Oestrogen: Far More Than a Hormone for Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Hearing the word ‘oestrogen’, most people instantly think of menopause and its many symptoms–hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and declining fertility. Oestrogen does play a vital role in these areas, but its effects extend far beyond the reproductive system.

Understanding oestrogen’s broader impact can help both patients and healthcare providers spot symptoms that might otherwise seem unrelated to hormonal shifts.

Oestrogen: It is not just a ‘Female Hormone’

Despite its reputation as a female sex hormone, oestrogen is vital for many other physiological functions in the body, such as:

• It is essential for cognitive function in people of all sexes
• It directly affects synapse formation, neuroplasticity, and cognitive speed
• It impacts how the brain processes and stores information
• Parts of the brain that are responsible for memory, problem-solving, and verbal fluency are influenced by oestrogen levels.

Oestrogen’s influence on brain function explains why ‘brain fog’ occurs. This is a term given to a set of symptoms like forgetfulness or difficulty remembering names during low-oestrogen phases like perimenopause, postpartum, or even cyclical dips during menstruation.

Did you know oestrogen influences the hippocampus, a part of the brain that contains the highest oestrogen receptors in the body?

Recent research published revealed that oestrogen boosts dopamine (a neurotransmitter) activity in brain reward circuits, causing natural shifts in learning ability across hormonal cycles.

• When oestrogen levels are elevated, performance on learning tasks improves significantly.
• When oestrogen activity is reduced, learning effectiveness declines

Oestrogen controls how your body handles pain

Most people do not realise that oestrogen influences pain threshold and perception.

When oestrogen levels are high, pain tolerance increases, which means you feel less discomfort.

Conversely, when oestrogen levels drop suddenly, for example, just before menstruation or during menopause, nerves become more sensitive, leading to increased pain perception and lower pain tolerance.

It is this influence of oestrogen that determines why some people experience migraines, joint pains and a greater sensitivity around menstruation or menopause (when oestrogen levels dip). So, oestrogen withdrawal that occurs when women enter menopause does not just manifest as hot flashes and disrupted sleep but also leads to burning sensations and discomfort when urinating, intercourse and overall physical discomfort.

Understanding this connection between estrogen and pain processing can help individuals recognise patterns in their symptoms and seek appropriate hormonal support when needed. It also underscores why pain management strategies may need to be adjusted throughout different hormonal phases of life.

Oestrogen regulates the immune system

In addition to regulating pain and other vital physiological functions, oestrogen also helps regulate the immune system. This is one of the most complex and surprising roles of oestrogen and helps fight body infections by:

• Enhancing the activity of basophils, eosinophils, and certain types of macrophages
• Influencing B cells by increasing their survival, proliferation, differentiation, and function, which corresponds with higher antibody counts generally detected in women compared to men.

However, this immune-boosting effect has a significant downside: oestrogen can also increase the risk of autoimmune flare-ups.

• Oestrogen’s effects on different immune cells can trigger immune overactivity.
• This is why autoimmune disorders such as lupus, thyroid disease, and rheumatoid arthritis are far more common in women than men, and why symptoms often flare during high-estrogen phases of the menstrual cycle or pregnancy.

It is also interesting to note that autoimmune symptoms may improve when oestrogen levels are lower, such as after menopause, though this varies considerably among individuals. Most people never connect their hormone fluctuations to autoimmune symptoms. But our team at Medi-Gyn is experienced in recognising these patterns and curating personalised treatment plans for effective disease management.

Oestrogen’s reach extends throughout the body

Beyond these three surprising facts, oestrogen also influences:

• Cardiovascular health: It reduces the risk of heart disease by up to 50%.
• Bone health: POestrogen maintains bone density and prevents osteoporosis
• Improves gut health: Oestrogen influences and enhances the diversity of the gut microbiome.
• Maintains sex drive: In men, adequate oestrogen levels are essential for sexual function, including sex drive, erectile function, and sperm production.

In addition to the above functions, oestrogen also regulates lipids, enhances insulin sensitivity, lowers glucose levels, and normalises liver function.

Key Takeaway!

As research continues to reveal oestrogen’s far-reaching impact on human health, it becomes increasingly clear that this hormone controls several, if not most, aspects of female and male health, not just reproductive function.

Understanding these broader roles helps patients and clinicians recognise that hormonal fluctuations can show in unexpected ways—from sudden memory lapses to unexplained joint pain to autoimmune flares.

It is important to remember that oestrogen is not just a hormone for hot flashes and night sweats, but a master regulator that touches nearly every system in the human body.