This results in an increased risk of blood clots and cardiovascular problems with CEEs relative to estradiol.Premarin, the major brand of CEEs in use, is manufactured by Pfizer and was first marketed in 1941 in Canada and in 1942 in the United States. It is the most commonly used form of estrogen in menopausal hormone therapy in the United States. However, it has begun to fall out of favor relative to bioidentical estradiol, which is the most widely used form of estrogen in Europe for menopausal hormone therapy. CEEs are available widely throughout the world. An estrogen preparation very similar to CEEs but differing in source and composition is esterified estrogens. In 2017, it was the 206th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than two million prescriptions. Medical uses
CEEs are a form of hormone therapy used in women. It is used most commonly in postmenopausal women who have had a hysterectomy to treat hot flashes, and burning, itching, and dryness of the vagina and surrounding areas. It must be used in combination with a progestogen in women who have not had a hysterectomy. For women already taking the medication, it can be used to treat osteoporosis, although it is not recommended solely for this use. Some lesser known uses are as a means of high-dose estrogen therapy in the treatment of breast cancer in both women and men and in the treatment of prostate cancer in men.
Since it was not understood that these different presentations were all caused by the same set of mutations in the androgen receptor gene, a unique name was given to each new combination of symptoms, resulting in a complicated stratification of seemingly disparate disorders.Over the last 60 years, as reports of strikingly different phenotypes were reported to occur even among members of the same family, and as steady progress was made towards the understanding of the underlying molecular pathogenesis of AIS, these disorders were found to be different phenotypic expressions of one syndrome caused by molecular defects in the androgen receptor gene.AIS is now the accepted terminology for the syndromes resulting from unresponsiveness of the target cell to the action of androgenic hormones. CAIS encompasses the phenotypes previously described by "testicular feminization", Morris syndrome, and Goldberg-Maxwell syndrome; PAIS includes Reifenstein syndrome, Gilbert-Dreyfus syndrome, Lubs syndrome, "incomplete testicular feminization", and Rosewater syndrome; and MAIS includes Aimans syndrome.The more virilized phenotypes of AIS have sometimes been described as "undervirilized male syndrome", "infertile male syndrome", "undervirilized fertile male syndrome", etc., before evidence was reported that these conditions were caused by mutations in the AR gene. These diagnoses were used to describe a variety of mild defects in virilization; as a result, the phenotypes of some men who have been diagnosed as such are better described by PAIS (e.g. micropenis, hypospadias, and undescended testes), while others are better described by MAIS (e.g. isolated male infertility or gynecomastia).