Specialty Labs

 The human body, for both sexes, produces a few different kinds of estrogen. The type produced by the ovaries is called 17 beta-estradiol. This is the hormone best known for regulating the female reproductive system. Your body converts some testosterone into estradiol through an enzyme called aromatase, so it’s present in male bodies as well, just at lower levels (the testicles also produce small amounts of estradiol).

Estradiol performs numerous functions that have seemingly nothing to do with reproduction. In fact, we have estrogen receptors in systems throughout our entire bodies: in our brains, digestive systems, in skin and bones, and even in our hearts.

 Estrogen’s role in cardiovascular health is one piece in a very complex system of factors that researchers are still just beginning to understand. What we know so far suggests that the estradiol produced by the ovaries appears to be heart-protective in a number of ways. 

• It helps tissues throughout the body stay supple and flexible, and that includes blood vessels. This helps to increase blood flow.
• It helps keep blood pressure low.
• It helps keep blood triglycerides low, increases HDL cholesterol (the helpful kind), and lowers LDL cholesterol levels.
• It promotes blood clotting.
• It absorbs free radicals, particles that cause damage.

 If estrogen (specifically estradiol) is heart-protective in a number of ways, at least until menopause, and we know that males suffer cardiovascular disease sooner and in greater numbers than females, does testosterone play a role? The verdict is still out.

We know that cardiac cells have receptors that bind to androgenic hormones like testosterone. But based on the research so far, there is not a direct link between normal levels of testosterone in males and heart disease.

On the other hand, extremes either in low testosterone levels or high doses of testosterone supplementation do seem to be linked with CVD, though more research is needed to confirm why.

 We know even less about progesterone’s effect on the heart. This is mainly because there isn’t enough research on progesterone-only therapy independent of estrogen, and the studies that have been conducted are mostly on animals. 

 There is evidence that natural progesterone is more heart-healthy than synthetic progesterone, she adds. Synthetic tends to bind to receptors other than progesterone receptors, which makes it detrimental to health. 

 Women seem to have a lower risk for CVD, and are less likely to die from it, up until menopause. From that point on, the risk for CVD and heart attack rises dramatically. 

 Studies additionally showed that as women transition through menopause, they become higher risk for metabolic syndrome, where women experience changes in important cardiovascular risk factors including obesity, blood pressure, and diabetes, as well as cholesterol and that women experienced changes in the distribution of body fat as they transition.

 Of course, it is at menopause that the ovaries also stop producing progesterone and estradiol. (This can be a gradual process over the span of years or a shorter, more abrupt change.) Other tissues throughout the body still produce other kinds of estrogen (as they do in male bodies), and we continue converting testosterone into estradiol, though never at the same levels that the ovaries were producing.

And other types of estrogen don’t serve the exact same functions that estradiol does. So it’s not just the amount of estrogen that matters, but the type of estrogen as well.