Estrogen's effects on fat-mobilization promotes a pear shape in pre-menopausal women, but may promote abdominal accumulation after menopause.
From the article:
Gavin and her colleagues recruited 17 overweight-to-obese premenopausal women, all between the ages of 18 and 44 years old. […] Participants performed this [submaximal] exercise both by itself and while the [fat-mobilizing] drugs were being infused. To test the effects of estrogen, the researchers also performed each of these conditions while estrogen was also being slowly infused into participants' fat deposits.
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Results
The researchers found that estrogen’s effects differed tremendously depending on the fat-mobilizing interventions themselves and where the fat deposit was located. For example, estrogen blunted fat breakdown in the abdomen if it was infused while a particular fat-mobilization drug called isoproterenol was also being infused, but it didn’t have this effect in the buttocks. When a second fat mobilizing drug was given along with the first while participants were at rest, fat breakdown didn’t change any further. However, when both drugs were injected together during exercise or when the volunteers exercised without the drugs, fat breakdown increased in the abdomen, but less so in the buttocks.
Importance of the Findings
These results suggest that estrogen has different effects within fat tissue depending on its location. Together, these effects could help maintain premenopausal women’s “pear” shape even in the face of exercise or other signals the body receives to break down fat. They could also help generate some new ideas on how estrogen in fat may influence why postmenopausal women tend to accumulate more fat in the abdomen.