1. Daily fluctuations of progesterone and testosterone are associated with fibromyalgia pain severity
- Author
-
Jarred Younger, K. Wesson-Sides, Luke Parkitny, Meredith Marie Schertzinger, and University of St Andrews. School of Medicine
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Adult ,Male ,Fibromyalgia ,Adolescent ,Physiology ,Pain ,macromolecular substances ,Severity of Illness Index ,E-NDAS ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Testosterone ,Longitudinal Studies ,Progesterone ,Aged ,Likelihood Functions ,business.industry ,Testosterone (patch) ,Venous blood ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,030104 developmental biology ,Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine ,Neurology ,Pain severity ,Linear Models ,Longitudinal ,RC0321 ,Female ,Neurology (clinical) ,Day to day ,business ,RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Hormone ,Blood sampling - Abstract
The purpose of this longitudinal blood sampling study was to examine relationships between sex hormones and fibromyalgia pain. Eight women meeting case definition criteria for fibromyalgia provided venous blood samples and reported their fibromyalgia pain severity over 25 consecutive days. All women exhibited normal menstrual cycles and were not taking oral contraceptives. Cortisol, and the sex hormones estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone, were assayed from serum. A linear mixed model was used to determine if fluctuations of sex hormones were associated with changes in pain severity. In the entire sample, day to day changes in progesterone (P = .002) as well as testosterone (P = .015) were significantly and inversely correlated with pain severity. There was no relationship between estradiol and pain (P = .551) or cortisol and pain (P = .633). These results suggest that progesterone and testosterone play a protective role in fibromyalgia pain severity. Sex and other hormones may serve to increase as well as decrease fibromyalgia pain severity. Perspective Sex hormones fluctuate normally in women with fibromyalgia, but may still contribute to pain severity.
- Published
- 2018