What are the physiological estrogens?

What is it about?

Estradiol, estrone and estriol are physiological estrogens in humans and other vertebrates. These three steroids have a unique structure that is used to define an estrogen in other steroids as well as in synthetic chemicals that could act as estrogens. These synthetic chemicals are in the environment are called environmental estrogens or endocrine disruptors because they can disrupt estrogen physiology in humans and other vertebrates. We propose that steroids in humans and synthetic chemicals in the environment can have a structure not found in estradiol, estrone, and estriol and also act as estrogens.

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Why is it important?

The general model for describing the “estrogen” structure of a steroid and of synthetic chemicals is incomplete. This means that the estrogenic activity of steroids such as Adiol and Cholesterol as well as some synthetic chemicals in the environment needs to be considered and not ignored. There also is a philosophical implication for this paper because we have proposed that the ancestral estrogen was Adiol or another DHEA metabolite or a cholesterol metabolite.