As quoted by Healthday reporter Steven Reinberg, "MS is more frequent in women than men," said study author Dr. Alvaro Alonso, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Some people have thought that perhaps estrogen can be modifying the risk of MS."

Many oral contraceptives raise the level of estrogens in the body, and it is thought that estrogen has a regulatory effect on the immune system. "We have seen that oral contraceptives can reduce the risk of MS in the short term," Alonso said. "If you are taking oral contraceptives and you are [destined] to have MS, the onset of MS can be delayed one to two years."

That MS risk is lowered during pregnancy-- and in the presence of elevated estrogen levels-- is not entirely surprising. A previous study found that pregnancy was the best treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Despite the findings, Alonso does not see an immediate impact on MS treatments. "The decision to take oral contraceptives or the decision to become pregnant must not be influenced by the idea that this can increase or decrease the risk of MS," he said.

Increasing estrogen levels over the long term can have many undesirable side effects, and is furthermore not feasible for men with MS. As such, further research into the hormonal avenue of treatment will of course be required prior to solid treatment recommendations being produced. This is an area of great research interest-- in particular example, Nicholas LaRocca of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society states: "The society has for several years mounted an ambitious program of research directed at understanding the significance of gender in the pathogenesis of MS. As we continue to learn more about this aspect of MS, it will add to our understanding of the disease and, it is hoped, how best to treat it."

For more information, click "read more"...

In short, women with MS generally have lower levels of testosterone in general. Very low levels of testosterone are associated with more lesions. There are, however, some women with MS with abnormally high levels of testosterone-- and in that case, such levels were associated with more serious, permanent damage.

For men with MS, testosterone levels were not any different than non-MS'ers, but the presence of higher levels of the female hormone oestrogen were linked with more serious brain damage.

While this studies seems a bit back-and-forth in the results, the important point is that while people have demonstrated many links for the sex hormones to MS (e.g., pregnant women don't have relapses, twice as many women as men have MS, etc.), this research shows definitively that something is indeed abnormal about these hormones in MS'ers. It is, as many of the studies we post, a jumping-point for more targeted research and no treatment is suggested herein.

"The primary objective of this study was to determine whether there is a link between the profile of sex hormones and MRI characteristics of brain damage in RRMS. As a first step, we investigated whether MS patients had hormonal patterns that were different from those in healthy controls...

The results showed that women with MS had lower testosterone concentrations than normal subjects. Women with hormonal levels more than 2 standard deviations below those of healthy controls had more enhancing lesions than women with normal testosterone concentrations...

Moreover, in women affected by MS, higher testosterone concentrations were significantly associated with the likelihood of irreversible tissue injury... and clinical disability, whereas in men with MS, there was a positive correlation between serum oestradiol and [irreversible tissue injury].

Click "read more" for a link to the full study (interesting, but technical)...

Unfortunately, estrogen therapy is not an easy one to undertake, because there are negative side effects, the most obvious example of which is that men with MS could most likely not take it (men do have estrogen, but clearly not in the same amounts as women). Therefore now that this connection between estrogen and MS is better understood, more benign analogues to estrogen can be studied. All in all, a very positive development that could allow us to consistently replicate the very best treatment for MS (pregnancy).

"For years, doctors have suggested the best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy. Now, an Oregon study is delivering solid evidence to support the theory.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center have uncovered the mechanism by which estrogen, produced in high volumes during pregnancy, boosts the expression and number of regulatory cells that are key to fighting MS and other autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis and diabetes..."

Click "read more" for the full article-- a great read.