Androgen profiling by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in healthy normal-weight ovulatory and anovulatory late adolescent and young women.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional observational study establishing reference intervals in a healthy cohort
PubMed 23780369 · doi:10.1210/jc.2013-1381
What was done
Cross-sectional study establishing reference intervals for circulating androgens using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The cohort comprised 159 healthy, normal-weight, drug- and disease-free, eumenorrheic female high school students aged 16–19 years without clinical signs of hyperandrogenism. Steroid profiles were determined by an in-house LC-MS/MS method to estimate overall and menstrual phase-specific reference intervals and evaluate differences between ovulatory and anovulatory subgroups defined by circulating progesterone levels.
What was found
Androgen levels did not vary overall across menstrual cycle phases, but a significantly higher upper reference limit was found for testosterone in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase. Anovulatory females demonstrated higher testosterone and androstenedione levels, higher LH and FSH levels, and lower 17-hydroxyprogesterone and 17β-estradiol levels compared to ovulatory females. The abstract reported no numerical values, concentrations, reference ranges, or p-values.
Why it matters
Provides LC-MS/MS-based androgen reference intervals for late adolescent females, assisting clinicians in differentiating normal post-pubertal hormonal fluctuations and asymptomatic anovulatory cycles from clinical hyperandrogenic disorders.
Limits
No numerical reference intervals, hormone concentrations, or exact statistical metrics were provided in the abstract. Findings are restricted to a select cohort of normal-weight, eumenorrheic females aged 16–19 years, precluding generalization to younger adolescents, overweight individuals, or females with irregular menses.
Cited by
- contradicts In reproductive-aged premenopausal women, absolute testosterone levels are at least 10 times higher than estrogen levels at peak ovulation and up to 100 times higher in follicular or luteal phases.