Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2015

Abstract

Context: It is yet unknown how similar women’s hormone levels are during successive pregnancies, and very little is known about the degree to which siblings experience similar prenatal environments. Given the importance of understanding how women’s reproductive life-histories exert cumulative effects on health via hormone exposure, and the importance of understanding how fetal programming via endocrine signaling affects sibling trait concordance, here we address this important lacuna in the literature.

Objective: To investigate how consistent are women’s hormone profiles across two successive pregnancies.

Design and Main Outcome Measures: This longitudinal, prospective study followed a cohort of 28 women across two pregnancies (PREG 1; PREG 2). Women’s circulating hormone levels were assessed from blood samples at 25, 31, and 37 weeks’ gestation for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (pCRH), cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone. ACTH and cortisol levels were assessed 3-months postpartum. Research questions include: Are hormone levels in PREG 2 significantly different from levels in PREG 1?Whatproportion of variance in PREG 2 hormone levels is attributable to variance in PREG 1 levels? Are hormone levels more stable between PREG 1 and PREG 2 compared with postpartum phases following these pregnancies? Is pCRH, which is completely placentally derived, less similar than other hormones across successive pregnancies?

Setting: Psychobiology laboratory. Participants: Pregnant women in California.

Results and Conclusions: Comparisons of hormone concentrations across women’s successive pregnancies via paired t-test revealed substantial consistency from one pregnancy to another, with only significant differences between pregnancies for pCRH. Regressions revealed substantial predictability from one pregnancy to another, with between 17%–56% of PREG 2 variances accounted for by PREG 1 values. Women exhibited lower degrees of consistency and predictability in hormone levels across postpartum phases compared with gestational concentrations. This is the first study to describe maternal and placental hormone levels across successive pregnancies.

Comments

This is the early release version of an article that has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism at a later date. DOI: 10.1210/jc.2015-2620

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Copyright

Endocrine Society

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