Why does beer contain female hormones

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Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Article Contents Abstract. Jan Gill Jan Gill. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Revision received:. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract Studies that have investigated the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the level of oestrogens and progesterone in both pre- and post-menopausal women are reviewed. Table 1. These two chemicals can increase the estrogen levels your body produces.

If this happens too much, your body will react and decrease testosterone levels—which can put you at risk for low T. This is also why it is important to limit alcohol consumption when undergoing testosterone treatment. So, why does this happen with beer? These two estrogen-increasing chemicals are typically found in hops and barley, which of course, are two of the most common ingredients in beer.

Your average vegetarian will typically ingest far more phytoestrogen than what you can get from moderate beer consumption. While it is beer that has the reputation of making a man less manly, tofu can be as bad or worse! Yet few male vegetarians worry about it, and with good reason: it is simply not a problem.

With the idea of "female hormones in beer" being such a scary one, most people forget that there are other important factors playing a role here as well. Let's start with the feminisation symptoms often observed in male chronic alcoholics, especially gynaecomastia and hypogonadism. While medical research in this field is ongoing, it is important to know that in the human body the liver is responsible for removing excess naturally produced estrogen. However, in chronic alcoholics the liver function is often seriously impaired, which means that this no longer happening.

Other effects may play a role as well, including the very real possibility that long-term alcohol abuse damages the body on many different levels, inlcuding the endocrinal system responsible for hormone regulation.

This is also consistent with the fact that distilled spirits alone may cause these symptoms. Secondly, alcohol. Let's face it: the effect of alcohol on sexual performance has long been known. Even Shakespeare's Macbeth speaks of it: " Drink sir, is a great provoker of three things: nose painting, sleep and urine.

Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire but takes away the performance. Yet, once again, this is related to alcohol, and not to phytoestrogen from hops. However, that is not to say that hops play no role at all here.

Hops are a mild soporific, which means they make the drinker feel more relaxed and mellow, and somewhat sleepy. But being too mellow and sleepy is not a good thing when it comes to making whoopie. Drowsiness is the opposite of vigour Enough said.

So what about the proverbial "man boobs"? Well, there appear to be several factors at work here, including a hormonal one: low levels of testosterone. Simply put, testosterone a primarily male sex hormone and estrogen a primarily female sex hormone are each other's opposites and balance each other out.

Low levels of testosterone can cause normal levels of estrogen to have a more pronounced effect. This is most noticeable in boys during puberty when estrogen levels may rise quicker than testosterone levels, and as a result about half of all boys may experience gynaecomastia at some stage during early puberty, with the onset being most common between ages 13 and Natural hormonal fluctuations aside, gynaecomastia may also result from excess weight in which alcohol of course does play a role!

Broadly speaking, in many cases this may be more of a lifestyle-related effect than the result of phytoestrogen from beer. In short, beer appears to have been amply exonerated when it comes to messing with the drinker's hormone levels, and the effect of phytoestrogens is generally being overestimated.

Yes, there is some effect, but this manifests itself mostly as a short-term fluctuation in hormone levels in the blood, which is not enough to be a cause of concern. Compared to the dangers of alcohol that we are all familiar with, the effect of phytoestrogen is minimal at best. So have a beer, and don't worry about hormones.