Estrogen is considered a dirty word among bodybuilders, especially those looking for chemical enhancement with steroids. Estrogen is considered a “female hormone” and therefore is thought that it should be reduced dramatically. Bodybuilders will often take aromotose inhibitors or SERMs in order to reduce the effect of estrogen in the body while taking testosterone.

While reducing estrogen can help against prostate problems, bloat, gyno risk, and female fat pattern gain, it also plays a role in your muscle gains. For this reason, one must be careful to not reduce it too low.

Estrogen effects on muscle gain:

So how can a female hormone help muscle gain? It does it through a variety of ways. Research has shown that it increases the mitogen activated protein kinase cascade, localized IGF-1, and an increase in system growth hormone levels.

The protein kinase cascade is an important reaction for IGF-1 and insulin to cause their anabolic effect. The raising of Growth hormone as a result of estrogen, also plays a synergistic role with testosterone and other anabolic hormones. Estrogen also helps in the process of retaining water, which can help cell volumization and ultimately leads to increased protein synthesis.

Does this mean then that increasing estrogen levels is a good thing for bodybuilders? Absolutely not. High levels of estrogen has a variety of negative health effects on males and will actually reduce muscle gains, if the ratio of estrogen to testosterone is high. What we are saying is that estrogen does help muscle gains, provided it’s in a near balanced ratio with testosterone(not very low or too high).