Maternal sex hormones in early pregnancy and asthma among offspring: a case-control study.

Abstract

Sex hormones may be associated with the risk of onset of asthma. To study the association between maternal sex hormone concentrations during early pregnancy and the risk of asthma among offspring. A case-control study of 129 asthmatic children and 125 control children 5 to 6 years of age. Maternal sera in early pregnancy were obtained from the Finnish Maternal Cohort serum bank. The means of serum progesterone and estradiol and free estradiol in mothers of asthmatic and control children were 81.0 and 82.8 nmol/L (P =.60), 7.87 nmol/L and 7.65 nmol/L (P =.99), and 149.5 pmol/L and 148.0 pmol/L (P =.95), respectively. There were also no differences in the mean concentrations of maternal sex hormones according to the presence of allergic rhinitis or atopic eczema among the children. The current results do not support an association between maternal sex hormone concentrations during early pregnancy and onset of allergic disease in early childhood.