Increased estrogen levels or sexual hormones in females?

What can be the cause of this? I have read that this could be from some sort of cancer or tumor in the ovaries. Can someone explain how this works? If a woman has more then the normal amount of sexual hormones...could that really be from cancer or a tumor? Just wondering because I know someone who is going through this and is about to get checked

Estrogen dominance (excessive estrogen) can be a result of stress, a poor diet, weight, hormone replacement therapy, and exposure to environmental estrogens (including some foods, especially meat).

Excessive estrogen can be the cause of anxiety, headaches and migraines related to a women's menstrual cycle, depression, digestive problems, irregular periods, heart palpitations, water retention, and weight gain. Excessive estrogen is linked to absence of menstrual periods, endometriosis, fibroids, impaired cognitive ability (thinking), heavy periods, stroke, infertililty, PCOS, breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer.

According to some of my textbooks "Hormones have been implicated in some types of cancers, especially uterine cancer, which occurs more often in women who have been exposed to certain estrogens, including DES (a synthetic hormone). Hormones also influence breast cancer rates, although the process is unclear." Basically, all the literature that I've been looking at says that excess estrogen alone does not lead to the development of a tumor, but it is more than likely an interaction of multiple factors. For example, excess estrogen, combined with birth control, and exposure to environmental estrogens. The ''Two-Hit Hypothesis" in health psychology sort of goes along the same lines as this...having one factor (excess estrogen) puts you at risk for a problem, but having more factors increases your risk of a problem.

I hope I made sense and was able to help you out...post more questions if you want to know anything else...


Hope everything goes well for your friend....

There are some links between some cancers and high estrogen levels. If you're worried about a cancer then see your GP for a pap smear.