deficiency symptoms—especially if you have poor gut health.   

5 Herbs & Supplements That May Increase Estrogen

Laying the foundation for healthy hormone production with diet, probiotics, and stress management first is crucial in the healthy hormone equation. If low estrogen symptoms persist, considering herbs and other helpful dietary supplements is a possible next step.

Black Cohosh, Dong Quai, and Licorice 

A blend of black cohosh, dong quai, and licorice, together with the antioxidants gamma oryzanol and trans-resveratrol, is effective for boosting and balancing estrogen levels for many of our patients in the clinic. 

Other benefits associated with the ingredients in this blend are [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36]: 

• Reduced hot flashes and night sweats (gamma oryzanol, dong quai, licorice, black cohosh)
• Improved sleep in women with sleep disturbances (black cohosh)
• Better heart health (resveratrol)
• Improved mood and cognition (gamma oryzanol and resveratrol)

White peony, chasteberry, and licorice can also help correct low estrogen symptoms [37]. However, our clinical experience suggests this combination is more effective in cases where imbalanced progesterone levels are the bigger problem. 

One could consider using any one of these herbs on their own. But combined herbal ingredients tend to be more effective for raising or balancing estrogen levels than individual herbs [37]. 

Ashwagandha 

This Ayurvedic herb is associated with a significant increase in estradiol (the most active form of estrogen) in the blood of menopausal women [38]. It also reduces menopausal symptoms and improves quality of life.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)

A hormone produced by the body’s adrenal glands, DHEA can also be derived from soy or wild yam and taken as a supplement. 

Postmenopausal women who took 50 mg DHEA daily for at least 26 weeks had increased estradiol levels [39]. 

DHEA can have some side effects, including acne, migraines, and unfavorable changes in cholesterol, so use it only under the guidance of a healthcare provider.

Fenugreek 

Healthy, younger women with low libido had higher levels of estradiol and testosterone, as well as improved sexual desire when taking fenugreek seed extract [40].

Isoflavones

Isoflavones are part of a family of plant compounds called phytoestrogens, and they have a mild estrogen-boosting effect. 

Isoflavones are found in foods such as sesame seeds, flax seeds, and legumes like soybeans and chickpeas. Eating these foods regularly may help to improve low levels of estrogen. 

Isoflavone supplements are a more concentrated and reliable way to mitigate low-estrogen symptoms [41, 42, 43, 44].

Create a Healthy Foundation with Diet, Probiotics, Stress Management First 

A decline in (or imbalance in) estrogen can lead to mood swings, vaginal dryness, weight gain, brain fog, and much more. 

Vitamins and minerals won’t directly raise estrogen levels but can help your body maintain healthy hormone balance. They can also protect you against the negative effects of low estrogen, such as bone loss and cardiovascular disease.

But using vitamins to increase estrogen levels likely won’t combat the symptoms of low or imbalanced estrogen levels, especially if you have poor gut health. 

Improving gut health and getting stress under control by following a hormone-healthy diet, adding in probiotics, and managing stress are much more impactful strategies that target the major root causes of hormone imbalance symptoms.  

If symptoms persist after you improve your gut health and manage your stress, consider herbal supplements. For more individualized support concerning hormonal health, request a consultation at the Ruscio Institute for Functional Health.

The Ruscio Institute has developed a range of high-quality formulations to help our patients and audience. If you’re interested in learning more about these products, including the hormone-balancers Estro-Harmony and Progest-Harmony, please click on the relevant links. Note that there are many other options available, and we encourage you to research which products may be right for you. The information on DrRuscio.com is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Dr. Michael Ruscio is a DC, Naturopathic Practitioner, researcher, and clinician. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bridgeport and has published numerous papers in scientific journals as well as the book Healthy Gut, Healthy You. He also founded the Ruscio Institute of Functional Health, where he helps patients with a wide range of GI conditions and serves as the Head of Research.