It has been suggested that premenstrual syndrome (PMS) may derive from either elevated oxidative stress or reduced antioxidant vitamin levels in the body; however, these relationships have been minimally studied in a large cohort of healthy women. Our objective was to estimate the association between serum concentrations of antioxidant vitamins (A, C, and E) and markers of oxidative stress (F2-isoprostane) with symptoms and severity of PMS.The BioCycle study was a prospective cohort study following 259 healthy premenopausal women aged 18-44 years for up to 2 menstrual cycles. Frequency/severity of 20 PMS symptoms were assessed via questionnaires 4 times/cycle, and antioxidant vitamins and oxidative stress biomarkers were measured up to 8 times/cycle to correspond with specific cycle phases. Generalized linear models were used to estimate associations between mean antioxidant concentrations and oxidative stress biomarkers with PMS symptoms and severity; linear mixed models were used to evaluate associations with symptom severity scores within groups (e.g. depression, cravings, pain).Higher concentrations of serum antioxidant vitamins were largely not associated with prevalence or severity of PMS symptoms. Though a few associations were observed, only associations between mean γ-tocopherol and decreased odds of swelling of the hands/feet survived adjustment for multiple comparisons (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.16, 0.65, per ug/dL). However, F2-isoprostanes were associated with prevalence and severity of several symptoms specifically related to depression and cravings (depression score β = 0.07, 95% CI 0.02, 0.12, per 10 ug/dL; cravings score β = 0.16, 95% CI 0.10, 0.22, per 10 ug/dL), as well as with classification of PMS severity (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01, 1.14, per 10 pg/dL), with these associations surviving adjustment for false discovery rate.F2-isoprostanes, but not antioxidant vitamins, were associated with select PMS symptoms, as well as symptom and severity categories. Specific symptom relationships merit further research.
Abstract Background The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is higher in women than in men but whether sex steroid hormones contribute to this difference remains unclear. Studies of reproductive and hormonal factors and thyroid cancer risk have provided inconsistent results. Methods Original data from 1 252 907 women in 16 cohorts in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia were combined to evaluate associations of DTC risk with reproductive and hormonal factors. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. Results During follow-up, 2142 women were diagnosed with DTC. Factors associated with higher risk of DTC included younger age at menarche (<10 vs 10–11 years; HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.00–1.64), younger (<40; HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.05–1.62) and older (≥55; HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.05–1.68) ages at menopause (vs 40–44 years), ever use of menopausal hormone therapy (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.02–1.33) and previous hysterectomy (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.13–1.39) or bilateral oophorectomy (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.00–1.29). Factors associated with lower risk included longer-term use (≥5 vs <5 years) of oral contraceptives (HR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76–0.96) among those who ever used oral contraception and baseline post-menopausal status (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70–0.96). No associations were observed for parity, duration of menopausal hormone therapy use or lifetime number of reproductive years or ovulatory cycles. Conclusions Our study provides some evidence linking reproductive and hormonal factors with risk of DTC. Results should be interpreted cautiously considering the modest strength of the associations and potential for exposure misclassification and detection bias. Prospective studies of pre-diagnostic circulating sex steroid hormone measurements and DTC risk may provide additional insight.
Variability in sleep duration and cardiovascular health have been infrequently investigated, particularly among reproductive-age women. We examined these associations across the menstrual cycle among a cohort of 250 healthy premenopausal women, aged 18-44 years. The BioCycle study (New York, 2005-2007) collected cardiovascular biomarkers (serum high- and low-density lipoprotein (HDL, LDL), total cholesterol, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein (CRP)) at key time points along the menstrual cycle (follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases). Women also recorded sleep duration in daily diaries. From these data, we computed L-moments, robust versions of location, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis. We fitted linear mixed models with random intercepts and inverse probability weighting to estimate associations between sleep variability and cardiovascular biomarkers, accounting for demographic, lifestyle, health, and reproductive factors. Sleep dispersion (any deviation from mean duration) was associated with lower mean LDL for nonshift workers and non-White women. Skewed sleep duration was associated with higher mean CRP and lower mean total cholesterol. Sleep durations with extreme short and long bouts (kurtosis) were associated with a lower mean HDL, but not mean CRP, LDL, or triglycerides. Sleep duration modified associations between sleep dispersion and LDL, HDL, and total cholesterol. Even in young and healthy women, sleep duration variability could influence cardiovascular health.
