Protecting Yourself from the Health Hazards of Xenoestrogens

Estrogens are great hormones. After all, they are the hormones that make women feminine, and as a male, I happen to be quite attracted to femininity. But, there are some estrogenic compounds in the environment that aren’t so great. They are called xenoestrogens and they are causing serious health problems in both men and women.

Before I can discuss the health risk of xenoestrogens, it’s probably a good idea to provide a little background information about estrogens in general. I use estrogen in the plural, because there really is no single compound called “estrogen.” The human body makes three different estrogen hormones—estrase, estrone and estriol.

Plants also produce estrogen-like compounds called phytoestrogens. These compounds are not chemically identical to the estrogens produced by the body, but they still attach to estrogen receptor sites and influence reproductive health.

And finally there are xenoestrogens, the topic of this article. Xenoestrogens are environmental pollutants that have estrogen-like activity. These compounds are a primary cause of reproductive health problems in both women and men because they attach to and over-stimulate estrogen receptor sites. This causes changes in estrogen-sensitive tissues like the breasts, uterus and prostate. Xenoestrogens stimulate abnormal changes in these tissues, causing problems like cysts in the breasts, uterine fibroids, prostate enlargement and cancer.

Pesticides and Miscarriage

My introduction to the problem of xenoestrogens came when my last wife almost had a miscarriage after being exposed to pesticides. We were living in a rented home and the landlord sprayed the fruit trees in the yard. He asked my wife to come out so he could show her the damage that borers had been causing to the trunks of the trees. This exposed her to the fumes from the just-sprayed trees.

That night she started cramping and bleeding. She took lots of capsicum and bayberry to control the bleeding, vitamin E and false unicorn to inhibit contractions, and we both prayed. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped the next day.

When we relayed the incident to our midwife, she told us she was impressed because every mother she had ever known that had been exposed to that particular pesticide had miscarried. At the time, I didn’t know that this particular pesticide was an endocrine disrupter, an estrogen mimic, but we soon learned that it is very common for women to miscarry after this pesticide has been sprayed in their neighborhood.

So, if these poisons can have that dramatic of an effect on a woman’s pregnancy, imagine what regular low doses of them are doing to the reproductive systems of both men and women. One can readily see why reproductive health problems are on the increase worldwide.

Other Sources of Xenoestrogens

Pesticides, however, are only one source of estrogen pollution in our modern world. Another is commercial dairy, meat and eggs. There are two reasons for this. One is that dairy and egg farmers often feed estrogenic chemicals to milk cows and chickens because it increases production of milk and eggs. This alone makes commercial dairy, eggs and meat major sources of xenoestrogens.

However, there is another reason animal foods are major sources of xenoestrogens. Pesticides tend to be fat soluble, so they accumulate in the fat of animals. When an animal is eaten by another animal pesticides concentrate in that animal’s fat, too. So, the higher up the food chain you go, the more pesticides tend to accumulate in fat. This is why pesticides began to damage the reproduction in birds of prey. So eating the fat from commercial dairy foods and meat gives you a double dose of estrogen pollution.

Plastics are another source of xenoestrogens, particularly soft plastics. So, if you drink whole milk from commercial dairies in soft plastic jugs, you get a triple dose of estrogen pollution. Oh, and think about all that bottled water we’re drinking. If those plastic containers get hot, they leach chemicals, like xenoestrogens, into the water. It’s bad to put hot food into plastic containers for the same reason or to microwave food in plastic containers. (Of course, it’s a bad idea to microwave food, anyway.)

You can greatly enhance your reproductive health by purchasing organically grown food wherever possible (or a least avoiding foods from animals that have been fed hormones and washing produce to remove sprays). Avoid using pesticides in your home or on your property, too. Finally, wherever possible, use glass instead of plastic containers.