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Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the severity of female sexual dysfunction (FSD), quality of life, and depression status in female patients with Cushing's syndrome (CS). Material and methods: This study included 29 sexually active women with CS and 30 healthy age and body mass index matched women. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were filled by each participant. Plasma levels of FSH, LH, PRL, cortisol, DHEA-S, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, free testosterone, total testosterone and estradiol were measured. Results: Female sexual dysfunction was present in 88.9% of the women with CS and 24.1% of the control group. The CS group showed a lower total FSFI score [16.6 (IQR: 5-23)] compared to the healthy women [26.8 (IQR: 25.5-30.4) (p<0.001)]. The FSFI scores in the arousal, lubrication, orgasm, pain and satisfaction domains were all lower in the women with CS (p<0.001). Both summary scores of the SF-36 were reduced in women with Cushing's syndrome compared to the control group (p=0.001). The BDI scores of patients were significantly higher than those of the control subjects (p=0.007). In patients with CS, levels of LH, estradiol, and DHEA-S04 were significantly lower while cortisol (p<0.05), and 17 hydroxyprogestrone levels were higher than control subjects (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that majority of the women with CS had FSD. This may be related to the inhibitory effect of cortisol on sex hormones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) and insulin-like 3 (INSL3) levels and their association with gonadotropin and ovarian steroid hormones, as expression of ovarian function, between healthy normal-weight ovulatory and anovulatory eumenorrheic late adolescent females.Study Design: This study analyzed AMH and INSL3 levels in forty healthy eumenorrheic late adolescent females (aged 16-19 ys), selected from a cross-sectional epidemiological study performed on the prevalence of hyperandrogenic states. The subjects were divided into ovulatory (n: 28) and anovulatory (n: 12) groups in accordance to a previous cluster analysis based on progesterone (P) distribution measured once in the latter part of the cycle. Both groups were compared for anthropometric, biochemical and hormonal parameters.Results: INSL3 and AMH were detectable in all samples. Testosterone (P=0.01), the free-androgen index (FAI) (P=0.051), gonadotropins (LH: P=0.02; FSH: P=0.004) and AMH (P=0.02) levels were significantly higher in the anovulatory group with respect to their ovulatory counterpart. A trend toward significantly higher INSL3 concentrations (P=0.08) was also shown in the anovulatory group. A positive correlation between INSL3 levels and androgens such as androstenedione (r=0.38; P=0.02), testosterone (r=0.44; P=0.004) and FAI (r=0.42; P=0.006) and a negative borderline significant correlation (r=-0.30; P=0.055) between AMH and P were shown in all subjects.Conclusion: Healthy eumenorrheic late adolescent females with sporadic anovulation display higher AMH and INSL-3 blood concentrations in association with higher androgen levels compared with age- and BMI-matched subjects with ovulatory cycle, suggesting evidence of an earlier ovarian dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]