University human physiology professors and researchers are looking at how hormones impact women’s cardiovascular health by studying young, overweight women and women who have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a genetic disorder that can affect a woman’s ability to get pregnant.
As many as five million women in the U.S. have this complex, poorly understood disorder, according to womenshealth.gov. From a young age, females with PCOS have irregular menstrual periods and high levels of male hormones, such as testosterone. They are sometimes treated with birth control pills to regulate their hormone levels.
“These women get to child-bearing age and have higher incidents of cardiovascular disease,” said University lab and research coordinator and research associate Emily Martini. “We don’t know the direct link. We’re looking at the underlying mechanisms.”
The National Institute of Health awarded Human Physiology department head and associate professor Christopher Minson and laboratory medical director Paul Kaplan with a research grant. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.
Minson is the principal investigator and Kaplan is the co-investigator of the study. This is the third year of the four-year grant.
“We’ve learned that hormones do affect vascular function. Different ones have unique effects,” Kaplan said. “We’ve found that estrogen improves vascular function.”
Hormones occur naturally, while their synthetic copies can be found in birth control pills.
“Seventy percent of women at the child-bearing age are on birth control pills that contain hormones,” Martini said.
Birth control pills use progestin, any natural or synthetic substance similar to progesterone. Progesterone is a hormone involved with the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and embryo development and formation.
“A lot of people have done work on estrogen, but we’re looking at progesterone,” Martini said.
The researchers want to learn how progesterone works in the cardiovascular system, and how progestin impacts the sympathetic nervous system and the health of blood vessels. They also want to learn how estrogen and progesterone interact.
“Some progestins seem to have a positive influence on blood vessels, while others antagonize estrogen’s beneficial effects,” Minson said.
The research team needs two types of women to participate in the study: women ages 18 to 38 who are overweight, and women ages 18 to 38 who have PCOS. They also cannot be on any medication.
“Our goal is to understand the implications for women across age spans,” Minson said.
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