Selected problems of medical qualification for physical fitness in postmenopausal women

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between sex hormones in blood and the occurrence of chest pain and degree of exercise capacity in postmenopausal women.

Fifty-two postmenopausal women with chest pain in retrosternal area in history (group A) and 52 asymptomatic (group B) were examined. Estradiol (E2), total testosterone (T), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) concentrations in blood were measured. The free testosterone (FT), bioavailable testosterone (BT), index of free testosterone (FTI) and the index of free estradiol (FE2I) were calculated. ECG exercise stress tests were performed by the treadmill stress test track.

In group A compared with B there were higher: systolic blood pressure (SBP), (129.3±13.5 vs. 121.8±17.1 mmHg, P=0.04), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (80.8±11.8 vs. 78.6±12.1, P=0.04) at rest, maximum SBP post exercise (172.2±15.9 vs. 157.8±14.2 mmHg, P=0.0003) and lower DHEA-S (122.7±62.8 vs. 150.8±72.9 µg/100 mL, P=0.05) and T (1.5±0.6 vs. 1.7±0.6 nmol/l, P=0.04). T correlated with exercise duration (ED) (R=-0.251, P<0.05), FT with SBP increase during exercise (R=0.286, P<0.05) and ED (R=0.280, P<0.05), BT positively correlated with heart rate (HR) increase during exercise (R=0.285, P<0.05) and with ED (R=0.297, P<0.05).

In postmenopausal women chest pain in history occurs regardless of exercise capacity and may be connected with arterial hypertension, deficiency of DHEA-S and androgenicity. Exercise capacity of postmenopausal women may be influenced by sex hormones, which levels in blood could be useful in the qualification for physical recreation plan.