Researchers have found the female hormone estrogen can be an effective treatment for men suffering schizophrenia.

The Alfred Hospital's Psychiatry Research Centre in Melbourne tested the hormone treatment, usually reserved for women, and found positive results for men with the mental disorder.

The centre found low doses of estrogen given during a two-week trial reduced depression and anxiety symptoms.

But Professor Jayashri Kulkarni says using estrogen is controversial because it creates female traits such as breasts.

“You're not able to just go right – this is a blanket safe dose and this is a blanket unsafe dose,” she said.

“What happens is over time, and this is why the study was a short one, because over time you get increasing and cumulative levels and that then can create the feminisation, which is the development of breasts and so on.”

Professor Kulkarni says she was surprised by the results of the trial.

“What's good for the goose is also good for the gander, because in a lot of ways the estrogen is a brain steroid, not just a reproductive girl's hormone,” she said.

“It does have quite important properties in the brain and so this study is an important study because it's a first.”