What does a decrease in sex hormones mean

Sex hormones are one of the important substances produced by the human body. They can regulate the balance of the human body and maintain the stability of the internal environment. Sex hormones are an indispensable substance that everyone has. Sex hormones can promote cell division and reproduction, promote human growth and development, and control the balance of the human body by regulating nutrients and water in the body. If sex hormones are lacking, it will have a great impact on the stability of the internal environment of the human body. So what does a decrease in sex hormones mean? Let's find out

Sex hormones are produced by endocrine cells. There are two types of endocrine cells in the human body: colony-based and scattered. They live in groups and form endocrine glands, such as the pituitary gland in the skull, the thyroid gland and parathyroid glands in the front of the neck, the adrenal glands, pancreatic islets, ovaries in the abdomen, and testicles in the scrotum. Scattered ones include gastrointestinal hormone cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa and peptide hormone-secreting cells in the hypothalamus. Each endocrine cell is a small workshop for producing hormones. When the hormones produced by a large number of endocrine cells are concentrated, they become a force that cannot be underestimated. Hormones are chemical substances. At present, the chemical structures of various hormones have been basically understood.

According to chemical structure, they are roughly divided into four categories:

The first category is steroids, such as adrenal cortex hormones and sex hormones.

The second category is amino acid derivatives, including thyroxine, adrenal medullary hormone, pineal hormone, etc.

The structure of the third type of hormones is peptides and proteins, such as hypothalamic hormones, pituitary hormones, gastrointestinal hormones, calcitonin, etc.

The fourth category is fatty acid derivatives, such as prostaglandins. Action Hormones are important substances that regulate the normal activities of the body. None of them can initiate a new metabolic process in the body. They do not directly participate in the conversion of matter or energy, but only directly or indirectly promote or slow down the original metabolic process in the body. As growth and development are both inherent metabolic processes of the human body, an increase in growth hormone or other related hormones can speed up this process, while a decrease will slow down growth and development. Sex hormones play an important regulatory role in human reproduction, growth, development, various other physiological functions, behavioral changes, and adaptation to internal and external environments. Once the secretion of sex hormones is unbalanced, it will cause disease.

Function

Although the physiological effects of hormones are very complex, they can be summarized into five aspects:

1. By regulating the metabolism of three major nutrients such as protein, sugar and fat, as well as water and salt, it supplies energy for life activities and maintains the dynamic balance of metabolism.

2. Promote cell proliferation and differentiation, affect cell aging, ensure the normal growth and development of various tissues and organs, as well as cell renewal and aging. For example, growth hormone, thyroid hormone, sex hormone, etc. are all hormones that promote growth and development.

3. Promote the development and maturation of reproductive organs, reproductive function, and the secretion and regulation of sex hormones, including a series of reproductive processes such as egg production, ovulation, spermatogenesis, fertilization, implantation, pregnancy and lactation.

4. Affects the development and activities of the central nervous system and autonomic nervous system, and their relationship with learning, memory and behavior.

5. Work closely with the nervous system to regulate the body's adaptation to the environment.

The above five aspects of function are difficult to separate clearly, and no matter which one, hormones only act as messengers, transmitting information about certain physiological processes, accelerating or slowing down the physiological processes, and cannot cause any new physiological activities.

Sex hormones only exert specific effects on certain tissues or cells (called target tissues or target cells). Every tissue and cell in the human body can become the target tissue or target cell of this or that hormone. Each hormone can select one or several tissues or cells as its target tissue or target cell. For example, growth hormone can play a unique role in bones, muscles, connective tissues and internal organs, making the human body grow tall and strong. But muscle also serves as a target tissue for androgens and thyroxine.

The way sex hormones act at the molecular level is the same as other steroid hormones. After entering the cell, they bind to specific receptor proteins to form a hormone-receptor complex. They then bind to the cell nucleus and act on chromatin, affecting DNA transcription activity, leading to the biosynthesis of new or increased existing proteins, thereby regulating cell metabolism, growth or differentiation. Sex hormones are small molecules with fat solubility. They enter cells mainly through free diffusion (passive transport), bind to cytoplasmic receptors to form hormone-cytoplasmic receptor complexes, gain the ability to enter the cell nucleus through conformational changes and heat shock protein dissociation, and transfer from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Hormones bind to nuclear receptors to form hormone-nuclear receptor complexes, thereby stimulating the transcription process of DNA and generating specific mRNA, which then enters the cytoplasm and is translated into protein in the ribosome to exert biological effects.

Normal menstruation is regulated and controlled by the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis. Any factors that affect the regulatory function of this axis can lead to