Endocrine Abstracts

Hyperandrogenic disorders cause psychological implication in young girls, limiting the quality of life. Salivary cortisol (SalF) testing was proved to be useful in the evaluations of acute stress responses. Aim of this study was to investigate SalF responses to a stressor event in late adolescent females. We selected 165 drug-free females aged 16–19 years from a cross-sectional epidemiological study. Saliva was collected in the morning before and after a stressor event consisting in a physical examination by a trained physician for anthropometric data collection and hirsutism scoring and in a structured interview about familiar and menstrual history. Blood was collected for biochemical and hormonal evaluation. SalF and serum total testosterone (TT) were assessed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Subjects were subdivided in: menstrual irregularities group (MI, ≤10 bleeding/year; n=27), isolated hirsutism group (IH, modified Ferriman–Gallwey score ≥8; n=37), isolated hyperandrogenaemia group (IHA, TT>age/menstrual phase-specific cut-off; n=11), and normal controls (NC; n=90). Glucose, insulin, and lipid profile were normal and non different among groups. Compared to NC (21.2±0.3 kg/m²), IH (22.4±0.52 kg/m², P=0.0169) and IHA (23.5±0.77 kg/m², P=0.004) displayed higher BMI; IHA also displayed higher waist circumference (75.4±0.71 cm vs 81.0±2.3 cm, respectively, P=0.015). Compared to NC, IH had lower SHBG (48.11±1.75 nmol/l vs 42.7±2.96 nmol/l, respectively, P=0.039). Basal SalF was not different among groups (P=0.977); a significant SalF increase after the stressor event was observed only in ICH (1.21±0.15 ng/ml vs 1.67±0.23 ng/ml, P=0.029). SalF relative increase (dSalF%) was significantly different among groups (P=0.015); in particular, dSalF% was significantly higher in ICH compared to NC (56.1±18.2% vs 3.4±5.1%, respectively, P=0.010), and this data was confirmed after adjustment for BMI, SHBG, and waist circumferences (P=0.0051). We conclude that hirsutism, major feature of clinical hyperandrogenism but not mestrual irregularities nor hyperandrogenaemia, plays a major role in the responsiveness to stress as measured by SalF in young girls.

Disclosure: This research received an unrestricted grant from a not-for-profit Foundation ‘Fondazione Centro Studi sulla Calvizie Cesare Ragazzi Laboratories’, Zola Pedrosa Bologna Italy; this work was also supported by the Emilia-Romagna Region University.