Gonadotropins and steroid hormones in older people: their mutual connections and relations to body mass indices.

Abstract

Aging in mammals, including man, is accompanied by deep changes in hormone secretion. In the majority of cases, hormone secretion (mostly of gonadal steroids and adrenocortical hormone dehydroepiandrosterone - DHEA) undergoes pronounced decrease. This decrease is thought to contribute to the progression of aging. In contrast, the secretion of gonadotropins is sharply increased in older adults, as a result of gonadal deficiency. Recent data indicate that gonadotropin excess may also, by itself, influence the aging process. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mutual relation between steroid hormones and gonadotropins and their effect on body mass indices in older people. In a group of 100 patients (61 women and 39 men) aged over 75 years, blood serum concentrations of folliclestimulating hormone (FSH), luteinising hormone (LH), oestradiol (E2), testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAs), and cortisol were measured. All the patients were measured for the following: body weight (kg), body mass index (BMI) (kg/m²), and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR). The differences of the numerical data were evaluated by Student's t-test and the correlations between them by means of Pearson's test. The most interesting finding of this study was to show that FSH and LH are negatively correlated with body mass and indices such as BMI and WtHR in older women. Because in older women the mediation of ovary is unlikely, we conclude that gonadotropins may influence the body mass by their direct extra-gonadal action.