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Within-person coupling of estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol in women athletes.

ABSTRACT: Purpose:In variety of settings cortisol and testosterone are positively "coupled." That is, within-person fluctuations of cortisol and testosterone levels occur in parallel-increases and decreases in one hormone are associated with corresponding increases and decreases in the other. The present report explored hormone coupling in women athletes in two studies selected because they included measurements of salivary levels of cortisol, testosterone, and estradiol-a hormone that has been only infrequently studied in the context of competitive athletics. Methods:Consenting members of Emory University's varsity volleyball and soccer teams gave saliva samples on multiple occasions in the run-up to and over the course of two different intercollegiate contests. Results:Volleyball and soccer players showed remarkably similar hormone-specific patterns of increase in relationship to the different stages of competition-before warm-up, after warm-up, and after competition. For both the volleyball and soccer team, Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) analyses showed estradiol as being significantly coupled with testosterone which was also coupled with cortisol. Conclusions:This is, apparently, the first report of significant within-person coupling between estradiol and testosterone in the context of competitive athletic stress. These two hormones may be coupled in a wide variety of circumstances not limited to ones involving sport competition, and results reported here should encourage exploration of the extent to which coordinated fluctuations in estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol levels are present in other, more neutral settings and the ways in which the coordination of these fluctuating hormone levels may benefit human performance.

SUBMITTER: Edwards DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6984338 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Within-person coupling of estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol in women athletes.

Edwards David A DA Turan Bulent B

PeerJ 20200124

<h4>Purpose</h4>In variety of settings cortisol and testosterone are positively "coupled." That is, within-person fluctuations of cortisol and testosterone levels occur in parallel-increases and decreases in one hormone are associated with corresponding increases and decreases in the other. The present report explored hormone coupling in women athletes in two studies selected because they included measurements of salivary levels of cortisol, testosterone, and estradiol-a hormone that has been on ...[more]

PMID: 32002332

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Project description:The literature on hormone changes in pregnancy has focused largely on cortisol, and changes in sample average concentrations. Within-person changes and variability in hormone concentrations are less commonly reported, particularly for sex hormones, and especially measured in hair. Using a prospective sample of pregnant women and a non-pregnant comparison group, we examined changes in five steroid hormones in hair. Non-pregnant women were recruited from the same area with parallel procedures and assessment timeline. Participants include 68 women (34 pregnant, average age = 29.14, and 34 non-pregnant; average age = 27.18) who were predominately non-Hispanic White (83%), and above the 2020 poverty line (75%). Pregnant women provided 3cm hair samples and completed questionnaires three times during pregnancy: 1) at 12 weeks, 2) at 26 weeks, and 3) at 38 weeks. Non-pregnant women provided 3cm hair samples and completed questionnaires three times, at baseline, 14 weeks later, and 12 weeks after that to mirror the assessment schedule of the pregnant group. There was clear evidence that progesterone was higher initially and increased dramatically across pregnancy whereas non-pregnant patterns showed no systematic change. There was suggestive evidence that cortisol and estradiol increased over pregnancy and in non-pregnant women similarly across the same time course. There was suggestive evidence that DHEA decreased across pregnancy, particularly early in pregnancy, differently from patterns in non-pregnant women over the same time course. Most importantly, there was substantial variability of hormone concentrations and many different within-person patterns of changes in these hormones over time, with little evidence of systematic change or stability within-individuals. Moving beyond discussing sample averages to including within-person and non-linear changes in studies of hormones-behavior associations during pregnancy is an important future direction for further investigation.

