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. 2015;83(1):36-44.
doi: 10.1159/000369168. Epub 2015 Jan 24.

In utero exposure to cigarette smoking, environmental tobacco smoke and reproductive hormones in US girls approaching puberty

Audra L Gollenberg  1 , O Yaw Addo, Zhiwei Zhang, Mary L Hediger, John H Himes, Peter A Lee
Affiliations

In utero exposure to cigarette smoking, environmental tobacco smoke and reproductive hormones in US girls approaching puberty

Audra L Gollenberg et al. Horm Res Paediatr. 2015.

Abstract

Background/aims: Evidence is unclear whether prenatal smoking affects age at menarche and pubertal development, and its impact upon hormones has not been well studied. We aim to identify potential pathways through which prenatal smoking and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) affect reproductive hormones in girls approaching puberty.

Methods: We examined the association between prenatal smoking, current ETS and luteinizing hormone (LH) and inhibin B (InB) in 6- to 11-year-old girls in the 3rd National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. Parents/guardians completed interviewer-assisted questionnaires on health and demographics at the time of physical examination. Residual blood samples were analyzed for reproductive hormones in 2008.

Results: Of 660 girls, 19 and 39% were exposed to prenatal smoke and current ETS, respectively. Accounting for multiple pathways in structural equation models, prenatally exposed girls had significantly lower LH (β = -0.205 log-mIU/ml, p < 0.0001) and InB (β = -0.162, log-pg/ml, p < 0.0001). Prenatal smoking also influenced LH positively and InB negatively indirectly through BMI-for-age. ETS was positively associated with LH, but not with InB.

Conclusion: Exposure to maternal smoking may disrupt reproductive development manifesting in altered hormone levels near puberty.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
BMI denotes body mass index ETS denotes environmental tobacco smoke LOD denotes limit of detection PIR denotes poverty-income ratio
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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