London (PTI): When it comes to matters of heart, men are more prone to heart diseases compared to women of similar age -- blame it on sex hormones, says a new study.

The findings of a study by Maciej Tomaszewski of the University of Leicester, suggest that this "male disadvantage" may be related to the sex-specific effects of naturally occurring sex hormones.

The research by Tomaszewski and his colleagues, which was published on line in the journal Atherosclerosis, involved 933 men with an average age of 19 years.

They looked at ways that the sex hormones - estradiol, estrone, testosterone and androstenedione - interacted with three major risk factors of heart disease (cholesterol, blood pressure and weight).

The researchers found that two of these sex hormones (estradiol and estrone, called together estrogens) are linked to increased levels of bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) and low levels of good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) in men.

This suggests that certain sex hormones may be important risk factors of heart disease in men, even before they present symptoms of coronary artery disease or stroke.

Tomaszewski said: "We hypothesised that circulating concentrations of sex hormones were associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors in men long before any apparent manifestations of cardiovascular disease such as stroke or myocardial infarction.

"Our studies showed that one of the sex hormones - estradiol - was associated positively with total cholesterol and negatively with HDL-cholesterol".

He added: "Thus, men with the highest concentrations of estrone and estradiol may have the highest level of cardiovascular risk as their levels of detrimental LDL-cholesterol are high whilst their cardio-protective HDL-cholesterol is low".