The Demonization of Estrogen

Are you... aN iDiOt?

Anyone notice how everyone, medical professionals and science folks included, talks as if male hormones--androgens like testosterone, DHT and DHEA--are the default, rarely linking them to disease or states of mental unwellness the way female hormones are spoken about?   It's always those pesky female ones (estrogen, progesterone, prolactin & Co.) that catch all the blame for causing serious illnesses.  Women make up 90% of all autoimmune diseases cases?  Must be the lady hormones!  Women are more likely to get dementia?  Lack of lady hormones after menopause!  Women are the slightest bit moody, fatigued, anxious or irritable any time after puberty?  PMS/PMDD, obviously!  (Hormones!)  Feeling down after pregnancy & childbirth!  (Hormoans!)  Peri-menopause! (Whore-moans!)  MENOPAUSE!   

(W̶̛̦͇̾͋̐͐ h̷̢̭̒ ŏ̴͈̺̱̫̮̊̔̄̈͘͝ r̵̨̧͈͙̪̥̰̼͍͑̇͆̇̓͒́̈́͘͜͠ é̴̮͉̺͖̭̀̅̍̉͐͜ m̴̡̨̬̗̺̘̜̐̍̚͘ͅ ǫ̸̮̪̬͙̋̈́̐̂̊̊̓̈̓͝ a̷̧͚͓͛̿̅̃͛͘̚͠͝ ṉ̷͇͂ s̵̮̙̩̳̞̩̀̑̃̈͗!̷̢̤̬̾͐̄́͒͒̓̚͝͝)  

Aside from all the contradictions, this loosely constructed "theory" of women's dis-ease comes off as incredibly dismissive and may even be dangerous.  More on that in a minute.  First, let's get into why none of this makes a damn bit of sense.  Women aren't the only ones who make female hormones, though men only produce them in small amounts.  But men are also more sensitive to their effects, exhibiting more severe toxic effect at lower doses.  (The same is true for women and androgens, which our bodies produce in small amounts naturally as well).   

Estrogen, like THC & other compounds, is stored in body fat, which is a big reason obesity increases the risk of several reproductive cancers in women.  Many of these are estrogen-responsive, containing receptors that signal them to grow when activated by estrogen... or anything that resembles it.  This is where things get hairy, because the number of "estrogen-like" compounds in our environment seems to be growing by the year.  Just consider the explosion in the number of estrogen-containing meds in the 21st Century.   Imvexxy, Premarin, the countless name brand and generic estradiol/progestin combo contraceptive and HRT pills on the market....  

Actual screenshot of what I assumed was satire.  Nope.  A gramme in time saves nine 

Then you have the Big Dogs: the cross-sex hormones taken in heroic doses by transgender people of both sexes.  All the above end up in the water supply when we urinate/defecate/flush them down the toilet, having disturbing effects on fish & other aquatic animals we eat.  Cow's milk from pregnant dairy cattle--which is nearly all of them in the U.S.--is a major source of estrogen (and progesterone) that's been linked to precocious puberty in girls and potentially a host of human cancers including breast and prostate cancers.  (Milk and its derivatives are in practically all processed foods these days).  I'm not talking about rBGH or rBST--I'm talking about the natural estrogen that female animals produce when pregnant).  Apparently milk may also contain Bovine Leukemia Virus which just sounds... fucking yikes.  

Got milk?  What's REALLY in your dairy products.

Still with me?  Good, because we've got a long way to go.  There are another class of estrogen-like compounds floating around in our air, water, food & consumer products.  These are more "dirty" in that they may affect a wider range of endocrine systems and hormones such as insulin or thyroid function, thus the name "endocrine disruptors".  These include chemicals like BPA, DDT, phtalates & dioxins.  The aforementioned cow drugs recombinant bovine growth hormone (rGBH) and rBST are other examples. 

All of this has unique health consequences for males, females & children of both sexes as well as every other living thing.  Each one has a different "strength" or binding affinity for the estrogen receptors throughout the body, the most potent being a 1970s Rx drug called diethylstilbestrol.  It persists in the water today because, well, I'll just let you read this little screen cap yourself because I don't wanna get side tracked.  Needless to say, if this was the only bad guy on our list, we'd all be cooked.

DES:  Destructive & indestructible.

 

The Math Ain't Mathin'

Hey waitaminute...

With all these factors:  all-time high obesity rates, potent estrogenic compounds in our food, medication, water and environment, why aren't men, who are naturally less tolerant of female hormones, developing the health complications doctors and scientists blame on these hormones in women?  Or seemingly any health problems at all?  Even prostate and other male reproductive cancers don't get blamed on estrogen exposure in men like so many women's health conditions do.  Only when the fairer, weaker, more "emotional" sex gets sick is the cause chalked up to these pesky hormones. 

Estrogen is a powerful substance, no doubt.  But no more powerful than the androgens.  You know, the ones that cause cardiovascular disease, male pattern baldness, acne, mood swings and rage, adrenal gland & testicular tumors and growth of a micropenis if a female infant lies on her father's bare chest after he's used testosterone gel there.  (Ahem, testosterone, I'm looking at YOU).  IDK about you, but those are some pretty serious fucking health effects.

And why is nobody talking about the obvious whopping doses of cross-sex hormones transgender people take on the daily?  We're warned about the detrimental effects of anabolic steroids, yet "transmen" (aka females) are given massive amounts of synthetic testosterone even after horror stories of vaginal atrophy and fusion of reproductive organs like that of trans porno star Buck Angel and the elevated death rate of transgender people on cross-sex hormones.  Remember, both sexes are uniquely sensitive to the opposite sex's hormones, and we have the data proving increased death rates.  WHY IS THIS STILL CONSIDERED ETHICAL?!

But back to the point of this screed.  How does it make sense to blame women's health problems on female hormones that are SUPPOSED to be in women's bodies?  We tolerate them better than men, yet even when men are exposed to massive amounts of synthetic and exogenous sources of estrogen agonists, they don't come down with these (or apparently any other sex-specific) diseases.  This is dangerous because it misses other potential causes, like all the toxic products marketed specifically to women:  cosmetics banned in other countries, tampons found to be contaminated with 16 heavy metals & poisons including dioxin, household cleaning products, hair dyes and chemical straighteners that cause fibroids & cancer in Black women, herbal weight loss concoctions & other unregulated supplements, nail polish, prescription medications tested exclusively on male test subjects and much more.  Or the fact that we're pushed to work in "helping" professions where we're made to act as human shields in school shootings when the cops don't show up or wear trash bags as PPE or any other number of hazardous shit for insulting pay.  Might these things plus the stress of household labor inequality and the bodily trauma of pregnancy/childbirth contribute to higher rates of dementia or autoimmune disease in women?  No?  Okay.  Lady hormones it is.

Any one of those things may be fine in isolation, but none of this shit happens in a vacuum.  You can't walk into a public building without being smacked in the face by the smell of cleaning solution and 10 different perfumes; walk outside and car exhaust fills your nostrils.  If you choose to drink water from the tap, you're likely ingesting a host of things those cheapo Brita filters don't really remove, yet bottled water is full of microplastics we can only assume do very bad things.  That's cool; most people rarely drink water anyway, opting for carbonated/caffeinated sweet poison.   You'll probably get diabetes but hey, that's what GLP-1's are for.  You already take a smorgasbord of medications and supplements, many of which the FDA has warned may not be safe due to lack of regulation or being made overseas.  You can't currently afford to see your doctor but you found some cheap Vietnamese birth control pills online that look legit.  The reviews are good anyway.  They're cheaper than your regular brand anyway, and you need that money to get your hair dyed before Memorial Day!  

All the bold words above are potentially toxic or endocrine disrupting substances we encounter every day.  Some are avoidable and others are not.  Cancer charities like Susan G. Komen focus on finding a "cure," but we need to be focusing more on finding the cause and getting these filthy substances out of our environment/minimizing unnecessary exposures.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure--while catching cancer "early" is better than late, making sure it never forms in the first place is far better still.  And we'll never do that with scientists, doctors and everyone else shrugging off women's health as some mysterious unsolvable riddle.  Men aren't the default; we aren't some infinitely complex version of the original model. Maybe you'd know that if you included us in your studies.  

Oh, and in case you wondered what high doses of a chemical like dioxin can do to a person, here's perhaps the best living example:  Viktor Yuschenko, who was poisoned by the KGB/Putin in 2004:

Yuschenko exhibiting chloracne, a known symptom of dioxin poisoning.

Dioxin was a key ingredient in Agent Orange and the other "rainbow" defoliants used in Vietnam, and it's a known contaminant in tampons.  Here's the full scary story on THAT.  But no, ladies, your Sjogren's/lupus/migraines/depression/thyroid disease is a result of those female hormones that are supposed to be present in your body!  And when they exit after menopause, well, that also causes problems.  Neither testosterone nor estrogen cause such problems in men, but that's just the way it is!  Oh the joys of being a woman!

Hi!  ✌😀  Like this article?  Drop a donation in one of the accounts below.  Google AdSense does not support "drug-related" content so I rely on your contributions to keep this blog running.  It's hard out here for an independent freelance writer in the digital age.  Thank you!  🌈

BITCOIN:
18cwb3qFkGghVqqzNSX59EFypzzF8Dd7Vg

BITCOIN CASH:
qz84t4ua2achx90a7yk8efelvufggflhu5tzalry7l