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Associations between Reproductive and Menstrual Factors and Postmenopausal Sex Hormone Concentrations

¹ Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington; ² Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and ³ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; ⁴ Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; and ⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Requests for reprints: Anne McTiernan, Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, P.O. Box 19024, M4-B402, Seattle, WA 98109-1024. Phone: 206-667-7979; Fax: 206-667-7850. E-mail: amctiern{at}fhcrc.org

Reproductive and menstrual characteristics, as well as high circulating estrogen concentrations, are associated with risk of hormone-related cancers in postmenopausal women. To explore possible etiologic relationships between menstrual/reproductive characteristics and risk of hormone-related cancers, we examined associations between menstrual/reproductive factors and serum concentrations of free estradiol, total estradiol, estrone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). This study was conducted in 173 postmenopausal women using data from the prerandomization visit of an exercise clinical trial. Participants were sedentary, overweight/obese, and not on hormone therapy. Women 20 years past menopause had 23% lower total estradiol and 30% lower free estradiol concentrations than women within 4 years of menopause (P for trend = 0.04 and 0.02, respectively). Nulliparous women had 19% higher FSH concentrations than parous women (P = 0.02). Among parous women, parity was positively associated with SHBG and negatively associated with free estradiol concentrations. Women with 4 children had 20% lower free estradiol and 38% higher SHBG concentrations compared with women with one birth (P for trend = 0.02 and 0.01, respectively). Total number of months spent breast-feeding was modestly and inversely associated with serum FSH concentrations (P for trend = 0.07). Our results suggest that menstrual/reproductive characteristics may be associated with postmenopausal hormone concentrations; verification of these results in other studies may elucidate how these variables influence risk of hormone-related cancers.

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