Current use of combined hormonal contraception is associated with glucose metabolism disorders in perimenopausal women.

Objective: The use of combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs) worsens glucose tolerance, but the risk for glucose metabolism disorders remains controversial.

Design: The study is a prospective longitudinal population-based cohort study.

Methods: The study was based on a cohort population that comprised 1879 women born in 1966.

Overweight, obesity and hyperandrogenemia are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus: A follow-up cohort study.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to determine the association of body mass index (BMI), self-reported symptoms or diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and hyperandrogenemia with the occurrence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) through reproductive life.

Material And Methods: A cohort of women born in 1966 were investigated at ages 14, 31 and 46. Women with self-reported PCOS symptoms (presence of both oligo-amenorrhea and hirsutism) at age 31 or with formally diagnosed polycystic ovaries (PCO)/PCOS by age 46 formed the group of self-reported PCOS (srPCOS, n = 222) and were compared with women without self-reported PCOS symptoms or diagnosis (n = 1357).

Gestational Diabetes But Not Prepregnancy Overweight Predicts for Cardiometabolic Markers in Offspring Twenty Years Later.

Context: Maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and prepregnancy overweight/obesity [body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2] might adversely affect offspring cardiometabolic health.

Objective: To assess the associations between maternal GDM and prepregnancy overweight/obesity with adult offspring cardiometabolic risk factors.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study (ESTER Maternal Pregnancy Disorders Study and the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study).

Early determinants of metabolically healthy obesity in young adults: study of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966.

Background: A body of literature suggests a metabolically healthy phenotype in individuals with obesity. Despite important clinical implications, the early origins of metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) have received little attention.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of MHO among the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) at 31 years of age, examine its determinants in early life taking into account the sex specificity.

Fitness, Fatness, Physical Activity, and Autonomic Function in Midlife.

Purpose: Although low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), physical inactivity, and obesity are associated with impaired autonomic function, they are also extensively interrelated. The present study aimed to assess the extent to which they contribute to autonomic function independently of each other.

Methods: At the age of 46 yr, 1383 men and 1761 women without cardiorespiratory diseases and diabetes underwent assessments of vagally mediated heart rate (HR) variability (root mean square of successive differences in R-R interval (rMMSD)), peak HR during a submaximal step test (CRF), and 60-s HR recovery (HRR).

The Association Between Low Grade Systemic Inflammation and Skin Diseases: A Cross-sectional Survey in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966.

Low grade inflammation is associated with many noncommunicable diseases. The association between skin diseases in general and systemic inflammation has not previously been studied at the population level. A whole-body investigation on 1,930 adults belonging to Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 was performed and high sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP) level was measured as a marker of low grade inflammation in order to determine the association between low grade inflammation and skin diseases in an unselected adult population.

Abnormal skin in toe webs is a marker for abnormal glucose metabolism. A cross-sectional survey among 1,849 adults in Finland.

Diabetes is undiagnosed disease and easy screening tools for it are warranted. Because foot complications are usual in diabetes, we aimed to test hypothesis that skin abnormalities are found already from patients who are not aware of having diabetes, by studying the possible association between unhealthy toe web skin and abnormal glucose metabolism. 1,849 cases without previously diagnosed diabetes participated to the 46-year follow-up study of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort.

Psychological Distress Is More Prevalent in Fertile Age and Premenopausal Women With PCOS Symptoms: 15-Year Follow-Up.

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with increased psychological distress, obesity and hyperandrogenism being suggested as key promoters.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of anxiety/depression and their coexistence in women with PCOS/PCOS-related symptoms at ages 31 and 46. The roles of obesity, hyperandrogenism, and awareness of PCOS on psychological distress were also assessed.

Normo- and hyperandrogenic women with polycystic ovary syndrome exhibit an adverse metabolic profile through life.

Objective: To compare the metabolic profiles of normo- and hyperandrogenic women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with those of control women at different ages during reproductive life.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: Not applicable.

Uterine fibroids and cardiovascular risk.

Study Question: Are uterine fibroids associated with increased cardiovascular risk?

Summary Answer: This study reports an association between increased serum lipids and metabolic syndrome with an increased risk of uterine fibroids.

What Is Known Already: Recent studies suggest similarities in biological disease mechanisms and risk factors for fibroids and atherosclerosis: obesity, hypertension and abnormal serum lipids. These findings are awaiting confirmation that a population-based follow-up study could offer with extensive health examination data collection linked with a national hospital discharge register.

Association between Birth Characteristics and Cardiovascular Autonomic Function at Mid-Life.

Background: Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. As abnormal cardiac autonomic function is a common feature in cardiovascular diseases, we tested the hypothesis that low birth weight may also be associated with poorer cardiac autonomic function in middle-aged subjects.

Methods: At the age of 46, the subjects of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 were invited to examinations including questionnaires about health status and life style and measurement of vagally-mediated heart rate variability (rMSSD) from R-R intervals (RRi) and spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) in both seated and standing positions.

