Abstract
We examined whether blood lead levels (BLLs) were associated with reproductive hormone levels in a cross-sectional study using data from the SPECT-China study. We selected 2286 men and 1571 postmenopausal women without hormone replacement therapy. BLLs, blood cadmium, total testosterone (TT), oestradiol (E2), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and sex hormone binding globulin(SHBG) levels were measured. The results showed that median values (interquartile range) of BLLs were 44.00 μg/L (29.00–62.30) for men and 41.00 μg/L (27.00–59.81) for postmenopausal women. In linear regression, after adjusting for age, current smoking status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diabetes and blood cadmium level, TT (P for trend = 0.001) and SHBG (P for trend < 0.001) levels were still positively associated with BLLs in men. Meanwhile, significant positive associations were found for BLLs with SHBG (P for trend = 0.002), FSH (P for trend = 0.001) and LH (P for trend = 0.026) levels in postmenopausal women. Additionally, the association between BLL and SHBG was modified by dysglycaemia (P for interaction = 0.03) in postmenopausal women. In conclusion, BLLs were associated with reproductive hormone levels in the general population of Chinese men and postmenopausal women, which may have important implications for human health. Concerted efforts to reduce adult lead exposure are warranted.
Highlights
Based on the study conducted by Kresovich et al.[10], we further investigated potential interactions of the associations between blood lead levels (BLLs) and reproductive hormone levels in relation to smoking status, dysglycaemia, BMI, and blood cadmium level
In postmenopausal women, for all models (Table 5, models 1–3), significant positive associations were found for BLLs with sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels
Excluding subjects taking medications for diabetes and hypertension did not change the observed associations in men (Supplementary Table S2) and postmenopausal women (Supplementary Table S3). In this population-based study, we observed that BLLs were associated with reproductive hormone levels in Chinese adults without hormone replacement therapy after fully adjusting for age, smoking status, BMI, systolic blood pressure, diabetes and blood cadmium levels
Summary
Epidemiological studies exploring the association between blood lead levels (BLLs) and reproductive hormones are limited and inconclusive. Based on the study conducted by Kresovich et al.[10], we further investigated potential interactions of the associations between BLLs and reproductive hormone levels in relation to smoking status, dysglycaemia, BMI, and blood cadmium level.
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