19/10/2022
Oestrogen, the female hormone, plays a huge role in the body of every woman. It's levels change with the monthly menstrual cycle, decrease during peri-menopause and beyond, and can be manipulated thorough a woman's life with the oral contraceptive pill and HRT. We also know that it is clearly beneficial for muscle mass and strength in the training athlete and exerciser. Here are some cool facts to ponder, especially if you are trying to build muscle strength and are in the menopausal period of life.
💋Muscle mass, and therefore strength, is largely dependent on the balance between the synthesis and degradation of muscle protein when stimulated through exercise or load.
💋 Higher rates of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown have been observed in these women when compared to age matched men and pre-menopausal women (Smith et al., 2014). There appears to be an imbalance between the protein build-up and breakdown, leading to a shift to the latter and a rapid decrease in muscle mass and strength.
💋 When oestrogen levels were raised to that of pre-menopausal women using estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), the response to the muscle protein synthesis and overall muscle mass was normalized (Hansen et al., 2012).
💋ERT or HRT is therefore beneficial for peri- and postmenopausal muscle mass and function. Combined with exercise, improvements in muscle mass and function have been shown to be more beneficial than HRT ( or exercise) alone.(Beydoun et al., 2012)
Training smarter and chatting with your GP about the right oestrogen replacement for you, will get you feeling stronger, less vulnerable to injury or frailty, and achieving those goals!
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