Why Do Females Have Higher Estrogen Than Males?

[Waynish]

Is there a Peat explanation for why females naturally and generally have more estrogen than males?

Also just looking at average estrogen rates in women of different ages, it seems that post-menopausal women have much lower estrogen than healthier younger fertile women (for most of the month)... How does that map to the Peat paradigm?

 

[tankasnowgod]

Is there a Peat explanation for why females naturally and generally have more estrogen than males?

Also just looking at average estrogen rates in women of different ages, it seems that post-menopausal women have much lower estrogen than healthier younger fertile women (for most of the month)... How does that map to the Peat paradigm?

Did you try going to Raypeat.com and using the search function?

 

[Waynish]

Yes, I've read every article. If it really is such a stupid question, then it will be answered in this forum easily.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Women don't have higher estrogen, except when they are menstruating. When they are menstruating there are periods of very rapid cell growth with each cycle to set up the uterine lining etc.

Women post-menopausal have similar estrogen levels to men of about the same age.

Estrogen-androgen levels in aging men and women: therapeutic considerations. - PubMed - NCBI

In the male, the serum testosterone levels showed a progressive decrease from the fifth age decade onward, whereas in the female there was an increase after the menopause. Estradiol levels showed no significant change in the aged male, but they were somewhat higher than in the aged female.

 

[Waynish]

So there's a function of estrogen that is required for female functionality - i.e. it isn't only "used for stress," but used to create a cycle for new life. It just seems like we should talk about some of the female-specific physiology of estrogen sometimes - instead of action "purely" as a stress cause and/or effect.

 

[paymanz]

Maybe because maintaining a womb , and keeping it fertile is a hard task for body, female body needs to be always in a state that is able to meet another life's(the fetus) requirements and nutrition.breasts also similar,they need higher prolactin levels.

However progesterone is is also higher in women which is said to counter estrogen,and balance it.

 

[paymanz]

Honestly I am interest in this question as well,my answer above is just my speculations.

 

[beachbum]

Is there a Peat explanation for why females naturally and generally have more estrogen than males?

Also just looking at average estrogen rates in women of different ages, it seems that post-menopausal women have much lower estrogen than healthier younger fertile women (for most of the month)... How does that map to the Peat paradigm?

Good question. I have been thinking the same and also feel RP is more directed to testosterone. Now I have a question to add to this. If you make more testosterone arent you going to make more estrogen unless your body converts it another pathway. So I guess aromatase inhibitor comes in to play.

 

[paymanz]

Beachbum, ray always talks about progesterone, he rarely speaks about testosterone.

But yes,he favors androgens over estrogen.

 

[beachbum]

Beachbum, ray always talks about progesterone, he rarely speaks about testosterone.

But yes,he favors androgens over estrogen.

Hi Paymanz,
Now if you have androgens in the picture they either make DHT if I m not mistaken and they make estrogen.

Yes as for him speaking more of progesterone yes he does, the reason I didn't say that becasue I figured it was a givin.. meaning thats is his focus progesterone and thyroid.

 

[Dante]

So there's a function of estrogen that is required for female functionality - i.e. it isn't only "used for stress," but used to create a cycle for new life. It just seems like we should talk about some of the female-specific physiology of estrogen sometimes - instead of action "purely" as a stress cause and/or effect.

+1

Maybe because maintaining a womb , and keeping it fertile is a hard task for body, female body needs to be always in a state that is able to meet another life's(the fetus) requirements and nutrition.breasts also similar,they need higher prolactin levels.

However progesterone is is also higher in women which is said to counter estrogen,and balance it.

I thought women in general slightly outlived men .

 

[blob69]

However progesterone is is also higher in women which is said to counter estrogen,and balance it.

After all this time, this is still not clear to me... If progesterone counters/balances estrogen in women, to the point where they even live longer because of it, how come they suffer from more autoimmune diseases, migraines, depression etc. than men? Where's the logic?

 

[paymanz]

After all this time, this is still not clear to me... If progesterone counters/balances estrogen in women, to the point where they even live longer because of it, how come they suffer from more autoimmune diseases, migraines, depression etc. than men? Where's the logic?

I don't know,

I know one instance that progesterone counters estrogen, and that's their effect on cortisol. I read in one study that P suppresses cortisol while E increase it.

Estrogen also is pro serotonin,but I don't know about progesterone.

 

[schultz]

So there's a function of estrogen that is required for female functionality - i.e. it isn't only "used for stress," but used to create a cycle for new life. It just seems like we should talk about some of the female-specific physiology of estrogen sometimes - instead of action "purely" as a stress cause and/or effect.

Yes it's used for growth, or to initiate it. Progesterone is used to control this growth by counteracting the estrogen when it needs to be "turned off".

"...estrogen stimulates the uptake of water by – I think it's first action is to block the use of oxygen that causes a cell to take up water in the first few hours or minutes of exposure. And overloading cells with water causes them to go into the growth inflammation state where they forget what they had been doing and simply start multiplying. And so for the first 12 hours that there is a burst of new cells in the uterus ready to receive an implantation. In the breasts, it creates massive new cells to enlarge the milk production capacity. And in the pituitary, it enlarges the cells that will take over production of prolactin at the time of lactation. But if you continue that exposure more than a day that growth continues and then you increase the risk of breast tumors and pituitary tumors."

 

[Parsifal]

A good question would also be: Why do they live longer on average.

 

[ecstatichamster]

i already pointed this out, females do NOT have higher estrogen than males.

In some cases, males have higher than females. Many older men have higher estrogen levels than their wives. Many, even MOST.

Weird how women have more autoimmune problems, smaller livers, poorer thyroids, and yet live longer than men...

My theory is it's all social dynamics. Men are lone wolves and have few friends by and large. Women are social connectors. I think that explains it. I honestly think these factors matter MUCH more than many other things, such as diet and nutrition and exercise.

 

[tara]

My theory is it's all social dynamics. Men are lone wolves and have few friends by and large. Women are social connectors. I think that explains it. I honestly think these factors matter MUCH more than many other things, such as diet and nutrition and exercise.

Wouldn't surprise me if those are really important factors. Social connectedness having one of the strongest associations with longevity.

Also iron - women have a regular way to dispose of excess iron for a few decades. Don't women's rates of iron-excess diseases like CVD begin to approach those of men after menopause?

 

[tara]

Peat's explanation regarding estrogen has included that estrogen is needed for various functions in short bursts.
It's chronic elevation that causes harm, such as in various prolonged stresses or progesterone deficiency.
In menopause, it's not just the blood levels of estrogen that matter, it's excesses of the stuff doing it's thing out in the tissues that's of concern, and this may not be accurately reflected in blood tests.

 

[schultz]

A good question would also be: Why do they live longer on average.

Progesterone

 

[Atalanta]

Progesterone

How can it be progesterone when women's ovaries stop making progesterone after menopause?

If a woman becomes menopausal at 50 and lives to 90, how can progesterone be the reason? After menopause, women make less progesterone than men of the same age. Ray Peat himself has said that after menopause women actually have a higher ratio of estrogen to progesterone than before menopause.