Estrogen (medication)

Estrogen (medication)
Drug class
Estradiol, the major estrogen sex hormone in humans and a widely used medication.
Class identifiers
Use	Contraception, Menopause, hypogonadism, transgender women, prostate cancer, breast cancer, others
ATC code	G03C
Biological target	Estrogen receptors (ERα, ERβ, mERs (e.g., GPER, others))
External links
MeSH	D004967

An estrogen is a type of medication that has similar effects to those of the estrogen steroid hormone estradiol. Estrogen may also refer to any substance, natural or synthetic, that mimics the effects of the natural hormone. They may be used in some oral contraceptives, in hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal, hypogonadal, and by transgender women, and estrogen suppressants may be used in the treatment of certain hormone-sensitive cancers like prostate cancer and breast cancer. They are one of three types of sex hormone agonists, the others being androgens/anabolic steroids like testosterone and progestogens like progesterone.

Estradiol, estrone, and estriol have all been approved as pharmaceutical drugs and are used medically. Estetrol is currently under development for medical indications, but has not yet been approved in any country. A variety of synthetic estrogen esters, such as estradiol valerate, estradiol cypionate, estradiol acetate, estradiol benzoate, estradiol undecylate, and polyestradiol phosphate, are used clinically. The aforementioned compounds behave as prodrugs to estradiol, and are much longer-lasting in comparison when administered by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. Esters of estrone and estriol also exist and are or have been used in clinical medicine, for example estrone sulfate (e.g., as estropipate) and estriol glucuronide (as Emmenin and Progynon).