The Correlation Between Climacteric Symptoms and Plasma Levels of Catecholamines

Abstract

Although climacteric symptoms, particularly, vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes, have been suggested to correlate with depletion of ovarian estrogen secretion, its precise mechanism to producing these symptoms has still remained unknown. On the other hand, catecholamines have been presumed to be related to an onset of the climacteric symptoms. This study was carried out to elucidate the correlation between the climacteric symptoms and plasma levels of catecholamines. Thirty-eight women complaining of climacteric symptoms were studied. These subjects were evaluated for their symptoms and the severity of the symptoms was expressed in numerical figure, 0 to 3, according to its degrees: none, slight, moderate, and marked, respectively. At the same time venous blood samples were drawn to determine the plasma levels of catecholamines, using an Renzini's fluorimetric assay method improved by Miura. Eventually, a correlation between severities of the symptoms and plasma catecholamines was made. Plasma epinephrine levels were found to be elevated as the severity of the hot flush progressed from none to marked. No symptoms other than hot flush showed such significant correlation with plasma epinephrine or norepinephrine levels. This result suggests that the onset of hot flush is closely related with an increased activity of the adrenomedullary sympathetic nervous system.