Cigarette smoking and urinary oestrogen excretion in premenopausal and post-menopausal women.
Cigarette smoking is associated with a reduction in the risk for endometrial cancer in post-menopausal women and it has been suggested that this is because smoking has an anti-oestrogenic effect. To investigate this, concentrations of oestrone, oestradiol and oestriol were measured in 24 h urine samples from 167 premenopausal women (53 smokers, 114 non-smokers) and 200 post-menopausal women (54 smokers, 146 non-smokers). Among premenopausal women there were no significant differences in oestrogen excretion between smokers and non-smokers. Among post-menopausal women, geometric mean excretion rates for oestrone and oestradiol did not differ significantly between groups, but oestriol excretion was 19% lower (95% confidence interval -34% to -1%) in smokers than in non-smokers. This may partly explain the reduced risk for endometrial cancer among post-menopausal smokers.
Key
T J
TJ
Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK.
Pike
M C
MC
Brown
J B
JB
Hermon
C
C
Allen
D S
DS
Wang
D Y
DY
D000328:Adult; D004967:Estrogens / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000652:urine*; D017697:Premenopause / Q000652:urine*; D012907:Smoking / Q000652:urine*
D004967:Estrogens