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Prenatal salivary sex hormone levels and birth-weight-for-gestational age

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Abstract

Objective

To determine whether prenatal sex hormones from maternal saliva are associated with birth-weight-for-gestational age.

Study design

We measured salivary progesterone, testosterone, estradiol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and cortisone in 504 pregnant women in a Mexico City cohort. We performed linear and modified Poisson regression to examine associations of log-transformed hormones with birth-weight-for-gestational age z-scores and the risk of small-for-gestational age (SGA) and large-for-gestational age (LGA) adjusting for maternal age, sex, BMI, parity, smoking, education, and socioeconomic status.

Results

In total, 15% of infants were SGA and 2% were LGA. Each interquartile range increment in testosterone/estradiol ratio was associated with a 0.12 decrement in birth-weight-for-gestational age z-score (95% CI: −0.27 to −0.02) and a 50% higher risk of SGA versus appropriate-for-gestational age (AGA) (95% CI: 1.13–1.99).

Conclusion

Higher salivary testosterone/estradiol ratios may affect fetal growth, and identifying the predictors of hormone levels may be important to optimizing fetal growth.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants R01 ES014930, R01 ES026033, R01 ES021357, R24 ES028522, R01 ES013744, R01 ES023450, P30 ES023515, K99ES027508, K23ES024803, and K23ES022242. Co-investigators and staff at the INSP were also supported and received partial funding from the National Institute of Public Health/Ministry of Health of Mexico. We acknowledge Dr. Clemens Kirschbaum for performing the steroid hormone panel on the saliva samples. We acknowledge the American British Cowdray Medical Center for providing research facilities, which made it possible to conduct the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Katherine Svensson, Allan C. Just, Alison P. Sanders, Rosalind J. Wright & Robert O. Wright

  2. Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Maine Medical Center Research Institute and Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME, USA

    Abby F. Fleisch

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

    Alison P. Sanders & Rosalind J. Wright

  4. National Council of Science and Technology, Mexico City, Mexico

    Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz

  5. National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz & Martha M. Téllez-Rojo

  6. Department of Environmental Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Andrea A. Baccarelli

  7. Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Heather H. Burris

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  1. Katherine Svensson
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Correspondence to Katherine Svensson.

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Svensson, K., Just, A.C., Fleisch, A.F. et al. Prenatal salivary sex hormone levels and birth-weight-for-gestational age. J Perinatol 39, 941–948 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0385-y

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