Science hasn t known about hormones for all that long, only about a hundred years. And when oestrogens extracted from pregnant women s urine, the original hormone replacement therapy, were first released in the 1920s, they were used to treat not just menopausal symptoms but a whole range of other ailments, from skin disease and schizophrenia to epilepsy and depression. But the more we find out about oestrogens, the more it seems that might not have been so crazy. Oestrogens might not be a miracle cure, but they certainly have many roles. Associate Professor Paul Komesaroff is from the Baker Medical Research Institute in Melbourne.
Oestrogens have very broad effects in the body.
They act on reproductive tissue, they also act on bone and brain. They also affect the cardiovascular system in a wide variety of ways. They can affect the levels of cholesterol, or cholesterol-like substances, they can affect the way in which the blood flows and clots, and they can affect stress levels. And all of these things are related to cardiovascular risk, and in all of them it appears that broadly speaking, oestrogens have what would seem to be a beneficial effect. Oestrogens have long been thought to protect against heart disease.