Estriol - Therapeutic Use

Therapeutic Use

In pregnant women with multiple sclerosis, estriol reduces the disease's symptoms noticeably, according to researchers at UCLA's Geffen Medical School.

Estriol can be a weak or strong estrogen depending on if it is given acutely or chronically when given to immature animals, but is an antagonist when given in combination with estradiol. Estriol may play a role in the development of breast cancer, but based on in vitro research does appear to act as an antagonist to the G-protein coupled estrogen receptor. Though estriol is used as part of the primarily North American phenomenon of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, it is not approved for use by the FDA or Health Canada. Though initial research in the 1970s suggested it could be used therapeutically as an estrogen, subsequent research failed to confirm this hypothesis.