Assessment of serum testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels in female patients with acne vulgaris

Abstract

Introduction: Acne is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the pilosebaceous unit with differential pathogenesis. To elucidate the roles of hormones in acne pathogenesis, we conducted a study to evaluate the serum testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels in women with acne vulgaris. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study, and 175 women with acne vulgaris were examined; their serum estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone were analyzed by chemiluminescence technique and compared with the healthy control group. Results: Increased serum hormone levels in women with acne vulgaris accounted for 29.7%, and hyperandrogenism accounted for 16.0% of cases. We found significant differences in testosterone levels (mean value, 55.67±25.56 versus 38.37±10.16 ng/dL, p<0.05) respectively, in the acne group and the control group. However, the estradiol level of the acne group (323.15±93.31 pmol/L) was lower than the control group (370.94±58.88 pmol/L), with p-value under 0.05. No statistically significant differences were found for progesterone (0.60±0.38 versus 0.50±0.15 ng/mL, p>0.05) levels. Moreover, we did not find the relationship between serum hormone levels and the severity of acne vulgaris. Conclusion: This study showed that female acne vulgaris patients may have high serum testosterone levels and low serum estradiol levels compared with those of female controls. However, hormone alterations had no correlation with acne severity.