title: A comparison of anthropometric, metabolic, and reproductive characteristics of young adult women from opposite-sex and same-sex twin pairs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prenatal exposure to androgens has been linked to masculinization of several traits. We aimed to determine whether putative female intra-uterine exposure to androgens influences anthropometric, metabolic, and reproductive parameters using a twin design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two cohorts of Finnish twins born in 1975-1979 and 1983-1987 formed the basis for the longitudinal FinnTwin16 (FT16) and FinnTwin12 (FT12) studies. Self-reported anthropometric characteristics, disease status, and reproductive history were compared between 679 same-sex (SS) and 789 opposite-sex (OS) female twins (mean age ± SD: 34 ± 1.1) from the wave 5 of data collection in FT16. Serum lipid and lipoprotein subclass concentrations measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were compared in 226 SS and 169 OS female twins (mean age ± SD: 24 ± 2.1) from the wave 4 of data collection in FT12 and FT16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anthropometric measures, the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus type 2 did not differ significantly between females from SS and OS twin pairs at age 34. Similarly, the prevalence of infertility, age at first pregnancy and number of induced and spontaneous abortions did not differ significantly between these two groups of women. The serum lipid and lipoprotein profile did not differ between females from SS and OS twins at age 24.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no evidence that androgen overexposure of the female fetus affects obesity, metabolic profile, or reproductive health in young adult females. However, these results do not exclude the possibility that prenatal androgen exposure in females could be adversely associated with these phenotypes later in life.
authors.affiliation: Satakunta Central Hospital , Pori , Finland.
authors.forename: Pirkko
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Korsoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Leonie H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Bogl
authors.affiliation: Satakunta Central Hospital, Pori and University of Turku , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Päivi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.affiliation: Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu , Oulu , Finland.
authors.forename: Antti J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kangas
authors.affiliation: Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu , Oulu , Finland ; NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland , Kuopio , Finland.
authors.forename: Pasi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soininen
authors.affiliation: Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu , Oulu , Finland ; NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland , Kuopio , Finland ; Oulu University Hospital , Oulu , Finland ; Computational Medicine, Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol , Bristol , UK.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ala-Korpela
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University , Bloomington, IN , USA.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: Satakunta Central Hospital, Pori and University of Turku , Turku , Finland.
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaaja
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland ; Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare , Helsinki , Finland ; Institute for Molecular Medicine FIMM , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaprio
keywords: anthropometrics; lipoprotein profile; opposite-sex twin pairs; prenatal androgen exposure; reproductive history; twin testosterone transfer hypothesis