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Estrogen: The necessary evil for human health, and ways to tame it

Estrogen is more than just an estrus-inducing sex hormone. In fact, this steroid hormone controls almost all aspects of female and even male health. Critical functions like glucose homeostasis, lipid homeostasis, bone metabolism, brain function, follicular growth, skeletal growth, and ovulation, among a myriad other functions, depend on its signals. Estrogens (C18) are formed by the demethylation of androgens (C19), the male hormone precursors. Aromatase, a cytochromes P450 (CYP) class monooxygenase enzyme, encoded by CYP19 gene is extremely critical for estrogen biosynthesis. Aromatase is responsible for the aromatization of androgen into estrogen. Most of the estrogen perturbation-caused…

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Featured

  Estrogen – The Double-Edged Sword

Estrogen is one of the most important hormones for women as it regulates our menstrual cycle and reproductive system. But it can also become the enemy in hormone receptive breast cancer. What you need to know about estrogen and its role during your life.

Articles of Interest

Hunting Ways To Keep Synthetic Estrogens Out Of Rivers And Seas

Millions of women around the world take synthetic hormones via birth control pills or hormone replacement therapies. Not all of the estrogen-like compounds from these and other treatments are used by the body — small amounts are excreted and end up in municipal wastewater. And there's been no good way to completely remove these hormones before they head to rivers and seas.

Oestrogen 101: What it is, What it Does and How it Changes

Oestrogen is an important reproductive hormone in people of all sexes. It’s generally known as the ‘female’ sex hormone, because of its role in the development of the female reproductive system and regulation of the menstrual cycle. Oestrogen works to enable ovulation and produce female sex characteristics. When we have healthy levels of oestrogen, it can help us to feel feisty, frisky and fabulous. Whilst it’s true that oestrogen plays a bigger role in those assigned-female-at-birth, everybody produces oestrogen, regardless of sex.

Troubled Water: Estrogen and its doppelgängers

We would be wise to begin making use of technologies already in hand to reduce the estrogen that gets into our source water.

Estrogen Matters

Hormone replacement therapy in menopause is safer and more effective than we have been led to believe. A new book examines the evidence and sets the record straight.

Estrogen—the Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected

IN THE LAST DECADE or so, our knowledge of the roles of the steroids referred to as “sex hormones,” namely testosterone and estradiol, has undergone a quiet revolution. In the first place, models of androgen and estrogen insufficiency, whether they be natural or engineered, have revealed new and unexpected roles for sex steroids, some of which have nothing to do with reproduction. Furthermore, both categories of steroid have roles in both sexes, which blunts the definition of the terms “androgen” and “estrogen.”

What women with breast cancer should know about estrogens

I am a neuroendocrinologist, and I have studied the effects of hormones, including estrogens, on the brain, behavior and mental health for over 40 years. Not only is the fact that “estrogen” is actually a class of hormones not well understood, but so are the many positive functions of estrogens. As with any health treatment, the potential negative effects should be weighed against the potential positive effects.

Are Phytoestrogens Good or Bad for You? Separating Fact from Fiction

Phytoestrogens, or plant-based estrogens, are an almost mysterious part of nutrition. Just like it’s hard to tell if soy is bad for you or not, sometimes phytoestrogens are bad for you, and other times they can fight certain cancers!

Are Your Estrogen Levels Off? Here's How To Tell + Exactly What To Do About It

My patients have a love-hate relationship with estrogen. Some vilify it, and some (normally post-menopausal women) revere it. Yet like any hormone, estrogen isn’t good or bad; it all comes down to balance.

Can Estrogen and Other Sex Hormones Help Men Survive Covid-19?

Men are more likely than women to die of the coronavirus, so scientists are treating them with something women have more of: female sex hormones.

Chemical messengers: how hormones change through menopause

Most symptoms that follow menopause are due to low oestrogen. The most common are hot flushes and night sweats, which affect three-quarters of post-menopausal women and are severely bothersome for one in three women.

Chemical messengers: how pregnancy hormones affect the body

Multiple hormones produced by the mother, placenta and the foetus drive and coordinate the amazing biological changes and development of the baby that occur with conception, foetal growth and birth. The word “hormone” is derived from the Greek word “hormon” which means “to urge on or that which sets in motion”. As any mother will tell you, the nine months of pregnancy is quite a journey.

Could estrogen be the reason for a female survival advantage after injury?

Estrogen has been suggested as potentially being the main contributing factor for female survival advantage in trauma.

Estrogen a more powerful breast cancer culprit than we realized

In what may turn out to be a long-missing piece in the puzzle of breast cancer, Harvard Medical School researchers have identified the molecular sparkplug that ignites cases of the disease currently unexplained by the classical model of breast-cancer development.

Estrogen – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Estrogen is an essential hormone that has over 400 actions on a woman’s body. It’s what defines a woman. It’s been in your body since you were born and increases greatly at the time of puberty. It’s easy to take it for granted when everything is working automatically. When a young woman’s menstrual periods become irregular, painful or accompanied by severe mood swings, anxiety, depression or acne, that’s an indication of a system that’s gone awry. Birth control or Depo-Provera are a bad, ugly way to treat these problems

Estrogens and Memory Loss in Women

Research suggests that the family of hormones has a crucial role in the hippocampus.

Estrogen—The Power of Three

But did you know that there are actually three estrogens at work in your body? They are: estrone (E1), estradiol (E2) and estriol (E3). Of these, estradiol is most prominently produced before menopause, and estrone is the hormone most prominently produced post-menopause. Each of these three has specific functions.

Estrogen’s Benefit Tied to Age: Good for the Young, Bad for the Old

The story of estrogen and Alzheimer’s disease is one of controversy. Epidemiological studies consistently suggest the hormone protects the brain, but the landmark Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) found that hormone replacement therapy harmed cognition in older women who were long past menopause.

