An interesting area of mint research has emerged in the past several years. Of late, scientists have been exploring how mint tea impacts androgens (sex hormones) in both males and females. The most recent example of this is a just published study that examined the role that spearmint tea can play in a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is an endocrinological disorder that affects women during their child bearing years. Common symptoms include abnormal menstruation, acne, depression, hirsutism (masculine patterns of hair growth) and other masculinizing symptoms (such as vocal changes), infertility and obesity. This condition is also generally marked by blood sugar abnormalities and insulin resistance.
In the trial, 42 women with PCOS related hirsutism were assigned to drink spearmint tea or a placebo herbal tea twice daily for 30 days. Blood tests measuring hormone levels were taken at the beginning, the mid way point and at the end of the experiment. The results indicate that the women receiving the spearmint demonstrated significant reductions in free and total testosterone levels and increases in luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone concentrations. These alterations are consistent with an improvement in PCOS. (2) A reduction in hair distribution wasn’t detected, but the researchers believe that the relatively short duration of the study was the reason why. Another shorter study from 2007 found almost identical results. (3)