Like most autoimmune conditions, psoriasis is considered to be of unknown etiology and is labelled currently “incurable” by mainstream medicine. The fact that it is several times more prevalent in females (as are all other autoimmune conditions) has been known for decades and despite multiple hormone assessments no clear hormonal connection has been established. Estrogen was proposed as a possible cause decades ago, but that link was conveniently forgotten after medicine got into the habit of prescribing estrogenic HRT to women, as well as estrogenic birth control (BC) pills/patches/IUDs. The study below is one of the few to demonstrate a clear connection between low levels of progesterone and DHEA, and psoriasis. While the study did not find a clear connection between levels of estradiol and testosterone with psoriasis, it is worth noting that blood tests for estrogen are notoriously unreliable given that it correlated very poorly with intracellular estrogen levels. In addition, even if estradiol levels remain largely the same in both psoriasis and healthy cohorts, the fact that progesterone levels drop in patients results in a drop of the progesterone/estrogen ratio, which is not recognized by medicine as a much more reliable biomarker of estrogenic signalling. In other words, the study below demonstrated a drop in progesterone/estrogen ratio in psoriasis, which means psoriasis is characterized by relative estrogen dominance. Low DHEA has been observed in many autoimmune conditions and DHEA administration has been successfully tested in several small human trials for other autoimmune conditions such as Lupus. Low DHEA levels are seen in advancing age, and also when the person is under chronic stress and/or hypothyroid. Same with progesterone levels. Thus, one could rephrase the findings of the study to say that psoriasis may be driven by estrogen dominance caused by stress and/or low metabolism.
https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(25)03029-4/abstract
“…Researchers did not observe differences between women with and without psoriasis when comparing mean levels of estradiol (119.6 vs. 143.8 pg/mL; P = .205) or testosterone (45.6 vs. 45.9; P = .943). In contrast, compared with controls, women with psoriasis had lower levels of progesterone (7.59 vs. 9.4 ng/mL; P < .0001) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA; 144.9 vs. 150.7 ug/dL; P = .019). “We found that women with psoriasis had significantly lower progesterone and DHEA levels compared with matched controls, whereas estradiol and testosterone levels were similar between groups,” Lipner told Healio. The results suggest progesterone and DHEA play a role in psoriasis pathogenesis, whereas estrogen and testosterone do not, according to Lipner. “Physicians might advise female patients that fluctuations in sex hormone levels could influence psoriasis risk, severity or symptoms,” Lipner told Healio. “However, we do not have enough data yet to guide treatment.”
