Sex steroid levels temporarily increase in response to acute psychosocial stress in healthy men and women Anna-Karin Lennartsson a, b, ⁎, Mark M. Kushnir c, d, e , Jonas Bergquist c, e , Håkan Billig b , Ingibjörg H. Jonsdottir a, b a The Institute of Stress Medicine, Carl Skottsbergs gata 22 B, 413 19 Göteborg, Sweden b The Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden c Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry – Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden d ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Salt Lake City, USA e Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA abstract article info Article history: Received 5 January 2012 Received in revised form 29 February 2012 Accepted 1 March 2012 Available online 9 March 2012 Keywords: Sex steroids Testosterone Estradiol Androstenedione Sex hormone-binding globulin Acute stress Trier Social Stress Test Men and women It is well known that acute psychosocial stress activates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). However, the effect of acute psychosocial stress on the hypothalamic– pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis and levels of sex steroids are less known. The aim of this study was to inves- tigate the effect of acute psychosocial stress on serum concentrations of sex steroids in healthy men and women. Twenty men and 19 women (age 30–50 years) underwent Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Blood samples were collected be- fore, directly after the stress test, and after 30 min of recovery. Concentrations of androgens were measured with high specificity LC-MS/MS method; concentrations of cortisol, estradiol and sex hormone-binding globulin were determined using immunoassays. In both men and women we observed significantly elevat- ed levels of testosterone, estradiol, androstenedione and sex hormone binding globulin along with signifi- cantly increased adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), serum cortisol, heart rate, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as a response to the stressor. Thus, even though the HPG axis and the production of sex steroids may be inhibited during prolonged periods of stress, the sex steroid levels may increase in the initial phase of acute psychosocial stress. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It is well known that acute psychosocial stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic ner- vous system (SNS), as a response to overcome the stressor. However, the effect of acute psychosocial stress on the hypothalamic–pituitary– gonadal (HPG) axis and levels of sex steroids is less known. The HPA axis and HPG axis are competitive system and during prolonged pe- riods of stress, the HPG axis and the production of sex steroids could be inhibited (Theorell, 2008). In the initial phase of the acute stress, the response may however be different. Most of the research on sex steroids levels in response to acute stress has been conducted on male mice or rats with focus on the levels of testosterone. While animals studies have consistently shown that chronic stress decreases testosterone levels in males (Hardy et al., 2005), studies on the effect of the acute stress are inconsistent, since both decreased and in- creased levels of testosterone have been reported (Chichinadze and Chichinadze, 2008). Both increased and unchanged levels of estradiol have been observed in response to acute stress in female rats (Shors et al., 1999). In humans, several studies have investigated changes in testoster- one levels in response to competition-induced stress, demonstrating that testosterone levels may increase prior to and during competi- tions with or without a physical component (Booth et al., 1989; Hasegawa et al., 2008). It has been suggested that the increase in tes- tosterone level has a preparatory role in stress challenges by inducing competitive and dominant behaviour (Booth et al., 1989). However, there are few studies available that have investigated sex steroid levels in response to acute psychosocial stress. Gerra et al. (2000) in- vestigated stress hormone responses to controlled experimental acute stress in peripubertal males and found that the levels of testos- terone in healthy participants were unchanged. In males, stress relat- ed to oral presentation on a scientific conference did not affect testosterone or estradiol levels (Heinz et al., 2003); and examination stress in males did not affect estradiol levels (Phillips, 1992). Schoofs and Wolf (Schoofs and Wolf, 2011) studied levels of testosterone and estradiol before and after controlled experimental acute stress and did not find any changes in levels in the male or female participants. International Journal of Psychophysiology 84 (2012) 246–253 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Carl Skottsbergs gata 22 B, 413 19 Göteborg, Sweden. Tel.: +46 31 342 07 19; fax: +46 31 41 42 73. E-mail address: anna-karin.lennartsson@vgregion.se (A-K. Lennartsson). 0167-8760/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.03.001 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Psychophysiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpsycho