Guest Post Disclosure
The concept of estrogen and testosterone is familiar to most of us. These are female and male sex hormones, and their role in the body is more complicated than one might think. In small quantities, estrogen is also found in men, and the same goes for the male sex hormone in women.
Estrogen in the female body is responsible for the appearance of all the symbols of femininity – lush hair, curves, healthy and shiny skin, etc. In men, it’s in charge of proper sexual function. More on the role of estrogen in males, see here.
In an optimal amount, this hormone does not interfere with the work of progesterone and testosterone in a female body. It allows all of you to enjoy life and be strong and healthy. But when it goes wild, the hormone imbalance occurs, and if you neglect this condition, you can experience many health issues.
When Estrogen Goes Wild
As women get older, there is a decreased secretion of progesterone in their bodies. Besides aging, many other factors, like stress, diabetes, and disorders of the thyroid gland, can trigger the hormonal imbalance. With less progesterone, estrogen overcomes. And bad signs of its dominance, like various diseases and unfavorable conditions of the body, appear.
One of the first signals to indicate this condition is the appearance of fatty deposits around the waist. Women often do not pay attention to this symptom as a clear sign of hormonal imbalance. But there is a very close correlation between this disorder and getting weight – fat deposits boost secretion of this hormone, and then it causes additional fat to build up.
If not responded to on time, apart from aesthetic issues, hormone imbalance can cause other health problems, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and various disorders of the female reproductive system.
High estrogen in the body is responsible for the occurrence of several types of cancers that are most prevalent in the female population – breast tumor, malignant changes in the uterus and ovaries, as well as a prostate tumor in men. These diseases are labeled as hormone-dependent, which is why they should be treated with antagonist therapies (drugs that block this hormone).
Anti-Estrogen as Breast Cancer Treatment
The global statistics is relentless; it shows that neglected or mistreated breast cancer takes hundreds of thousands of lives every year. However, the timely diagnosis of this disease and the use of proper therapies (where possible) give excellent results.
Anti-estrogen drugs have many purposes, as seen on https://anabolicsteroiddrugs.com/anti-estrogen/. In breast cancer therapy, they should be administered only after a detailed histological analysis of the tumor. This examination serves to determine whether there are estrogen receptors on the surface of the malignant tissue.
Through these receptors, the female sex hormone stimulates malignant cells, and they grow and expand. Drugs that act like antagonists should target these receptors and block these them. That will prevent excess hormones from reaching tumor cells.
How These Drugs Work
The best results in treating breast cancer are provided by hormone therapy in combination with surgical removal of malignant tissues. Following the removal of malignant tissue, anti-estrogen drugs should prevent the disease from returning by regulating the level of this hormone in the body, or completely blocking its receptors.
Selective Therapy
Estrogen receptors are found in tissues of other organs, like ovaries, uterus, bones, etc. In each of them, these receptors have a different composition from those in breast tissue. Although estrogen gets to all of them, its effect varies.
Therefore, the therapy that acts only in the cancer-affected area of the breast does not affect other receptors in the body. It’s marked as a selective therapy and produces the best results when administered in the early stages of cancer. Also, after the surgical removal of the tumor, this therapy should prevent relapse.
Systemic Therapy
On the other hand, systematic therapies have effects throughout the body. This effect occurs because it acts directly on the estrogen, i.e., on the production of this hormone. Estrogen is secreted from multiple sites in the body (ovaries, adrenal glands).
The action of drugs on these sources prevents female sex hormone from reaching the receptor on cancerous tissue, and thus inhibits its growth. This type of therapy can be used both before and after surgical treatment, but also in advanced stages of cancer when the goal is to stop the tumor from spreading.
More on other breast cancer treatments find below:
https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/breast-cancer-treatment.
Life after Cancer
The advancement of science and technology has brought many significant innovations in the field of cancer treatment. A large percentage of people successfully beat this disease. Even those who need to take additional treatment (hormone therapy after breast cancer surgery) can have a quality and healthy life.
Drugs with antagonist action are relatively safe and do not have many side effects. These are mostly similar to the symptoms experienced by a woman entering menopause – hot flashes, sweating, migraines, libido disorders. Their occurrence is logical since these signs appear when estrogen levels drop in the body (which is precisely the goal of hormone therapy).
During the administration of this therapy, but also generally after the treatment of any form of cancer, it is important to follow the doctor’s instructions and go for regular checks. Cancer is still a dangerous disease, but day by day, medicine is increasingly fighting it, giving patients a second chance.
