Estradiol News and Research

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Estradiol is a sex hormone. Mislabelled the "female" hormone, it is also present in males; it represents the major estrogen in humans. Estradiol has not only a critical impact on reproductive and sexual functioning, but also affects other organs including the bones.

Researchers set a new standard in the design and engineering of nuclear hormone receptor-based genetic on-off switches

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have set a new standard in the design and engineering of nuclear hormone receptor-based genetic on-off switches, without causing new problems or aggravating existing ones.

7 Apr 2005

New twist on the role that estrogens play in the development of behavioral differences between men and women

What makes a man behave like a man and a woman a woman? The answer may be partly in your genes. Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have discovered a new twist on the role that estrogens play in the development of behavioral differences between males and females.

14 Mar 2005

Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can affect men's thinking

Androgen-deprivation therapy (AD), an effective therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer reduces levels of testosterone (a tumor stimulant), and estradiol, a form of estrogen, in men. These are known to be important in neurological development and play a particularly important role in the cognitive areas of learning and memory.

28 Feb 2005

Female sex hormones have a profound effect on susceptibility to the herpes simplex virus

Two McMaster University studies, to be published in the Journal of Virology, show that sex hormones have a profound effect on susceptibility of female mice to the herpes simplex virus, type 2 (HSV-2 ), one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases.

21 Feb 2005

Why estrogenic hormones produce unintended results in women

New research is shedding light on why estrogenic hormones produce unintended results in women, giving hope to the idea that new drugs might reach their targets and work more effectively. Ultimately it could mean that postmenopausal women would know that hormone-replacement therapy would have only its intended result.

13 Feb 2005

What causes puberty to begin?

Puberty, that awkward phase when boys and girls are primed for their sexual reproductive years as men and women, appears to be triggered by the brain's own version of "It takes two to tango," whereby a signal literally gets turned on by a molecule that is produced by a gene aptly named KiSS-1.

31 Jan 2005

New advances in sickle cell disease

Excruciating pain episodes, recurrent pneumonias, strokes, severe infections, chronic hemolytic anemia, and secondary pulmonary hypertension are common complications of sickle cell disease, a life-threatening inherited defect in blood that causes normally disc-shaped red blood cells to take on a sickle shape.

6 Dec 2004

Reproductive hormones have effects on all of these stages of brain growth and development

Scientists are now uncovering increasing evidence that the brain not only responds to hormones produced by the reproductive system, but that these hormones-the so-called "female hormones," estrogen and progestin, and the "male" androgens, such as testosterone-play an important role in the development of differences between male and female brains.

2 Nov 2004

Higher intake of dietary fiber is associated with lower circulating estrogen levels

Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and the University of Helsinki in Finland have shown that, in Mexican American women, higher intake of dietary fiber is associated with lower circulating estrogen levels.

18 Oct 2004

Estrogen protects male rats from aortic aneurysms

When it comes to abdominal aortic aneurysms – life-threatening bulges or weak areas in the main artery feeding blood to the lower half of the body – new U-M research shows that it is definitely better to be female.

12 Oct 2004

Progestin in hormone therapy could dramatically affect heart attack severity

“One type of hormone therapy limited heart muscle damage to only 5 percent while another resulted in permanent damage to 35 percent of muscle,” said J. Koudy Williams, Ph.D., lead investigator, from Wake Forest Baptist. “If we can learn more about this mechanism we might be able to identify better hormone therapies for postmenopausal women.”

10 Oct 2004

Half of women over 55 don't discuss osteoporosis with their doctors

A recent survey of 376 women age 55 and over found fewer than half of them discuss osteoporosis prevention therapies with their healthcare providers, yet this bone crippling disease is one of the major reasons women eventually lose their independence and enter nursing homes.

3 Aug 2004

There are still benefits from hormone therapy after menopause

Despite the highly publicized closing of the Women’s Health Initiative study, the scientific community should not rule out that women may benefit from hormone therapy after menopause, say researchers at UC Davis, Duke and Harvard Universities.

31 May 2004

Risk of prostate cancer greater in men over 50 with high levels of testosterone

Men over 50 years of age with high blood levels of testosterone have an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The finding throws some doubt on the safety of testosterone replacement therapy, the investigators say.

11 May 2004

Estrogen–like drugs may help postmenopausal women

Scientists may debate whether weight gain is a side effect of menopause, but the numbers are clear: On average, women may experience a gain of approximately 10-15 pounds in the years surrounding menopause.

19 Apr 2004

Three hours exercise reduces risk of breast cancer

Three hours of moderate exercise per week significantly reduced circulating estrogens in postmenopausal women, according to a new study published in the current issue of Cancer Research. The finding may explain why women who exercise regularly lower their risk for breast cancer.

16 Apr 2004