Plasma oestrone, oestradiol and androstenedione levels in post-menopausal women: relation to body weight and height.

To study the relation between body weight and height and the plasma sex-hormone levels wer measured the plasma levels of oestrone (E1), oestradiol (E2) and androstenedione (A) in a group of healthy post-menopausal women with a wide range of body weight. The sex hormones were measured by radioimmunoassay with highly specific antisera after purification of the plasma extract by column chromatography. Our findings show that there is significant positive correlation between the E1 level and body weight as well as A level and, to a lesser extent, between the E1 level and Quetelet index. For E2 there is no correlation with these parameters. There is also a very slight correlation between A level, body weight and Quetelet index. Calculation of the partial correlation coefficient shows that E1 correlates to the same degree with body weight and A level, whereas the A level does not correlate with body weight at a fixed value for the E1 level. We conclude that variation in the E1 level depends to the same degree on the variation in body weight as well as the variation in A level.