Using synbiotics and probiotics in women with polycystic ovary syndrome improve hormonal (FAI, SHBG) and inflammatory (NO, MDA) indices in these patients.
IR, present in the NAFLD-PCOS association could decrease the hepatic production of sex hormone-binding globulin through a possible regulation mediated by hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha.
Maternal serum AMH, testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin levels were measured in blood samples taken in early second-trimester pregnancies from women with PCOS (n = 159) and healthy controls matched for body mass index (n = 320).
The presence of female pattern hair loss in women with polycystic ovary syndrome was significantly associated with an increased body mass index, decreased sex hormone binding globulin and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, elevated triglyceride levels, and increased prevalence of hypertension.
Additionally, normal-weight PCOS women showed higher triglycerides levels (1.51 ± 0.84 mmol/L vs. 1.30 ± 0.75 mmol/L, p = 0.02), lower SHBG levels (277.8 ± 110.2 nmol/L vs. 330.5 ± 180.4 nmol/L, p = 0.001) and a possible trend towards higher insulin resistance (LogHoMA-IR 0.70 ± 0.55 vs. 0.57 ± 0.57, p = 0.05) during early pregnancy.
The girls with a mother with a positive history of PCOS had significantly higher AMH serum levels compared with girls with a mother with a negative history of PCOS (3.37 ± 1.72 ng/mL vs 2.70 ± 1.25 ng/mL; P < .05) with no differences in testosterone, DHEAS, androstenedione, and sex hormone binding globulin.
Probiotic supplementation may result in an improvement in weight, BMI, FPG, insulin, HOMA-IR, triglycerides, VLDL-cholesterol, CRP, MDA, hirsutism, total testosterone, QUICKI, NO, TAC, GSH, and SHBG but did not affect dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels, and total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol levels in patients with PCOS.
Sex hormone binding globulin levels were lowest in OB-g and lower in PCOS-d than in NW-g (PCOS-d vs NW-g, P = 0.005; OB-g vs NW-g, P < 0.0001; PCOS-d vs OB-g, P < 0.0001).
Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, sex hormone binding globulin, free androgen index, total testosterone, insulin, and HOMA-IR levels were significantly higher in the PCOS group as compared to the control group (all p<0.05).
In PCOS, AMH levels correlated positively with luteinizing hormone (LH), androgen and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels and negatively with BMI, abdominal obesity, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), fasting glucose and insulin, and insulin resistance.
Overall, synbiotic supplementation for 12 weeks in PCOS women had beneficial effects on SHBG, mFG scores, hs-CRP and NO levels, but did not affect other hormonal status and biomarkers of oxidative stress.
Assessing SHBG and free testosterone is important in evaluating androgen excess in subfertile women with ovulatory dysfunction and suspected PCOS, as it reflects both ovarian and metabolic disturbances.
Prior studies have reported mixed results regarding relationships between vitamin D, androgens, and sex hormone-binding globulin in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome.
Reference intervals for TT, FT, and SHBG in women with PCOS and controls were overlapping, and partitioning of reference intervals was an ambiguous decision.
Significant differences were found with respect to free androgen index (FAI) (P = .036), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) (P = .023), and body mass index (BMI) (P = .001) between PCOS with acne and PCOS without acne groups.
The levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), LH/follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone (T), free androgen index (FAI), fasting insulin (FINS) and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index in PCOS group were higher than those in normal control group, but the sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) level was lower than that in normal control group (P<0.05); there were no statistically significant differences in comparisons of age, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), FSH, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAs) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) between the two groups (P>0.05).
In the 12 months prior to the diagnosis of PCOS being made, 30.5% of women underwent a measurement of their serum total testosterone level while 29.6% had their serum SHBG measured.
The high-molecular-weight adiponectin level was lower in women with PCOS (median 2.2 [interquartile range (IQR)2.3] μg/mL) than in controls (median 3 [IQR2.5] μg/mL) (age and BMI adjusted), and it correlated inversely with the values measured for homeostatic model of assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), fasting insulin, triglycerides, and free androgen index and positively with sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in all participants and in the PCOS group.
Nonobese patients with PCOS have adrenal hyperandrogenism as the underlying mechanism while their obese/ insulin-resistant counterparts have low SHBG and hence an increased fraction of free testosterone.