Positive Cortisol-Testosterone Hormonal Coupling Among Adolescents in Argentina and Jordan

Puberty is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and gonadal (HPG) axes. It has been proposed that if HPA and HPG coactivate during pubertal development, the hormones cortisol and testosterone would be positively coupled during puberty and decoupled postpuberty. Our objective was to test for hormonal coupling in less-studied, non-Western populations.

We analyzed longitudinal and cross-sectional data from marginalized populations: Indigenous Qom/Toba females in Argentina (n = 46, 777 urine samples) and Syrian/Jordanian youth (n = 768, dried blood spots). We used Bayesian hierarchical models to assess the hypothesis that cortisol and testosterone are positively coupled during puberty but decouple at later stages.

We found positive, age-specific cortisol-testosterone coupling among adolescents in both populations, with patterns varying by age and sex. Coupling increased across pubertal ages but did not decline at older ages, contradicting the expectation that there is hormonal de-coupling.

This is the first study to demonstrate positive cortisol-testosterone coupling across adolescence in two socio-ecologically distinct, non-Western populations. While hormonal decoupling was not observed, coupling patterns suggest population-level differences in pubertal timing. These findings challenge assumptions derived from Western-based research and underscore the need for global, context-sensitive models of adolescent development.