Discontinuation of estrogen replacement therapy in GH-treated hypopituitary women alters androgen status and IGF-I.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Human Growth Hormone in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Compared with their male counterparts, healthy females secrete more growth hormone (GH) and those with GH-deficiency have lower insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) levels and are less responsive to GH substitution.

To test whether this gender difference is related to sex hormones the researchers measured androgen status and IGF-I related parameters in 38 hypopituitary women (mean (range) age 41.5 (20-58) years) during continued GH substitution as compared with a control group of 38 healthy women matched for age and menopausal status.

Who Took Part

The study group was 38 women.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The women were allocated by chance, so the Human Growth Hormone group and the comparison group should start out alike.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Body Composition, Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Estrogens, Human Growth Hormone, Hypopituitarism and Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Human Growth Hormone in 38 women.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 11 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2005 (European journal of endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the related Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) library page, all human trials.