Do Female Sex Hormones Induce Mood Disorders?

Did your beloved sweet honey transform into a tough bitch? Yeah, we all blame it on PMS syndrome or menopause, but contrary to common belief, women were found by numerous studies to be 1.5 to 3 times more exposed to severe depression than men.

A new research carried out at the University of Alberta urged for carefully designed, gender-specific investigations for relating female sex hormones to emotional states and conditions. "The reasons for the gender disparity in rates of depression are not completely understood", said Kathy Hegadoren, the Canada Research Chair in Stress Disorders in Women at the University of Alberta. "But there is growing evidence that estrogens have powerful effects beyond their role in reproduction--that they play a critical role in mood disorders in women--and this opens new avenues for research into the underlying biological mechanisms and treatment of depression."

Estrogens are currently employed against many female mood conditions, like perimenopausal, postmenopausal and postpartum depression, but this is quite empirical, as there are no studies assessing the complex interconnections between estrogens, serotonin and mood swings.

"Right now, clinical use of sex-hormone therapies for the treatment of mood disorders is severely hampered by the inability to predict which women would respond well to such therapies. Most animal studies looking at the causes of depression have been conducted with male animals and use chronic-stress models, which are assumed to be similar to depression." said co-author Gerri Lasiuk, UA nursing professor.

The team warn that several factors can trigger mood conditions, including genetic, psychosocial and environmental categories that explain increased vulnerability in women compared to men, but the connection to female sex hormones is evident.

"Previous research has found that, before puberty, the rates of mood and anxiety disorders are similar in boys and girls. It's only after females begin menstrual function that a gender differential in mood disorders manifests itself. This, coupled with the observation that women appear to be especially vulnerable to mood disturbances during times of hormonal flux, certainly lends support to the claim that a relationship exists between sex hormones and mood", said Hegadoren.


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