From:
sukieferret
Date: 2002-02-26 09:21:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Addrenal Drugs
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "jchprocess" <jchprocess@y...>
wrote:
> why can't you just give a female ferret male hormones and give
> a male ferret female hormones? Would this not cover up the
> symptoms?
Well, the last Iheard in a personal communication is the one vet
researching Lupron thinks that that there MAY be some benefit
beyond just control of symptoms, but I have not heard further so
don't know if that is still in study or how it panned out if done.
Female and male hormones are very similar; in humans the
body can easily convert "male" and "female" hormones back and
forth to each other. It's been a while since I read on this
(probably around 10 years) but at that point there were
something like over a hundred (perhaps hundreds) of known
uses in the body for the estrogens in BOTH males and females
-- including brain health, and I know that there are still ongoing
studies of the use of estrogens for some brain disorders in
humans. Far fewer uses for the androgens (male hormones)
were known at that time, but it may be a more recent hormonal
grouping; one of its uses is to help with muscle mass. So, if
this still holds: both genders use both groupings of hormones,
each can be easily converted from one to another, and they are
not antagonistic to one another. Do remember, though, that
almost all of this this is from memory and from a decade ago, so
pull out that big grain of salt and we'll see what the experts say
later.