By Grace Howe

Imperial College in London is conducting the first clinical trials in the U.K on the correlation between sex hormone function and appetite.

The Medical Research Council, which has a large presence at London’s Hammersmith Hospital has funded what will be a three-year project involving nearly 100 volunteers. Participants have agreed to receive hormone injections and undergo MRI scans that will allow neurologists to track the progress of hormone transmission in the brain and with these specified results, examine the changes in the hunger/satiety gate of the brain.

Increases in the sex-hormones Leptin and Peptide YY are expected to decrease the appetite in normal functioning adults. Conversely, female patients suffering from anorexia, loss of sex drive or loss of a menstrual cycle are expected to regain appetite following the injections. The tests acknowledge the neurological connection between loss of appetite and loss of sexuality. It goes some way to determine if one depletion naturally comes first or whether one leads to the other.

This chicken-and-egg question and the importance of hormone balance in controlling normal adult body function has been recognized in German and Swiss medical research for over two decades. Imperial researcher Bridget Knight confirms that these questions are long overdue in being brought into the public eye in Britain. British research has been slow to acknowledge that behavioral changes in adolescence can be physiological as well as psychological.

Researchers hope that this will provide an explanation for sufferers of chronic anorexia, as well as medical treatment solutions for those with obesity.