Objective To explore the relationship between the changes of sex hormone level before and after treatment and the treatment effect in depression patients. Methods A total of 60 patients with depression were selected into the observation group， and 60 healthy volunteers who had physical examination in our hospital were recruited into the control group. The serum estradiol， progesterone， testosterone levels of patients were monitored before and after treatment， at the same time， the depression patients were assessed by the Hamilton Depression Scale（ HAMD）， and the correlation between depression and sex hormone levels was analyzed. Results Before the treatment， the serum estradiol levels of male and female patients in the depression group were both lower than that in control group， and the progesterone and testosterone levels in men were lower than in the control group， with statistical difference（ P＜0.05）. On the contrary， there was no significant difference of female progesterone and testosterone levels between the observation group and the control group（ P＞0.05）. The serum estradiol of male and female patients and the testosterone of male patients were all higher after the treatment， and the difference was statistically significant（ P＜0.05）. The progesterone levels of both genders and female testosterone showed no statistical difference after the treatment（ P＞0.05）. There was no statistical difference of progesterone and testosterone of both genders after treatement between the two groups（ P＞0.05）. The serum estradiol of female patients had no difference between the two groups after treatment（ P＞0.05）， while the serum estradiol of male patients in the observation group were significantly lower than that in the control group after the treatment（ P＜0.05）. HAMD reduction rate was positively related to the serum estradiol level（ r=0.561， P=0.007）， and had no correlation with serum progesterone and testosterone（ P＞0.05）. Conclusions There is a negative correlation between serum estradiol level of depression patients and the depression. The changes of testosterone level may simply be a risk factor for male patients with depression.