The purpose of this study was to compare the level and relative ratio of estrogen, progesterone, and prolactin in patients with Sjögren's syndrome and healthy controls.
Serum samples were collected from 17 SS patients and 19 age-, sex- and race-matched controls. All subjects were postmenopausal females who were not currently on hormone replacement therapy. Prolactin levels were measured using ELISA and progesterone and estrogen were measured using EIA.
Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significantly higher levels of prolactin among patients than controls (11.41 ng/ml vs. 6.74 ng/ml, p=0.003) with significantly higher prolactin/ progesterone (18.88 vs. 8.14, p=0.02) and estrogen/ progesterone (71.51 vs. 42.02, p=0.05) ratios. No significant differences were observed in the levels of estrogen and progesterone between patients and controls.
Abnormal levels and relative ratios of hormones may play a role in the pathogenesis of Sjögren's syndrome.