Body dimensions and thyroid hormone levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal women from Austria

Abstract

Correlations between thyroid hormone levels and body dimensions were investigated in a group of 124 premenopausal (ages 16-40 years) and 142 postmenopausal (ages 38-61 years) women from Vienna, Austria. Twenty-nine absolute body dimensions and thirteen anthropometric indices were correlated with the serum levels of thyroxine, triiodothyronine, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and thyroid-hormone-binding globulin as well as three hormone ratios (T3/T4, T4/TSH, T3/TSH). All hormones exhibited statistically significant correlations with 24 anthropometric variables and 11 indices. The correlations between thyroxine and triiodothyronine levels and the body measurements were predominantly positive in both proband groups. Higher thyroid hormone levels were associated positively with body dimensions, especially with the amount of subcutaneous fat tissue, in adult females independently of their menstrual status. The direction of the correlations between thyroid-stimulating hormone and body measures as well as anthropometric indices differed between the premenopausal and the postmenopausal women. While in premenopausal women mainly positive correlations between anthropometric characters and the level of thyroid stimulating hormone occur, in postmenopausal women most of these correlations are negative. This is probably due to the decrease of thyroid-stimulating hormone levels with increasing age, as well as with changes in body shape during the climacteric and after the menopause.

The evaluation of thyroid function tests in patients presenting to the family medicine clinics

“…TSH elevation in women aged 47-58 compared to other age groups suggests an effect of the perimenopausal period in women in this age group. The number of studies reporting higher TSH values in the premenopausal period compared to the postmenopausal period is limited [12][13][14], although we encountered no studies assessing the perimenopausal period, and our findings are compatible with similar data from the literature. In addition, the majority of the 11 (1.9%) patients with subclinical hypothyroidism were also in this age group.…”

Declining Patterns of Average Height of Adult Indians Between 20 and 49 Years: State Wise Trends and Influence of Socioeconomic Factors

“…Thus it propagates the idea that in human body, post adulthood changes do occur in height. It is supported by many findings (Miall et al 1967;Roche et al 1981;Malina et al 1982;Kirchengast 1994). The most supporting relevant work staking Indian data are (Bagga 1998(Bagga , 2013Bagga and Sakurkar 2013).This type of study was mainly done in India or around the world during 1980s and 1990s and in that period, the difference was 5-7 cm (approximately) from younger to older generation, but in our study, the difference is found to be only 0.43 cm.…”

Anthropometric correlates of morning plasma cortisol level and hormonal and biochemical response to fasting in obese premenopausal women

“…An inverse association between T3/T4 index and biacromial index was found (Table 3), and a similar relation has been reported for chest breadth [6]. No relations could be established here between the thyroid hormone concentrations and fat patternings (BW, BMI, % BF).…”

“…Thus, negative correlations occurred between BW, BMI and T3 concentrations [24] whereas in other works a direct correlation was found [6,54]. In the present study performed on the Siberian sample no correlations of the anthropometric variables and indices with the thyroid hormones measured could be observed except those of the % of thigh fat.…”

“…The visceral type of obesity is associated with impaired insulin [4] and androgens [5] secretion and responsiveness. A relation was found between body dimensions and thyroid [6] and sex hormone levels [7].…”