Estrogen helps make women curvier than men by making their pelvis and hips wider, and their breast grow. Estrogen is part of your menstrual cycle, helps you get pregnant, and plays a role in helping you develop bones and grow hair. It also helps regulate your moods and impacts your brain development and structure.
Widening of the hip bones occurs as part of the female pubertal process, and sex hormones in females (estrogens) cause a widening of the pelvis as a part of sexual differentiation. Hence females generally have wider hips, permitting childbirth. Q.
Taking estrogen can affect your weight. It can also shift where your body fat settles on your body. For example, if you have narrower hips and a round belly, some of your belly fat might move into your hips and upper thighs.
For example, as estrogen levels rise after puberty, it prompts the pelvis to widen so that it's at its widest from the ages of 25 to 30–peak fertility years–to make it easier to give birth to human babies, whose large heads need the extra room when getting pushed through the birth canal.
So, as you grow taller, your body starts producing all kinds of hormones, which are chemicals that tell parts of your body what to do. During that time of growth, your hips widen (depending partly on what your genes, aka heredity, told them to do!) This widening helps with having babies in your adult years.
With the onset of puberty, the male pelvis remains on the same developmental trajectory, while the female pelvis develops in an entirely new direction, becoming wider and reaching its full width around the age of 25-30 years. From the age of 40 onward, the female pelvis then begins to narrow again.
At puberty, oestrogen and progesterone are responsible for the development of typically 'female' characteristics, such as wider hips and larger breasts, largely by changing the way fat is distributed. The hormones are also often given to transsexuals for the same reason.
The main culprit behind weight gain in your thighs is estrogen. This hormone drives the increase in fat cells in females, causing deposits to form most commonly around the buttocks and thighs.
Causes: Estrogen Imbalance
Subcutaneous fat, which is fat under the skin, has estrogen receptors and hence it signals your body to store more estrogen. This fat is commonly seen in the thighs and butt, where you also notice more cellulite because the fat is closer to the surface (unlike visceral fat in the abdomen).
Last, studies support that estrogen promotes fat accumulation specifically in the lower body adipose depots, which includes hips thighs and buttocks [15,16], which is a common site of excessive adipose tissue accumulation in most lipedema types (Table 1).
Estrogen is the primary female hormone. In trans women individuals undergoing HRT, estrogen works to promote feminization by causing breast development, widening of the hips, and softening of the skin.
Overall, you may gain or lose weight once you begin hormone therapy, depending on your diet, lifestyle, genetics and muscle mass. Your eyes and face will begin to develop a more feminine appearance as the fat under the skin increases and shifts.
During puberty, baseline estrogen levels begin to rise. This rise in estrogen is what triggers the development of certain sexual characteristics like breast growth, weight gain around the hips, and hair growth under the arms and pubic area.
Studies have found that a pear-shaped body is related to excessive oestrogen. This condition is called oestrogen dominance. Too much oestrogen has been linked to fat accumulation in the abdominal area, leading to more weight at the hips and, thus, a pear-shaped body.
Pear shape – too much estrogen. Extra weight in the hips and thighs indicates you have too much estrogen.
Estrogen is the main reason for weight gain around your thighs. The hormone estrogen causes fat cells to increase in females.
Signs and symptoms of high estrogen levels in women
In females, having too much estrogen may cause: weight gain, especially around the hips and waist. heavy or light periods. worse PMS than usual.
The hormone estrogen is responsible for making skin look younger due to the hyaluronic acid it produces. Estrogen not only affects your skin but also your muscle mass, metabolism, and energy levels. Women have more estrogen than men do; men have more testosterone than women do.
Recent studies show that menopausal women on hormone therapy tend to have less body fat, especially visceral belly fat. Because estrogen affects how your body distributes fat, low estrogen levels can contribute to gaining fat in your belly area.
Many women notice an increase in belly fat as they get older even if they don't gain weight. This is likely due to a lower level of estrogen because estrogen seems to have an effect on where fat is located in the body. Genes can contribute to an individual's chances of being overweight or obese too.
Estrogen increases fat storage by upregulating certain receptors in fat deposits around the thighs and hips, known as alpha-androgenic receptors which are known to block fat burning.
According to the University of Rochester, weight gain and fat deposits are similar in boys and girls until puberty. At the onset of adolescence, boys develop higher testosterone levels while girls develop higher estrogen levels. That elevation in estrogen leads to a higher percentage of body fat.
Most believe that a regular sex life leads to hormonal changes in a woman's body, leading her to gain weight. News flash: there are no studies that prove that a woman's breasts or hips enlarge or change shape after a regular sex life.