Estrogen Side Effects in Males

In women, estrogen helps monitor reproductive health, breast growth and other important bodily functions. It can have a great deal of side effects when the amounts present are changed. While this can be inconvenient at best for women, the side effects when estrogen is given to men can be even more damaging.

Breast Growth

• The most common side effect of the presence of elevated estrogen levels is the growth of breasts, as well as swelling and tenderness in that region. This is true both for women and for men who take estrogen or who have a higher than average amount of it in their bodies before medication.

Sex Drive

• Since a woman's sex drive is partially linked to her levels of estrogen, increasing estrogen in a woman will increase her sex drive. Since in men the sex drive is linked to testosterone, just the opposite will happen if estrogen is introduced to the male anatomy.

Vascular Side Effects

• For both sexes, estrogen has been linked to a number of problems in the circulatory system. Blood clots can become common, and heart disease, chest pains and other symptoms have all been linked to increased levels of estrogen.

Pain

• Another possible side effect for men taking estrogen is pain and tenderness. This pain can be in the chest, extremities (especially in joints like knees and ankles) or injection sites. Often the pain is accompanied by swelling in the affected area as well.

Miscellaneous Side Effects

• While there are far too many side effects to list, many of which affect both genders while taking estrogen, men do have some other possibilities to worry about. Shortness of breath, problems with vision, skin irritation, new or increased hair growth and jaundice are all possible side effects of using estrogen.