Female Hormone Effects

The cycling of hormones leads to a variety of changes in the physiology and psychology of a woman. During puberty, hormones are raging, and in menopause, they rapidly decline. Whether they are working at full speed or starting to slow down, female hormones affect each woman's body in different ways.

Follicle Stimulating Hormone Effects

The brain produces follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) in both men and women. In women, MayoClinic.com notes that this hormone is crucially involved in the maturation of the follicles from their dormant and inactive phase. When FSH is produced by the pituitary gland in the brain, it leads to a race between eggs to see which egg can develop the fastest.

Estrogen Effects

The follicles nourish the development of growing eggs through their production of estrogen. However, only the fastest-growing egg will prevail and be the target for fertilization. Estrogen is not only important for the growth of the egg, but also the growth of the uterus to make way for a potentially fertilized egg.

Robert Lee, M.D., often deemed the father of progesterone therapy, lists stimulating the growth of the uterus as a physiological effect of estrogen. Lee also notes that estrogen causes salt and fluid retention. Estrogen has a protective and anabolic, or building, effect on the bone. The hormone additionally has a protective effect on the cardiovascular system, offering women more than men cardiovascular disease protection up until the onset of menopause. For this reason, according to Yale-New Haven Hospital, many practitioners have advocated for estrogen replacement therapy after menopause.

Luteinizing Hormone Effects

The effect of estrogen combined with the surge of another pituitary hormone known as luteinizing hormone (LH) leads to the release of the egg from its follicle and from the ovary in an event known as ovulation. It is believed to occur at approximately day 14 of a 28-day cycle, but this can vary from woman to woman. The purpose of ovulation is to move the fully developed egg from the ovary to a place in the reproductive tract where it can come in contact with sperm. The effect of this encounter should be fertilization.

MayoClinic.com notes that the same LH surge that initiated ovulation is also the stimulus to the production of estrogen's opposing hormone, progesterone.

Progesterone Effects

The empty follicle from which the egg was ejected will begin to produce progesterone. If the egg is fertilized, another hormone produced by the fertilized egg will help to maintain the levels of progesterone being produced by the corpus luteum until the placenta can take over weeks down the line.

Dr. Lee notes that there are many effects of progesterone in the female body. Progesterone helps to maintain the endometrium so that the fertilized egg can implant. Sufficient levels of progesterone act as a natural diuretic, help burn fat for energy, lend antidepressant qualities and promote normal sleep patterns, blood clotting activity and blood sugar levels. Progesterone also helps maintain libido and acts as a precursor to stress hormones like cortisol. Progesterone has protective effects against breast and endometrial cancer as well as autoimmune diseases.

Testosterone Effects

Testosterone is thought about most commonly as a male hormone, though it is actually produced in small quantities in women as well. A 2002 Association of Women for the Advancement of Research and Education (AWARE) article notes that when a women undergoes natural or surgical menopause, her levels of testosterone also drop with the decreasing levels of estrogen and progesterone.

The AWARE article notes that testosterone can drop by greater than one third of its normal levels as the ovaries decline in function. The effects of testosterone in females are noted as libido-enhancing, but the hormone can act on the brain, muscle, live and blood vessels as well.