Today I want to walk you through the lesser-known signals your body sends when estrogen begins to decline. Because when you know what to look for, you can stop gaslighting yourself—and start taking aligned, effective action.

When estrogen starts to dip in perimenopause, it doesn’t just affect your cycle or cause hot flashes. It’s far more complex than that.

Estrogen touches almost every system in your body—your brain, gut, connective tissue, immune system, skin, and even how your nerves respond to movement. So when levels drop, you might not feel “hormonal”… you just feel off.

But it’s not random.

Your body is whispering—sometimes screaming—for support.

Strange but real: the lesser-known signs of low estrogen

Let’s walk through some of the weird (but very real) symptoms tied to estrogen decline. If any of these feel familiar, know this: you’re not alone, you’re not broken, and you’re definitely not imagining things.

Heart palpitations or a racing heart
Estrogen supports your cardiovascular system. When it dips, your heart may beat faster, feel irregular, or flutter—especially at night. It’s not always anxiety. It’s often hormonal.

Dizziness or feeling off-balance
A sudden wave of dizziness, almost like vertigo or lightheadedness, can be linked to estrogen’s effect on your inner ear and nervous system regulation.

Itchy skin or crawling sensations
Estrogen supports skin hydration and collagen. When it drops, you may feel itchiness—often on the legs, back, or scalp—with no visible rash. Sometimes it even feels like bugs crawling under your skin. (It’s called formication, and yes, it’s real.)

Burning mouth or tongue
Estrogen influences the health of your oral tissues and nerves. Some women experience burning sensations, a metallic taste, or extra gum sensitivity during hormone fluctuations.

Itchy ears
Dry, itchy ears might seem random, but estrogen helps maintain skin moisture—even in your ears. If your AirPods aren’t the culprit, it could be hormones.

Frozen shoulder or joint stiffness
Estrogen affects connective tissue. When it declines, joints can become stiff, inflamed, and less mobile. Frozen shoulder, especially in women over 40, is now being linked to hormonal shifts.

New onset allergies or histamine issues
Estrogen plays a role in how your body breaks down histamine. Lower levels can mean more reactivity—like sneezing, rashes, congestion, and food sensitivities that weren’t there before.

Digestive upset or bloating
Estrogen supports digestion. When it’s low, motility slows and stomach acid decreases, leading to bloating, reflux, and changes in bowel patterns—especially upper belly bloat after meals.

Dry eyes or vision changes
Low estrogen can reduce tear production, making your eyes feel gritty or dry. Some women also notice blurry vision or trouble focusing—particularly in the afternoon.

Urinary urgency or frequent UTIs
Estrogen helps maintain bladder and urethral tissue. Without it, you may feel more urgency or experience frequent infections—even when nothing shows up on lab tests.

Brain fog or word loss
Estrogen supports cognitive function. You might forget words, feel scattered, or lose your train of thought. It’s not early dementia—it’s your brain adjusting to a new hormonal landscape.

Emotional reactivity or emotional flatness
Estrogen directly influences neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Some women feel sudden rage, others feel emotionally numb. Either way, it's not a personality change—it’s chemical.

Why all these weird symptoms trace back to one thing

Your body is filled with estrogen receptors—from head to toe.

Your brain, heart, muscles, bones, skin, bladder, gut lining, joints, nerves, immune cells... they all rely on estrogen to function optimally. So when estrogen begins to dip, those systems feel it. And they show it.

Estrogen is more than a reproductive hormone. It’s a master communicator. It tells tissues how to grow, how to repair, how to stay strong, elastic, and hydrated. It supports collagen in your skin, mobility in your joints, mental clarity in your brain, and even blood sugar balance.

So when those receptors go from being regularly stimulated to barely receiving a signal… you feel that void. Deeply.

You might experience it as anxiety, dry eyes, nerve pain, night sweats, or stiffness. You might feel like you’re aging too fast or that something is off in your body—but can't quite explain what.

Here’s the truth: you’re not broken. You’re not “just aging.” You’re navigating a physiological transition your body was never taught how to handle.

As women, estrogen is our operating system. It regulates our resilience, our energy, our mood, and our ability to bounce back from stress. When it’s optimized, we thrive. When it’s not, we feel like a stranger in our own skin.

And most women are never taught that.

Instead, they’re brushed off. Told it’s anxiety, stress, burnout, or even autoimmunity. But your body knows better. It’s asking for support.

So what can you do about it?

You don’t need to guess your way through this season. Here’s a clear, grounded 3-step approach to begin supporting your body through estrogen decline.

Step 1: Regulate your nervous system
Your nervous system is the control center for hormone balance. If it’s constantly in fight-or-flight, your body won’t feel safe enough to heal or recalibrate. Daily practices like breathwork, morning sunlight, cold exposure, or grounding walks help shift you into parasympathetic mode. This isn’t a luxury—it’s a non-negotiable.

Step 2: Rebuild nutritional resilience
Your body’s need for nutrients increases during hormone shifts. Prioritize meals built around protein (30–40g per meal), colorful carbohydrates for fiber and antioxidants, and plenty of minerals—like magnesium, sodium, potassium, and calcium. This is hormone therapy in food form. It gives your cells the building blocks they need to function and recover.

Step 3: Test, don’t guess
If your symptoms persist, it’s time to look deeper. Find a provider trained in women’s hormone health. Functional testing, symptom tracking, and exploring low-dose bioidentical hormone therapy can all be part of restoring what your body was designed to thrive with. Supporting estrogen isn’t about “fixing” anything—it’s about alignment.

You can thrive in this season

You’re not crazy. You’re not lazy. And you’re definitely not alone.

If this resonated, I’d love to invite you to download your free copy of the Estrogen Reset Action Plan. It’s a simple guide to help you take immediate steps toward supporting your hormones and feeling better now.

And if you’re ready to go deeper, The Energized Lifestyle Membership is the next step. It’s the only science-backed online membership designed specifically for women in perimenopause and menopause—to optimize metabolism, muscle, hormones, and so much more.

Your body isn’t breaking down. It’s trying to evolve. And you deserve support through that evolution.

Until next time—honor your body, trust the process, and know that you were designed to feel good.

If you're in the thick of perimenopause or menopause and wondering why what used to work no longer does—you’re not alone. The Energized Lifestyle Membership is your go-to space for workouts, nutrition, hormone regulation, and sustainable wellness specifically designed for this powerful season of life.

Click here to learn more about The Energized Lifestyle Membership.