What is Estrogen?
Estrogen is a hormone produced naturally by your body. Everyone assigned male and female at birth makes it [1]. Different tissues, not limited to the reproductive organs, produce, store, and secrete estrogen. Estrogen comprises three hormones: estradiol, estrone, and estriol [2]. Of these, the first, estradiol, is the most active and can be considered the most potent, exerting significant effects on ovulation, egg maturation, and thickening of the uterine lining to allow egg implantation [2, 3].
Estrone is weaker than estradiol and is produced by both the ovaries and fat tissues. It’s the estrogen responsible for most of the effects related to sexual development in females [2]. Estriol is the weakest of the three and almost undetectable outside of pregnancy. This is when estriol’s primary purpose occurs [2].
What Does Estrogen Do?
Estrogen helps regulate your reproductive system, keeps your bones strong, and helps your skin recover from bruises and damage [1]. In females, it helps build breasts and prepare the uterus and ovaries for fertility [4]. It also triggers the beginning of a woman’s period. While your period is happening, levels of estrogen rise, paving the way for the growth of a lining in the uterus that helps a new egg find a home if it’s fertilised [4].
Estrogen also has multiple other roles throughout a woman’s life, including helping make and keep bones strong, controlling cholesterol possibly by helping raise good (HDL) cholesterol levels, boosting blood supply to the skin and increasing skin thickness, and helping to regulate moods and perhaps control depression and anxiety [4].
Along with its known roles in reproductive tissues, it now seems estrogen and its receptors might have functions elsewhere in the body, including in the brain. The neuroprotective activity of estrogen has been intensively studied. The hormone is a potent neuroprotective antioxidant molecule and may directly induce the transcription of neuroprotective genes and cross-talk with other intracellular signalling pathways [5].
Can Food Influence Estrogen Levels?
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