Hormone Health: Estrogen Metabolism – The Good The Bad and the Ugly

Estrogen is very important for all women and men. A lot of people don’t realize that estrogen doesn’t exist as a singular molecule; there are different versions of estrogen.

Hormones Can Change Your Skin Tone

And could provide a new treatment for skin conditions

Is soya bad for women's health?

Soy's isoflavones have oestrogenic properties — and have been blamed for raising the risk of breast cancer (as well as prostate cancer for men). But is this really the case?

Listening to Estrogen

All women understand themselves to be in constant conversation with their hormones, which they know can wreak havoc with their mood. But they can also bolster and stabilize it. Yet this insight has been boxed away as somehow irrelevant to diagnosis and treatment by doctors unwilling to consider the possibility that the models of illness extrapolated from the experiences of men apply incompletely to women.

Listening to Estrogen Hormones have always been a third rail in female mental health. They may also be a skeleton key

All women understand themselves to be in constant conversation with their hormones, which they know can wreak havoc with their mood. But they can also bolster and stabilize it.

No One Really Understands How to Treat Menopause

Hormone therapy is a tangled mess of risks, benefits, and side effects that even doctors have difficulty unraveling.

Overcoming Estrogen Dominance

By far one of the biggest sources of excess estrogen is our modern diet. Commercially raised animals are injected with growth hormones to make them grow bigger and faster or increase milk production. These hormones make their way into your food where they can disrupt your own natural hormone balance. Pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides found on conventional produce are known endocrine disruptors that interfere with your natural hormone activity and metabolism.

Possible Heart Benefits Of Taking Estrogen Get Another Look

The findings dovetail with a 2012 study of 1,000 Danish women, which found that those who received about 10 years of hormone therapy (starting within a year of menopause) had a lower risk of premature death, heart failure and heart attack and did not experience a higher risk of cancer, blood clots or stroke.

Sex hormones and your heart

Here's the latest thinking about how estrogen or testosterone therapy may affect cardiovascular risk.

Shortages of Injectable Estrogen Are Screwing Over Trans Women

"If they’re not compelled to serve us with this thing we need, what are we going to do?”

The Estrogen Dilemma

Brinton is a brain scientist. Estrogen, particularly in its relationship to the health of the brain, is her obsession. At present it is mine too, but for more selfish reasons.

The History of Estrogen

Our bodies efficiently make our natural hormones. Cholesterol from our diet is converted into a family of progesterones, which then become our androgens, such as testosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Androgens are important since they are the substrate for all of the estrogens in our body. The ovaries alone convert testosterone to estradiol (E2), the most powerful of the estrogens. Fat cells can convert androstenedione to other weaker estrogens, including estrone (E1), only 40% as active as estradiol, and estriol (E3), only 10% as active as estradiol. Since menopausal symptoms seem to arise with falling estrogen levels, estrogen has been sought as treatment of these symptoms.

The History of Estrogen

Our bodies efficiently make our natural hormones. Cholesterol from our diet is converted into a family of progesterones, which then become our androgens, such as testosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Androgens are important since they are the substrate for all of the estrogens in our body. The ovaries alone convert testosterone to estradiol (E2), the most powerful of the estrogens. Fat cells can convert androstenedione to other weaker estrogens, including estrone (E1), only 40% as active as estradiol, and estriol (E3), only 10% as active as estradiol.

The History of Estrogen Therapy

Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) has proven an effective treatment for the amelioration of symptoms of menopause. The idea that a substance was the missing factor in a woman’s body after menopause dates to the 1800’s when cow ovarian tissue was injected into German women in a successful attempt to reverse the sexual symptoms of menopause. The early 1900’s saw the rise of commercialized menopause “treatments” that ranged in substance, and even theoretical, efficacy.

The Hormone Story (series): Estrogen

The word "estrogen" is really shorthand for a group of several different but related hormones that perform similar functions within the body: Estrone (E1), Estradiol (E2), and Estriol (E3).

The Link Between Menopause and Alzheimer’s

With Alzheimer’s afflicting more women than men, researchers are studying whether the hormonal changes that occur in menopause may affect the development of the disease.

The Surprising Hormone That Protects Against Heart Disease

You may go days (or even weeks or years) at a time without thinking about your hormones. For example, estrogen is well-known primary hormone produced by your ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat tissues that's primarily associated with the vital role it plays during puberty. But it affects your life far beyond your early teenage years.

Understanding the Good, Bad and Ugly of Estrogen Metabolites

Your body actually makes 3 kinds of estrogen: estrone, estradiol (about 80% of what circulates in your body) and estriol (the weakest form and produced in large quantities during pregnancy). Each of these forms is then metabolized by the liver for elimination in a 2- phase process called sulfation and glucuronidation.

Resources

HealthyWomen

Estrogen is probably the most widely known and discussed of all hormones. The term "estrogen" actually refers to any of a group of chemically similar hormones; estrogenic hormones are sometimes mistakenly referred to as exclusively female hormones when in fact both men and women produce them. However, the role estrogen plays in men is not entirely clear.

Live Science

There are many times throughout a person's life when estrogen levels may change. For example, estrogen levels naturally increase during puberty and during pregnancy. Estrogen levels fall after menopause, or when a woman stops menstruating. This reduction in estrogen production can cause symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and loss of sex drive. Estrogen levels also decrease after childbirth.

StatPearls

The Women's Health Initiative ended clinical studies prematurely because participants in the study developed an increased risk of breast cancer and coronary artery disease. Newer studies contradict the finding of the Women's Health Initiative, with evidence of improved quality of life and reduced risk of coronary artery disease and osteoporosis in women when women start estrogen hormone replacement therapy at the onset of menopause.