Weight Gain and Dyslipidemia in Early Adulthood Associate With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Prospective Cohort Study.

Context: Obesity affects the majority of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), but previous studies are inconsistent about the prevalence of obesity and the importance of weight gain in the development of the syndrome.

Objective: Our objective was to explore the association between weight, weight gain, hyperandrogenism, and PCOS from adolescence to late adulthood.

Design: The study includes a prospective Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study including 5889 females born in 1966 and followed at the ages of 14, 31, and 46 years.

Androgen Profile Through Life in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Nordic Multicenter Collaboration Study.

Context: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have increased androgen secretion throughout fertile life; however, the data on the effect of menopause on hyperandrogenemia in these women are scarce. Nevertheless, large comprehensive comparative studies on age-related androgen levels in women with PCOS are lacking.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of age on serum androgen levels in women with PCOS and to determine cutoff values for androgens and SHBG associated with a PCOS diagnosis.

The effect of atorvastatin treatment on serum oxysterol concentrations and cytochrome P450 3A4 activity.

Aims: Atorvastatin is known to both inhibit and induce the cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) enzyme in vitro. Some clinical studies indicate that atorvastatin inhibits CYP3A4 but there are no well-controlled longer term studies that could evaluate the inducing effect of atorvastatin. We aimed to determine if atorvastatin induces or inhibits CYP3A4 activity as measured by the 4β-hydroxycholesterol to cholesterol ratio (4βHC : C).

Sex hormone-binding globulin associations with circulating lipids and metabolites and the risk for type 2 diabetes: observational and causal effect estimates.

Background: The causal role of circulating sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) for type 2 diabetes is controversial. Information on the relations between SHBG and new biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk is scarce.

Methods: We applied quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics in three Finnish population-based cohorts to comprehensively profile circulating lipids and metabolites and study their associations with SHBG.

Cardiometabolic risk factors in young adults who were born preterm.

Adults who were born preterm with a very low birth weight have higher blood pressure and impaired glucose regulation later in life compared with those born at term. We investigated cardiometabolic risk factors in young adults who were born at any degree of prematurity in the Preterm Birth and Early Life Programming of Adult Health and Disease (ESTER) Study, a population-based cohort study of individuals born in 1985-1989 in Northern Finland. In 2009-2011, 3 groups underwent clinical examination: 134 participants born at less than 34 gestational weeks (early preterm), 242 born at 34-36 weeks (late preterm), and 344 born at 37 weeks or later (controls).

Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation leads to high progesterone and estradiol levels during early pregnancy.

Study Question: Are there differences in estrogen and progesterone secretion in singleton pregnancies, up to Week 11, between spontaneous pregnancies, after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and fresh embryo transfer (COH + ET) and after frozen embryo transfer in a spontaneous cycle (FET)?

Summary Answer: Serum progesterone and estradiol (E2) concentrations after COH + ET were higher in early pregnancy, lasting up to Week 7-8, than FET and spontaneous pregnancies, while hormone levels after FET did not differ from spontaneous pregnancies.

What Is Already Known: The risk of adverse perinatal outcomes after COH + ET seems to be increased when compared with spontaneous pregnancies. One of the reasons suggested for this is related to ovarian hyperstimulation.

Cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents born preterm.

Background: Adolescents and adults born as small preterm infants show more pronounced risk factors of cardiovascular disease. Whether similar risks apply across all degrees of preterm birth is poorly known.

Methods: We studied the association between preterm birth and cardiovascular risk factors in 6642 16-year-old adolescents of the population-based Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986.

The impact of gestational thyroid hormone concentrations on ADHD symptoms of the child.

Context: Maternal hypothyroidism during pregnancy is associated with adverse neuropsychological development in the offspring.

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of maternal thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy on a child's attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.

Design, Settings, And Participants: The prospective, population-based Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (9362 pregnancies; 9479 infants) included analysis of maternal TSH, free T4, and thyroid-peroxidase antibodies (TPO-Abs) from early pregnancy samples (5791 women).

Statin therapy worsens insulin sensitivity in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Context: Statins have been shown to improve hyperandrogenism in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). However, their use has also been associated with impairment of glucose metabolism and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Because women with PCOS are prone to disturbances in glucose metabolism, statin therapy could also have negative effects.

Discovery and refinement of loci associated with lipid levels.

Levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol are heritable, modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease. To identify new loci and refine known loci influencing these lipids, we examined 188,577 individuals using genome-wide and custom genotyping arrays. We identify and annotate 157 loci associated with lipid levels at P < 5 × 10(-8), including 62 loci not previously associated with lipid levels in humans.

Common variants associated with plasma triglycerides and risk for coronary artery disease.

Triglycerides are transported in plasma by specific triglyceride-rich lipoproteins; in epidemiological studies, increased triglyceride levels correlate with higher risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it is unclear whether this association reflects causal processes. We used 185 common variants recently mapped for plasma lipids (P < 5 × 10(-8) for each) to examine the role of triglycerides in risk for CAD.