What’s the Link Between Hormones and MS?

Studies show hormones may also affect how MS plays out in your body, how much damage it does, and your odds of having the disease in the first place.

Like other autoimmune diseases, which make your body turn against itself, MS is more common in women. One reason might have to do with sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone. Studies suggest that high levels of testosterone in young males may protect them from disease. Men also tend to get MS later in life, when their testosterone levels usually dip.

It’s possible that testosterone could be a treatment against MS. One small study found that men with the condition who used a testosterone gel daily showed improved memory and attention. They also lost nerve cells in their brain more slowly. A reason might be the hormone’s anti-inflammatory powers. With MS, your immune cells attack your nervous system. This leads to inflammation. That harms the nerves and their protective coating, called myelin. Testosterone may lessen or even prevent that.

Normal levels of this female sex hormone, or the amount in birth control pills, don’t seem to protect against MS. But high doses might. Women with MS tend to have fewer symptoms during pregnancy, a time when estrogen levels spike.

High levels of two types of estrogen, estriol and estradiol, have been shown to have a benefit against MS. For people who have the relapsing-remitting type of MS, the hormones may make the relapses, when symptoms appear, less frequent. Estrogen is believed to work in the same way as testosterone, by lowering inflammation.

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