Re: Reversal of Relation Between Body Mass and Endogenous Estrogen Concentrations With Menopausal Status

Extract

The risk of breast cancer may be decreased in obese premenopausal women but increased in obese postmenopausal women. Potischman et al. ( 1 ) recently evaluated the relation of body mass index (BMI, kg/m ² ) and hormonal profiles in 88 premenopausal and 210 postmenopausal control subjects from a study of endometrial cancer. They reported a significant decrease in sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) concentrationas BMI increased in both menopausal groups. As BMI increased, total estradiol increased significantly in postmenopausal women but decreased in premenopausal women, significantly so during the follicular phase. We have repeated these analyses in another dataset.

We used serum hormone concentrations for 182 premenopausal and 178 postmenopausal control subjects from a prospective study of endogenous hormone concentrations and breast cancer on the island of Guernsey, U.K. ( 2 ). Written informed consent was obtained from all study participants, and procedures were approved by institutional review. Height and weight were measured at interview, a blood sample was collected, and serum was stored at −20°C. Serum concentrations of SHBG were measured by liquid-phase immunoradiometric assay while estradiol and progester one were measured by radioimmuno assay. All premenopausal women reported menstruating in their usual pattern and their next menstrual period within 42 days of the interview date. All postmenopausal women reported having had no menstrual periods in the last 12 months. Women were excluded if they were using exogenous sex hormones at the time of blood collection.