In chronic inflammatory disorders, where B cells play a decisive role,
E2 would promote the disease when autoaggressive B cells are already present, whereas chronically elevated E2 would inhibit
initiation of an autoimmune disease when no such B cells are available. This might be a good reason why particularly B cell-dependent
diseases such as SLE, mixed connective tissue disease (Sharp syndrome), IgA nephropathy, dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten
sensitive enteropathy, myasthenia gravis, and thyroiditis appear in women in the reproductive years, predominantly, in the
third or fourth decades of life