Cigarette smoking and serum sex hormones in men

The relation between cigarette smoking and serum sex hormone concentrations was examined in two samples of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) population. One sample consisted of 121 men at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania MRFIT center who were followed longitudinally for four years. The other sample was drawn from the entire MRFIT cohort and consisted of 163 MRFIT participants who subsequently developed coronary heart disease and 163 matched controls. The results indicated a positive correlation between cigarette smoking and serum total androstenedione concentration. The association was independent of age, relative weight, alcohol drinking, blood pressure, and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Serum total and free testosterone concentrations were positively correlated with cigarette smoking among the longitudinal sample and the controls, but not for the baseline sera from the coronary heart disease cases. This positive correlation was also independent of age, relative weight, alcohol drinking, blood pressure, and HDL cholesterol. There was no association between either serum estradiol or estrone concentrations and cigarette smoking in this population. These observations may have important implications for epidemiologic studies of diseases with significant smoking relations.