Re: Reversal of Relation Between Body Mass and Endogenous Estrogen Concentrations With Menopausal Status

Abstract

The risk of breast cancer may be decreased in obese premenopausal women but increased in obese postmenopausal women. Potischman et al. ( 1 ) recently evaluated the relation of body mass index (BMI, kg/m ² ) and hormonal profiles in 88 premenopausal and 210 postmenopausal control subjects from a study of endometrial cancer. They reported a significant decrease in sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) concentrationas BMI increased in both menopausal groups. As BMI increased, total estradiol increased significantly in postmenopausal women but decreased in premenopausal women, significantly so during the follicular phase. We have repeated these analyses in another dataset.