In women, the relationship between excess body fat, testosterone, estrogens, and progesterone is somewhat more complicated.

It is believed that estrogen reduces lipid oxidation at puberty and in early pregnancy to facilitate efficient fat storage in preparation for fertility, birth and lactation (O'Sullivan et al 2001; Rosenbaum et al 1999). This modification in lipid oxidation enables fat storage without significant changes in dietary fat and caloric intake (O'Sullivan et al 2001).

The drop in gonadal estrogen production at menopause is associated with an increase in the waist to hip ratio and an increase in size of visceral adipose tissue, and administration of estrogen to postmenopausal women is associated with a lowering of the waist to hip ratio (Rosenbaum et al 1999). However, as women age, levels of progesterone and all estrogens (including estriol, estradiol, and estrone) decline..Progesterone declines much more rapidly than do the estrogens, leading to "estrogen dominance" (Lee et al 1999) . LE believes the imbalance of estrogens and progesterone may play a pivotal role in the dynamics of metabolic obesity and visceral fat accumulation in aging women.