OBJECTIVE Dietary phytoestrogens are promoted as alternatives to synthetic estrogens for hormone therapy, however, their effects on the reproductive axis have not been exhaustively studied in vivo. Female aromatase knockout mouse (ArKO) mice are estrogen-free, anovulatory, and have a block in folliculogenesis, hemorrhagic cysts, and development of Sertoli cells within their ovaries. The purpose...

OBJECTIVE To perform a meta-analysis examining the efficacy of phytoestrogens for the relief of menopausal symptoms. METHODS Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases were searched until September 30, 2013 using the following key words: vasomotor symptoms, menopausal symptoms, phytoestrogens, isoflavones, coumestrol, soy, red clover. Inclusion criteria were (1) randomized contro...

Some clinical trials have shown that high phytoestrogen intake may decrease serum concentrations of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and phytoestrogens may also lower prostate cancer risk. It was the aim of this study to examine the relationship between the serum PSA level and urine phytoestrogen concentration in generally healthy U.S. men. Eight hundred twenty-four men, 40+ yr old without pros...

Epidemiological data suggest that consumption of phytoestrogens can be protective against the development of breast cancer. It may be logical to postulate that phytoestrogens may regulate proteins that control cellular division, such as the tumor suppressor PTEN. Germline, and more significantly, somatic PTEN mutations have been observed in a broad range of human cancers, especially those of th...

Dietary phytoestrogens are well known to have potential hormonal effects owing to their interaction with estrogen receptors [1]. Abnormalities in reproductive health due to a high intake of phytoestrogens have been reported in several women [2,3]. Interestingly, genistein–a type of phytoestrogen–is known to have estrogenic properties, and various hormonal effects of this compound have been repo...

We used gene expression profiling to investigate whether the molecular effects induced by estrogens of different provenance are intrinsically similar. In this article we show that the physiologic estrogen 17-beta-estradiol, the phytoestrogen genistein, and the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol alter the expression of the same 179 genes in the intact immature mouse uterus under conditions wh...