What Effect Does Estrogens Have on a Woman?

The female body naturally produces estrogen for reproductive and sexual development. This group of hormones regulates the female menstrual cycle, but also contributes to the regulation of other systems, such as the urinary tract, the cardiac system, and helps in the maintenance in skin, bones, hair and muscles.

Where is Estrogen Produced?

• The ovaries of a woman are responsible for the production of estrogen; however, the adrenal glands do produce a small amount of the hormones.

Positive Effects of Estrogen

• Estrogen not only promotes sexual development and reproduction within women, it also aids in maintaining bone density, regulates body temperature, aids in the regulation of the production of cholesterol by the liver, and helps maintain the sexual organs over a female's lifetime.

Negative Effects of Estrogen

• Some research has shown that prolonged exposure to estrogen can increase a woman's chance at developing breast and uterine cancer.

Estrogen and Osteoporosis

• Estrogen helps maintain bone density in women; deficiencies in estrogen, whether it is a hormonal imbalance or during menopause, can reduce the mass of bones. This reduction in bone mass can result in serious fractures in women, particularly in post-menopausal women.

Estrogen and Heart Disease

• Estrogen is important in a woman's fight against heart disease. It helps protect the heart by regulating the liver's production of cholesterol, thereby reducing the amount of plaque that can adhere to arteries.

Estrogen and Alzheimer's Disease

• Since estrogen helps with the maintenance of the nervous system and the neural networks within the body, estrogen deficiencies increase a woman's chance of developing Alzheimer's. According to Health Orchid, there is research to show that post-menopausal women who were given estrogen were protected from the development of Alzheimer's.