Conidia produced by Paracoccidioides brasiliensis are inhibited by mammalian estrogens in their in vitro conversion into yeast-form cells. This was demonstrated with four different isolates. In these experiments, conversion was reduced to 10.7 and 34.4% of the control values by 17-beta-estradiol at 10(-6) and 10(-8) M, respectively. At the same concentrations, the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol was slightly less inhibitory. In contrast, other sex hormones and analogs, i.e., testosterone, 17-alpha-estradiol, tamoxifen, and hydroxytamoxifen, had no effect on conidium-to-yeast conversion. Previous studies have shown that estrogens similarly inhibit mycelium-to-yeast-form transition in P. brasiliensis. Conidia, and not mycelial fragments, are believed to be the natural infectious propagules. These findings with conidia support the hypothesis that estrogens, affecting the initial host-parasite interactions by suppressing conversion to the parasitic form of the organism, are, at least in part, responsible for the greater resistance of females to paracoccidioidomycosis.