title: Flight influence on the plasma level of sex hormones of women pilots.
abstract: The plasma concentrations of six sex hormones were measured before and after flight by radioimmunoassay in 38 female pilots. The results showed 1) the plasma activity of estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone revealed no significant change after flight (p greater than 0.05), while the plasma activity of prolactin, cortisol, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone increased obviously; 2) compared with the ground crew's, the pilots' plasma estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol had no distinct change (p greater than 0.05); however, their testosterone, prolactin, and follicle stimulating hormone plasma levels were prominently varied (p less than 0.05). 3) there was no statistical difference between the plasma levels of sex hormones in pilots who had more than 2,000 hours of flight experience and in those with less than 500 hours of flight experience (p greater than 0.05). 4) the testosterone: estradiol ratio of pilots without immediate flight stress was much higher than that of the ground crew.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Lanzhou Air Force Hospital, China.
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D001359:Aviation; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000097:blood* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008598:Menstruation / Q000502:physiology; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones