What is the difference between Steroids and Hormones?

Just like fatty acids, soaps, prostaglandins, and sphingolipids, steroids are examples of non-glyceride lipids. Lipids are bio-molecules that can dissolve in nonpolar organic solvents. Fats and lipids are insoluble, but they still have their importance in the body, as they serve as a source of energy, and they also help to store energy in the form of fat cells. Prostaglandins and hormone steroids serve as delivering channel for chemicals among the body tissues.

Steroids can be considered as one of the main classes of lipids, and its structure makes it different from other classes of lipids. Just like other lipids, the major feature that makes steroids to be of a nonpolar structure is a large number of carbon hydrogens. Commonly known examples of steroids include cholesterol, birthday control pills, anabolic steroids, cortisone, and sex hormones. Most of the hormones are majorly used in body processes, and this makes them be useful in the body, but not all steroids are really useful in the body.

Steroids are a major class of lipids. They stand out because they don't have ester. Many know steroids from the sport of baseball, where players use it to build muscle in a quicker than normal fashion. However, there are approved uses of steroids that we incorporate in our daily lives, including birth control pills and cholesterol medicine.

Another type is a sex hormone. With that, we can learn that Hormones are a type of steroid. Hormones are used in changing body processes. One common example is related to the LGBT community, where transgender people use hormones to improve their voice and appearance.