What happens if a male takes female hormones?
Is it dangerous for a male to take female hormones?
If a male takes female hormones, he will acquire the physical characteristics of a female and lose his male physic.
Although both male and female bodies produce the same hormones, the quantity of hormones each produces differs.
For example, the male body produces between 300 – 1000 ng/dl of testosterone whereas the female body produces 20 – 80 ng/dl (1). As you can see, the male body produces more than ten times the amount testosterone the female body produces.
Similarly, the female body produces 24 – 149 picograms of estrogen per ml of blood while the male body only produces 12 – 34 picograms of estrogen per ml of blood (2).
The quantity of hormones in the body defines the individuals physic. Males have muscular physics because their bodies produce large of quantities of testosterone. Females have large breasts because their bodies produce large amounts of estrogen and progesterone.
If a male begins to take female hormones, he will not only lose his male characteristics and acquire the physic of a female, he will also develop other diseases. For example, researchers have observed that if the levels of the female hormone estrogen increase in a male, he is at risk of developing dementia (3).
If a male injected estrogen and progesterone into his body, he would develop female like breasts, lose the deepness of his voice, and the amount muscle on his body would reduce. If a female injected herself with testosterone, as professional female bodybuilders do, she would develop a deep voice, facial hair, a broader jaw, and her clitoris would enlarge.
To sum up the answer to your question, yes it is dangerous for a male to take female hormones and vice versa.
Source(s):
- OF, Janis,Sex hormone tests, The Gale Group, 2002, retrieved 29 February 2008.
- ibid.
- High estrogen levels associated with dementia in older men; no association observed with testosterone, Science Daily, 2006, retrieved 29 February 2008.