Sex hormones linked to male heart risk

LEICESTER, England, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- University of Leicester researchers say the reason men are more prone to heart disease than women of a similar age is sex hormones.

Dr. Maciej Tomaszewski suggests that this "male disadvantage" may be related to the sex-specific effects of naturally occurring sex hormones.

Tomaszewski and colleagues looked at ways that the sex hormones -- estradiol, estrone, testosterone and androstenedione -- interacted with three major risk factors of heart disease -- cholesterol, blood pressure and weight in 933 men with a median age of 19.

The study, published in the journal Atherosclerosis, found that two of the sex hormones -- estradiol and estrone, called together estrogens -- are linked to increased levels of low-density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol, and low levels of high-density lipoproteins, the "good" cholesterol in men.

The findings suggests that certain sex hormones may be important risk factors of heart disease in men, even before they present symptoms of coronary artery disease or stroke, Tomaszewski said.

"We hypothesized that circulating concentrations of sex hormones were associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors in men long before any apparent manifestations of cardiovascular disease such as stroke or myocardial infarction," Tomaszewski said.