Biology Forums - Study Force

I had a bit of a question about this as our bio teacher asked us a question to understand homeostasis better, it was:

Imagine if you worked for a pharma company and had to develop a contraceptive that affects hormones in both men and women.

Would this drug be a protein or steroid hormone, why so?
- Now, I think that this would be a steroid hormone since a steroid hormone is seen as "a group of hormones derived from cholesterol that act as chemical messengers in the body". The steroid hormones regulate many physiologic processes, including the development and function of the reproductive system. -> which can be correlated to contraceptives?

Now the actual question I had was would there be any feedback loops, effector cells and or endocrine systems that this (steroid) drug design will have?
- Since this is a steroid hormone, wouldn't there be a negative feedback loop? As for effector cells, I'm a little unsure? And in terms of the endocrine system organs that this drug would have an affect on, wouldn't it be the adrenal gland? I think there might be one more (or a few more in this case?)

A contraceptive should definitely be steroid hormone based. By definition, a steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. The main reproductive hormones are estrogen and testosterone, both which are produced from cholesterol.

This is the chemical structure of testosterone:



and the chemical structure of estrogen:



Compare now to cholesterol:



A negative feedback loop is correct; something like that shown below: