Estrogen and Prostate Cancer

All men will develop prostate cancer if they live long enough. Several recent studies show that a man’s susceptibility to prostate cancer may be influenced more by his exposure to the female hormone, estrogen, than to the male hormone, testosterone stimulates the prostate to grow, but a recent article in the medical journal, Prostate, suggests that it does this only after the prostate has been sensitized by the female hormone, estrogen. (1) Men with the highest blood levels of estrogen are the ones most likely to get prostate cancer (2). Blood levels of the male hormones, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, produced by a man’s body are not associated with susceptibility to suffer prostate cancer (2). Prostate cancer is not associated with frequency of sexual activity and there is no evidence that it is caused by taking male hormones or an infection.