Understanding Sex Differences and Actions of Hormones Can Help Improve Medicine

According to new research sex hormones may play a significant role in the cognitive functions of women including memory and their response to environmental cues. A few of the recent findings are Maternal stress was found to lower the level of a chemical in the placenta thereby affecting development in mice. It is feared that this could cause schizophrenia or autism. Estrogen therapy in post menopausal women was found to prevent memory loss due to stress. A drug used to treat breast cancer called Tamoxifen may help prevent cognitive disorders in post menopausal women The female reproductive hormone estrogen is now been discovered to be produced in both the male and female brain but affect the cognitive responses of males and females differently. The affect of hormones on the brains of the two different sexes was responsible for how they develop; respond to social cues and how they age. Understanding this may help improve the development of medicine.