This drug information page is intended to help you make your treatment work as well as possible. It's important to note, however, that this is only a guideline. You should talk to your doctor or pharmacist about how to take any prescribed drug. This installment in a series of articles on commonly prescribed drugs is about estrogens. The focus is on estrogen deficiency problems.
Estrogens are the hormones mainly responsible for female sex characteristics.
They assist in preparing girls' bones for rapid growth in adolescence. In women, estrogens maintain tone and elasticity of the urinary and reproductive organs and protect against bone thinning. Men also make the hormone, but only a small amount. In both men and women, estrogens help stabilize the opening and closing of blood vessels. Women manufacture most estrogens in the ovaries and adrenal gland, with increases during pregnancy from the placenta.