High oestrogen excretion in pregnancy

Abstract

Fifty-one women with singleton pregnancies whose urinary oestrogen excretion was above the 95th centile of the hospital's reference range on two or more occasions were reviewed. The women did not differ from the general population in race, parity, age, height or weight gain during pregnancy, but they were slightly heavier. Fetal and placental weights were greater than the corresponding values in the general population, as were the volumes of urine containing the oestrogen, but none of these differences was sufficient to account for oestrogen excretion above the 95th centile. Eleven patients has a glucose tolerance test, two of them had abnormal results and nine had normal results but heavy babies. Patterns of oestrogen excretion did not identify a high-risk population but the women with consistently high excretion gave birth to eight of the nine babies that weighed >4 kg in this population. Twenty-two of the women had 23 subsequent pregnancies in which oestrogen excretion was measured: excretion was normal in 17, low in two and above the 95th centile in four.

Perinatal characteristics in relation to incidence of and mortality from prostate cancer

“…Ponderal index is an indicator of late stage intrauterine growth 20. Moreover, concentrations of oestrogens and other hormones are generally lower in women with preeclampsia or eclampsia,35 8 40 and there is some evidence that primiparous women have higher oestrogen concentrations in pregnancy than multiparous women 41 42. We found that prematurity and pre-eclampsia or eclampsia reduced the risk of prostate cancer and that birth size was more strongly associated with mortality than incidence.…”

“…Our choice of exposure variables was constrained by availability, but several of them are thought to reflect intrauterine growth, which is partly modulated by steroid hormones 35 36 37 38. Ponderal index is an indicator of late stage intrauterine growth 20.…”

Birth Weight as a Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 18 Epidemiological Studies

“…[68][69][70] Pregnancy estrogen levels have been reported positively associated with birth weight. [71][72][73] Therefore, high birth weight, like twinning, might be a proxy variable of early life exposure to high levels of pregnancy estrogens, as Trichopoulos proposed. 8 Another potential mechanism is that women with high birth weight may merely have a higher number of mammary gland cells at risk for transformation and, thus, have an increased subsequent breast cancer risk.…”

Early life growth, socioeconomic status, and mammographic breast density in an urban US birth cohort

“…These changes are believed to occur as early as in utero , a period characterized by high levels of circulating endogenous estrogen. Early childhood also constitutes a critical period in mammary tissue development during which increases in adipocytes associated with weight gain increases circulatory estrogen levels (54–56). These discoveries are especially critical to understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of breast cancer from a life course perspective.…”