Our knowledge of epidemiologic risk factors for ovarian cancer supports a role for androgens in the pathogenesis of this disease; however, few studies have examined associations between circulating androgens and ovarian cancer risk. Using highly sensitive LC–MS/MS assays, we evaluated associations between pre‐diagnostic serum levels of 12 androgens, including novel androgen metabolites that reflect androgen activity in tissues, and ovarian cancer risk among postmenopausal women in a nested case–control study in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study (OS). We frequency‐matched 169 ovarian cancer cases to 410 controls from women enrolled in WHI‐OS who were not using menopausal hormones at enrollment/blood draw. We estimated associations overall and by subtype (n = 102 serous/67 non‐serous) using multivariable adjusted logistic regression. Androgen/androgen metabolite levels were not associated with overall ovarian cancer risk. In analyses by subtype, women with increased levels of androsterone‐glucuronide (ADT‐G) and total 5‐α reduced glucuronide metabolites (markers of tissue‐level androgenic activity) were at increased risk of developing non‐serous ovarian cancer: ADT‐G tertile (T)3 versus T1 odds ratio [OR] (95% confidence interval [CI]) 4.36 (1.68–11.32), p ‐heterogeneity 0.002; total glucuronide metabolites 3.63 (1.47–8.95), 0.002. Risk of developing serous tumors was unrelated to these markers. ADT‐G and total glucuronide metabolites, better markers of tissue‐level androgenic activity in women than testosterone, were associated with an increased risk of developing non‐serous ovarian cancer. Our work demonstrates that sex steroid metabolism is important in the etiology of non‐serous ovarian cancers and supports a heterogeneous hormonal etiology across histologic subtypes of ovarian cancer.
Prenatal smoking exposure may lead to permanent changes in neonatal inflammation and immune response that have lifelong implications, including increased risks for atopy and respiratory disorders.
Abstract OBJECTIVE: Oral contraceptive (OC) use is common in the United States and high-profile articles have renewed research interest in OC use and cancer risk. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how OC use influences postmenopausal cancer risk; one of the leading hypotheses is that OC use fundamentally alters feedback in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonad axis, leading to long term changes in sex steroid hormone metabolism. However, women who use OCs are also unique with respect to factors that may affect both hormone metabolism and cancer risk. No studies have comprehensively commented on hormone levels in postmenopausal women who did and did not use OCs. DESIGN: We examined differences in circulating markers of sex steroid hormone metabolism associated with prior use of OCs among a subcohort of postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (983 women with at least one intact ovary and not currently using menopausal hormone therapy). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using highly sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry assays, we measured over 30 markers of estrogen and androgen metabolism in study serum samples. We used linear regression (adjusted and weighted) to estimate geometric mean hormone levels, which were then converted into relative percent differences. We controlled for potential confounders and stratified by: lifetime ovulatory cycles, body mass index, and parity (the focus of this abstract). RESULTS: Women with a history of OC use (n=346) had lower levels of estrogen metabolites than women who never used OCs (n=637), particularly when limiting this comparison among parous women (n=158 nulliparous women, n=825 parous women). In parous women, OC use was associated with reductions in total estrone (-18.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -31.1, -3.7%) and in estrogen metabolism overall: 2-hydroxylation metabolites were reduced by -18.5% (CI -28.2, -7.7%), 4-hydroxylation metabolites by -19.9% (CI -29.4, -9.1%), and 16-alpha-hydroxylation metabolites by -24.0% (CI -34.2, -12.2%). Hormone differences associated with OC use among nulliparous women were imprecise. When we made comparisons to nulliparous women who did not use OCs, women who both used OCs and were parous had lower testosterone (-21.2%, CI -33.1, -7.2%) and higher dihydrotestosterone relative to testosterone (its metabolic precursor; 16.5%, CI% -0.6, 36.6). However, aside from lower total estrone (-25.5%, CI -44.6, 0.2%), estrogen metabolism was not different between these groups. CONCLUSIONS: We saw evidence suggesting estrogen metabolism, as reflected in circulating markers, may be lower in postmenopausal women who previously used OCs. These effects were strongest among parous women, likely due to sufficient sample size, rather than any synergistic effect attributable to both using OCs and giving birth. These results support the idea that OC users have lower estrogen levels, but this should be evaluated in other age groups, as differences in hormone metabolism early in the lifecourse may lead women to use OCs. Citation Format: Kara A. Michels, Sally B. Coburn, Garnet Anderson, Louise A. Brinton, Chu Chen, Roni T. Falk, Margery L. Gass, Ashley M. Geczik, JoAnn E. Manson, Ruth M. Pfeiffer, Kerryn Reding, Gloria E. Sarto, Nicolas Wentzensen, Robert A. Wild, Xia Xu, Britton Trabert. Oral contraceptive use and postmenopausal sex steroid hormone metabolism [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Special Conference: Endometrial Cancer: New Biology Driving Research and Treatment; 2020 Nov 9-10. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2021;27(3_Suppl):Abstract nr PO029.
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