---
title: Does estrogen or progesterone affect magnesium levels in brain blood vessels?
description: Yes. High levels of estrogen and progesterone both decrease magnesium in brain blood vessel cells. Low progesterone increases magnesium. This may explain why
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/sex-steroid-hormones-exert-biphasic-effects-on-cytosolic-magnesium-ions-in-2001/
---

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- Does estrogen or progesterone affect magnesium levels in brain blood vessels?

Study, 2001

# Does estrogen or progesterone affect magnesium levels in brain blood vessels?

Yes. High levels of estrogen and progesterone both decrease magnesium in brain blood vessel cells. Low progesterone increases magnesium. This may explain why migraines happen more often before the period.

 Early or limited evidence

Cultured dog brain blood vessel cells, not human

## What they did

Researchers grew brain blood vessel cells from dogs in the lab and exposed them to different amounts of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, then measured magnesium levels.

## What they found

Before hormones, magnesium was 645 microM. Low estrogen (10 pg/ml) did not change magnesium. High estrogen (40 to 200 pg/ml) decreased magnesium, with about 30% decrease at the highest dose. Low progesterone increased magnesium from 690 to 753 microM. High progesterone (5 to 20 ng/ml) decreased magnesium. Testosterone had no effect.

## What it means for you

This lab finding suggests a possible mechanism for why migraines happen more often before the period in PMS, because high hormone levels may lower magnesium in blood vessels. However, this is cell culture work using dog cells, not human studies, so we do not yet know if this actually happens in women with PMS.

645

starting magnesium level in microM

30%

decrease in magnesium at highest estrogen dose

753

magnesium level after low progesterone in microM

## About the study

Original title Sex steroid hormones exert biphasic effects on cytosolic magnesium ions in cerebral vascular smooth muscle cells: possible relationships to migraine frequency in premenstrual syndromes and stroke incidence Authors Li W, Zheng T, Altura BM et al. Journal Brain research bulletin Year 2001 Study design Study What was tested Exposure to different amounts of sex hormones Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/s0361-9230(00)00428-7](https://doi.org/10.1016/s0361-9230(00)00428-7)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/)[Pain and headache](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-pain/)[Magnesium](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-magnesium/)[Migraine](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-migraine/)[Relationships and partners](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-relationships/)[Stigma, attitudes and culture](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-stigma-culture/)

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