Does the Estrogen Receptor Status Have Anything To Do With the Amount of Estrogen In My Body?

— -- Question: Does the estrogen receptor status have anything to do with the amount of estrogen in my body?

Answer: Yes, it's very important to realize that pre-menopausal women tend to have lower levels of estrogen receptors in their breast tumors than post-menopausal women. This is basically because pre-menopausal women make a lot of estrogen from their active ovaries, and this active estrogen binds to the locks so you can't really see it. So once bound, it tends to have a mechanism of action to stimulate growth and then gets destroyed. So the general principle is that a lot of estrogen drives down the levels of estrogen receptors, stimulating growth. A little bit of estrogen, the estrogen receptors tend to be higher in those patients who are post-menopausal.

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