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High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

sciencedaily.com

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Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#2

Post by nostrademons »

Would like to see the original study for this, because it seems like something is getting lost in translation. The article mentions 4 major prenatal steroid hormones involved, "two known as androgens", but the headline says that estrogen is linked. Colloquially, estrogen is the female sex hormone and androgens (including testosterone) are the male sex hormones. Molecularly, "estrogens" are a family of different steroid hormones (not a single molecule), and androgens are a family of other hormones, and both of them occur in both males & females but in different quantities. And to muddy the waters further, many androgens are metabolic precursors of estrogens, eg. testosterone is synthesized into estradiol. And to muddy them even further, some molecules (eg. DHEA) are both depending upon which biological receptors they bind to.

The title as written contradicts the article, using the colloquial meaning of the words involved. There's probably a more precise technical meaning where everything makes sense, but the article doesn't really explain it.

Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#4

Post by omarhaneef »

nostrademons wrote: post #2

Would like to see the original study for this, because it seems like something is getting lost in translation. The article mentions 4 major prenatal steroid hormones involved, "two known as androgens", but the headline says that estrogen is linked. Colloquially, estrogen is the female sex hormone and androgens (including testosterone) are the male sex hormones. Molecularly, "estrogens" are a family of different stero…

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-019-0454-9

Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#6

Post by meej »

nostrademons wrote: post #2

Would like to see the original study for this, because it seems like something is getting lost in translation. The article mentions 4 major prenatal steroid hormones involved, "two known as androgens", but the headline says that estrogen is linked. Colloquially, estrogen is the female sex hormone and androgens (including testosterone) are the male sex hormones. Molecularly, "estrogens" are a family of different stero…

The discussion of androgens is of previous work completed in 2015 that the new estrogen work builds upon. The second paragraph explains the former and the third paragraph explains the latter.

Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#7

Post by floatingatoll »

Summary of study from Nature link, italics mine to prevent likely misunderstandings of their work:

> Here we test whether levels of prenatal oestriol, oestradiol, oestrone and oestrone sulphate in amniotic fluid are associated with autism, in the same Danish Historic Birth Cohort, in which prenatal androgens were measured, using univariate logistic regression (n = 98 cases, n = 177 controls). We also make a like-to-like comparison between the prenatal oestrogens and androgens. Oestradiol, oestrone, oestriol and progesterone each related to autism in univariate analyses after correction with false discovery rate. A comparison of standardised odds ratios showed that oestradiol, oestrone and progesterone had the largest effects on autism likelihood.

Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#8

Post by danbolt »

danharaj wrote: post #5

Something like 1 in 4 transgender women are also autistic. If this study holds any water that might be an interesting investigation.

Interesting, I had no idea the rate was so high. I’ve seen one study[1] that sampled for ~7%, but not 25%. Do you have a link I could read?

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2904453/

Re: High levels of oestrogens in the womb linked to autism

#10

Post by nicoburns »

danharaj wrote: post #5

Something like 1 in 4 transgender women are also autistic. If this study holds any water that might be an interesting investigation.

I read an article somewhere claiming that estrogen via Hormone Replacement Therapy actually reduces the symptoms of autism. It wasn't a scientific study, but it was written by someone who claimed to personally know several people who had observed this effect.
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