[Emma C]

Here`s a question that just came to me though. Phytoestrogens work like normal estradial , only weaker. They bind to estrogen receptos and produce estrogen-like effects, right? But it seems they also compete with your natural estrogen to do this-so if you have a phytoestrogen winning over a more potent natural estrogen to bind to a recepter, it follows that the phytoestrogen is going to have a much weaker estrognic effect on the body, thereby actually reducing the estrogenic effects in the body.......am I making sense? I`m feeling very disheartened now.

Your theory is correct, but only when you have excess estrogen in the first place. If you don't have excess estrogen the competition you talk about is unable to take place. That's why these herbs have long been regarded as balancing the system, as they compete with estrogen when you have excess estrogen, thereby lowering estrogenic activity, and they supplement estrogen when you don't have enough of it, thereby increasing estrogenic activity.