# What does estrogen do in men?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 5, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957 "2005-06-05T02:29:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957/1 "2005-06-05T02:29:40Z")

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If a man were to take estrogen supplements, what would it do?

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957/2 "2005-06-05T02:46:31Z")

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Pretty much the same thing it does in women.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957/3 "2005-06-05T02:55:16Z")

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From [TG World](http://www.tgworld.org/soc12.php)

> [@](#):
>
> Biologic males treated with cross-sex hormones can realistically expect treatment to result in: breast growth, some redistribution of body fat to approximate a female body habitus, decreased upper body strength, softening of skin, decrease in body hair, slowing or stopping the loss of scalp hair, decreased fertility and testicular size, and less frequent, less firm erections. Most of these changes are reversible, although breast enlargement will not completely reverse after discontinuation of treatment.

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**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957/4 "2005-06-05T04:38:44Z")

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Don’t count on the decreased fertility!

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-estrogen-do-in-men/306957/5 "2005-06-05T05:08:58Z")

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Sit down to pee and complain about the lid being left up. 😃