Evaluation of Androgen and Progesterone Levels in Women with Preeclampsia

Background: Preeclampsia along with its complications seems to be one of the major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Despite numerous studies, the pathology of preeclampsia has not yet been fully elucidated. This study, therefore, determines whether maternal serum levels of androgen and progesterone are higher in patients with preeclampsia than in matched control subjects. Methods: Serum progesterone, free and total testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone levels were measured in 19 women in their third trimester of pregnancy having preeclampsia, as patient group, and in 17 healthy normotensive pregnant women, as control group, with similar maternal and gestational ages. All women were primigravida with singleton pregnancy. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups in body mass index, maternal and gestational ages. Progesterone and free testosterone levels were significantly lower (P<0.01) in patients (75.1±8.6 ng/dl and 2.27±1.74 pg/dl) than of control group (111.6±9.71 ng/dl and 3.73±1.31 pg/dl). Whereas, the levels of total testosterone (1.02±0.10 ng/dl vs. 1.37±.019ng/dl) and dehydroepiandrosterone (0.99±0.13 µg/dl vs. 0.98±5.15 µg/dl) of patients and control groups were not significantly different.  Conclusion: Levels of progesterone were pathologically and statistically lower in preeclampsia than of control women with similar age, gestational age and body mass index. It seems that accentuate increase sex hormone binding globulin is the cause of deceased free testosterone in preeclampsia.