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Physical activity and inactivity in relation to sex hormone, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor concentrations in premenopausal women

Exercise and premenopausal hormones

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Abstract

An association between physical activity and premenopausal breast cancer risk may be due, in part, to relationships with sex hormones or growth factors. Therefore, we assessed whether MET-h/week of total physical activity (moderate-to-vigorous intensity), walking, or vigorous physical activity, and h/week of standing or sitting were associated with plasma concentrations of several hormones. We examined levels of estrogens, androgens, progesterone, prolactin, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), IGF binding protein-3, and growth hormone (GH) in 565 premenopausal women, ages 33–52 years, from the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII). About 87% of women had both timed follicular and luteal samples; other women had one untimed sample. In general we observed few associations between sex hormone or IGF levels and measures of physical activity or inactivity. However, free testosterone was modestly inversely associated with total physical activity (p-trend = 0.02). Luteal estradiol, free estradiol, and estrone also were inversely associated with total physical activity (p-trend = 0.10, 0.04, 0.01, respectively); however, the trend was substantially attenuated when excluding women with anovulatory cycles or irregular cycles. These cross-sectional results suggest that physical activity and inactivity have limited associations with premenopausal sex hormone and growth factor levels, except possibly luteal estrogens.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave., 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Shelley S. Tworoger, Stacey A. Missmer, A. Heather Eliassen & Susan E. Hankinson

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Shelley S. Tworoger, Stacey A. Missmer, A. Heather Eliassen & Susan E. Hankinson

  3. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stacey A. Missmer & Robert L. Barbieri

  4. Academic Department of Biochemistry, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK

    Mitch Dowsett

Authors
  1. Shelley S. Tworoger
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  2. Stacey A. Missmer
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  3. A. Heather Eliassen
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  4. Robert L. Barbieri
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  5. Mitch Dowsett
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  6. Susan E. Hankinson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shelley S. Tworoger.

Additional information

Support for this project was from NIH grants CA67262, CA50385, P50 CA089393, and DAMD-17-02-1-0692. Dr. Eliassen was supported by Cancer Education and Career Development Grant R25 CA 098566-2 from the National Cancer Institute.

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10552_2007_9017_MOESM1_ESM.doc

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Tworoger, S.S., Missmer, S.A., Eliassen, A.H. et al. Physical activity and inactivity in relation to sex hormone, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor concentrations in premenopausal women. Cancer Causes Control 18, 743–752 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9017-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-007-9017-5

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