Objective:

To investigate the relationship between peripheral androgens, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), body mass index (BMI) and transvaginal ultrasonografic endomet-rial thickness in asymptomatic postmenopausal women.

Material and Method:

Sixty three asymptomatic postmenopausal women having an amenorrhea period of at least one year and a clinical and hormonal diagnosis ( FSH>40 UI/ml) of menopause enrolled to our study. The exclusion criteria were chronic or acute disease, postmenopausal hormo-ne replacement therapy and cigarette smoking. All patients’ hormone profile (FSH, LH, E2, progesterone, prolactin, total testosterone, free testosterone, androstenedione, DHEA-S and SHBG) was tested; height and weight was taken and BMI was calculated. According to the endometrial thickness the patients were divided into two groups: those with endo-metrial thickness of 5 mm or less (1st group) and those with endometrium thicker than 5 mm (2nd group).

Results:

The mean endometrial thickness was 4.22±1.57mm. There was a positive correlation between BMI and endometrial thickness (p: 0.04) and negative one between SHBG and BMI (p: 0.043). The correlation analysis pointed out a weak nega-tive relation between SHBG and endometrial thickness (p: 0.09). There was a correlation between bioavailable testos-terone and body mass index (r: 0.77; p: 0.0001); and between bioavailable testosterone and endometrial thickness but was not statistically significant (p: 0.486).

Conclusion:

Our research efforts have focused primarily on the relation between peripheral androgens, obesity and endometrial thickness. The high circulating levels of testos-terone in obese women affected the endometrial thickness as higher levels were associated with thicker endometrium. Our study suggests that androgens may contribute to the development of endometrial proliferative diseases.

Keywords: Androgens, Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), Body mass index (BMI), Endometrial thickness, Postmenopause, Sonography