Autonomic control of body temperature and blood pressure: influences of female sex hormones
- 9 May 2017
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Clinical Autonomic Research
- Vol. 27 (3), 149-155
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-017-0420-z
Abstract
Female reproductive hormones exert important non-reproductive influences on autonomic regulation of body temperature and blood pressure. Estradiol and progesterone influence thermoregulation both centrally and peripherally, where estradiol tends to promote heat dissipation, and progesterone tends to promote heat conservation and higher body temperatures. Changes in thermoregulation over the course of the menstrual cycle and with hot flashes at menopause are mediated by hormonal influences on neural control of skin blood flow and sweating. The influence of estradiol is to promote vasodilation, which, in the skin, results in greater heat dissipation. In the context of blood pressure regulation, both central and peripheral hormonal influences are important as well. Peripherally, the vasodilator influence of estradiol contributes to the lower blood pressures and smaller risk of hypertension seen in young women compared to young men. This is in part due to a mechanism by which estradiol augments beta-adrenergic receptor mediated vasodilation, offsetting alpha-adrenergic vasoconstriction, and resulting in a weak relationship between muscle sympathetic nerve activity and total peripheral resistance, and between muscle sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure. After menopause, with the loss of reproductive hormones, sympathetic nerve activity, peripheral resistance and blood pressure become more strongly related, and sympathetic nerve activity (which increases with age) becomes a more important contributor to the prevailing level of blood pressure. Continuing to increase our understanding of sex hormone influences on body temperature and blood pressure regulation will provide important insight for optimization of individualized health care for future generations of women.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL83947)
This publication has 54 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sex, ageing and resting blood pressure: gaining insights from the integrated balance of neural and haemodynamic factorsThe Journal of Physiology, 2012
- Sex and ageing differences in resting arterial pressure regulation: the role of the β‐adrenergic receptorsThe Journal of Physiology, 2011
- Mechanisms of cutaneous vasodilation during the postmenopausal hot flashMenopause, 2011
- Relationship Between Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity and Aortic Wave Reflection Characteristics in Young Men and WomenHypertension, 2011
- Mechanisms and modifiers of reflex induced cutaneous vasodilation and vasoconstriction in humansJournal of Applied Physiology, 2010
- Age-Related Differences in the Sympathetic-Hemodynamic Balance in MenHypertension, 2009
- Skin blood flow and nitric oxide during body heating in type 2 diabetes mellitusJournal of Applied Physiology, 2009
- Cutaneous and hemodynamic responses during hot flashes in symptomatic postmenopausal womenMenopause, 2008
- Up‐regulation of arginase activity contributes to attenuated reflex cutaneous vasodilatation in hypertensive humansThe Journal of Physiology, 2007
- The involvement of nitric oxide in the cutaneous vasoconstrictor response to local cooling in humansThe Journal of Physiology, 2006