Project description:Prenatal hair cortisol concentration is inconsistently associated with maternal psychological distress. However, prior studies have not often measured hair cortisol and maternal psychological distress prospectively over time, examined within-person associations, nor concurrently considered the complex hormonal milieu in which cortisol operates during pregnancy. We addressed these limitations and tested associations against a similar non-pregnant comparison group. Participants included 68 women (34 pregnant and 34 non-pregnant; Mage = 29.14 and 83 % White) from the Midwestern United States. Pregnant women were assessed each trimester, at 12, 26, and 38 weeks and non-pregnant women were assessed three times on the same schedule. At each assessment, participants completed measures of psychological distress and provided hair samples. The first 3 cm (from the scalp) of hair was assayed using enzyme immune-assay kits to reflect cumulative levels within the given trimester/3-month time period of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone. Within-person associations of hair cortisol and ratio of hair cortisol-to-DHEA and cortisol-to-testosterone with psychological distress were assessed using multilevel models. There were positive within-person associations of hair cortisol with cumulative psychological distress (γ = 0.01, s.e. = 0.003, p = .049), anxiety (γ = 0.09, s.e. = 0.04, p = .046), and pregnancy-related anxiety symptoms (γ = 0.10, s.e. = 0.05, p = .041) in the pregnant sample such that on occasions when hair cortisol was higher than average so were psychological distress symptoms. No within-person associations of hair cortisol were supported in non-pregnant women although there was a negative within-person association, such that on occasions of having lower testosterone level than typical, depression symptoms were higher. There were no within-person associations of psychological distress and cortisol-to-DHEA ratio or cortisol-to-testosterone ratio in either the pregnant or non-pregnant sample. At the between person-level for pregnant women, lower cortisol levels were associated with higher perceived stress (γ = -0.28, s.e. = 0.09, p = .003) and depression symptoms (γ = -0.11, s.e. = 0.06, p = .039), whereas higher cortisol levels were associated with higher psychological distress (γ = 0.03, s.e. = 0.01, p = .010), state anxiety (γ = 0.33, s.e. = 0.13, p = .010), and depression symptoms (γ = 0.23, s.e. = 0.09, p = .017) in non-pregnant women. Modeling hair cortisol at the within-person and between-person level revealed differential findings in pregnant and non-pregnant women. Hair cortisol concentration, psychological distress, pregnancy, hormone coupling, within-person associations.

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Project description:ContextThe effect of the female sex steroids, estradiol and progesterone, on muscle protein turnover is unclear. Therefore, it is unknown whether the changes in the hormonal milieu throughout the life span in women contribute to the changes in muscle protein turnover and muscle mass (eg, age associated muscle loss).ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of sex hormones on muscle protein synthesis and gene expression of growth-regulatory factors [ie, myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1), myostatin (MSTN), follistatin (FST), and forkhead box O3 (FOXO3)].Subjects and designWe measured the basal rate of muscle protein synthesis and the expression of muscle growth-regulatory genes in 12 premenopausal women and four groups of postmenopausal women (n=24 total) who were studied before and after treatment with T, estradiol, or progesterone or no intervention (control group). All women were healthy, and pre- and postmenopausal women were carefully matched on body mass, body composition, and insulin sensitivity.ResultsThe muscle protein fractional synthesis rate was approximately 20% faster, and MYOD1, FST, and FOXO3 mRNA expressions were approximately 40%-90% greater (all P<.05) in postmenopausal than premenopausal women. In postmenopausal women, both T and progesterone treatment increased the muscle protein fractional synthesis rate by approximately 50% (both P<.01), whereas it was not affected by estradiol treatment and was unchanged in the control group. Progesterone treatment increased MYOD1 mRNA expression (P<.05) but had no effect on MSTN, FST, and FOXO3 mRNA expression. T and estradiol treatment had no effect on skeletal muscle MYOD1, MSTN, FST, and FOXO3 mRNA expression.ConclusionMuscle protein turnover is faster in older, postmenopausal women compared with younger, premenopausal women, but these age-related differences do not appear to be explained by the age- and menopause-related changes in the plasma sex hormone milieu.

Dataset Information

Within-person coupling of estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol in women athletes.

Publications

Within-person coupling of estradiol, testosterone, and cortisol in women athletes.

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