A review of medicinal herbs with estrogenic, progesteronic, and testosteronic properties

Disorders caused by sexual hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are the disorders which can lead to various diseases. Using medicines and chemical hormones along with their therapeutic effects can lead to dangerous side effects such as cancer. According to the approach of World Health Organization to alternative and traditional medicine, using safe and effective herbal remedies can be effective for hormonal disorders. This review article was performed with aim to investigate and introduce some herbal therapies for the treatment of diseases caused by sexual hormones.
The review articles published since 1980 onwards were searched in PubMed, Scopus, SID, and Google scholar databases using the keywords of “endocrine disorders”, “estrogen”, “progesterone”, “testosterone”, and “herbal therapies”. The inclusion criterion for the papers was introduction of at least one herbal drug for the management of mentioned three hormones. A total of 213 articles were found that 97 papers evaluating the direct relationship between herbal therapies and the hormones (not only the disease) were selected. Then, among these 97 articles, 53 studies that in addition to evaluation of how the herbs affect, also had explored the mechanism of effect were selected and discussed in this study.
The main herbal sources of sexual hormones are soy, red clover, and kudzu for estrogen, bupleurum, rehmannia, and passiflora for progesterone, and shatavari, damiana, and ashwagandha for testosterone.
Some herbal medicines may be suggested as the safe selective treatment for the management of problems and diseases caused by sexual hormones.